"Gyeongseong Creature," the upcoming Netflix series, combines historical drama and creature thriller.
Set in 1945, the Korean series stars Park Seo-jun of “Itaewon Class” and “The Marvels,” and Han So-hee of “The World of the Married” together with Claudia Kim, Kim Hae-sook, Jo Han-chul and Wi Ha-joon of “Squid Game.”
"Gyeongseong Creature" (Netflix)
In "Gyeongseong Creature," Park Seo-jun is Jang Tae-sang, the wealthiest man in Gyeongseong and the master of the House of Golden Treasure. He’s also the most reliable source of insider information in the city, and anyone who wants money, goods or people must go through him.
Han So-hee is Yoon Chae-ok, a sleuth, who is finding her own mother, forges alliance with Tae-sang and they infiltrate Ongseong Hospital where all suspicions point to. With their exploration, they face a monster born out of human greed.
During a press conference in Seoul for "Gyeongseong Creature," the cast and the director discussed the drama.
On why he decided to do "Gyeongseong Creature," Park Seo-jun said, “I always look at the story first. ‘Gyeongseong Creature’ and its narrative was very intriguing and the role was the type of a role where you can show different facets of yourself.”
He also said he is big fan of writer Kang Eun-kyung and director Jeong Dong-yun.
“When I was in ‘Itaewon Class,’ his work was also airing,” he said, referring to the Korean series “Hot Stove League.”
Han So-hee also said she is a big fan of “Hot Stove League.”
“I was also a big fan of the works that Seo-jun starred in as well. I love that this was set in the 1940s. It is also about the creature so it’s a fun mix of a creature genre and a period genre. And I thought the creature genre will be of immense help to me as an actress going forward. That’s what reeled me in,” said Han So-hee.
Claudia, who was in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” said, “I haven’t been in a show for quite some time so I think I’m very lucky that I found this kind of show.”
She said when she met the director, “I thought this was a very enticing narrative. It’s a grand, big genre. We have that different emotional turmoils within that grand scale.”
Veteran actress Kim Hae-sook described the Netflix series as “something really new. I have big trust in the director and writer.”
Jo Han-chul, who plays Han So-hee’s dad in the series, said, “I love the script and I love director Jeong, a big fan of his works.”
"Gyeongseong Creature" (Netflix)
Restrained romance
Park Seo-jun described the relationship between Jang Tae-sang and Yoon Chae-ok in the series as “restrained romance.”
“I met her [Han So-hee] for the first time and then we didn’t get to meet until later into the shoot. And that was very helpful because I wanted to see her. I missed her. When I did get to see her, I said, ‘I miss you So-hee. We haven’t been in a scene together for so long.’ So I think those circumstances helped me out,” he said.
He added, “And I thought long and hard about the scenes. And as we were shooting those scenes together, there were emotions that stacked up. And there are things that were brought about by the circumstances. I think those were helpful in building our romance. And I wanted to express that well.”
“I trusted So-hee this time around. I really relied on her a lot and she helped me out a lot,” he added.
According to So-hee, “The emotions had to be restrained because Chae-ok and Tae-sang both respectively have something to protect. So they had to be restrained in terms of their emotions. As Seo-jun said just now, it took us a lot of time to get back together on the set so we were always missing each other.”
Part 1 of "Gyeongseong Creature” will premiere on Netflix on Dec. 22 and part 2 will be released on Jan. 5.