Go Soo headlines period murder mystery The Tooth and the Nail

by girlfriday

Interesting. The Tooth and the Nail is the movie that was once courting Han Seok-kyu to headline, but stalled somewhere along the way in development. It’s back now with a brand new cast, led by Go Soo (Tailors), who plays a man in search of a killer after the death of his fiancée.

The new film by director Jung Shik of Epitaph is based on the 1955 novel The Tooth and the Nail by American crime novelist Bill Ballinger. The complex novel is two stories interwoven and told simultaneously — one of a magician avenging his fiancée’s death, and the other about a man on trial for murder where the only evidence remaining on an incinerated corpse is a tooth and a nail. The two tales eventually converge, and how they meet is part of the central mystery.

The Korean adaptation will be set in the independence era post-World War II, and Go Soo will star as the magician who gets embroiled in this tangled murder mystery. Is it just me, or do we have a big influx of magicians coming to the big screen lately? Im Hwa-young (Yong-pal) has been cast to play the fiancée whose death spurs him into action, and he’ll discover along the way that she’s been hiding some dangerous secrets.

Kim Joo-hyuk (Beauty Inside) is a man shrouded in mystery — he’s a man of ambiguous identity and mysterious past — and that’s all we’re told about his character. Park Sung-woong (Hidden Identity) plays a prosecutor chasing after the truth, and Moon Sung-geun (Memories of the Sword) plays a lawyer who’s trying to keep the truth hidden. I think the period setting and magician angle will add something interesting, and apparently Go Soo is learning Japanese, piano, and tap dance for the role. Tap… dance? Oh I gotta see this.

The Tooth and the Nail starts shooting this month for a release next year.

Kim Joo-hyuk, Im Hwa-young, Park Sung-woong

Via TV Report

RELATED POSTS

• Han Hyo-joo and the many faces of the man who loves her
• Hidden Identity: Episode 1
• Go Soo, Sol Kyung-gu offered suspense thriller Lucid Dream
• Fashion and intrigue propel period melodrama Tailors
• Kim Joo-hyuk and Sohn Ye-jin to reunite on big screen
• Han Seok-kyu takes on The Tooth and the Nail
• Go Soo offered lead in legal thriller Insufficient Evidence
• Go Soo re-teams with Han Hyo-joo for experimental art film
• Go Soo pairs with Moon Chae-won as lifelong lovers
• Cast finalized for 1N2D Season 3 (almost, maybe)