Jo Bo-ah, Rowoon to star in fantasy romance, 'Destined With You'

Actors Rowoon, left, and Jo Bo-ah pose during a press conference for the JTBC's fantasy series “Destined With You,” held in Guro District, Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of JTBC

By Lee Gyu-lee

Actors Jo Bo-ah and Rowoon are starring in JTBC's new fantasy series, “Destined With You,” a light-hearted romantic comedy.

The rom-com series, which kicked off Wednesday with a 2.9 percent viewership rating, revolves around a civil servant, Lee Hong-jo (Jo), and a lawyer, Jang Shin-yoo (Rowoon).

Jang is a star lawyer, who has been suffering from a curse that has been passed down from his family for generations. Due to the curse, he has been sick for an unknown reason, until he meets Lee who holds the key to his freedom.

Lee is a low-ranking official at the Department of Greenery who manages to stay optimistic despite the challenges of handling citizens' complaints. One day, she unexpectedly becomes the owner of an ancient book, Mokham, which has been cursed and sealed for 300 years and gets herself entangled with Jang.

Director Nam Ki-hoon, whose previous work includes the Disney+ romance series, "Kiss Sixth Sense" and tvN thriller series "Voice 3," joined hands with the scriptwriter, No Ji-seol, who penned the tvN period romance series, "100 Days My Prince."

“I got the script towards the end of last year and it was interesting that I read straight through to the end from the first page. I felt destined to take the series,” the director said during a press conference for the series, held in Guro District, Seoul, Wednesday.

“This is a fantasy series, but I tried to depict the story realistically as if it can happen in real life. I felt it could be the power our series holds. The characters tend to be vivid so I thought it would be more impactful to portray them dramatically than comically.”

A scene from the series “Destined With You” / Courtesy of JTBC

Jo shared that she tried to bring her real personality to create an optimistic, lovely character.

“The character of Lee was really lovely and charming. I felt I could give off positive energy with the character. Instead of creating something new, I felt it would be fun to build the character based on my own personality. So I decided to take the role,” she said.

Rowoon plays a lawyer who seems to have everything, with stunning looks and intelligence, but has a tragic secret of being cursed. The actor expressed he has been wanting to take on such a complex character.

“Until now, I've done (gentle) roles that had puppy images. But I've really wanted to take characters that express loneliness. I was curious how I would look in such emotions and then I met this series,” he said, adding that he lost weight for the character.

“Because he had a genetic illness that runs in the family, I lost about eight kilograms. And it helped me look nicer.”

The actors shared their chemistry, saying they got along with each other from the start.

“I remember the first scene with Rowoon. We were rehearsing our lines and it hit it off well. We got off to a good start from the first filming,” Jo said.

Rowoon added: “I enjoyed (working) even from the table reading. I had a strong thought that 'It feels really good.' I felt like a lucky person and was happy to be part of this good project with nice people.”

“Destined With You” airs Wednesday and Thursday at 10:30 p.m.