In a bit of news that has been mostly ignored by the media, Korea’s acclaimed action director and stuntman, Ji Jung-Hyeon, died while shooting THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD. How do we know this? Because he’s a big presence in upcoming NYAFF movie, ACTION BOYS, and that film’s stuntmen pay tribute to his career in their documentary, which is the only place you’re going to see this talked about.

Ji Jung-Hyeon was the assistant action director and a key stunt player on numerous Korean films, choreographing the famous “hammer fight” in Park Chan-Wook’s OLDBOY and working as the assistant action director on MONGOL. He died near the set of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD when the car in which he was riding was hit by a lumber truck. Further details are not available, and people are not talking about it much in order not to bring bad luck onto the film. He was working as the assistant action director on THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD at the time of his passing. His credits include:

MUSA (aka, The Warriors, 2000), Stuntman
LAST WITNESS (2001), Stuntman
FAMILY (2002), Action Director
PUBLIC ENEMY (2002), Stuntman
OLD BOY (2003), Stuntman
RED SHOES (2005), Wire Action stuntman
BRAVO, MY LIFE (2005), suspicious guy
A BITTERSWEET LIFE (2005), gangster
THE CITY OF VIOLENCE (2006), construction worker
THE RESTLESS (2006), assistant to action director
MONGOL (2007), assistant to action director
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008), Assistant to action director

There’s a video interview with him about his career here (in Korean only) and if you’re interested, you can see him as a major presence in ACTION BOYS, with more info on the documentary here.