Sometimes you watch a movie or TV show where an actor is so impressive that you can’t help but wonder what other productions they have starred in. For fans of Squid Game, that actor is Lee Jung-jae. His role as Gi-hun was so brutally raw that it seems to have left a gaping hole now that Squid Game is done. In truth, though, that performance pales in comparison to his stirring performance in the 2013 Korean crime thriller New World.
In New World, Jung-jae plays the role of Lee Ja-sung, an undercover cop who’s buried so deep in the criminal world he almost forgets which self he’s protecting. The setting too is quite different. Instead of the green tracksuits, you see him in a sleek black suit, staring at the mirror, trying to remember which guy staring back is the real one. Here, it’s less about playing a game to get out and more about being in so deep that you forget there’s even a way out. For Squid Game fans, this is the twist you didn’t see coming — not in plot, but in character.
Lee Jung-jae’s Brilliant Role Is a Reminder He Is More Than a Netflix Star
Right from the jump, you notice that you’re watching an entirely different Lee Jung-jae. For instance, his character in Squid Game was all jittery and focused on surviving an ordeal where people were killed for losing a game. But Ja-sung is totally the opposite. He’s calm, composed, and essentially built like a pressure cooker. He’s been undercover with a criminal organization for eight years, and has undergone a transformation so profound his own wife (Park Seo-yeon) barely recognizes him. As if to compound his ordeal, his police boss largely treats him like a puzzle piece, just a tool to bring down the crime family Ja-sung now sees as his own. Throughout all this mess, he stays loyal to the force, but just one look into his eyes tells you that something has slowly changed inside him.
Apart from the costume change, another key difference between Lee Jung-jae’s characters is the kind of pressure each one faces. For Gi-hun, he had to navigate the people in charge of the deadly games he was forced to participate in. Essentially, almost every threat was external. Ja-sung, on the other hand, had to face internal threats: isolation, estrangement from his wife, the guilt he feels for living a double life, and the intense fear of being exposed. No scene captures all these feelings like when Detective Kang (Choi Min-sik) tells him he’s got to stay undercover even longer. You can see the crestfallen look on his face. That’s the look of a man who has lost all hope, and Jung-jae sells it well. He doesn’t overplay or underplay the seriousness of his situation, and it’s something audiences noticed.
New World received acclaim for finding the perfect balance between style and substance, and prioritizing character development over gritty action sequences. They were right, of course, because watching Jung-jae’s performance, you’re not focused on the action sequences. Instead, you’re focused on the quiet moments that force you to ask: when you live two lives, which one becomes the real life? Ultimately, watching him shift between tender vulnerability (his wife and unborn child) and ruthless survival (inside Goldmoon) feels like watching someone’s moral compass melt away while feeling every twist.
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Why ‘New World’s Themes of Loyalty, Betrayal, and Identity Crisis Hit Harder Than You Expect
While New World has a lot of elements that would easily make people see it as a “gangster flick,” a closer look will tell you that there is more to it than that. At its core, you’re watching a story about loyalty, betrayal, and an identity crisis. The director, Park Hoon-jung, does a good job of building a world where you’re never sure who to trust. It’s so elaborate, you end up not even trusting the main guy. Take that elevator scene, for instance. It’s a scene where most viewers reflect on the brutality we witness. No doubt we need to pay attention to the violence on show, but it’s also important to realize the filmmakers did not choreograph the violence for spectacle. It’s an ugly, realistic scene that pumps you up, scares you, and just tells you you’re not watching a cool action movie fight sequence, in one fell swoop. Instead, you’re watching Ja-sung’s world finally and completely shatter.
Furthermore, there are a couple of relationship dynamics that unsettle the mind in this film. The one that is guaranteed to absolutely wreck you emotionally is between Ja-sung and the gang’s heir apparent, Jung Chung, played by the legendary Hwang Jung-min. He’s funny, loyal, and he treats Ja-sung like his actual brother. Suddenly, you find yourself in Ja-sung’s shoes, thinking, “…are these guys kinda the worst? Yeah. But is this bond we have also real? You can absolutely bet on it.”
Meanwhile, there’s Chief Kang, who seems heartless at first, but then you realize he’s carrying the weight of manipulating Ja-sung. He uses all the little (or not so little) things, like lies, silence, extensions of undercover duty, to mount pressure until something just snaps inside Ja-sung. Fans of the movie often say the ending stays with them not because of violence, but because Ja-sung becomes what he was pretending not to be: someone whose identity is so compromised there’s no turning back. They’re right because the ending is less about who wins and more about who loses within, and New World forces you to carry that loss along with Ja-sung.
Take a moment to watch New World on Prime Video and see Lee Jung-jae stretch beyond what you thought he could do.
