Biography
Born in 1972, LEE Jung-jae debuted in 1993 in the series "Dinosaur Teacher". The following year, his debut on the big screen in the film (1994) earned him a lot of acclaim and recognition as a first-time actor that came from the three most prestigious award ceremonies in Korea (Blue Dragon Film Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and Grand Bell Awards). The action-drama film "City of the Rising Sun" (1999) marked his first starring role in cinema and made him one of the most sought-after young actors. The following "Oh! "Brothers" (2003) and "Typhoon" (2005) had 3.1 million and 4.1 million admissions at the box office, respectively. After a brief foray onto television screens, he returned to film with the character of an unapologetic cheater who weaves an affair with the maid in "The Housemaid" (2010). A further confirmation of his always new and charismatic image emerges from his participation in the films "The Thieves", from the gangster saga "New World" and with his role as co-star in the sumptuous period film "The Face Reader". In 2014, he played a martial arts fighter forced to participate in a dangerous game show in the movie "Big Match." Directed by director CHOI Dong-hoon, the following summer he starred in the period thriller "Assassination" (2015), alongside Ha Jung-woo and Jeon Ji-hyun. After his part in the war film "Operation Chromite" (2016) alongside Liam Neeson, he played the King of the Underworld in the fantasy epic "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds" (2017) and its sequel. His next role was that of a shepherd investigating a mysterious cult in the occult thriller "SVAHA: THE SIXTH FINGER" (2019). In 2020, she starred alongside Hwang Jung-min in "DELIVER US FROM EVIL," the most-watched film in Korea during the Covid-19 pandemic, attracting over 4 million viewers to theaters. In 2021 he is the protagonist of the globally successful Netflix series "Squid Game".
Critique
"Squid Game", a TV series directed in 2021 by Hwang Dong-hyuk, entered the collective imagination last autumn as a novelty but also as confirmation of the interest that entertainment around the world shows in the South Korean film and television universe. The face and at the same time the spirit of this revolution is that of Lee Jung-jae, a film actor with a career based on rigorous professionalism that has led him to choose courageous and nonconformist roles.
In the role of the inveterate gambler forced to lend himself to the representation of childish games in which those who make mistakes die, Lee Jung-jae has vibrated very sensitive chords as an unresolved, candid and vulnerable man. But this, like all great successes, is not accidental but the result of a multiplicity of roles that have marked, more than in other careers, a professional and human evolution.
It was 1994 when Lee Jung-jae, from fashion and a few appearances on TV, landed in the cinema with the film "The Young Man". The story is that of a boy who tries to make his way in the world of entertainment, a coming-of-age novel about wrong ambitions and their risks and that very young performer shows something that would distinguish the roles in the following 20 years, and that is the ability to completely camouflage himself in a character, give it an original imprint. The opportunity to channel all his energy came in 1998 with the film "City of the Rising Sun" in which Lee Jung-jae, together with his friend Jung Woo-sung, gave life to an energetic and vital film in which the narrative construction, at the center of which are two boys with no prospects who always end up in extreme situations, runs perfectly hand in hand with a formidable interpretation made of verve, charisma and physical prowess. The undoubted beauty and charm, reminiscent of that of the actors of the golden age of Hollywood, together with a magnetic impression of kindness, mean that roles in romantic films are not long in coming. In "An Affair" (1998, first collaboration with director E J-Yong) Lee Jung-jae plays the role of a handsome and melancholic boy who becomes the sentimental interest of his mature sister-in-law, while in the cult "The Sea" he will find himself madly in love and willing to do anything for a girl who lives in another temporal dimension. With "Asako in Ruby Shoes" (2000), in which he is again directed by E J-Yong, we witness a shocking metamorphosis: with the character of the shy and sexually repressed U-in, Lee Jung-jae gives one of the first proofs of the ability to completely change his image and, stripped of the charisma and sensuality that had characterized almost all previous interpretations, enters the new millennium and a new phase of his career. After the tormented undercover policeman in the noir "New World" (2013), the same year it is the turn of the historical fresco "The Face Reader" in which, in opposition to the protagonist Song Kang-Ho, Lee Jung-jae is the ferocious Prince Sooyang, a real Shakespearean villain. The ambiguity returns as an enigmatic secret agent in the ensemble spy movie "Assassination" (2015), and loosens up in "Svaha: The Sixth Finger" with the role of a man of faith.
With the film preceding the release of "Squid Game" Lee Jung-jae surprises again: the sadistic killer Ray is an eccentric character born paradoxically working by subtraction. No inner torment, no excess, just a cold and ruthless cruelty and an impeccable mastery of the bloodiest action scenes, made even more macabre by the eccentric clothing; one of the most incredible creations in the career of Lee Jung-jaen who makes his entry into mass culture, renewing his image again, with "Squid Game". The player Seong Gi-Hun immediately strikes the viewers, leading them to put in place an identification mechanism with a character in a dystopian and paradoxical situation. What will happen from now on, in the third phase of the artistic life of an actor who, after earning the highest esteem from the public in his home country, has delivered one of his most important roles in the world, is something for those who passionately follow Korean cinema, to look forward to with confidence and pride.
By Caterina Liverani
