mmy award-winning Squid Game actor Lee Jung Jae will be in London making his directorial debut at the London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF) in October for the UK premiere of his new film Hunt.

The film made its global debut at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, with early reviewers calling it ‘sleek and serious, burnished and brutal’, and it became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year to date in South Korea.

The veteran South Korean actor is directing and starring in the 1980s thriller, which centres around a spy who is tasked with unearthing an espionage plot in the country’s government agency.

Set against a backdrop of political and military tension between North and South Korea, Jung Jae also stars in the role as Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho at the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (an early iteration of the South Korean secret service).

His search for a mole lands him in the middle of an assassination plot, and what follows is an urgent struggle amid blood-soaked action sequences.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, LEAFF film festival founder and director Hyejung Jeon, said: ‘The fact that everyone empathises with Lee Jung-Jae’s acting in Squid Game is confirmation of the tremendous sense of community in the present day.

‘His performance, which created a common code – the world sharing the same emotions, proves that he is an actor with great strengths, not only limited to Korea.

‘That is why we wished to focus on his career and dedicate a strand to him. We are so glad he was recognised by so many institutions (including the Emmys).

‘This year, LEAFF’s overarching theme is utopia and dystopia, which is something we can all imagine living in the present day. In that sense, the invitation of actor/director Lee Jung-Jae is expressing a message – to experience and dream with the global audience in the present day which is what LEAFF strive for.’

티켓 (20파운드): https://leaff2022opening.eventbrite.co.uk