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Veteran actor Jung Woo-sung said Monday he is excited and nervous about his feature directorial debut with the upcoming action film A Man of Reason, in which he plays a father struggling to rescue his kidnapped daughter.

The story follows Suhyuk (played by Jung), who is released after 10 years in prison on behalf of his boss Eungkook (Park Sung-woong) and belatedly discovers he is the father of a young girl. Suhyuk wants to cut ties with the gang, but his boss hires notorious killer Woo-jin (Kim Nam-gil), who takes his daughter hostage. Suhyuk decides to take revenge on them to save her.

During a press conference, Jung said he received an offer as an actor at first and then ended up both performing the leading character and directing the film. "There's a mix of emotions. I'm both excited to see how the movie will turn out and fearful of how I will come across on screen," he said.

Jung Woo-sung, the director and leading actor of the action film A Man of Reason, speaks during a press conference in Seoul on July 24, 2023. (Yonhap)

Since his debut in 1994, the 50-year-old has starred in numerous films and TV dramas, including Beat (1997), A Moment to Remember (2004), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Asura: The City of Madness (2016) and Hunt (2022). He has also tried his hand at film directing, taking the helm of three short films in 2013 and 2014.

Although a father's journey to rescue his kidnapped daughter is a simple plot with a familiar narrative, Jung said he tried to approach the project from a director's perspective rather than an actor's. "I thought it could be an opportunity to challenge myself by adding my own touch to the familiar plot," he said.

Jung described his character as a man with a dilemma, who wants to live a normal life but resorts to violence to save his daughter. "Action could not be expressed solely as a father's anger to rescue his child. I had to find the justification for his dilemma," he said. "His action scenes were not about expressing reckless violence by a father searching for his daughter but rather the struggle of an enraged bull in such a situation."

A Man of Reason will hit local theaters Aug. 15.

A promotional poster of A Man of Reason is seen in this photo provided by Acemaker Movie Works, its production and distribution company. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

By Kim Eun-jung