Actor Yoo Hae-jin admired the development of K-culture.

On the morning of the 9th, an interview was held with actor Yoo Hae-jin from the movie 'Big Deal' at a café in Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The film 'Big Deal' (distributed by SHOWBOX, produced by The Lamp Co., Ltd.) portrays the story of Jung-rok, the financial director of a soju company whose life revolves around soju, and In-beom, an employee of a global investment firm that pursues only results, as they fight for the fate of soju for the Korean people during the 1997 IMF financial crisis. Yoo Hae-jin plays Byo Jung-rok, the financial director of the troubled soju company, who struggles to protect it.

What kind of life was Yoo Hae-jin living in 1997, the period of this film? He noted, "I was doing theater, so I didn't know at all how hard the IMF was. It was originally hard, so it didn't feel any different for me."

He continued, "The whole nation was struggling, but there was really no change for me, so I was really at rock bottom. I lived in Cheongju and moved up for school, and I was really living off a friend's house. I saved bus fare to buy snacks like soboru bread. It felt hard at times, but I think I couldn't really feel it."

However, Yoo Hae-jin is now one of Korea's representative actors. As the popularity of K-culture has risen significantly, he must have a sense of pride. Regarding this, he said, "Of course. Nowadays, when I go to fan meetings, there are so many people from Japan. Is it because I had 2 to 3 releases last year?"

He added, "Especially people from Osaka come. Or Tokyo. Just yesterday, two people came from France. What surprised me was that the two from France looked like a mother and daughter. When I asked, 'Do you understand Korean movies?' they said, 'We do.' They said they had self-studied Korean in France, and they spoke really well. Seeing that, I realized that our country is really incredible. You can feel that."

Yoo Hae-jin added, "In the past, many actors had the big dream of going to Hollywood, but these days, that's really no longer the case. If you do well only in our country, you automatically become global."

'Big Deal' has also been sold to 21 countries. When asked whether the work would resonate globally, Yoo Hae-jin said, "The way people live is common, so I think it will resonate. The differences in values between old and young. I think that's something we can all relate to because it's the same everywhere."

Meanwhile, the film 'Big Deal' opened on the 30th of last month.

[Photo] SHOWBOX

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