During the recent virtual press conference for the film, it was reported that Joo-hyuk and his co-star Han Ji-min both cried while watching the trailer, and the event had to be paused for a minute for them to collect themselves.
In the film, he plays Young-seok, a university student nearing graduation, who comes across a woman (played by Ji-min) who has fallen from her wheelchair and helps send her home.
She ends up feeding him a simple meal and he develops a vague curiosity for this woman who introduces herself as “Josée”.
From this time on, Young-seok occasionally stops by Josée’s house, receiving free meals and getting to know the woman who reads a lot, has a comprehensive knowledge of whiskey, and tells him stories which he’s not sure are true. Gradually, they come to share an unforgettable love.
When asked later in the press conference about his tears, Joo-hyuk explained he was overwhelmed because the trailer brought back all the emotions he felt during filming.
*Spoiler alert
We delved further and asked him on the scene that evoked the strongest feelings in him. He replied it’s the one where Young-seok and Josée broke up near the end of the film.
“I was caught up with the intense emotions even during filming. We filmed according to the sequence of the story so it was the last day of filming. By then, I felt I had already fully immersed (myself) into the role so I could thoroughly feel the emotions that Young-seok was having,” Joo-hyuk explained.
“It was so heart-wrenching to hear Josée saying, ‘I’m fine now’. Just like how the movie compresses the whole process of the break-up with just one scene, it also meant that one particular scene has to adequately convey the pain of break-up and be able to show Young-seok’s dilemma, where he fully understood Josée’s intention of initiating the break-up.”
