Park Jin-young reflects on ‘Our Unwritten Seoul’: ‘Some moments felt like magic’
Actor Park Jin-young / Courtesy of BH Entertainment
Park Jin-young’s portrayal of Lee Ho-su in “Our Unwritten Seoul” is quiet yet deeply resonant, as he inhabited a character shaped as much by silence as by speech.
Reflecting on the drama after its finale, Park spoke with calm sincerity, his gaze as steady and reflective as the lake that inspired his character’s name.
“There’s a scene where I talk with my mom at our family home,” he recalled. “She kept looking at me and speaking slowly, clearly. I don’t know why, but I felt an overwhelming sadness. It was like a magical moment.”
Now in his thirties, Park appears more grounded than in his earlier years. He shared that he rarely checked the monitor while filming.
“From the start, I trusted the director’s vision,” he said. “He told me, ‘The less Ho-su reacts, the sadder he becomes.’ And I understood exactly what he meant.”
That trust gave him freedom. “I’m not someone who checks the monitor much anyway, and with the director always right beside the camera, there was never really a moment to step away. We’d talk right there on set.”
Even in emotionally charged romantic scenes, he followed the director’s guidance closely. “There’s a kiss scene where I speak while moving in closer,” he said. “The director told me, ‘Say the line as you go,’ and I was really impressed by how delicately he directed even the smallest details.”
Becoming a new kind of role
Ho-su is markedly different from Park’s previous characters. “I saw those memes comparing Ho-su to Yoo Babi from ‘Yumi’s Cells,’” he said, laughing. “Honestly, neither of them are much like me. Babi knows women too well, and Ho-su not at all. I’m someone who expresses how I feel directly. I’m definitely not as isolated as Ho-su — he’s almost a lifelong loner.”
Park also expressed deep admiration for co-star Park Bo-young, who played multiple versions of her character — Mi-ji, Mi-rae and their twin dynamic. “She would switch from long-haired Mi-ji to short-haired Mi-rae in 30 minutes and become an entirely different person,” he said. “It was incredible.”
He noted that Bo-young carried nearly 80 percent of the script. “She’d stay up all night and still show up with everything memorized,” he said. “I was thinking about how to react differently to each of her roles, but it came naturally thanks to her. She gave off such distinct energy with every version.”
He also spoke warmly of actress Kim Sun-young, who played Ho-su’s mother. “There’s a scene where I tell her, ‘Don’t worry about me. Just take care of yourself,’” he said. “She just kept looking at me, saying every word so deliberately. Watching her, I suddenly felt so sad. It really was a magical moment.”
Actor Park Jin-young / BH Entertainment
‘Someday, someone will read you’
When asked which line from the show brought him the most comfort, Park picked: “Everyone has something they want to hide.”
“In a time when everything is laid bare, I think everyone carries at least one thing they want to keep hidden,” he said. “That line felt really comforting.”
He also pointed to Rosa (Won Mi-kyung)’s line to Sawol — “Someday, someone will read you” — as deeply moving. “The scariest thing when you’re feeling low is thinking you’re alone,” he said. “But just hearing someone say that... it keeps you grounded. In the end, it’s people, words and emotions that help us endure.”
One scene that left a deep impression on him was when an elderly woman at the nursing home recognizes Mi-rae and calls her name. “I don’t know why, but it made me cry so much,” he said. “Mi-rae had carried everything alone, without telling anyone. Thinking about that broke my heart.”
Although he didn’t cry during the final scene when Mi-ji walks out the front door — “I was too tense,” Park admitted — he was emotionally immersed in the story.
“I like watching shows by myself,” he said. “I talk to the screen a lot. Like, ‘What’s that? Why’s he doing that?’ But I cried a lot watching this one.”
“Our Unwritten Seoul” may have concluded, but Ho-su — and Park Jin-young’s quietly powerful performance — left a lasting imprint. Like someone waiting to be truly seen, his presence lingers, tender and unforgettable.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.