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| Taiwanese actor and musician Jasper Liu / Courtesy of Netflix |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Jasper Liu, a Taiwanese actor and musician, has taken an unprecedented move to co-star in the unscripted travel reality show "Twogether" alongside Korean singer-actor Lee Seung-gi.
His new venture has proven successful, with "Twogether" landing on Netflix's daily top 10 list in major Asian countries and territories, including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
In the eight-episode series, the two stars travel to six Asian cities ― Yogyakarta and Bali in Indonesia, Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand and Pokhara and Kathmandu in Nepal ― to meet their local fans.
To find each fan's home, Liu and Lee have to beat the clock to complete tasks and collect clues.
Liu said he chose to join the project because he liked the concept of traveling around Asia and meeting local fans.
"When I heard that Seung-gi was cast in Twogether and the Running Man team is producing it, I wanted to join them regardless of cultural and language barriers," he said during an online interview with The Korea Times.
Liu recalled that real-life meetings with his local fans were more moving than he had imagined.
"At first I wondered if we would even have fans in the countries we visited, but I was extremely touched after meeting them," he said.
"Before filming the show, I simply thought the show would be about two similarly sloppy men becoming friends. However, it showed the process of how the two of us complement each other and go through difficult missions together."
He mentioned that the most challenging moment when carrying out missions was the time he had to dive from a cliff.
"Cliff diving was the scariest mission. Overall, the lack of sleep was the hardest part of the show," he said. "I had to borrow shampoo and rinse from a producer because I didn't bring them with me, thinking that we'd be staying at a hotel after filming. I was in awe when I heard that we would be staying in the accommodations that we booked earlier and cameras would be rolling 24 hours (a day)."
He praised Lee's strengths as a reality show veteran. "Lee is brave and he knows how to set the mood and make people feel relaxed in his presence. He is smart, good at acting and singing and has (a) good memory."
Liu agreed that he and Lee have similar looks and personalities, but added they have different sides as well.
"We have similar smiles and even my friends tell me I look a lot like Lee," he said. "Seung-gi and I got along really well because we are both enthusiastic and optimistic. Of course, there were times when we had different opinions while carrying out the missions, but that didn't become a problem."
On how "Twogether" differs from other variety shows that he has appeared on, Liu said, "Before Twogether, I've only appeared as a one-time guest on reality shows. I've never been heavily involved in the entire process. Working with the Korean production team was fun and enjoyable because they were very professional."
The Taiwanese star expressed his wish to participate in various projects in Korea if possible.
"I was really looking forward to visiting Korea to promote Twogether, but it got canceled due to COVID-19," he said. "I hope to take part in the second season of the program. Until then, I'll be studying Korean hard."
All episodes of "Twogether" are available on Netflix.
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