Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
'House of Hummingbird' star Park Ji-hu embraces her full potential in 'Black Light'
Park Ji-hu in a scene from “Black Light” / Courtesy of One-Take Film
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Park Ji-hu, who jumpstarted her career with the independent gem “House of Hummingbird” (2019), is returning to the big screen in the crime drama “Black Light.”
The heroine of “Hummingbird” won multiple accolades for her role, including awards for best new actress in the Blue Dragon Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.
She also won the award for Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature at the 18th Tribeca Film Festival “for her subtle performance of enormous range and complexity,” according to jury.
Park stars in “Black Light” as Eun-young, a teenager whose life gets turned upside down after a traffic accident puts her father in a coma.
Hee-joo (Kim Si-eun), the widow of the perpetrator who died in the accident, later learns that Eun-young's father tried to kill himself before the accident. Suspecting that Eun-young's father might have been attempting suicide through the road accident, Hee-joo starts to investigate.
A scene from the film “Black Light” / Courtesy of One-Take Film
Director Bae Jong-dae, who is making his feature directorial debut with “Black Light,” suggested the role to Park after seeing her performance in “House of Hummingbird” at the Busan International Film Festival.
Yeom Hye-ran, a scene stealer who has three films lined up for February including “New Year Blues” and “I,” stars as Eun-young's mother Young-nam. The actress most recently starred in OCN's hit drama series “The Uncanny Counter,” which also has been in Netflix's top 10 TV shows for weeks.
On appearing in three films that will premiere in the same month, Yeom said, “It's embarrassing. I feel honored that I get to promote three films at once, but on the other hand, it's burdensome that I cannot focus on one project,” Yeom said.
“Just to be clear, it was not meant to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes. The release of New Year Blues was pushed back while I was brought forward. Black Light was filmed three years ago. Fortunately, the tone and my role in each film is different.”
Meanwhile, Park will next star in Netflix original series “All of Us Are Dead,” adapted from the popular Korean webcomic “Now at Our School.” Directed by Lee Jae-kyu, known for his works such as “Intimate Strangers” (2018), the series features a group of high school students struggling to survive as a zombie virus hits their school.
“Black Light” will hit theaters Feb. 18.