Harbin, the latest film starring Hyun Bin, will be released in Indonesia next year. This biographical drama about Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun is set to premiere in early January 2025.
CBI Pictures, the film distributor, announced the release date on social media, along with a new poster featuring the actor.
“Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook in HARBIN. In theaters starting January 1, 2025,” the announcement from CBI Pictures read on Tuesday (December 3).
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024. Its release in Indonesia will come one week after Harbin hits theaters in South Korea on December 25, 2024.
Harbin is set in the early 1900s, during a time when Korea was forced by Japan to sign the Eulsa Treaty, losing its diplomatic rights and becoming a Japanese colony. In 1909, the events in Harbin unfold as the Korean Truth Army militia launches an armed resistance campaign against Japan. Ahn Jung-geun leads an operation to assassinate Ito Hirobumi, Japan’s first Resident-General in Korea.
Along with his team, consisting of Woo Deok-sun (Park Jeong-min) and Kim Sang-hyun (Jo Woo-jin), Ahn Jung-geun is determined to kill Ito during a train journey from China to Harbin, which was then under Russian control.
Ahn Jung-geun was eventually executed by Japan on March 26, 1910. His legacy became controversial, as Japan labeled him a terrorist. However, he is honored as a national hero by South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is also revered in China as a “well-known anti-Japanese figure with high ideals.”
Director Woo Min-ho shared that he initially struggled with the task of bringing Ahn Jung-geun’s story to the screen. However, everything changed after he spent some time in a bookstore. “I had some time left, so I went across the street to Kyobo Bookstore and read a book there. The book was about Ahn Jung-geun,” said Woo Min-ho.
What stood out to him in the book was an incident where Ahn Jung-geun freed Japanese war prisoners according to the laws of war, which caused suspicion and a rift among the independence fighters. “That became a highlight for me because, although I knew he was a general, I didn’t realize he had many failures in the past,” he added.
Harbin was filmed in Korea (including Mudeung Mountain in Gwangju), Mongolia, and Latvia. The cinematography was handled by Hong Kyeong-pyo, the cinematographer of Parasite.
The film project was first revealed three years ago and made its world premiere at the Gala Presentations of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024.
Harbin also stars Jeon Yeo-been (from Vincenzo) and Park Jeong-min (from Decision to Leave). The film will be released in Indonesian cinemas on January 1, 2025.
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