‘Harbin,’ Starring Hyunbin, to Screen at Toronto International Film Festival

Harbin, starring popular Korean actor Hyunbin, alongside Jeon Yeo-been, Park Jung-min, Park Hoon, Jo Woo-jin, Yoo Jae-myung, and Lee Dong-wook, will be screened at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), scheduled for September 5–15, 2024.

The distinguished festival honors the finest in Canadian and international film. As Harbin premieres at TIFF, it serves as a reminder of what the festival’s ‘Perspectives’ sessions this year have to offer, which include an overview of Korean diaspora creators.

TIFF attracts filmmakers, industry professionals, and cinephiles worldwide; its diverse programming and commitment to showcasing avant-garde, interesting, and thought-provoking films make it an ideal venue for Harbin to be shown in its Gala Presentations.

In 1909, Harbin chronicles the history of Korean freedom fighters who braved and challenged Japanese tyranny, mounting a daring attack in Harbin, China, to restore their country’s independence. 

Hyun Bin plays Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean independence activist known as a martyr in Korea for assassinating Japanese statesman Itō Hirobumi, who was once Korea’s Resident-General and Japan’s first Prime Minister.

In the film, the Jung-geun-led mission is jeopardized when it’s suspected that one of the activists is a Japanese informant following a botched attempt to acquire devices. Things become alarming as the threat of a traitor hangs and the invincible enemies are trailing them.

Harbin‘s selection for TIFF serves to further solidify Hyun Bin’s standing as an internationally recognized actor with the global exposure and rave reviews that often accompany a film’s inclusion at the festival.

As one might anticipate from Hyun Bin, he embodies each character with precision. His performance possesses what I believe to be the ideal blend of intensity and emotion—a quality that defines the best acting. 

The actor has been in the news for years for his career choices, which have led to each of his works setting new standards. Even with almost twenty years of acting experience and many iconic roles under his belt, Hyun Bin continues to scope out the industry for exceptional roles. In retrospect, he once stated that he gained a lot of insight into how to interpret characters and that, looking ahead, he aspired to do something more outrageous and unique than what he had done in the past.

Since 2017, Hyun Bin has been going about that, taking on more demanding roles. His depictions in Confidential Assignment (2017), The Swindlers (2017), Confidential Assignment 2: International (2022), and The Point Men (2023) all make this apparent. It also persists in his characterization of Ahn Jung-geun in Harbin.

Director Woo Min-ho returns with this film; he debuted with the revenge-themed film Man of Vendetta (2010), followed by the action-comedy suspense The Spies (2012). His Inside Men (2015), which dealt with the corrupt institutions existing in Korea and was premised on Yoon Tae-ho’s webtoon The Insiders, was a massive success. Harbin succeeds the director’s last blockbuster period political thriller, The Man Standing Next, released in 2020.

The Korea Times reports that cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, best recognized for his contributions to Bong Joon-ho‘s Snowpiercer (2013) and Parasite (2019), has collaborated with Woo Min-ho on Harbin.