[Sportschosun Reporter Jung Bit] Actor Koo Kyo-hwan compared the fierce box-office competition expected during the Chuseok holiday to a restaurant row.
Koo Kyo-hwan met with Sportschosun at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 21st and discussed the Chuseok box-office race. "When one restaurant does well, the one next door benefits too," he said. "I hope all the films perform well this time, too."
Reawakened Man: The Red, which opens on September 30, is based on the webtoon Reawakened Man. The film follows Seok-hwan (Koo Kyo-hwan), a job seeker whose only qualification is unfounded confidence. After discovering that he can come back to life 72 hours after dying, he finds himself pursued by mysterious forces. Baek Jong-yul, director of The Beauty Inside and Believer 2, is at the helm.
Seok-hwan, played by Koo Kyo-hwan, dreams of buying premium beef sirloin for his family with his first paycheck. However, his hot temper repeatedly causes him to fail job interviews. After suddenly dying one day and coming back to life 72 hours later, he realizes that he has a special ability and begins to be pursued by mysterious figures.
Above all, this year's Chuseok theatrical lineup features a wider variety of films than ever. Reawakened Man will vie for audiences' attention alongside The Intern, Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, and Assassin(s).
Koo Kyo-hwan previously drew laughs on the YouTube program Pinggyego when he described the Chuseok box-office competition as "not a head-on contest, but a side-on contest."
Asked about the remark, Koo Kyo-hwan laughed and said, "That was a truly wicked joke. I hope things turn out that way. The films by senior colleagues that came before ours have performed well, so when I see the Reawakened Man poster, I think it can succeed alongside them. I hope all the films perform well this time, too."
He went on to say that having multiple films playing in theaters at the same time is itself enjoyable for audiences. "Since there are so many different options, even I, as an audience member, would be excited to choose a film at a theater," Koo Kyo-hwan said. "When one restaurant does well, the one next door benefits too. I don't like waiting in line," he added wittily.
Koo Kyo-hwan has also continued meeting audiences on the big screen. Having expanded his filmography across different genres and characters, from Escape to Once We Were Us and Colony, he has increasingly inspired the expectation that audiences can trust any film he appears in. That, inevitably, brings pressure over the box-office results.
Koo Kyo-hwan honestly admitted that he does feel some pressure. However, he said his anticipation of presenting a new film to audiences is greater than the burden.
"I feel more anticipation than pressure. It would be a lie to say I feel no pressure. There are things that overcome it," Koo Kyo-hwan said. "I enjoy stage greetings and the things I do with my colleagues to promote this film."
He continued, "What I find boring is doing nothing. There is nowhere that gives me as much dopamine as a film set."
The film Reawakened Man: The Red is scheduled to hit theaters on September 30.
Reporter Jung Bit rightlight@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
