21 A Drop of Thought: Junho in Cold Eyes

November 12, 2013 by a! 2 Comments

There were only five people in the auditorium: me, two old Korean ladies, and two male office workers spending their Friday afternoon break. I kinda wished that the auditorium would be more full. However, it’s Friday afternoon so I shouldn’t expect that people would flood the cinema. The bright side was it felt that the auditorium belonged to me alone. A personal cinema where I could enjoy Junho’s acting in Cold Eyes without too many disturbing voices. I was really excited and full of anticipation to see how he would act as a detective. Since it’s his debut as a professional actor, it’s interesting to see the differences and the similarities between Lee Junho and Squirrel.

Cold Eyes is basically a film about surveillance that  focuses on the actions and the strategies. There are some characters’ emotional conflicts, but they’re all triggered by the major conflict, which is the mission to solve the crime. It began with two plots, a bank robbery and a test for a new police detective (code name Piglet, played by Han Hyo Joo). As the story rolled, the two plots collided into one. The team led by chief detective Hwang struggled to find the people involved in the robbery, with the leader given the code name The Shadow (Jung Woo Sung) as the main target.

Overall I think Cold Eyes is well-acted, well-cinematographed and thrilling. The film uses some close-ups and even extreme close-ups to intensify the plot tension. These two kinds of shot also support the characterization of Piglet who always raps her fingers when thinking and The Shadow’s inner conflict. And Junho? He acts well as Squirrel, the young detective! Despite his young age, Squirrel excels at what he does and seems to enjoy his job. Junho looks really young in this movie. He grinned boyishly most of the times, and I couldn’t help but giggling when his colleagues put him into a locker since he’s been annoying. His character didn’t get too many scenes actually. However, Junho did his job proportionally, and I’m sure many are impressed by his parts.

Of course there were some traces of Junho in Squirrel, such as his cocky expression when giving a lecture to Piglet. But instead of ruining Squirrel’s characterization, I gotta say it strengthens it. So I guess kudos should also be given to the casting director for choosing a suitable actor for this role.

[SPOILER] I was shocked when Squirrel was killed by The Shadow in such a cruel way 😦 The cold-hearted gang leader sliced Squirrel’s neck and there’s so much blood scattered on the pavement I cringed. Squirrel’s death scene was unexpected and heartbreaking (credit goes to Junho and Han Hyo Joo’s acting). When he fell to the pavement, struggling for his life, I felt like jumping into the screen and consoling him.

The movie ended and I left the auditorium in pride. Junho is not my main bias in 2PM but I’m proud to see him taking part in such a world-class movie. Even prouder to see his great acting. What can I say? 2013 has been a terrific year for the singer/actor Lee Junho, hasn’t it?