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| Actor Kim Mu-yeol / Courtesy of CJ ENM |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
As an actor, Kim Mu-yeol tries to make the villain as well-rounded and as likeable as possible. However, his latest efforts failed, as his character in "On the Line" is among the most evil villains he has played so far.
In the film, Kim plays Mr. Kwak, the mastermind behind a massive criminal gang that runs a voice phishing team in China. He boasts extraordinary charisma that makes him look like a leader of a cult. He confronts Han Seo-joon (Byun Yo-han), a voice phishing victim who comes to China to take revenge against his crime ring, and tries to get rid of him.
"Normally I try to locate something that draws sympathy with and displays the humanity in each of my characters, even if he is a villain or an antagonist. But I could hardly relate to my character in 'On the Line.' He is the type of person I hate the most. So I relied on my imagination to craft the character," he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times via Zoom.
Kim said that voice phishing, an increasingly large problem in our society, is much more prevalent and complex than most of us realize.
"Scammers are different from what we imagine. Media often describe them as ethnic Chinese residents with slightly muddled accents, but I was surprised by the tone of voice and the word choice that they use in order to sound like they belong to a prosecutor's office or financial institution," he said.
"I once listened to the voice recording of a scammer who impersonated a prosecutor. Even though I knew it was fake, it felt so real."
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| A scene from the film, "On the Line" / Courtesy of CJ ENM |
To express how supercilious his character is, Kim and directors created a compelling backstory. "According to directors Kim Sun and Kim Gok, Mr. Kwak used to be a successful fund manager, but he committed fraud and got fired. After being released from prison, he looked for an easy way to make a large sum of money and got involved in voice phishing," he said.
In terms of his fashion, Mr, Kwak wears semi-formal clothes and slippers at the call center. "He pretends to be a 'normal' person, but his job is to deceive victims. The call center is literally his kingdom, so I imagined that Mr. Kwak would wear mismatched clothing ― a suit jacket on top and short pants on the bottom, for example. I tried to express this imbalance and self-centeredness," he explained.
Kim said he was surprised by how much respect Byun had for other actors. "Everybody knows that he's a good actor. That's already been verified. But I was moved by his genuine compliments. Even when he was not shooting, he monitored other actors' performances and discussed them with us. When talking to him, I could really feel how much he pays attention to the details," he said.
The 39-year-old actor asserted that the film would raise awareness about the dangers of voice phishing and help prevent further cases. "I heard that the estimated amount of damage from voice phishing was around 800 billion won ($680 million) last year. This excludes those who are too embarrassed to admit the fact that they had been deceived. I'd like them to know that it's not their fault," he said.
"On the Line," which premiered on Wednesday, debuted at No.1 in box offices, with over 100,000 moviegoers.
