Foreign languages become a catalyst for romance in Netflix's 'Can This Love Be Translated?'

Upcoming Netflix romantic comedy series “Can This Love Be Translated?” is set to kick off the streamer’s Korean original lineup this year, telling the heartwarming love story of a global star and her multilingual interpreter.

Actors Kim Seon-ho, left, and Go Youn-jung pose during a press conference for Netflix romantic comedy series ″Can This Love Be Translated?″ held at Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 13. [YONHAP]

Upcoming Netflix romantic comedy series “Can This Love Be Translated?” is set to kick off the streamer’s Korean original lineup this year, telling the heartwarming love story of a global star and her multilingual interpreter.

“The project began with the idea that everyone carries a language of their own,” said its director, Yoo Young-eun, during the series’ press conference held in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday.

“As such, in the same way that languages differ across nations and cultures, the series explores how expressing love also varies from person to person.”

The new series follows an unexpected romance between Ju Ho-jin, a multilingual interpreter, played by Kim Seon-ho, and Cha Mu-hee, a globally famous actor, played by Go Youn-jung, whose approaches to love could not be more different. The director described Mu-hee as using an indirect “curved” approach, while Ho-jin is straightforward.

“The series is a cute and sweet romantic comedy about a multilingual interpreter who meets a woman whose way of expressing love is the complete opposite of his, resulting in a series of misunderstandings, which sometimes even makes the viewers frustrated,” Yoo said.

Kim’s character, Ho-jin, can speak and interpret six languages — Korean, Japanese, Italian, English, French and Chinese. Despite having experience with action thrillers, a more physically demanding genre, Kim said playing Ho-jin was more challenging than performing physical action scenes.

“While playing a multilingual interpreter, there were moments where I had to speak several languages in the same scene. I'd like to say that it was not easy,” Kim said.

“I was okay while shooting those scenes, since I had prepared thoroughly. But afterward, when I had to move on to the next scene in Korean, I couldn’t speak Korean as smoothly as usual.”

Another aspect he took great concern with was his voice, given that his character’s work mostly takes place in an interpretation booth where he speaks.

“As an interpreter, I was inside a booth most of the time, working only through a monitor, which meant I had to be especially mindful of my voice,” he said.

“So, I paid close attention to my vocal condition and always started my mornings with warm tea.”

The cast and director of Netflix's romantic comedy series ″Can This Love Be Translated?″ pose during the series' press conference held at Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 13. From left are actors Kim Seon-ho, Go Youn-jung and director Yoo Young-eun. [YONHAP]

Actors Kim Seon-ho, left, and Go Youn-jung pose during a press conference for Netflix's romantic comedy series ″Can This Love Be Translated?″ held at Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 13. [NEWS1]

And for Mu-hee, who is more energetic and active, actor Go described her role as “always on the ground.”

The director said Go’s naturally bright and energetic personality aligned well with her character, making Mu-hee more lovable. “If you watch the drama through to the end, I think the viewers will discover a side of Go Youn-jung that they haven’t seen before,” she said.

The rom-com is also written by renowned screenwriters, Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-ran — known as the Hong Sisters — who have written numerous hit series, including “Hotel del Luna” (2019) and “Alchemy of Souls” (2022-23). The project marks their return to romantic comedy after more than a decade focused largely on fantasy projects, a factor that particularly drew Yoo to the series.

“What really drew me in was the fact that this is a pure romantic comedy, something the Hong sisters haven’t done for a while, after releasing a lineup of fantasy projects,” Yoo said. “And I also found the emotional dilemmas that arose during the process of interpreting especially interesting.”

“So I did my best to fully capture the strong chemistry between the two characters as they moved across romance, comedy and melodrama.”

Rom-com series “Can This Love Be Translated?” will debut on Netflix on Friday.

Updated, Jan. 13: Changed translator to interpreter

BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]