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Director YIM Soon-rye
Starring PARK Hae-il, LEE Kyoung-young, YOO Yeon-seok
Release Date Oct 02

 

LEE Jang-hwan, a Korean scientist, becomes an overnight sensation, earned widespread acclaim and press attention following his successful experiments cloning embryo stem cells. During the media sensation, TV news show producer YOON Min-cheol receives a tip that everything may not be as it seems. His source is SHIM Min-ho, a young scientist who has worked with LEE in the past and claims that his stem cell research has largely been fabricated. YOON believes SHIM and the two join forces to blow the lid on LEE’s sham scientific discoveries and bring the truth to the public.

Based on the true story of the disgraced Korean scientist HWANG Woo-suk, Whistle Blower is the new film from YIM Soon-rye, a filmmaker who has never shied away from depicting social themes in her work. Previous films such as Forever the Moment (2008) and Rolling Home with a Bull (2010) have oscillated between the mainstream and art house but have always explored society in some meaningful fashion. Whistle Blower reunites her with her Waikiki Brothers (2001) star PARK Hae-il. With a long list of credits and many awards following his turn in the 2011 period adventure film War of the Arrows, PARK has proven himself to be on the most versatile and dependable actors in the Korean film scene today. 2014 has proven an especially big year for him, with leading turns in the ZHANG Lu film Gyeongju and the LEE Hae-jun pic My Dictator alongside SEOL Kyung-gu. Whistle Blower also stars veteran star and frequent supporting actor LEE Geung-young as well as leading star YOO Yeon-seok.

Whistle Blower, with its strong social themes and based on fact narrative, echoes recent Korean fare such as Silenced (2011) and The Attorney, both of which were based on stories well known to audiences and amassed strong support for their combination of modern history, social outrage and commercial appeal. YIM’s film is being released around the same time of year as those previous works, and may become yet another socially-driven hit at the Korean box office. Furthermore, the film appears particularly timely for its exploration of the media in Korea, which has of late come under intense scrutiny.