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Lee Gets in Touch With His Silly Side
Writer: Joon Soh 2003-09-11
With his dashing good looks, actor Lee Jung-jae has been making female moviegoers weak in the knees for over a decade. Known for playing sensitive and contemplative characters, Lee starred in some of the more successful romantic dramas in recent years, including ``Siwolae (Il Mare)’’ and ``Sonmul (Last Present).’’
Now Lee takes on a far less serious role in ``Oh! Brothers,’’ a new comedy about a special sibling relationship due out on Sept. 4. In it, his character, a jaded photographer who works for gangsters and corrupt cops, finds himself suddenly in charge of his long lost brother, a 12-year-old boy with a rapid aging disorder, played by the 33-year-old Lee Bum-su.
In the odd-couple comedy, Lee Jung-jae plays a tightly-wound Abbott to Lee Bum-su’s Costello, spending most of the film ranting and raving over the antics of his adult-child brother. And though his legions of female fans may disagree, the real star of ``Oh! Brothers’’ isn’t Abbott, Lee Jung-jae said.
``I worried whether we could pull this off, whether we can get the audience to believe in an adult playing the role of a little boy,’’ the actor said during a news conference Tuesday. ``But I thought Bum-su did an amazing job with it. Me, well, I was just there to help him along.’’
Though his previous films might have included comic moments, ``Oh! Brothers’’ is the first time for the 30-year-old actor to act in an outright comedy, a genre that Lee feels is more social.
``The more comic a film is, the more important it is to watch it in a theater,’’ Lee said. ``Because there are things you won’t laugh about alone, but if others around you are laughing, you will too. It makes the whole experience twice as entertaining.’’
Starting out as a television actor, Lee came into public attention in a big way with a small role in the 1991 mini-series, ``Moraesigye (The Sandglass).’’ As the sword-wielding bodyguard of the lead female character, played by Ko Hyon-jong, Lee exuded coolness and sex appeal. Many younger viewers even took up komdo (traditional sword fighting) classes because of Lee’s character.
Lee made his big screen debut in 1994 with ``Cholmun Namja (I Am a Man),’’ and then starred in a number of feature films. But it wasn’t until the melancholy romance ``Chongsa (An Affair)’’ in 1998 and ``Taeyangun Opta (City of the Rising Sun),’’ which he starred in 1999 alongside Jung Woo-sung, that Lee started to gain respect as an actor.
Since then, Lee has made a string of successful melodramas, including the Korean-Japanese coproduction ``Sunaebo (Asako in Ruby Shoes)’’ in 2000. In between romantic films, Lee also made the historical drama ``Lee Jae-su-ui Nan (The Uprising)’’ in 1999 and the mystery thriller ``Huksusun (Last Witness)’’ in 2001.
Lee said he’s very satisfied with ``Oh! Brothers,’’ the directorial debut of Kim Yong-hwa, who ``did an amazing job balancing laughter and drama.’’ But, according to Lee, Kim is also a very good actor, which Lee found out during rehearsals.
``He was able to do all the characters in the film,’’ Lee said laughing. ``It’s really tough working with a director who can act so well. He’ll pick up on all the details and then demand perfection from his actors.’’ |
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发表于 2007-7-28 09:54
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我的挚诚和陶静啊~~~一定会再相见的吧~
