Police Are Hot in Pursuit of a Kingpin in COLD EYES

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Police Are Hot in Pursuit of a Kingpin in COLD EYES

Feb 08, 2013

Writer by JI Yong-jin
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Director JOH Ui-seok, KIM Byeong-seo | Starring SOL Kyung-gu, JUNG Woo-sung, HAN Hyo-joo | Release Date First half of 2013

SOL Kyung-gu, JUNG Woo-sung and HAN Hyo-joo are a strong combination. HWANG Won-jin (SOL Kyung-gu) is the smart leader with animal-like investigative instincts of a police squad and HA Yun-ju (HAN Hyo-joo) is a new comer to his squad. They hunt James (JUNG Woo-sung), the leader of an international crime ring. Cold Eyes (working title) is set in Seoul, a city with a population of ten million. The film shows a tough chase through crowds in the city and gives audiences unique excitement as an action thriller.

“Seoul is quite a delicate space. If you change your angle a little, you will see a totally different world. Cold Eyes is a hunt for criminals who stride in the city,” director JOH Ui-seok said. Before Cold Eyes, director JOH made a comedy, Make It Big (2002) and a thriller, The World of Silence (2006). This time, JOH made an action movie about crime. The stage of the movie is a chase between cops and criminals.

Cold Eyes is a genre movie about the activities of a specialized crime investigation squad of the police which keeps a close eye on crime rings that attempt perfect crimes. SOL Kyung-gu played the role of HWANG Won-jin, a surveillance expert who looks tough and aggressive but his warm and humane inside. HWANG boasts of animal-like intuition in carrying out his duties.

This movie is expected to show another big change in actor SOL. “SOL Kyung-gu has a fixed popular image among people,” director JOH said. “But in this new movie, SOL decisively breaks his image. Audiences will meet a smart SOL Kyung-gu in the film and find him attractive.”

So is JUNG Woo-sung. He plays the role of the cold-blooded leader of an international crime ring who designs intellectual crimes. HAN Hyo-joo was an actress who director JOH thought of casting when he was adapting an original story for this movie. HAN played the role of a quick new member of the police squad unlike her fixed image as a beautiful and innocent girl in her previous films.

The beauty of Cold Eyes is its heart-pounding suspense. The point is how to take audiences to the center of the chase through tensions and relaxation. “‘Surveillance’ connotes gaze,” director JOH said. “It is important to capture subtle tensions from a scene where somebody looks at others with shots. I will rhythmically maintain suspense.” In that vein, co-direction with KIM Byeong-seo is expected to pay off handsomely as KIM is a former director of photography.

Cold Eyes is a remake of Eye in the Sky (2007), a Hong Kong film. But they are totally different. They share the motif only. In particular, Cold Eyes dramatically expresses the agony and frictions of people inside the police squad unlike the original Hong Kong film which concentrated on action.

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