"Whom did you like best ―Kim Sang-kyeong or Park Yong-woo?"
It's easy to appreciate the dilemma that 13-year-old actress Hahn Bo-bae found herself in as she was repeatedly asked to choose between the two famous men she has worked with for the last few months.
Watching the teenage girl giggle with embarrassment, Kim Sang-kyeong, sitting on her left, shook his head. Park Yong-woo, to her right, smiled and crossed his arms.
The three are appearing in the upcoming film "Quiet World", or "The Missing Girl", as it will be called outside Korea. Hahn is one of the missing girls and the two male actors are both looking for her but for different reasons. The three actors met with reporters for interviews last week at a Hongdae bar.
Kim plays a mysterious figure with the power to read minds. He is also a suspect in a serial abduction and murder case. Park is a policeman who tries to look tough wearing a grim look on his face all the time despite having a soft-hearted nature behind this facade.
But to those familiar with the two actors' previous films, questions arise because they seem to have swapped roles.
Noted for his gentle eyes and smart appearance, Kim is a favorite for playing judicial figures or elite MBA graduates. In director Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder", Kim played a policeman who was transferred from an elite Seoul branch to a small provincial office to help solve a case. And he was a successful and attractive attorney in the recent TV drama "Lawyers".
On the other hand, Park was more comfortable on screen playing a bachelor living an urban lifestyle like he did as Dae-woo in Director Son Jae-gon's romance-like thriller "My Scary Girl".
"My usual roles as [an elite figure] do not give me the chance to curse on screen", Kim said with a laugh. "So, honestly, I wanted to play the Bad Guy someday".
Park was also happy with his new role.
"In fact, the policeman I am playing is a pretty attractive man", he said.
Jo Ee-seok, the director of the film, was quiet most of the time, letting the spotlight fall on the actors, but it was obvious was proud of his two stars. He knew the two had attended the same school entering Chung-Ang University's acting course together in 1991. He said he wanted such a bond because they had to collaborate in a piece that does not have many lines ― Kim's character reads minds and Park's stares a lot as he tries to intimidate suspects. But turning to Hahn, Jo was generous with praise.
"Although we had a hard time fitting her into her clothes because she grew more than four inches while shooting the film", he said, "we have to admit she is a talented and very smart girl".
As for that first tricky question Hahn had to deal with, she blushed but she did not hesitate to answer.
"Well, Mr. Park was really sweet all the time", Hahn started slowly. "But I spent more time with Mr. Kim because he was friendly in coaching me. I think they were both great. I am actually suspicious that reporters always want to hear the answer to that question".
She is a smart girl, and very diplomatic.
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