ＡＥＲＡ 2007/12/03 issue.
Bae Yongjoon
His challenge for’’Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi （Legend）‘’
featuring with AERA exclusive unscreened cuts
The drama ”Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi 太王四神記” , a blockbuster in the greatest scale in Korean history, is finally going to be televised in Japan.
We will report you the highlights of this drama, and the present of Bae Yongjoon, who played the lead, along with the photos and secret stories AERA exclusively obtained.
Writer: Ms. Rumi Hayashi (Book Editing Section)
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How many people and how long have they been waiting for this drama to be broadcast?
The latest drama “Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi” (24 episodes), Bae Yongjoon starring, is going to be televised on NHK High Vision from December 3, 2007. In Korea, the drama has been broadcast by 2 episodes a week from September 13, which means these screenings are almost at the same time in Korea and in Japan. The shooting is still continuing until the end of November when the last inning (December 5) in Korea approaches.
On November 16, the news that Bae Yongjoon had been wounded in the cervical vertebrae and the shoulder ligament during the shootings was broadcast, which surprised his fans a lot. Nevertheless, he continues to concentrate on the shooting of the last finish by his willpower while suppressing the pain in medication and by tapings in order to meet the last-minute schedule.
This is a drama where he stars for the first time in five years since ‘Winter Love Song” and in two years since the film “April Snow”. It is soon to be broadcast in Japan.
The characters he plays are two, Son of God, Hwan Woong（桓雄）,and Damdeok (the 19th Kwang Ge Do Wang 広開土王 as a model) who later becomes King of Koguryo. The drama, by associating the myth of foundation of Chosun country with the story of a historic hero who enlarged his power over the northeastern Asia, depicts the growth of a young king who overcomes a number of hardships while interweaving the fatal love unfolding over space and time.
The director is Kim Jonghak(56), who made the drama “Sandglass” (1995), which still is called a monumental achievement in Korean dramas. He is a charisma director who has led Korean drama world by making this drama which handled the Kwangeju case (光州事件) as well as by creating large-scale masterpieces of social contents. The script is written by Son Jina(48), who also wrote ‘Sandglass’ and has long been in combination with Director Kim.
The co-stars are great leading actors such as Moon Sori and Che Minsoo, and Jo Hisaishi in Japan is taking charge of music.
From December this year, 10 movie theaters all over Japan will show this drama, paralleled with TV broadcasting. You can see, after all, that Bae Yongjoon’s popularity is unusually special.
＊＊Production cost amounts to ten movies.
Recently history dramas have been in boom in Korea. Among them, big hit works such as ‘’Choomong(朱蒙)” which pictures the founder of Koguryo were produced. However, what makes “TWSSG” differ from those conventional works is that it was produced from the start with overseas markets in mind, and in a genre called ‘history fantasy’ with full use of CG pictures. The production side declares ‘we are going to deliver this drama to 90 countries in the world.’
The production cost is about 50 billion won (about 6.4 billion yen), a record-breaking amount in Korean drama history. Actually, it is an amount of money which can finance 10 Korean movies. They created huge shooting sets costing 3.1 billion yen and the shooting period was over 1 year and 8 months. From the start this drama was created with theater screenings in mind, aiming at audiovisual effects by using latest digital technology. It has turned out to be a special-scaled work to the extent that we cannot say whether it is a drama or a movie.
However, the shootings cannot be said to have been going well. Due to delay of the script and for pursuit of completeness, the broadcast has been postponed four times and was behind the original schedule for more than one year. At one time they could not see the prospects which made the people concerned worry a lot.
Once the broadcast started, however, their worries instantly vanished. The audience ratings in Korea exceeded 30%, which proved a peak form, far separating the counterpart program on a different channel.
“I couldn’t stop shedding tears when the broadcast of the first episode was over.”
said Mr. Kim Weejoon (41), president of SSD, a producing company of this drama. This is the first challenge of his producing a drama.
The broadcast in 14 countries in Asia was already decided, and 150,000 copies of preview DVD were sold in Japan. The prior sales were thus brisk, and with this great deal of fanfare, the domestic failure could never be possible. Because it can be a work which prides itself as a peak of Korean wave, the reputation in Korea may have a great influence upon the future of Korean waves.
“Before broadcasting, I was quite sure of splendor of the pictures, but was a bit anxious about whether the story itself is difficult to understand.”
But, in spite of such worry of President Kim, the reaction on the internet was more extraordinary than the audience ratings.
“Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi” was abbreviated to be nicknamed ‘Tae Sa Gi”, and more than 120,000 messages were posted on this drama bulletin board. The drama manias are now rapidly increasing. And in Japan as well, fans became livelier early enough, and the board of Bae Yongjoon’s official site was full of topics of ‘Tae Sa Gi’.
＊＊His soft aura and amorousness
President Kim sees the greatest charm of this drama in this way:
“It is the human nature of Damdeok, the leading character of this drama. What kind of King should be born? It was the most important factor in this work. The role of this king is quite difficult to act, and high level of expression ability was demanded for an actor. This king has strength within himself, gifted with charisma, and at the same time, he is cheerful and happy with sense of humor and love. Bae Yongjoon shows the best performance of his in this role.”
Bae Yongjoon, in the figure with his long hair streaming, has an overwhelming presence and looks beautiful and gallant. Watching his figure which naturally attracts people around him to yearn, the televiewers in Korea raised their voices, saying ‘I cannot think of the role of Damdeok without Bae Yongjoon.’
Ms. Junko Ogawa, chief producer of NHK Software Development Center who has been in charge of Korean dramas such as ‘Winter Love Song’, says in this way:
“This work has a different taste from the conventional history dramas. It holds a freshness in that mannishness and hardness never goes to the front. It is because Bae Yongjoon gives off soft aura. Actually, he has amorousness in his appearance and swordplay.”
We can see the thought of the director and the scriptwriter who have been searching for the potentiality of dramas was poured into this image of a king who is flexible and sagacious,
In fact, an intense dispute over attribution of Koguryo, the stage of this drama, has been continuing since 2000’s so as to develop in a diplomatic problem between Korea and China. Also a dispute over the epitaph of Kwan Ge Do Wang(広開土王) long continued even between Japan and Korea. Under the waves of globalization, nationalism which emphsizes its own national history has risen here and there in Asia, though Japan is not an exception.
＊＊Trying to picutre a king who is not only a conqueror
In such a situation, however, by casting Bae Yongjoon as a lead, who is widely popular in Asia, as well as by taking the fictional technique called ‘history fantasy’, this drama succeeded in becoming a work which evades one-centered narrow-mindedness.
In this drama, for example, it is not China but a fancied organization of unknown nationality that fights against Koguryo. For this setting, the voice of criticism broke out from some Korean media as ‘distortion of our racial history’. But, Director Kim fended off such criticism, saying ‘ It’s for showing another phase of Kwan Ge Do Wang who was not only a conqueror’. He also states, “Northeastern Asia should share the history.”
For another criticism that there are few battle scenes, Sohn Jina, scripwriter, argued in her own HP at the end of September, saying “If Damdeok had wars, leading the armed forces, solely because his power was strong, he would become the same with Hitler or Bush who invaded Iraq.”, further saying “ I devoted myself to trying to picture most sensitively that Damdeok is not a king who only fought conquest wars.”
According to Sohn Jina, ‘Damdeok is not a war-enthusiast. He is a person just like a present-day CEO (chief executive officer) with good originality and momentum.”
President Kim quoted the lines in the sortie scene of the 13rd episode as the most impressive ones. Damdeok appealed to his men,“ Fight against your enemy by planting fear in them, not by abusing military power.”, continuously saying, ”Do not die. I don’t want those guys who abandon your lives for fighting. Whatever you may do, live and come back to my side.”
This drama is interesting enough in that the theme with which we cannot but reflect upon our world today is floating out in continuous bass.
＊＊His tattered script
The shooting period over 1 year and 8 months was a long trying time for Bae Yongjoon. Mr. Ilhyong Sohn of IMX, who is charge of his total management in Japan, talks in this way:
“He always looks at his script until it becomes tattered. He has been in the condition of continuous concentration. It has been a long time, but it must be a crucial moment now when the last shooting is being held.”
He is a ‘perfectionist’ by his nature, which is acknowledged by himself and others. He is a type of actor who thoroughly devotes himself to character making without any compromise.
“Even when I see him from beside, it looks so hard. He himself must have had a long difficult time, and yet he has done his best for all he could do, without easy compromising. When I had a chance to read a script together with him, we discussed over one line for several hours. I imagine he must be really hard both mentally and physically, but on the shooting site he often jokes with the other actors and staff. I thought he is really tough.”
His popularity has become explosive since ‘Winter Love Song’ in Japan, while the eyes in Korea towards Bae Yongjoon have not always been warm. He is very cautious in selecting works to appear. And for his not having exposure in new works, some media wrote about him to ‘be an enterpriser rather than an actor.’
To be sure, the competitions in Korean entertainment world are quite harsh where young actors appear in sequence and a lot of good works are created. The ratings race of dramas is fiercer than in Japan. On the other hand, there is a tendency that the audience ratings of dramas as a whole have been falling recently.
In such circumstances, the magnitude of reactions for ” TWSSG” in Korea was prominent. Bae Yongjoon is revaluated as an actor in a new light, and fans are increasing among the young people who have never seen history dramas as well as among male viewers.
“He told me that young fans may have increased. I can see the reactions from teenagers are quite amazing. Seeing female students in junior high school uniform waiting for him in front of the hotel deep into the night, Yongjoon and I were worried about them a lot.”
Mr. Sohn mentions Bae Yongjoon in “TWSSG” in this way:
“Originally his action level is quite high, so I think it was good for him to have an opportunity this time to show an aspect of him different from the fixed image till now. Above all, I feel glad that he successfully expresses the changes of delicate feelings and the conflict of an honored hero. He himself may be feeling something lacking and he should have been better. But, I think Bae Yongjoon as an actor surely succeeded in his new challenge again.”
＊＊Visit to Japan next year?
What we are concerned is the condition of his injuries. He was wounded in the right hand on Oct. 24. Knowing a series of his injuries, a part of his fans who worried about him raised their voices asking for suspending the shooting, but his professional consciousness was strong.
“While rehearsing the actions together, he had the ligament of his finger cut by a genuine sword which the action partner was holding. It takes about 4 weeks to cure it, so he continues shooting with his finger in a plaster cast. As a matter fact, the neck and shoulder which were injured before also turned out necessary to have an operation as a result of inspection. Currently, he is hanging on while taking painkillers.”
He talks about the future plan which we are most concerned about in this way:
“After completing filming, he is going to undergo an operation and will be in a plaster cast for one month or so. I don’t think he can go out until the end of this year. I, let alone he himself, would like to have an opportunity to say he-llo directly to his ‘family (fans)’ in Japan who have been long waiting for, but we are going to make concrete plan after everything settled. After shooting, though it still being a planning state, probably he is going to be prepared for next work.”