“After reading the script, I thought the story could be overturned depending on Park Geon’s emotional state,” Park said. “I suddenly wondered, ‘Why did director Ryoo Seung-wan give me such a great role?’”
“Humint” is set in Vladivostok, where secrets and truth sink into an icy sea, and people with different aims collide. It is Park’s second project with Ryoo after “Smugglers.”
“Actually, it was during the ‘Smugglers’ stage greetings,” Park said. “He asked what I thought about action films, and I said I liked them. He said he was going to make a film called ‘Humint’ and asked if I was interested, and of course I said yes. That was basically it beforehand.”
To build Park Geon’s rough-edged presence, Park started with physical changes, including training at a gym. But as he immersed himself, he said he grew anxious about the distance between himself and the character.
“He told me it was a masculine role with a lot of action, so I needed to prepare, and I was building my body,” Park said. “The director said he wanted Park Geon to look cool, and I did, too. Usually once filming gets going, you get a little intoxicated — you start to fuse yourself with the character.
“But with ‘Humint,’ I was scared. Until I saw the finished film, I worried the gap between Park Geon and Park Jeong-min was so big it would make me cringe. Thankfully, after watching it, it didn’t feel that familiar in a bad way. I was grateful it didn’t look awkward.”
Park said his trust in Ryoo and the production company Oeyunaegang brought him back to another demanding set.
“If director Ryoo calls, I’m ready to run anytime,” he said. “When I was in my 20s and was nobody, he gave me important roles and trusted me. It’s hard not to feel more drawn to someone like that. And I’ve never been disappointed by the results of projects I’ve done with Oeyunaegang.”
Park Geon, he said, communicates less through words than through silence and controlled emotion. Park focused on the loneliness of a man who begins to waver between belief and personal feeling.
“Park Geon feels like someone who has never had inner conflict and is starting to have it for the first time,” he said. “I thought about what it feels like when someone who has never once questioned his convictions begins to struggle between belief and personal emotion. In the end, he’s a character who makes choices and meets tragedy.”
Park said he watched many reference films Ryoo shared on USB drives or DVDs, including “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and Hong Kong movies.
“Watching them actually made me more confused,” he said. “Because I’m not Chow Yun-fat. Ha.”
The intense action work sometimes pushed him to his limits, he said, especially during a fight scene in a cramped, harsh location.
“It was an action scene where I fought a Russian boss two-on-one,” Park said. “The action itself wasn’t the hard part, but the environment that boxed us in was terrible. It wasn’t even my first time in that space. It was where I filmed a bar scene with senior actor Jo Woo-jin for the film ‘Harbin,’ but I still don’t know why I fell apart.
“For about two hours, I couldn’t understand what people were saying and I was doing strange things. It was the moment I was most disappointed in myself recently. I just couldn’t pull myself together. A lot of people, including the director, were watching, and I struggled with an easy scene. I remember going back to the lodging alone without even greeting anyone.”
He said colleagues noticed and helped him recover, and that Ryoo’s attention mattered.
“If someone just recognizes, ‘He’s collapsed,’ it can become the trigger to stand back up,” Park said. “If it turns into a lonely fight by yourself, you keep falling. This time, director Ryoo sensed, ‘He’s not like himself,’ and quickly grabbed me and pulled me up.
“You don’t always have someone like that beside you. Filming isn’t always smooth. There are always rough patches. Sometimes you get through them alone, sometimes colleagues or the director help, but it feels like it only works if someone notices what state you’re in.”
Park said Park Geon’s relationship with Chae Seon-hwa was built less on explicit dialogue than on shared backstory the actors kept off-camera.
“There were actions in the film that we gave a backstory to, just between us,” he said. “For example, resting her head on his lap or stroking her hair — those are things they did when they were in love in the past, and also things shown at the last moment. The audience doesn’t have to catch it, but sharing that backstory helps the acting.
“It’s the same when Park Geon listens to Chae Seon-hwa’s recorded voice on a phone. The way Park Geon speaks in that recording is different from his voice in Vladivostok. In the pure time when he loved her, he probably wasn’t as violent as he is now. As he changed, the person he loved left. After a breakup, you miss them, but the time you shared can also hurt.
“I thought those memories would have rushed back to him along with Chae Seon-hwa. They didn’t break up because they hated each other, so he would have wanted to hold on to something again, but he fails, and those choices pile up into the events of the story.”
Park said he avoided physical affection without a clear reason, choosing instead to convey feeling through gaze and restraint.
“Skinship without a reason would have made Park Geon’s situation harder,” he said. “It wouldn’t have felt like him. I did think about it — when they met in the back alley behind ‘Arirang,’ I wondered if he should at least hold her hand once. But actions without purpose feel awkward.
“There’s a completely different mood between thinking, ‘I really want to hold her hand,’ and thinking, ‘Would it look more heartbreaking if I hold her hand?’ In rehearsal, I tried to move closer, it got awkward, and I gave up. I decided Park Geon should just stand there to feel more like Park Geon.”
For Park, “Humint” combined the appeal of a classic spy film with emotionally driven action. He said it was his first time playing a character propelled by longing for someone.
“Director Ryoo said he wanted to make a more classic-style spy action film, and I think it was realized well,” Park said. “The cinematography and lighting directors worked very hard, too. From early monitoring, I told him I’d never seen this kind of film among his movies.
“I think it was an interesting attempt because emotional action is woven into it. Personally, I think it’s the first time I’ve played a character whose goal is the woman he loves. I don’t know about being satisfied, but I hope people will watch it kindly. It doesn’t look extremely strange to me, so I’m telling myself, ‘That’s enough.’ Ha.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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