"Squid Game" Star HoYeon Jung Trains for Car Chases in New Film "HOPE"

After breaking through globally with Netflix's "Squid Game," actor HoYeon Jung is taking on her first action role in the film "HOPE," directed by Na Hong-jin. To handle everything from car chases to gunplay herself, she earned a Class 1 driver's license and put in extensive high-level driving training. A character-making video titled "Sung-ae," focused on her preparation, has now been released.

"HOPE" is set in a port town inside the demilitarized zone. The story starts when Beom-seok, the head of the Hopo Port branch office, hears from local young people that a tiger has appeared in the area. The whole village is thrown into alarm as he faces a reality that is hard to believe.

The video shows Jung's work to build Sung-ae, a police officer at Hopo Port who gets her job done no matter the situation. "She's someone with a go-straight-ahead instinct," Jung said. "She's a passionate character who throws herself into anything she believes is right, no matter the cost." Sung-ae, she explained, has a clear sense of right and wrong.

Before filming, Jung learned how to handle firearms and studied shooting stances. She worked with guns built to real weight for her first action role. She also earned a Class 1 driver's license right after being cast so she could perform car chase scenes in a Hyundai Motor Stella herself. From there, she went through repeated high-level driving training in techniques like drifting and J-turns.

"It felt like I was reaching a point past my limits, and that was really fun," Jung said, looking back on the shoot. She takes on high-intensity action in a tense chase sequence that plays out in the middle of Hopo Port.

International outlets have praised her action performance. The Playlist called her arrival "an adrenaline rush of an entrance that earns an immediate spot in the action-movie hall of fame." The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Jung, in her first feature film, "nails everything from the fierce action to the comic timing, injecting real energy into the film."

The character-making video also includes a review from critic Lee Dong-jin, who called the film "a bold sprint, a massive crescendo in itself." The "HOPE" team plans to release the "Sung-gi" and "Beom-seok" character videos in the following weeks.

"HOPE" opens in theaters on July 15.