Male singer and actor Jung Ji Hoon, known by his stage name Bi Rain, first took on a villain role in Netflix's "Bloodhounds 2". His character is Baek Jeong - the operator of a global-scale illegal boxing tournament.
The high-speed crime action film directed by Jason Kim, revolves around 2 young fighters fighting against Iron Knuckle Fighting Championship - a dark network organization specializing in organizing brutal fights driven by big bets and coercion, dragging the two main characters Gun Woo (Woo Do Hwan) and Woo Jin (Lee Sang Yi) into the underworld of violence.
Bi Rain said that this project "exhausts both physically and mentally".
He analyzed: "My character does not have much past. The director does not want him to become a stereotypical villain.
Usually when playing a bad role, you will appear good and then suddenly become cruel - that kind of transformation creates a climax. But the director told me not to do that. He wanted the character to be full of anger from the beginning, without changing tone, so that was a challenge.
He describes Baek Jeong as a narcissistic and anger-controlling person: "He is like a rabid dog starved for 10 days, oozing in front of food. With this character, "food" is money. The director wants to create a character that makes the audience think every time he appears: "Are you going to kill someone again?".
According to Korea Times, in a film full of action scenes, Bi Rain stood out by showing martial arts scenes of different levels.
When asked, he said: "The difference of the action scene in our film is the feeling of being very tight, with rhythm in it. If you pay close attention, other films are simply supporting and then hitting, but here it's both supporting and hitting, being hitting still hitting - everything is layered on top of each other".
According to Bi Rain, the action director of "Bloodhounds 2" has invested a lot to refine this rhythm. Even, Bi Rain and Woo Do Hwan have fight scenes like a real confrontation.
The actor added: "Usually, just a slight touch has a sound effect that looks like hitting, but we review each slow-motion scene to check if it really touched. If not, we film it again until it looks most realistic.
To perform action scenes without a stuntman, Bi Rain has practiced regularly at the action training school, spending about 6 hours a day on weightlifting and boxing.
It must be overwhelming but still fast and strong - like a boxing genius who can be flexible between left-handed and right-handed. That part is really difficult," he explained.
Looking back at his dedication, Bi Rain said: "It's not just boxing, I also have to act. Honestly, I have spent the whole year for this character. After all the effort, now watching it feels like watching a live show.
Bloodhounds 2" was released on the Netflix platform on April 3. Just 3 days after its release, the film recorded 5 million views, ranking in the top 2 of the ranking of the 10 most popular non-English TV shows on Netflix globally this week (calculated from March 30 to April 5, 2026).
