Death Row Drama 집행자 (The Executioner) Unveils Teaser

With the possible exception of Hong Gi-Seon's 2003 biopic of activist Kim Seon-Myung, the underrated 선택 (The Road Taken), Korean films have been largely avoiding the depiction of life in prison, which is now mostly used as a vehicle for jopok comedies. We did have Song Hae-Sung's 우리들의 행복한 시간 (Maundy Thursday), but it was more about religion than prison life itself. It comes as no surprise, then, that the best recent portrayals on the matter came from TV (even if in a rather tangential manner), such as Jung Ha-Yeon's angry ode the Korea's cultural sphere in the 60's, 지금도 마로니에는 (The Conker Tree), and the brief but quite intense (and realistic, written by an ex convict to boot) parts of Kwak Kyung-Taek's 친구 - 우리들의 전설 (Friend - Our Legend) dealing with Hyun Bin's prison life. But a new film by debut director Choi Jin-Ho will focus on prison life, death row inmates and the "executioners" who deal with their final moments, to be precise.

Jo Jae-Hyun will in fact star in 집행자 (The Executioner) as an officer in charge of preparing death row inmates for their execution, teaming with his much younger colleague (played by former teenybopper idol Yoon Gye-Sang). As you can expect, it deals with officer-inmate relationships, but also the moral dilemma of getting paid to essentially end someone's life, which probably suggests some capital punishment-oriented social commentary. Rest of the cast is pretty solid, with super-talented Cha Su-Yeon and veterans Park In-Hwan and Jo Sung-Ha rounding up the list. Release is set for November 5, and here is the first teaser.