Cha Eun-woo returns to rom-com with 'A Good Day to be a Dog'

From left, actors Cha Eun-woo, Park Gyu-young and Lee Hyun-woo pose during the press conference for MBC’s new series “A Good Day to be a Dog,” Wednesday, at the broadcaster’s headquarters. Courtesy of MBC

Singer-actor Cha Eun-woo has taken on his first romantic comedy series in three years with MBC’s new series “A Good Day to be a Dog," offering a unique blend of romantic comedy and fantasy with a fresh take on familiar tropes.

“It’s been about 3 years since I’ve done a romantic comedy. And when I was offered the role I had a lot of concerns, so I discussed with the director upfront about this,” the actor said, mentioning the 2020 romance drama “True Beauty,” during a press conference, Wednesday, at the broadcaster’s headquarters.

“I felt I could show a more upgraded version than I did in ‘True Beauty’ … When we discussed how I could express things differently, I thought it could be an interesting job. Even though the genre is the same, I felt that I could portray (the character) in a more enjoyable way.”

The fantasy series, based on a popular webcomic of the same name, revolves around high school literature teacher Han Hae-na (Park Gyu-young) who suffers an unusual curse that turns her into a dog after she kisses a man.

When she accidentally kisses her fellow teacher, Jin Seo-won (Cha Eun-woo), she must find a way to kiss him as a dog to break the curse.

The first two episodes, released Wednesday, showed Han mistaking Jin for her crush at school, another fellow teacher, Lee Bo-gyeom (Lee Hyun-woo), and confessing her love after getting drunk. She kisses Jin by accident, which turns her into a dog from midnight to dawn. With only 100 days to reverse the curse, Han perfectly plans to get him drunk again to kiss him until she realizes Jin is terrified of dogs.

Director Kim Dae-woong, who previously led the 2018 comedy film “Love+Sling,” shared his satisfaction with the cast members for their resemblance with the characters from the original webcomic.

“(The author) was very satisfied with the casting. I was glad that she said the actors fit better to the characters than the original work. And in fact, that was the focus when I cast actors for the role,” he said. “I did wonder how well they would sync with the original work but they much exceeded my expectation in expressing loveliness (the series has,) so I’m really satisfied.”

Scenes from the first episode of the series “A Good Day to be a Dog" / Courtesy of MBC

Despite the fantastical elements, the series aims for a more realistic and subtle portrayal, avoiding exaggerated special effects in scenes such as Han turning into a dog. The director said his focus was to make the series visually realistic to heighten its comedic impact.

“My goal was to avoid depicting the story in an exaggerated, dramatic way. I felt it would be more comical to unravel this fantasy situation subtly, so I focused on that,” he explained.

Both Park and Cha found similarities between themselves and their characters, sharing they don't have a strong affinity for dogs in real life.

“Hae-na is actually much more bright, and bold and has better physical strength and personality. I’ve learned a lot from her as I played her. During the shooting, I was able to stay with her positive energy. The only difference is that I’m not that close with dogs,” Park said, adding she tried to fit the original character’s appearance when creating her character.

“I didn’t want to disappoint the original work’s fans so I made efforts to have Hae-na’s appearance, like dying my hair and wearing bright colored clothes.”

Cha added he sees himself as about 70 percent in sync with his character.

“I saw a lot of resemblance with Seo-won. I’m shy with someone I first meet or who I feel awkward with, so I may give off the impression that I’m aloof. I think we are similar in that sense. But the difference is that I’m not scared of dogs,” the actor said.