Ha Ji-won Returns to Cinemas After 6 Years Alongside Ryu Seung-ryong in 'Bigwang'

Ha Ji-won is stepping back into cinemas after a six-year absence, and from what was shared at the Bigwang press conference in Seoul on August 5, the wait looks worth it.

The two leads, Ha Ji-won and Ryu Seung-ryong, play Nam-mi and Jung-gu: a once-glittering celebrity couple whose careers have cratered by the time the story begins. When their daughter Dong-ju gets caught up in a dangerous situation, the two have to pull themselves together and fight for her. The film takes its title from a card in the Korean traditional card game hwatu (flower cards), and director Lee Ji-won built the whole story around what that card represents.

Ryu Seung-ryong, who has made a career out of playing devoted fathers in films like The Gift of Room 7 (2013) and the Disney+ series Moving (2023), described his character Jung-gu as chaotic but completely fearless when it comes to his daughter. "He's all over the place, unpredictable, but he doesn't stop to think twice when she needs him," the actor said. He reached for an image from the hwatu card itself to explain the role: a frog leaping through floodwater, failing repeatedly before finally grabbing onto a willow branch to survive. "A dad who doesn't always know what he's doing, but throws his whole body at the problem," he said. He also mentioned, with a grin, that he put serious work into his baseball form for the role. Jung-gu is a former top-flight baseball star, and Ryu assured the room that the on-screen technique holds up.

Ha Ji-won described the role as emotionally demanding in a particular way: Nam-mi is an actress, which put Ha Ji-won in the position of playing a version of a life she knows. "Because Nam-mi is also a performer, it hurt to play her," she said. "Watching her endure what she has to endure, I cried." She called the shoot one of the happiest working experiences of her career, and said her approach this time was to strip away rather than add: to empty herself out and let the character come through.

For his part, Ryu praised his co-star's commitment, saying her sincerity and urgency come through directly on screen.

The film was written and directed by Lee Ji-won, best known for Miss Baek (2018), a critically acclaimed drama about child abuse and female solidarity. For Bigwang, she drew on the specific rules of go-stop, the most popular hwatu game: the bigwang card is technically a lesser version of the powerful gwang (bright) cards, and collecting three gwang cards that include the bigwang scores fewer points than three standard gwang cards. But gather all five gwang cards with the bigwang included, and the score jumps dramatically. "It's a card that gets looked down on," Lee said, "but when it comes together with others, it produces something remarkable." That idea of overlooked individuals combining their strength became the film's spine.

The ensemble supporting Ryu and Ha includes Kim Hae-sook, Kim Sun-young, and Kim Young-min, filling out Jung-gu's family with the kind of seasoned character work those names reliably deliver. The daughter Dong-ju is played by Kim Si-a, who made her debut in Lee Ji-won's Miss Baek, making this a reunion for director and young actor.

One notable detail: Bigwang wrapped principal photography in 2021, meaning nearly five years passed between the end of shooting and the theatrical release. Lee addressed that directly at the press conference, saying the delay gave her time to push the post-production much further than originally planned. "You could say I gave the film my liver and gallbladder," she said. She acknowledged that audiences sometimes approach older films with skepticism, but said she was confident that once people see it in a theater, they'll understand the delay was not the film's fault.

Ryu offered his own endorsement of Lee's working style, describing her attention to detail as almost clinical: checking costume patterns, scanning every element of a scene. "She's like an MRI machine for directors," he said.

Bigwang opens September 2, arriving in the weeks after the summer blockbusters Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day have had their run. Lee framed it as a different kind of spectacle: not the scale of those films, but "an emotional blockbuster" built on the performances of its cast. "Hot and warm at the same time," she said. She added that she plans to keep editing right up to the release date.