Woo-jin (Kim Nam-gil’s Island And Song of Bandits) and Jin-a (Park Yoo-na’s Hotel del Luna) are two orphans: he, raised by his grandmother, remained a child, violent and amoral. She is cynical and supercool. After the society that discarded them, they adopted each other and make a living by killing people. When they’re not blowing up churches (including priests), they’re hanging out in their playground on the edge of town. “I relied on the natural personality of Kim Nam-gil, who has a funny, childlike quality but he is very good in villain roles” Sung explained to us. “Woo-jin is an emotional young man stuck in childish immaturity. He manipulated memories of a painful past as a self-protection mechanism and normalized violence.”which he finds normal and funny. “I built Woo-jin with the look and tone of voice of an anime character” his interpreter explained to us. “And I added some traits of my personality. Typical killers and villains are often portrayed as sociopaths or psychopaths, but Woo-jin reflects the innocence of children before they are socialized. Still showing childish emotions and behaviors makes him even more scary because you don’t understand what his limits are”.
“Jin-a is different from Woo-jin, she accepted her traumas and became an adult. She is the one who protects him from reality so that he can maintain his innocence” Park Yoo-na explained to us. “Jin-a in some ways is a maternal figure. She cares about Woo-jin even though she doesn’t want to show it. She prefers to convey a tough imagewhich makes it very human.” Over the course of the film, it becomes clear that the two hitmen are not friends and not lovers, but are more like brother and sister. The circumstances of their meeting and the definition of their relationship are never revealed. “In the first draft of the story, there were some scenes where it seemed like Woo-jin and Jin-ah were lovers. Director Jung told us we could choose not to decide what they were.” Kim revealed. Will the spinoff that reveals their past ever arrive?
