Why Rain (정지훈) Became a Villain: Inside the Intense Transformation for ‘Hunting Dogs’ Season 2

Singer-actor Jung Ji‑hoon (Rain), 44, returns as a remorseless antagonist. On the morning of the 31st, he attended a production briefing at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel in Jung‑gu for Netflix’s Sanyanggaedeul Season 2, written and directed by Kim Joo‑hwan. Jung teased a darker, more extreme villain — Baekjeong — and said he’s confident in the turn. He also warmed the room with a comic anecdote about how staying in character led to a run‑in with his wife, Kim Tae‑hee.

Woo Do‑hwan, Lee Sang‑yi

Following the global success of Season 1, Jung Ji‑hoon’s casting is one of the season’s biggest draws. Jung said he’s been a longtime admirer of Kim Joo‑hwan’s work and that admiration played a key role in his decision to join. \”Watching Season 1, I felt a genuinely new action style had arrived in Korea,\” he said, praising the commitment of Woo Do‑hwan and Lee Sang‑yi. When the director offered him the part, Jung added, he immediately wanted in, drawn to Sanyanggaedeul’s raw, hard‑hitting approach that breaks from conventional action choreography.

Host Park Kyung‑lim, who said she’s followed Jung since his debut, admitted she’d never seen this side of him before. Jung revealed that Kim put him through a meticulous process to craft the character’s chilling presence. The director reportedly delivered precise notes — \”Smile, but be terrifying,\” \”Never let your eyes smile,\” and \”Use gestures that reduce your opponent to humiliation\” — all aimed at creating the psychological pressure that defines a truly menacing villain.

Jung didn’t stop at acting notes; he transformed his physique, too. The director wanted more than a sculpted look — he wanted a body that could actually box. Jung said it felt refreshing to be trained again and stressed that he set aside his own instincts to fully execute the director’s vision.

Villain work can creep into an actor’s daily life. Jung said he deliberately kept Baekjeong’s sharp edge alive, and that effort produced a family incident. \”I didn’t want the performance to feel artificial; I wanted the character to look like someone who had lived that way,\” he said, noting he maintained the character’s state for about a year.

He said the cold mood and villainous stare would slip out at home without him realizing it. Eventually his wife, Kim Tae‑hee, asked him, \”Why are you like that even at home?\” Jung laughed, admitting, \”I stayed in character at home and got properly scolded,\” a line that drew laughs from reporters.

Sanyanggaedeul 2 follows Geon‑woo (Woo Do‑hwan) and Woo‑jin (Lee Sang‑yi) as they reunite to take on a corrupt global illegal boxing league where money and violence rule. The IKFC, the league at the center of Season 2, is a sprawling criminal enterprise overseen by Baekjeong, the figure Jung portrays.

Jung plays a ruthless operator who answers to no one inside the organization, driven solely by his own desires. He helps sustain the series’ tension through to the end. The seven‑episode run promises a bigger scale, combining boxing’s rhythmic impact with the arrival of a major new villain in Jung Ji‑hoon.

After more than 20 years in the industry, taking on a villain represents a bold new challenge for Jung Ji‑hoon. He built his career on rom‑coms and flashy action turns, so his transformation into a character with a cruel, contemptuous smile feels striking. Viewers worldwide will be watching to see what catharsis that cold stare — which he says he preserved for a year — delivers on Netflix.

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