For the love of fighting, the first round begins here

A gangster who wants to be an actor; an actor more gangster than anything.

Here their paths and lives begin to cross.

Actor Jang Soo-ta is in a bind. His bad temperament causes him to take the fight scenes too seriously on the set of his latest movie; the movie has been put on hold due to the assaults, and no one in the industry wants to play opposite the belligerent actor. As a last resort, he tracks down the gangster asking for his autograph and proposes a part for him.

The gangster, unbeknownst to anyone, has always wanted to be an actor and accepts Soo-ta’s proposition on one condition: The fight scenes must be real. Never one to shy away from any scuffle, the actor agrees. This now becomes the prelude to one of the most intense and fierce shoots in movie history.

A real hero is not afraid of death, of dying in battle.

The gangster comes up from the streets to begin following his dream, the dream of becoming an actor; and driven by pride and an actor’s self esteem, Soo-ta slowly emerges and evolves into becoming what his supporting actor was and still is. This is now the first take, the first round for each man in his new role, his new clothes, his new self.

Who will win the match?

A fight only has one winner, a movie only one hero.

Characters

It’s funny isn’t it?

They call us trash.

But you, you’re just an actor, an imitator.

And they call you a hero.

Gang-pae, The gangster that wants to become an actor

Crisp white shirt, black Armani suit, Rolex, driving a flash import...could be a lawyer, a banker, an actor for all we know. With three underlings in tow, he’s a gangster; cruel, inhuman, almost.

He can’t sleep without double-checking the locks on his hotel room door, without popping a couple of valiums every night; too much excess baggage. And this gangster has a secret – the desire, the need to be an actor, sneaking away from his colleagues to take in a movie, to live another life. Whatever happens, he knows he won’t touch it: the face, the actor’s face. For an actor’s face is his life...

Fate has arrived, here, at a hostess bar. In the form of an action star. In the form of Soo-ta: actor, action hero. Full of mirth, and a few whiskies, the gangster sends his boys for an autograph, but in return gets a proposal : the chance of a lifetime, the chance to star in a movie. Yes, he’ll do it, of course he’ll do it, he finds himself saying, but on one condition: no art imitating life but art as life; the fights will be real.

Life is so short, why live that way?

How will you face yourself?

Soo-ta, the actor and the action hero

He’s got all the trappings of success – sports car, limo, sprawling condo and a hot girlfriend. He is a movie star. But he’s dissatisfied, discontent – simply, unhappy. Why? Is it the excess? The easy access to the good life? No one wants to work with him now; now that he’s sent two actors to the hospital, taking his scenes, the fight scenes, too seriously. There’s no faking, imitating, no pulling punches. And now, there are no co-stars, no others to act alongside him. He’s alone.

He remembers him; the gangster he met at the bar. The one that wanted his autograph and he’d proposed a part to. The one that countered, with conditions, wanting real action, real fighting, true violence. He likes it, this idea of a real battle