Park Hae-il, Park Seo-joon, Choi Dae-hoon join Lee Joon-ik's new film Firefly
Park Hae-il, Park Seo-joon, and Choi Dae-hoon star in Lee Joon-ik's first film since 2021. The historical thriller spans 1950 and 1974. Filming begins September 27.
Park Hae-il, Park Seo-joon, and Choi Dae-hoon are joining 반딧불이 (Firefly), the new film from director Lee Joon-ik. Migoworks and Girin Film announced the casting on August 21, 2026.
Five years have passed since Lee Joon-ik's last feature, 자산어보 (The Book of Fish). His earlier work includes 왕의 남자 (The King and the Clown), 동주 (Dongju), and 박열 (Anarchist from Colony).
The film opens in 1974. Park Seo-joon plays detective Joon-kyung, a man trapped by the guilt-by-association system (연좌제) — no promotions, no future. A tip arrives from Man-seop (Park Hae-il), someone of unclear background, who dangles a promise: "a case where he can achieve great results" in the fictional village of Hwayong-myeon. The narrative jumps between that 1974 setting, under authoritarian rule, and the summer of 1950, right after the Korean War began. It traces a truth buried for 24 years in Hwayong village.
Choi Dae-hoon rounds out the trio as Tae-sik, the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy director in 1974. He answers to no law, no police. He sees himself as a patriot. (Choi has been on a strong run lately, appearing in 김부장 and 폭싹 속았수다.)
Principal photography starts September 27.
Separately, Lee Joon-ik's first short drama, 아버지의 집밥 (Father's Home-Cooked Meal), premieres September 9. Jung Jin-young, Lee Jung-eun, Byun Yo-han, Park Ji-yeon, Kang Hyung-seok, and Park Jung-yoon star. The story follows Ha-eung, a man who has eaten home-cooked meals three times a day for 40 years. He enters a kitchen for the first time to cook for his wife Sun-ae, who has developed what the story calls "cooking blank slate syndrome."
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