Seoul's subway stations become popular K-drama spots

Facilities' hidden spots add depth to memorable scenes

By Ko Dong-hwan

Directors, actors and production crews are using a wider range of locations for their television and film shoots. As the industry emerges from the pandemic, the health risks associated with filming are lessening. Now, the most popular locations for filming, according to the city government of Seoul, are the city's subway stations.

Watch recent TV drama hits like the court comedy “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” on ENA or the fantasy “Reborn Rich” on JTBC and you will notice the different settings in some of the scenes.

Statistics from last year show the changing trend, in comparison to previous years when the country was more deeply concerned about the ongoing pandemic. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Saturday that their popularity will likely keep growing as quarantine measures are becoming less stringent. The country on Jan. 30 repealed almost all remaining indoor mask-wearing rules that had been in force since the pandemic's onset in 2020.

Seoul Metro, the city government's subway operator which oversees 344 stations on nine subway lines, said it approved 216 shoots in 2022 for TV dramas and movies at subway stations. The figure is up significantly from 2021 and 2020, when such shoots took place 86 and 66 times, respectively.

“The figures show that shoots took place last year at least once every two days at one of our stations,” an official from the company said.

The trend becomes more apparent when it includes non-paid shoots by students for school projects and government offices for public campaigns. Whereas such shoots took place 58 and 66 times in 2020 and 2021, respectively, the number rose to 120 times in 2022.

The city government requires drama, movie, commercial and other productions to remunerate Seoul Metro for filming on location at a station.

Not all subway stations satisfy location scouts. There are only so many settings unique enough to satisfy directorial cues and the presence of actors.

When dystopian, eerie or dark spaces are required, the most popular stations have been a closed platform in Sinseol-dong Station on Seoul Metro lines 1 and 2 and Yeongdeungpo Market Station on Seoul Metro Line 5. Each station has an underground space that is inaccessible to the public ― extra convenient for producers who want to film away from commuters.

Both spaces are unused and incomplete, with bare concrete and pipelines exposed in the floor, walls and ceiling. They present an ideal space for getting the right mood completely detached from the brightly lit topside. The unused platform at Sinseol-dong Station, nicknamed the “ghost platform,” has been used frequently as a location for multiple hit projects like KBS' 2015 drama “Spy,” tvN's 2016 horror comedy “Let's Fight, Ghost” and the 2013 action-thriller film “Cold Eyes.”

But for shoots that require a brighter mood, Sindap Station on Seoul Metro Line 2 has emerged as a popular location. Unlike most stations, its platform is aboveground. The space in addition is coated with an extra layer of natural beauty like suffusing sunlight, trees, flowers and a promenade. K-pop boy band 2AM used the location for the video for a public campaign song for Seoul Metro. So did “Rich Man” on MBN in 2018.

Another feature a production crew looks for is a spacious shooting venue inside a station to make the job easier for the cast, crew and passersby sharing a limited space. This is what made the Sports Complex Station on lines 2 and 9 such a popular site. “Reborn Rich,” the highest-rated TV show in 2022, did an on-location shoot here. The upcoming flick “Dream” starring A-listers Park Seo-jun and singer IU also filmed here.

Kim Jung-hwan, chief of Seoul Metro's promotion bureau, said he hopes the city's metro lines and stations ― one of the world's top-quality metro systems ― will contribute to the rise in K-content globally. However, he reminded producers that the company strictly adheres to regulations regarding the issuance of advanced approval for filming so that commuters are not affected.