INTERVIEW 'Love in the Big City' writer aimed to portray ordinary queer romance
Series "Love in the Big City" released on Tving on Monday. Courtesy of Merry Christmas
The adaptations of Park Sang-young's best-selling novel, "Love in the Big City," which has sold over 100,000 copies, are making strides in expanding LGBTQ+ representation in Korea's traditionally conservative media scene. Following the release of a film adaptation earlier this month, the novel has now been transformed into a television series on Tving, contributing to the growing visibility of LGBTQ+ narratives.
Park, the novel's original author and the scriptwriter for the series, said he aimed to "take a crack at opening the heavy doors of perception" within Korea's queer genre.
Author and scriptwriter Park Sang-young of "Love in the Big City" / Courtesy of Merry Christmas
“I didn't dare to think about making huge changes in people's perceptions (with the series). It was more like just opening a door and stepping out. If there was a heavily closed door, I just hoped that this work, with the love story that was previously much untold, would receive a lot of love and empathy,” Park said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Jongno District, Seoul, Wednesday.
The eight-part series, which was released on Tving, Monday, follows a young gay man, Go Yeong (Nam Yoon-su), navigating through personal and romantic relationships in Seoul. As he goes through meeting different partners and breakups, he explores the meaning of love.
Park explained that unlike typical Boys Love (BL) genre works or darker queer narratives, "Love in the Big City" portrays everyday romance in a way similar to that of heterosexual relationships.
“There were already many BL genre works and a few dark-toned queer films. But, I don't think there had been a drama series with this kind of everyday tone that candidly captured real life,” he said.
“Because of this, while there might be surprises, I think there are elements that viewers will find fresh and interesting. I believe our series is helping to establish new ground,” Park added.
The film version of "Love in the Big City" highlights one short story from the novel, exploring the diverse expressions of love among today's youth, directed by E.oni.
The series adaptation stays largely faithful to the four short stories from the novel, with only minor changes such as a few character names and Go’s nickname. The TV version maintains a lighter tone in portraying Go’s love stories, placing greater emphasis on romance than the book, and highlighting cute moments and sensual scenes between Go and his partners.
A scene from the series "Love in the Big City" / Courtesy of Merry Christmas
“It is about both queer themes and romance, so I created many scenes to effectively depict each couple's romantic exchanges. I worked hard to maintain the tension that arises from their dialogues,” he said.
“Like in episodes 3-4, we tried to include scenes that spark romantic imagination from characters flirting. I really wanted to show aspects of people in love like that.”
The writer shared that witnessing a dramatized version of his work reminded him of the time he spent writing the book, during which he sought to define the meaning of love.
“Love was such an important subject of exploration for me in my 20s. 'Love in the Big City' was like a research report. It was about defining the emotion of love, its different forms and how those different forms relate to each other … and this series was also written with the same questions,” he said.
“As I watched this work being adapted into the series, it strongly reminded me of my life. I'm not Nam and I was never that beautiful. But strangely enough, it feels like my own story. I know that I made it all up, but it feels like something I actually experienced, which is the magic of visual imagery.”