The Age of Shadows — Characters & Cast

At first he wants to survive and move up in a colonial system he thinks can't be beaten. He calls Korea a sinking ship. Over time, his buried sense of national duty takes over.

He starts as a former resistance member turned Japanese police officer who is ordered to crush the independence movement. Contact with the resistance slowly reawakens his conscience. He ends up caught between two loyalties, and the film keeps his final choice uncertain until its closing stretch.

Korean independence and executing his comrades' mission.

He is an antique dealer who is secretly part of the resistance. He must play a dangerous game with Jung-chool, trying to win over a man who may betray him, while holding onto his commitment to independence.

To advance the independence struggle, whatever setbacks come.

He is a charismatic leader of the independence movement who appears at key moments. He bets that even a collaborator still has a conscience.