Park Seo-joon Returns to Korean Film With Lee Joon-ik's 1970s Thriller "A Firefly"

Actor Park Seo-joon has been cast in "A Firefly", a new film from director Lee Joon-ik. Choi Dae-hoon, the actor recently known to viewers as "Uncle Hak," has also joined the lead cast. Park Hae-il rounds out the top billing.

"A Firefly" is set in 1974 and follows Jun-gyeong (played by Park Seo-joon), a detective trying to escape the shadow of South Korea's old guilt-by-association system, which punished the families of political offenders. He travels to the village of Hwayong after a mysterious man named Man-seop (played by Park Hae-il) tells him there is a case waiting there that could make his career.

The film marks director Lee Joon-ik's return to the screen five years after "The Book of Fish". Lee has built his career on stories set inside specific moments of Korean history, from "The King and the Clown" to "Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet" and "Anarchist from Colony". "A Firefly" moves between two timelines: 1974, under military dictatorship, and the summer of 1950, in the earliest weeks of the Korean War. The story digs into a hidden incident from Hwayong village that has stayed buried for 24 years.

Park Hae-il plays Man-seop, the man who nudges Jun-gyeong toward Hwayong in 1974. He dangles the promise of a career-making case in front of the detective, but his motives are unclear. Why he wants Jun-gyeong in Hwayong, and how he is tied to what happened there in 1950, sits at the center of the film's mystery.

Park Hae-il has worked across a wide range of periods and genres, with credits including "Hansan: Rising Dragon," "Decision to Leave," "The Fortress" (Namhansanseong), "War of the Arrows" (Choejong Byeonggi Hwal), "The Host" (Goemul), and "Memories of Murder" (Sarin-ui Chueok). Here, he plays the character who links 1950 and 1974.

Park Seo-joon returns to a Korean film for the first time in three years, following "Concrete Utopia." His character, Jun-gyeong, is a detective whose path to promotion has been blocked by the guilt-by-association rule tied to his family. Desperate for a break, he takes the bait Man-seop offers and heads to Hwayong.

Once there, Jun-gyeong slowly closes in on the truth about what happened in the village in 1950. Park Seo-joon has moved between very different roles over the years, from "Concrete Utopia" and "Midnight Runners" (Cheongnyeon Gyeongchal) to the dramas "Gyeongseong Creature," "Itaewon Class," and "Fight for My Way" (Ssam, Mai Wei). His turn as a detective in a period thriller is likely to draw fresh interest.

Choi Dae-hoon plays Tae-sik, a deputy director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1974. Tae-sik holds power that outranks the police and the courts, and he believes every move he makes is an act of patriotism.

Choi Dae-hoon has appeared in the drama "Beyond Evil" (Goemul) and the film "Uprising" (Jeon, Ran). He earned wider attention as Bu Sang-gil, the character viewers nicknamed "Uncle Hak," in "When Life Gives You Tangerines" (Pokssak Sogatsuda). He recently returned in "Mr. Kim" (Kim Bujang). In "A Firefly," he steps into the role of a man near the top of Korea's Cold War security apparatus.

"A Firefly" begins production on September 27.