Actor Lee Byung-hun performs go player Cho Hun-hyun in the upcoming movie "The Match." Courtesy of BY4M Studio

The director of the upcoming movie "The Match" expressed his disappointment over lead actor Yoo Ah-in, whose drug scandal led to the film's delayed release, while urging audiences to judge the film on its own merits and consider watching it with an open mind.

"To be honest, as a lead actor, he was responsible for a disappointing incident and acted irresponsibly in some ways. I don't think there's anything more I can say because he has done wrong as a member of society before he was an actor and he was being punished for it," director Kim Hyung-ju said during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday.

"(The release being delayed) felt like being trapped in a hellish tunnel, just like a line from the movie. There was nothing I could do, and I felt helpless. But now, I see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and it feels like I can finally breathe. The crew and actors have all been eagerly awaiting the release. I have mixed feelings."

Director Kim Hyung-ju speaks during a press conference for his movie "The Match" at a theater in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

Yoo was initially sentenced to one year in prison for illegally using propofol, a medical anesthetic, under the pretext of cosmetic procedures on 181 occasions between 2020 and 2022. He was also accused of abusing three other medical anesthetic drugs, including midazolam and ketamine. In an appellate trial, his sentence was suspended for two years.

In the wake of the scandal, his face was removed from the promotional poster and trailer, leading to speculation that his scenes in the film might also be cut. However, Yoo's role remains unchanged in the film itself. Given that the characters played by Lee and Yoo constitute about 80 percent of the film's content, removing Yoo's scenes would significantly disrupt the narrative, according to the director.

Nevertheless, Kim added he hopes that audiences will view the movie with an objective gaze.

"The choice and judgment are up to the audience and I can't force anything. I just have a difficult request that you watch the movie as it is. The movie was hurt before it even came out into the world and I hope you can watch it with a warm heart, as if applying an ointment to a wound."

"The Match" explores the mentor-disciple relationship and rivalry between Cho Hun-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) and Lee Chang-ho (Yoo), two real, living legends in the Asian board game of go. The film completed shooting in 2021, but Yoo's drug scandal, which led to an investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, delayed the release. In February, Yoo received a suspended sentence in his second trial.

Actor Lee Byung-hun speaks during a press conference for movie "The Match" at a theater in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

Lee, who plays Cho in the movie, said he couldn't believe that their matches were based on real events.

"When I first read the script and watched various documentaries about them, I thought it was such a dramatic story that I couldn't believe these dramatic events actually happened," Lee said.

"It was so interesting that these two legends had such stories and went through such processes. So, I decided to appear in the film, but during filming, the most important part was having to convey all those years with almost no emotional change in my expression in front of the go board."

He also revealed that it was challenging to play Cho, who was the first Korean to win a world go championship. Cho was the first Korean winner of the world's top go competition, the Ing Cup, in 1988.

"He's a person who won Korea's first world championship. The go master holds so many records even after that, but then he loses to his disciple whom he taught and raised at home. I don't know how he must have felt going back to the basics and climbing back to the top step by step from the beginning," the 54-year-old actor said.

"The Match" will be released in theaters March 26.