Last December 15, Disney+ held the Korean press conference for one of the most highly anticipated Korean dramas of the year: Made In Korea. Starring Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, and Woo Do-hwan. With Director Woo Min-ho, who is known for politically charged films like The Man Standing Next and the hit webtoon adaptation Inside Men, makes his directorial debut in dramas with this retro political thriller about the chaotic political era of 1970s Korea. His previous film, Harbin starred Hyun Bin and drew over 4 million admissions, cementing its status as a hit.
At the press conference, Director Woo and the three lead stars were joined by the rest of the ensemble, including Seo Eun-soo, Won Ji-an, Jung Sung-il, Kang Gil-woo, Roh Jae-won, and Park Yung-woo.
As usual, the event began with each cast member coming up to take their photos, all looking serious, except for Woo Do-hwan, who was the only one smiling as he waves. He even struck a second pose, saluting the press, invoking his character in the series, Baek Ki-hyun, a cadet at a military academy.
Members of the press were given access to the first two episodes of the six-episode series, which uses fiction to create a thriller that reimagines real events in Korean history. Like the first episode’s retelling of a hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351, when Japan Red Army faction took the plane to fly to North Korea. It was retold to introduce Hyun Bin’s character to the audience and to showcase Director Woo Min-ho’s cinematic coverage and dense narrative storytelling style. It highlights the series’ gripping and high-tension action sequences while signaling to us that it will take creative licenses with real events of that era.
Here are some highlights from the press conference:
Director Woo Min-ho and Hyun Bin were asked about working together again since Harbin. Hyun Bin shares that he has “an immense amount of trust” with Director Woo, and that working with him has proven that “he can bring out a different side of me” as an actor. Director Woo is quick to point out that “Harbin was about a real person” whereas Made in Korea is purely fictional so he says that “we could play more” in the show. He talks about having a collaborative spirit on set that all the actors got to “collaborate freely and really play on set.”
It was implied that every actor had a hand in the creation of their character. Park Yong-woo, who plays Hyun Bin’s boss, shares that it was his idea that Hwang Guk-pyeong, the head of the controversial KCIA in Busan, to wear a wig. Throughout the first episode, Guk-pyeong’s obsession with primping it and making it look good, so much so that Jung Sung-il remarked that when his character first appears, on his first day at the set, his reaction to Guk-pyeong’s wig makes for a funny reaction.
The ensemble on stage is a feast of talent and Director Woo remarked how he feels “so lucky to have all these actors in the call sheet.” It was so much fun working on the set that he felt emboldened to say that “this is the most fun I’ve had on set. It’s my most entertaining work out of all that I’ve done.” He even confessed feeling nervous saying this, unsure of how people would react.
For Jung Woo-sung, it was the “bold imagination” of the story that attracted him to the project. “It gave me a lot of courage as an actor,” he shares, “because we can really explore” in that kind of creative working environment. He plays Jang Geon-yeong, a “dogged prosecutor” who becomes obsessive in his pursuit of criminals and Hyun Bin’s Baek Ki-tae gets caught in his crosshairs.
Rounding up the cast is Won Ji-an, who plays Ikeda Yuji, the power behind the Japanese yakuza throne. We catch glimpses of her in episode one and a brief mention in episode two, but we are assured through the video clips shown at the press conference that her role will get bigger as Hyun Bin’s Baek Ki-tae and Ikeda Yuji work together to consolidate more power and money. For Won Ji-an, she really focused on mastering the language. “I had to get it right,” she said, portraying a character raised by the yakuza and had lived in Japan. She also shared how much she has “learned from all my senior actors and Director Woo.”
Playing a wild card in the show is Woo Do-hwan’s Baek Ki-hyun, identified as Ki-hyun is identified as Ki-tae’s brother who is in the military academy. “I love my brother,” Woo Do-hwan says of his character, “but I don’t want to be under his shadow.” He shared how he worked closely with Director Woo in finding “the balance of the character. To make him strong but not vague.” He studied people in the military academy and wanted to try to capture the rigidness of their speech and to find a way to create nuance from blank expressions. You could hear how much work and detail Do-hwan and the rest of the cast invested in perfecting their characters for the show.
The cast and director shared their excitement about working on the show and how Director Woo ensured to make all six episodes feel like six standalone movies. Director Woo didn’t want to use CGI so he looked for locations that could portray the 1970s architecture of that period, filming in Kobe, Japan, and Thailand for the Vietnam scenes. This show looks and feels epic already from the way the whole team is talking about it and from the first two episodes that the press were allowed to view. Some of the actors and Director Woo himself already hinted that a second season is in the works, so we are sure that we will be exploring the dark, chaotic 1970s in Korea for a little while longer.
