Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| From left, actors Na In-woo, Kim Ji?eun, and Kwon Yul pose during the press conference for ENA's new series "Longing for You," held in southwestern Seoul's Guro District, Wednesday. Courtesy of ENA |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actor Na In-woo has taken on the mystery thriller genre for the first time with ENA's new series "Longing for You."
The new series, which kicked off on Wednesday, revolves around a high-spirited detective, Oh Jin-sung (Na), living in the countryside. His peaceful life takes a turn when his brother becomes the suspect in a serial murder case.
He gets recruited for the taskforce dedicated to the case, leading him to work with two prosecutors ― his childhood friend, Go Young-joo (Kim Ji?eun), and her colleague Cha Young-woon (Kwon Yul). But as he investigates the case to clear his brother's name, he faces a dark secret.
The 14-episode series is directed by Han Chul-soo, whose previous work includes the 2022 crime action series "Again My Life" and the 2019 mystery series "Graceful Family." He teamed up with "Graceful Family" scriptwriter Kwon Min-soo again for the series.
"My character acts on intuition and is relentless. I felt he is such a cool character," Na said during the press conference for the series held in southwestern Seoul's Guro District, Wednesday.
"This is the first time I've done a genre piece, and I had to portray a macho and wild character. So it was difficult but I had a lot of help from the director."
The actor shared he had difficulty playing the lead in the unfamiliar genre.
"I was surprised that (the flow) had a much faster tempo than I usually have worked with. I'm more laid back so it was hard to catch up at first. But as I got used to it, I was able to learn and understand a lot. So I could soak into it," he said.
"(Oh) is a wild detective but he needs to be lighthearted too. He needs to be spirited at times and dark at other times. So I had struggled to portray different colors in the character."
 |
| A scene from the series "Longing for You" / Courtesy of ENA |
To prepare for his role as a detective, he said he studied documentaries. "I watched documentaries about detectives to study. Even with trivial actions, I tried to capture his feisty and fearless characteristics," he said.
The director noted the series takes a more lighthearted approach to the thriller genre.
"As human beings, we make choices and are left with time to wait for the results. And 'Longing for You' is about what happens during that time of waiting and tracing the truth of that case," director Han said.
"We take a lighter approach to the case instead of being dark. I feel we've lowered the bar for viewers to receive such genre series. I expect it to be easy to watch."
Han shared his satisfaction with the actors, saying their chemistry will be one of the key elements of the series.
"The biggest strength of our actors is that they have very high understanding. So the filming was smooth from the beginning to the end. I feel that the actors' synergy will be the driving force that draws viewers until the last episode," he said.
"When I first met Na, I saw a big resemblance between him and Oh Jin-sung. So I didn't hesitate to cast him. He also has a very good attitude towards filming and fellow actors. He always brightens up the set."
"Longing for You" airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m.
