Why Park Bo-Young Wanted To Play Twins In ‘Our Unwritten Seoul'

Forbes

2 days ago

When Park Bo-young read the script for Our Unwritten Seoul she saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime challenge — and also a huge opportunity.
'I kept thinking, 'When will I ever get to try something like this again? If not now, will this kind of chance ever come again?'As soon as I read the line at the end of Episode 1 — 'I'll live your life. You live mine.' — I knew I had to do this drama.
In this new Korean drama Park plays twins Mi-rae and Mi-ji, creating two realistically different characters and then convincingly portraying them as they trade places and pretend to be each other. When they were younger twins Mi-rae and Mi-ji often switched places, so when Mi-rae faces a difficult problem, it seems like a logical solution. However, trading places triggers some drama and romantic mix-ups. The twins share a lot, explains Park, but they do have different personalities, shortcomings and strengths.
'Mi-rae, the older sister, was born with a physical ailment that made life challenging from the start,' said Park (Daily Dose of Sunshine, Doom At Your Service) at a recent press conference. 'She's someone who studies hard, endures silently, and believes she's best at holding things in. After struggling to survive in Seoul, something happens that leads her to switch roles with her twin.'
Mi-ji, the younger sister, used to be a promising track athlete in her childhood, but an injury shattered that dream.
'For reasons of her own, she's been living in a small rural village called Doo-son-ri,' said Park . When something happens to her sister, she agrees to take her place — and that's how the switch begins.'
Since Mi-rae starts off in Seoul and goes through a lot emotionally, the actress tried to highlight the character's distant personality—from her behavior to her styling decisions
'One of the things I worried most about was the balance during the identity switch — when they pretend to be each other," she said. "Director Park guided me through that part the most on set. In the early scenes, Mi-ji appears with bleached hair — that visual contrast was actually the director's idea to help distinguish her from Mi-rae. He even wanted Mi-ji's hair to be bleached but with some dark roots grown out, so we went with that — and when I saw it, I was really satisfied with how it looked.'
Having a conversation with yourself is harder than you might imagine.
'Normally, I focus on reacting to my scene partner's performance. But this time, I also had to predict how the other character — who was also me — would act.
Luckily, I had a stand-in actor on set who made eye contact with me and even performed the other role when needed. For example, if I had to shoot a scene as Mi-ji first, the director would ask me to act out Mi-rae's side of the conversation beforehand. The stand-in would then study that and recreate Mi-rae's behavior as closely as possible while I filmed as Mi-ji.'
In some scenes involving special effects, she had to act without the benefit of another actor reading her lines.
'That was a new experience for me, and I think it really helped me grow as an actor. I'm very grateful to the director and the stand-in for their hard work. When Mi-rae and Mi-ji talk to each other — whether face-to-face or over the phone — I thought I could just memorize the entire script straight through, but it didn't work that way. I had to memorize Mi-ji's lines separately, and then Mi-rae's separately. It honestly felt like shooting two dramas at once.'
Park Jin-young aka Jinyoung (The Witch, The Devil Judge) plays Lee Ho-su. He's a childhood friend of both twins and Mi-ji is sure he's in love with Mi-rae.
'Lee Ho-su appears to be a successful lawyer on the outside,' said Jinyoung. 'But deep down, he's struggling with unresolved trauma — he's like a swan, graceful above the surface but paddling frantically underneath. While in Seoul, he meets a woman who might be Mi-rae, or Mi-ji — he's not sure who she is — and through this mysterious connection, he begins to grow and slowly confront his past.'
It's Jinyoung's first drama role after serving in the military, which is mandatory for all able-bodied Korean males. The actor, singer and member of the k-pop group Got7 enjoyed his time in the military, but returning to the work he loves made him happy.
'Since it had been a while, I found myself diving deeper into this project," said Jinyoung. "The writing was beautiful, and the teamwork on set was great. Park Bo-young helped me a lot as well. She really made it easier for me to adjust quickly to the filming environment. Ho-su has a handicap, and we discussed it a lot on set to make sure it wasn't portrayed as too intense or too subtle. We wanted to strike the right balance. I also felt that Ho-su speaks slowly and with a low, subdued tone. With the director's guidance, I tried to bring out that quality in his character during filming.'
Although he had to act with two different versions of Park Bo-young, summoning up screen-worthy chemistry was no problem
'My chemistry with Park Bo-young was excellent,' said Jinyoung. 'I was a bit nervous at first since I had just returned from a year and a half of military service, but Park Bo-young made me feel comfortable and helped ease my tension. Her real personality is very gentle and kind, much like her characters in this drama, so that made adapting to the set much easier. Also, when she played Mi-ji and Mi-rae, she brought distinctly different energies to each character, which made it easier for me to respond accordingly as Ho-su. It honestly felt like I was acting alongside two different people, Mi-ji and Mi-rae.'
While Ho-su likes Mi-rae well enough, he's drawn to Mi-ji who stood up for him when he was a high school transfer student trying to hide his disability. The mix-up with Mi-ji standing in for her sister as an office worker and Mi-rae working on a farm naturally leads to some romantic mix-ups.
'There are many characters and their relationships are woven like a spider's web, all wrapped beautifully,' said Jinyoung. 'Among these many stories, I believe viewers will find at least one that feels like their own. If viewers are going through difficult times, I hope they can watch this drama and, like the characters, feel encouraged by the positive influence of those around them to move forward. Ultimately, they will realize that what truly matters is people and human connections. I hope viewers continue watching until the end and receive something good from it.'
The other romantic entanglement involves Mi-rae-pretending-to-be-Mi-ji and the eccentric but likable Han Se-jin, played by Ryu Kyung-soo.
"Han Se-jin was once the chief investment officer at a major firm in Seoul,' said Ryu Kyung-soo. 'An extremely successful and wealthy man. But due to a certain incident, he ends up taking over his grandfather's strawberry farm. There, he meets Yu Mi-rae, who's pretending to be Yu Mi-ji. Se-jin is a quirky, slightly odd, but ultimately endearing character.'
Ryu recently played the disreputable son of a political candidate in the Korean box office hit Yadang The Snitch and played a sympathetic policeman in the alien drama Glitch. His role in Our Unwritten Seoul is not like anything he's done before but the way the script was written meant it did not require much preparation.
'The character and script the writer created were so well crafted that all I had to do was follow them faithfully,' said Ryu. 'Han Se-jin is talkative, playful, and in some ways, quite quirky. But I personally felt that those traits come from a place of deep loss. I imagined that beneath his eccentric exterior, Se-jin carries a profound sense of loneliness and isolation.'
Ryu also enjoyed working with Park Bo-young.
'Park Bo-young felt like a vast ocean with gentle waves,' said Ryu. "When I wanted to venture out into the deep acting waters, it felt like I was safely floating with just a tube, carried smoothly without big waves or turbulence. Watching how she portrayed both Mi-ji and Mi-rae, I witnessed many remarkable moments."
When reading the script, Ryu thought the story was gentle, warm and uplifting.
'I hope viewers find comfort through it,' he said. "People find strength in many ways — whether it's eating something delicious, chatting with friends, or sleeping long hours. I hope this drama becomes one of those sources of strength. So for anyone going through a hard time or feeling lost in deep darkness lately, I hope this show can help give you courage to heal and move forward.'
Our Unwritten Seoul airs on Netflix. The Studio Dragon drama was directed by Park Shin-woo, who directed When Stars Gossip, The Killing Vote and It's Okay To Not Be Okay. The screenplay was written by Lee Kang, who wrote Youth of May.