Last week, ClickTheCity was invited to attend the press conference of Disney+’s latest action-packed crime Kdrama ‘Gangnam B-Side.” In attendance was the main cast of the show: Jo Woo Jin, Ji Chan Wook, Ha Younkyoung, and Kim Hyung Seo, and director Park Noori. The show is a gritty, hard-hitting crime series that is set out show the other side of the glamorous Gangnam district, known for its cosmopolitan flavour and its club scene.
The show centers around Kim Hyung Seo’s character, Jenny. A woman on the run as she has something people are willing to kill for. Jo Woo Jin plays a police captain who is hated by the police force for giving up corrupt officers and is now searching for Jenny because of her connection to his daughter. Ji Chan Wook plays a street enforcer and pimp, who seeks to protect Jenny from those who are out to kill her. Ha Younkyoung plays the new prosecutor who finds herself caught in this intricate web and her own agenda is still quite unclear at the get go.
The show’s first two episodes is fast-paced and thrilling and it’s not afraid to show the darker side of South Korea’s fancy party district. The violence is brutal and the presentation of drug use and the implications for sex are heavily shown, which makes it tougher and braver than most Kdramas out there. Ji Chan Wook and Ha Younkyoung play characters so far removed from their usual roles.
In fact, the duality of the stars were in full display as they came up on stage when called for photos and showed their usual lively and bubbly selves but when the host would ask them to give an action pose or a fearsome pose, they’d quickly get into character. The person on screen in the show is so far removed from the persons present at the press conference.
Kim Hyung Seo was the most giddy and excited amongst the cast. She admitted that she was so busy shooting that she was thrilled that she was going to meet “new people.” When describing her character, Jenny, she could only say “a mystery” as she was scared of spoiling anything. “She seems fragile and unstable,” she says and then stops herself explaining that she had accidentally slipped and said a story point in a previous interview and so now she is being very careful. Everyone laughs and doesn’t press her for more.
The lead of the show, and the one who seems like the moral center, Ji Woo Jin plays Kang Dong-woo, who he describes “a character with fiery passion for justice” and “a real adult who you’d want to be on your side.” He shared that director Park Noori, who he has worked with before, asked him to portray the character with a very heavy presence and so he gained 18 kilograms to take on this role. “I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been,” he said, but he seems to have lost it all as he was praised by the host that he’s like a shapeshifter.
The most notable transformation for the show is that of Ji Chan Wook. Always the gorgeous leading man, Ji Chan Wook is now playing a gritty, frightening underworld enforcer. He smokes in the show – I wonder if his endorsements will be affected – and he wears outlandish costumes. Ji Chan Wook explains, “He is dressed to standout. He is styled to appear more dangerous.” When remarked that he looks so different and exudes an aura so contrasting to his usual cookie-cutter roles, Ji Chan Wook gives credit to the make-up team, the stylists, and the cinematographer. He explains that there’s always a wound or scar on my face to show how dangerous his world is and he can only do so much to be someone he’s not. “A lot of my transformation is due to the great work of my team,” which is such a refreshing approach for his answer.
To prepare for her role, Ha Younkyoung interviewed retired prosecutors and really studied their culture and what they go through all the time. She was praised for her eloquence and diction in the previews of the episodes and she said it was due to the way the character is written, “My character doesn’t speak much but when she does, it’s a lot of jargon and it’s long so I had to practice and make sure I got it right.”
Director Park Noori has made a name for herself for directing the financial crime film ‘Money’ and it is there she got to work with Jo Woo Jin, who she immediately tapped for the role of Kang Dong Woo. She cast Kim Hyung Seo after an audition and knew she had her Jenny after Kim read the first line. “I cast her after she read the first line and I went and rewrote the screenplay with her in mind.” In casting for the street enforcer Gil-ho, Park Noori also said that she and her mother are fans of Ji Chan Wook and she wanted to explore a different side of his personality by offering him the role. She is also quoted for saying that his action sequences are “near perfect.”
The fight scenes in the first two episodes of ‘Gangnam B-Side’ are really exciting and full of energy and Ji Chan Wook and Jo Woo Jin commit to the exercise fully, creating action scenes that are fast-paced and brutal. When asked how he approached these “near perfect” fight scenes, Ji Chan Wook states that he is “more interested in the story of the action sequence.” He asks why is the character fighting in the scene and what weapon is he using. He is focused on the story of the fight to help him execute it well. On the other hand, Kim Hyung Seo had to do a lot of running in high heels and they “shot for 10 hours” and when she got hime she saw that she lost a lot of weight and she was happy about that.
Despite all the funny interactions and the care the actors and director shared about the show, at the end of the day, ‘Gangnam B-Side’ is still a dark tale about the unseen underbelly of South Korea’s party capital. Park Noori wanted to show the “shadow of such a bright place.”
If the first two episodes are any indication and if the level of secrecy from some of the actors about the nature of their roles give us a hint, this 8-episode series is going to be something to watch out for.
