Shin Hye-sun and Lee Jun-young to bring webtoon visuals to life in ‘Brave Citizen’

On the morning of the 21st, the production presentation for the movie ‘Brave Citizen’ was held at Lotte Cinema Geondae in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. Actors Shin Hye-sun, Lee Jun-young, and Director Park Jin-pyo attended the event.

‘Brave Citizen’ tells a delightful story about temporary teacher So Simin (Shin Hye-sun), who has pretended not to see injustices, acted without a temper, and feigned weakness with her fists. However, her life takes a turn when she crosses paths with the ruthless authority Han Sugang (Lee Jun-young).

Shin Hye-sun took on action scenes for the first time through ‘Brave Citizen.’ She introduced her role as a “promising boxing athlete turned temporary teacher who endures injustices to become a proper teacher.”

She further explained, “When I received the script, I thought it was a movie where I could properly do action scenes. Although my abilities were lacking, I liked the character and wanted to try it. It felt exhilarating and refreshing.”

Shin Hye-sun revealed that she attended an action school for six months to prepare for her role. She said, “At that time, my stamina was very low. I had to train even just to mimic the movements. The action school instructor trained me a lot separately. There were times when it was so tough that I felt like throwing up.”

She continued, “When I asked the instructor, ‘Why do I have to do so much?’ he replied, ‘Because you’re not good at it.’ I had to admit it and had no choice but to work harder. I felt motivated by the thought that So Simin would challenge Han Sugang.”

Lee Jun-young portrayed Han Sugang, a character who commits audacious acts and wields absolute power shamelessly. He introduced his character as “someone who, due to a certain event, is older than his peers. Because of this, he has greater strength and enjoys bothering his friends, being a bad friend.”

When asked about the effort he put into portraying the villain character, he replied, “The director gave me homework to create evil eyes by looking in the mirror. I tried to make evil expressions while looking in the mirror before going to bed or while eating.”

Lee Jun-young expressed satisfaction with his on-screen chemistry with Shin Hye-sun, who played So Simin. He said, “Our chemistry was excellent. There were many moments that surprised me. She worked harder in action school than I did. I thought she was an incredibly passionate senior, so I felt that I should not lose to her. I worked hard to make my senior look even more impressive.”

Lee Jun-young received much love for his recent role in the Netflix series ‘Masked Girl,’ where he played a villain. When asked about playing consecutive villain roles, he commented, “I think Han Sugang is a worse person. I thought a lot about how to differentiate him from ‘Masked Girl’s’ Choi Buyong.”

He added, “To express a different kind of evil, I had many discussions with the director. The fact that he is a villain without reason was one of the reasons for choosing this project.”

Lastly, Director Park Jin-pyo, who directed the film based on the popular webtoon, talked about the casting of Shin Hye-sun and Lee Jun-young. He said, “First of all, both of them looked exactly like the original characters. Their appearances, height, and personalities were very similar. It’s something people often say to athletes these days, but they were in amazing form. Especially for actors with good eyes. It’s an honor to work with them.”

Regarding the inspiration behind directing the film, he mentioned the enjoyment of the original work. Director Park said, “The original work was very enjoyable. I liked the concept of ‘mask’ in the original work. I thought a mask was like courage that is hard to take out. The protagonist’s name is So Simin, and even her name is old-fashioned but has a charming element.”

As for the differences between the original webtoon and the film, Director Park Jin-pyo revealed that they eliminated the character’s transformation in the movie. He said, “In the original work, there is a character who changes into a bad person due to certain events, but we eliminated that in the movie. Bad people are just bad people. I wanted to avoid any sympathy for the character. I even pressured Jun-young to make sure Han Sugang is portrayed as a really bad guy. It must have been challenging since it goes against his nature.”

Finally, Director Park Jin-pyo encouraged the audience to show a lot of interest in the movie. He said, “Based on a famous and popular webtoon, we hope you enjoy the movie. We hope the audience receives a sense of satisfaction and excitement.”

The movie ‘Brave Citizen’ is set to be released on October 25th.

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