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Ryoo Seung-bum: 'Every Work is a Process'

Actor Ryoo Seung-bum (29) has been building a considerable filmography for the last 10 years. It includes various genres from noir to comedy, unknown short films, animation voice work, and impressive works in which he was acting as a special guest.

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It also includes director Lee Moo-young's "Everlasting Husband" which could be considered Ryoo's first romantic movie, the original cartoon of Kang Full "29 Years" which could not be filmed to completion, and the omnibus movie "Mankind Fall Report" which was filmed but never released.

Ryoo Seung-bum, who was interviewed on Dec. 28 in a cafe located in Kangnam, expressed that this whole work is a "process".

Ryoo said, " I choose a work based on the impression I get from it. I will probably be able to tell if the work has outstanding artistic merit only on my dying day, or I may never know about that. I always consider every role and am upset when the role does not go well. However, every step is a part of the process". "No Mercy", which will open soon, is also a part of the process, as well as one of Ryoo's inflection-painted works.

Ryoo stated, "I realized that there was conflict between Ryoo Seong-beom as an actor on the set and as an ordinary citizen. I learned and could accept my weaknesses through the movie".

He also added, "I was very lonely on the set. I guess everybody felt the same as me. The environment was arranged in a way that allowed the staff to help me and the senior actor, Sol Kyung-gu, get into character. Looking back on it after time passed, I imagined what it would be like if I had spent more time talking with him and had intensively competed with him".

In the movie, Ryoo is an environmental activist with an upstanding public reputation who is secretly a serial killer. He stands up to Sol Kyung-gu, who plays the role of a coroner. Most of the roles that Ryoo played have been unordinary, but this was the first time he played a killer in a movie.

He said, "I think it is a compliment when a character is strong. If the character is not powerful, then there is no use playing the role. The movie can have a stronger impact when the character is strong and the movie itself--from the viewpoint of genre--is highly evaluated. In my opinion, my character in the movie, 'No Forgiveness' was not as strong as I had originally thought when I read the script. While 'No Forgiveness' is cinematic from the genre's viewpoint, 'Life or Death Situation' had strong characters that were played well in the movie. One of reasons that I chose "No Mercy" was that it was the work that actor Sol Kyung-gu had chosen first".

He added, "It has been a while since I have been in any movies. At the time, I would have had a hard time choosing my next role if Sol Kyung-gu had not chosen the movie. I felt less burdened about choosing the film not only because he had already chosen it, but also because I wanted to work with such an experienced actor".

Ryoo, who had a long hiatus, stated, "I have decided that I will work on many movies".

After Ryoo is finished filming "The Servant", which is being directed by Kim Dae-woo, by the beginning of next month, in March he will begin shooting "The Unjust" (working title) directed by his brother, Ryoo Seung-wan. Ryoo made his debut in a movie directed by his brother and has acted in several of his brother's other movies. In "The Unjust" he will once again work alongside Hwang Jung-min, who he worked with in "Life or Death Situation". Ryoo said that Hwang, who he first met in "Waikiki Brothers", is an older actor who he can share his thoughts with, and that they have good talks.

Ryoo said, "I feel a lot of pressure when working with my brother, not only because of our brother relationship, but also the director-actor relationship. There might have been some criticism that in 'The Unjust', working with Hwang again would be different from 'Bloodie Tie'. However, I would like to have a more difficult challenge than an easy one, because that makes me work harder".

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