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Korean Thriller Screened at Cannes Film Fest

From left, Hwang Jung-min, Yoon Jong-bin, Lee Sung-min and Ju Ji-hoon pose on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Friday. /AFP-Yonhap

Yoon Jong-bin's latest film, "The Spy Gone North", was premiered at the annual Cannes Film Festival on Friday, which runs until this week.

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The thriller starring Hwang Jung-min, Lee Sung-min and Ju Ji-hoon, was invited to the Midnight Screenings section of the festival, which is usually devoted to an action-heavy, emotionally charged genre such as horror or disaster films.

Set during a 1997 political scandal in the vortex of turbulent Korean history, the espionage thriller treads a fine line between fact and fiction.

The reception of the film was generally mixed, with some viewers finding it interesting, others finding it difficult.

Non-Korean viewers in particular may struggle to grasp the early scenes of the film, in which the inner conflicts of the main characters and complicated inter-Korean relations are explained.

"I wanted to make a nail-biting thriller that does not necessarily require jam-packed violent fight scenes", Yoon said.

The film is set to hit local theaters in Korea this summer.

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