[News Culture] A former baseball hero, a fading screen star and the daughter who once tore their marriage apart are pulled back into one another’s lives in Portrait of a Family.
The film has released 11 new stills offering the clearest look yet at director Lee Ji-won’s unpredictable family drama, led by Ryu Seung-ryong, Ha Ji-won and Kim Si-a.
Ryu stars as Joong-gu, a celebrated baseball player whose seemingly charmed life with top actor Nam-mi, played by Ha, unravels when his daughter Dong-ju suddenly appears.
The couple eventually separates, leaving the family scattered.
Eight years later, Dong-ju becomes caught up in a disturbing incident. With their careers and relationship already in ruins, Joong-gu and Nam-mi are forced to come together again and find out what happened to her.
The first images show Joong-gu and Nam-mi before everything went wrong.
Joong-gu stands at the plate in full command of the field, while Nam-mi appears under the glare of cameras at the height of her celebrity. Their polished public lives, however, soon give way to a far darker reality.
A later still finds Joong-gu alone in a shadowy alley, his expression stripped of the confidence he once carried. Nam-mi appears equally defeated, while Dong-ju’s troubled appearance hints at the damage already spreading through the family.
Joong-gu’s downfall is made even clearer in an image of him losing control inside a police station. The famous athlete is gone, replaced by a disheveled man with little left to protect beyond his daughter.
The film’s supporting characters bring both tension and eccentricity to the story.
Kim Hae-sook plays Joong-gu’s mother Ki-sik, who appears carrying a fur coat in the middle of summer. Kim Sun-young plays his sister Ji-sook, dressed in a striking leopard-print outfit, while Kim Young-min appears as her husband Seong-myeong, sweating behind dark sunglasses.
Their appearance suggests a family that may be unruly and unconventional, but not necessarily willing to abandon one of its own.
Nam-mi has also fallen far from the fame she once enjoyed. No longer treated like a leading star, she now takes whatever work she can find to keep herself afloat.
Lee Hyun-kyun appears as reporter Choi Wook, a man with a long and bitter history with Joong-gu. His watchful presence on a film set adds another threat to a story already crowded with secrets.
The most urgent images center on Dong-ju.
One still shows her being taken away by police as she looks back desperately for help. Another captures Joong-gu holding tightly to her hand, trying to steady her as the situation closes in.
Rather than revealing how the pieces fit together, the 11 stills leave the family’s past and Dong-ju’s case deliberately unresolved, setting up a drama driven less by reunion than by what each character is willing to risk when the truth finally surfaces.
Portrait of a Family opens in theaters on Sept. 2.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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