Actor Kang Dong-won has an extremely masculine way of thinking, said actor Ha Jung-woo, who costarred with him in the historical blockbuster “Kundo: Age of the Rampant.”

“Kang Dong-won was far more attractive than I expected,” Ha said on Tuesday at a press conference for his latest film, which is set to launch on July 23.

“Above all, he is a huge macho and probably has the most masculine way of thinking of all of us here,” Ha alleged, contrasting this with Kang’s former trademark image as a soft-tempered urban gentleman, best expressed in his French Cafe Mix commercial for Namyang Dairy Products Co. Ltd. 

Kang, for his part, described Ha as someone who’s “absolutely hilarious” and said that they “hit it off very well” from the start, which made some of the hardest action scenes enjoyable.

In addition, Ha appreciated Kang for understanding his “code of humor,” again driving the crowd into a big round of laughter.

“I appreciate how Kang Dong-won understands my code of humor … We have exchanged jokes based on the sense of mutual trust,” he said.

“Kundo: Age of the Rampant,” directed by Yoon Jong-bin, is a history-based action blockbuster based on a civil uprising in the mid-19th century, during the Joseon era. A lowly butcher, Dochi, played by Ha, resents the socioeconomic exploitation by the aristocrats and organizes a resistance group called “Kundo.”

Kang plays Jo-yoon, an illegitimate son of a powerful elite family, who leads the state troops to suppress Kundo.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)