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.
Lee Dong-wook shares excitement, pressure of new season of fantasy, 'Tale of the Nine Tailed'
Actors Lee Dong-wook, left, and Kim So-yeon pose during the online press conference of tvN's new series, “Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938,” Wednesday. Courtesy of tvN
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actor Lee Dong-wook expressed that he had mixed feelings about returning for the second season of tvN's fantasy series “Tale of the Nine-Tailed.”
The series, which came out in 2020, revolves around a gumiho ― a nine-tailed creature from Korean folklore ― named Lee Yeon (Lee), who comes to the human world in search of his long-lost love, Nam Ji-a (Cho Bo-ah) while hunting demons.
The new season, “Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938,” set to start on Saturday, will follow Yeon's journey through the 1930s after he gets unexpectedly summoned to the period. He encounters a mysterious guardian spirit Ryu Hong-joo (Kim So-yeon) who disguises herself as a restaurant owner and his younger brother, Lee Rang (Kim Beom), as well as his dark self during the time.
“I felt very grateful to be on 'Tale of the Nine Tailed' and play Lee Yeon again. (But) it was also overwhelming. I felt pressure to make this more interesting and compelling than the previous season,” the actor said during the press conference of the series, Wednesday.
“That was the part I discussed a lot with the director. There was a huge underlying condition that it cannot be any less interesting than Season 1.”
A scene from the series, “Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938" / Courtesy of tvN
The second season is led by the previous season's director Kang Shin-hyo and is also scripted by the original writer Han Woo-ri.
The director shared that the new season will focus on Yeon's relationship with his friends and family.
“Lee Yeon lands in 1938 against his will and fights to return to the present time. But in the process, he pays back the debt he owed to his friend and brother,” Kang said. “Season 1 was about Lee Yeon's romance and personal feelings. In Season 2, we wanted to show how Lee Yeon make amends with those he had to let go of or neglected in pursuit of his feelings of love.”
He added that there will be more variety of action sequences. “We tried different action sequences that we couldn't do before because of limitations and wanted to portray (Lee Yeon's) journey to untangle the complicated (circumstances) through showing various demons,” he said.
Kim plays the guardian spirit who runs a high-end restaurant during the time. She shared that she fell for her colorful character.
“She's sweet but also intimidating, and sassy but also cute. The character has so much attractiveness. She has it all … I've always wanted to take part in fantasy genre work, so badly. I wanted a story with spirits and a character that wouldn't exist in the real world. So when I was offered the role I was extremely happy,” the actress described her character.
“She has an enormous strength so she is the strongest one out of four guardian spirits. So she doesn't befriend anyone who's weaker … For action sequences, I went to acting school to work out and because my character uses a gigantic sword, I had to learn sword fighting.”
"Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938" will air Saturdays and Sundays at 9:20 p.m.