[Limelight·Hunt①] Reunion After 23 Years... Jung Woo-sung & Lee Jung-jae

In a dimly lit one-room apartment, a man wearing a sleeveless undershirt gulps down a 1-liter bottle of milk. His leg shaking betrays the unmistakable demeanor of a gangster. He approaches a peer sitting on the bed reading a magazine and picks a fight.

"What year were you born?" "’74." "Two years younger than me. Normally, I should call you Director, but just call me hyung (older brother) comfortably. (...) Are you going to keep talking down to me like that?" "Ah, then prove it. Show me your resident ID." "Ha, can I show it to you right now?" "You’re not even ’74, right? Maybe ’75?" The two, bickering, each experience a bitter failure and watch the sunrise. Before long, they develop an unbreakable friendship. "I just thought of a killer business idea. Want to join me?"

Actors Jung Woo-sung and Lee Jung-jae, who worked together in the 1998 film The Quiet Family, reunite after 24 years. In the movie Hunt, they play Kim Jung-do and Park Pyung-ho, who form a symmetrical duo. They are deputy chiefs of the domestic and overseas teams, desperately trying to root out the spy ‘Dong-rim’ who has infiltrated the National Security Planning Agency. They mark each other as spies and begin gathering evidence, but as the internal strife intensifies, they fall from hunter to hunted. Coercive interrogations, wiretapping, surveillance, torture, kidnapping... The much-anticipated ‘Seoul Spring’ gradually slips further away.

The espionage action film Item, which weaves in modern Korean history, was conceptualized by Lee Jung-jae. He led the entire production, writing the script and directing. He personally recruited major actors. Jung Woo-sung, who co-manages Artist Company with him, declined three times. He thought that accepting hastily to maintain their close relationship might compromise the essence of the work. Their close friendship was maintained through advice and encouragement. Pouring passion into revising the script and enhancing the film’s quality, they worked toward the rising sun once again...