Park Seo-joon, Han So-hee drawn to period monster genre of ‘Gyeongseong Creature’

From left: The cast of Netflix's “Gyeongseong Creature,” including Park Seo-joon, Kim Hae-sook, Han So-hee, Claudia Kim and Cho Han-cheol, pose for a photo during a press conference held in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Tuesday. (Yonhap)

South Korean acting all-stars Park Seo-joon and Han So-hee were drawn in by the unique background and genre of “Gyeongseong Creature" in joining Netflix's upcoming creature feature series, the duo said Tuesday.

Directed by Jung Dong-yoon of the hit baseball drama “Stove League” (2019) and written by Kang Eun-kyung of the “Dr. Romantic” series, “Gyeongseong Creature” revolves around a young man and woman in Gyeongseong, today's Seoul, in the spring of 1945 who discover the secret of Ongseong Hospital.

“I had an expectation coming from the title itself. It is a combination of a period drama and a creature genre, but at the same time, it doesn't miss out on the intimate story of a young man and a woman. It’s a complex genre project,” Park told reporters during a press conference held in Yongsan, Seoul, Tuesday.

Park said he also wanted to challenge himself to show a different style of acting through Tae-sang, his character.

Tae-sang is the head of marketplace Golden Jade House, and is the wealthiest and the most well-connected person in Gyeongseong. He is someone who puts money before justice. That is until he meets Chae-ok (Han So-hee) and everything changes.

“Besides focusing on showing good acting, I also put a special focus on the overall look because that decides the series’ first impression,” Park said.

Han So-hee, who starred in the 2021 Netflix hit “My Name,” said she was attracted to the period drama setting of Gyeongseong in 1945.

“I thought about what this creature genre series can give me (in terms of my acting career) and I was attracted to this genre,” Han told reporters.

Her character, Chae-ok, is a famous bounty hunter who tracks down missing people, one of whom is her mother. She coincidentally encounters Tae-sang in Gyeongseong.

Han said Chae-ok’s calmness and agile survival skills gained from her childhood spent roaming across Manchuria and Shanghai with her father in search of her mother have little in common with her.

“I’m not a relaxed person. So I worried (about acting the role of Chae-ok) but I tried to remind myself that Chae-ok has a clear purpose in her life and is less influenced by her surroundings, whereas Tae-sang is a character who is swayed by the surroundings as well as the background -- he is a well-off man,” said Han.

Others in the cast include Claudia Kim who plays Maeda, the wife of a powerful official in Gyeongseong during the Japanese colonial period. “Squid Game” star Wi Ha-jun plays Jun-taek, Tae-sang's best friend.

The first seven episodes, which fall under part 1, will be unveiled on Dec. 22 on Netflix. The last three episodes, which fall under part 2, will be released on Jan. 5.

By Kim Da-sol(ddd@heraldcorp.com)