Celebrated director Yeon Sang-ho (Train To Busan, Peninsula, Hellbound) is currently in production with futuristic sci-fi, tentatively titled Jung-E, as announced by Netflix earlier this week. The film stars actresses Kim Hyun-joo and Kang Soo-youn, and actor Ryu Kyung-soo (A Resistance, Itaewon Class, Lovestruck in the City) from a script storied and written by Yeon.
Per the streamer, “The setting of this film is in the 22nd century where climate changes have made Earth uninhabitable, and humans are living in a man-made shelter. An internal war breaks out, and its outcome hinges on the success of brain cloning technology of the legendary robot mercenary Jung-E.”
Kim, whose prominent career on television took hold following her last film appearance in Kim Do-hyuk’s Shin Suk-ki Blues (2004), makes her feature film return here in Jung-E now in a titular capacity – the role billed as “the most elite soldier of the allied forces fighting the shelter troops and a subject of brain-clone testing”.
Kang, who made her mark as the first Korean acting talent to receive the Best Actress award at The Venice Film Festival for her role in The Surrogate Womb (1986), stars as Seo-hyeon, the team leader behind the brain cloning and AI tech program, and ultimately the fruition of Jung-E’s brain and combat capabilities. The actress also makes her return to the film front following an eight year hiatus with Kim Dong-ho’s Jury (2013).
Ryu plays Sang-hun, the research center director who is determined to succeed in cloning Jung-E’s brain in order to bring the allied forces to victory. A release date remains pending.