Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ah-in’s ‘The Match’ skips theatres for direct Netflix global release

19 December, 2022

The Match netflix

Netflix has announced that upcoming South Korean film The Match, starring Lee Byung-hun (Our Blues) and Yoo Ah-in (Seoul Vibe) will premiere exclusively on the platform.

Last Friday (December 16), Netflix announced that the highly-anticipated South Korean film The Match would premiere globally via the streaming platform instead of seeing a theatrical release. At the time of publishing, Netflix has not shared details on the release date of the film.

The upcoming film biopic stars Lee Byung-hun and Yoo Ah-in as real-life Go (known in Korean as ‘Baduk’) players — Lee as Cho Hoon-hyun and Yoo as his protege-turned-rival Lee Chang-ho — and tells their story as their relationship grows increasingly strained.
Netflix has unveiled a still from The Match, depicting both players in the middle of a game of Go while surrounded by reporters.

The upcoming film is written and directed by Kim Hyun-joo, who previously worked on the 2017 crime comedy film The Sheriff in Town. According to The Korea Times, The Match had wrapped up filming in April 2021, but faced release delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lee most recently starred in tvN’s drama series Our Blues between April and June 2022, which was also released via Netflix in selected regions. The slice-of-life drama has since made NME’s Top 10 K-dramas of 2022, where it was described as “one of the year’s most nuanced K-dramas.”

Meanwhile, The Match will mark the third time Yoo has starred in a Netflix production, following recent roles in the 2021 dark supernatural series Hellbound and crime film Seoul Vibe earlier this year. The actor is also set to star in an upcoming doomsday Netflix series titled Goodbye Earth.

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