Lee Min-ho Trades Romance for Investigative Thriller in "The Assassins"

Actor Lee Min-ho is stepping into the role of a rookie newsroom reporter for his next film. In "The Assassins," directed by Heo Jin-ho, he plays a young journalist who digs into one of the most shocking political incidents in modern Korean history.

The film opens in theaters across South Korea on Oct. 23. Lee stars as Yeong-il, a rookie reporter on the social affairs desk who transforms from a witness into an investigator as he chases the truth behind the case.

"The Assassins" revisits the events of August 15, 1974, when an attempt on the life of South Korea's first lady stunned the country. The film follows the suspicions and hidden forces surrounding the shooting. Lee's character starts out armed with little more than determination and nerve, but refuses to back down once the scale of the mystery becomes clear.

The role continues a stretch of genre-hopping work for the actor. In the Apple TV+ original series "Pachinko," he played Hansu, a self-made businessman whose presence disrupts the life of Sunja, played by Minha Kim. Lee carried Hansu's mix of ambition and longing through both the first and second seasons, showing a harder edge than his earlier romantic leads.

On tvN, he shifted gears again in "When the Stars Gossip," playing an obstetrician who becomes a space tourist named Gong Ryong. The part let him move between the seriousness of medical work and lighter, more playful moments in a love story set partly in orbit.

He also returned to the big screen this year with "Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy," where he took on the role of Yu Jung-hyeok. The character called for heavy action work along with a cool, guarded demeanor, and Lee brought out the loneliness beneath the fighter's exterior to bring the novel's hero to life.

"The Assassins" pushes him in yet another direction, this time into a period thriller. Yeong-il anchors one side of the story as a reporter whose questions continue to uncover new layers of the case.

For an actor best known abroad for romance dramas, the run from "Pachinko" to "When the Stars Gossip" to "Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy" and now a 1970s political thriller shows the range of roles he has taken on in recent years. "The Assassins" arrives in Korean theaters on Oct. 23.