Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Jung Jae-young returns to small screen with 'On the Verge of Insanity'
Actors Jung Jae-young, from left, Moon So-ri, Kim Ga-eun and Lee Sang-yeob pose for pictures during a press conference for the series, Wednesday. Courtesy of MBC
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actor Jung Jae-young has returned to the small screen after two years for MBC's comedy-drama “On the Verge of Insanity,” which kicked off with the network's highest miniseries premiere rating so far this year, Wednesday.
Its first episode scored a 3.9 percent viewership rating, topping the ratings among shows aired in the same time slot ― “Monthly Magazine Home” and “My Roommate is a Gumiho.”
Directed by Choi Jung-in and written by Jung Do-yoon, known for writing the legal series “Witch at Court,” the series follows the roller-coaster ride of office life of middle-aged employees struggling to survive the company's downsizing.
Jung plays veteran engineer Choi Ban-seok at an electronics company, who has a record of making several hit products in his career. But he finds himself on the verge of getting fired when the company plans downsize to save its troubled business.
Jung expressed that he chose this series because he empathized with the character and saw resemblances in his own life.
“(The story) seemed so realistic. Even though I've never worked at an office, I could grasp their joys and sorrows. Its portrayal of the office worker strikes a chord with people of my age,” he said last week during a press conference for the series.
“The character, who struggles to stay afloat after getting pushed out of the mainstream, felt like me. I, too, think about how I can stay in the business as an actor. Even though Choi Ban-seok is not an incompetent worker, he falls behind under the changing circumstances as time passes.”
A poster for the series “On the Verge of Insanity” / Courtesy of MBC
The first episode showed the company going under a major reorganization, leading Ban-seok to transfer to a different branch. He is put in a product development team managed by the opportunist Han Se-kwon (Lee Sang-yeob) who is much younger than him.
An incident, under Se-kwon's devious plan, gets Ban-seok transferred to a completely different position in the HR department, where he meets the workaholic, ambitious HR head Dang Ja-young (Moon So-ri).
Director Choi explained this series will be different from previous shows that revolved around office life.
“Previous office-related series followed stories about newcomers settling into the job that they started recently, but our series is about employees who have had the job for a long time and are trying to hold onto it,” she said.
Adding that the story will not be all about depressing stories of those on the verge of losing their jobs, the director added: “The key point of this drama is that it also has subplots ― different episodes ― that a lot of viewers can sympathize with.”
Actress Moon, who plays Ja-young, a woman with a big goal to become the first female executive of the company, said she interviewed actual people working in HR to prepare for her character.
“HR hires employees, trains and educates them, handles resignations and even lays people off. Their job revolves around getting themselves involved in other employees' lives. So I learned how tough their life is and came to appreciate that I became an actor,” she said, adding that she developed sympathy for the character.
Noting that she hopes to share this story with the viewers, she said: “The series might not be a big dramatic blockbuster, but it will give you a good tear-jerking story with a good laugh.”