Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
INTERVIEW Actor Cho Jin-woong reflects on meaning of names in 'Dead Man'
Actor Cho Jin-woong plays the character of Lee Man-jae in the thriller film “Dead Man." Courtesy of Wavve
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actor Cho Jin-woong shared that his latest film “Dead Man” made him reconsider the weight and significance a person's name carries in their life.
Actor Cho Jin-woong / Courtesy of Wavve
“There are few things we take for granted and overlook as we live our lives, and I think one of them is our names … I exist in this world with a name and I thought (this topic) was something worth thinking about,” Cho told The Korea Times in an interview at a cafe in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday.
The new thriller crime film, which was released on Wednesday, follows Lee Man-jae (Cho Jin-woong), a man who lost his identity overnight. After going bankrupt, he gets involved in a lucrative yet illegal business, getting paid to lend his name to businesses. When he takes his last job as a titular CEO of a business before retiring, he ends up being falsely accused of embezzling 100 billion won and is abducted to a private prison in China after being forced to fake his death.
With the help of Madam Sim (Kim Hee-ae), a political consultant, he returns to Korea to find the person who framed him and reclaimt his name.
Filmmaker Hah Jun-won, who is known for co-scripting director Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" (2006), makes his directorial debut with the film.
“I once read in a book that if I lose my wallet or phone, it means that’s how much I’ve overlooked their values. (The film) has such a deep philosophical question on whether we’ve undervalued so many of the things we have, especially our names,” Cho said.
The director spent about five years extensively researching crimes related to the business of lending out names and delved into the criminal underworld.
Cho expressed that learning about such a criminal world felt eerie, adding that he relied on the resources from the director to create the character.
“Stories of (Koreans’) mysterious deaths and suicides overseas have been been covered in investigative news programs. And I just vaguely remember seeing them without paying much attention to them. But it was chilling to see such incidents being explored in our film,” he said.
“It was a story I’ve never come across in any other work. But, such cases are happening around us. It felt terrifying to see that our life could go wrong in the blink of an eye … Of course, I've never actually experienced it nor had any way to meet someone in this type of business. So I had to create (the character) based on the script.”
A scene from the film “Dead Man" / Courtesy of Wavve
The actor said that the movie is about a person finding his identity through a crisis on a larger scale.
“The movie, in a way, is a story of a man growing. There can be various tools to help a person grow. Political stories, corruption, embezzlement, and all those elements are major props, intertwining and connecting various characters into one,” he said.
“I thought the script was well woven because it uses an unfamiliar business concept, but it tells a story about an individual … In the end, it makes you think, 'What does this (name) mean?’ He comes so far to reach such a simple decision, which even feels somewhat anticlimactic. I think the film captures the self-blaming emotions, questioning why I hadn't cherished my name all this time.”
The character faces several life-threatening incidents as he tries to right wrongs and reclaim his identity. Cho shared that he tried his best to immerse himself into the character.
“Man-jae turns into an entirely different person in the story. As someone on the brink of death, there were times he had to give up his ego," he said. "And he was also not the type to step forward to solve problems. After contemplating how I should portray this character, I just decided to approach it with the mindset 'Let's throw myself into the situation.' I just felt like I couldn’t make something up and prepare for it in advance."