As promised, big interview with writers is served.
Here, enjoy^^
Interview with The
Princess’ Man writers – Jo Jeongju and Kim Wuk.
“If Seung-yu didn’t lose his eyesight, he
wouldn’t stop with the revenge. How can you live with your eyes open enduring
all that? It was necessary tool to severe the ties with the past. Then again, I
thought it is unbearable pain to not be able to see the loved ones that
remained by your side.”
We met with Jo Jeongju (39) and Kim Wuk (37) at some café in Yeouido. “We’re new, so we
have nothing to say”, although at first they showed a bit of reserve, it
was soon known they possess great writing skills that can create a
whole new approach to sageuk.
Jo in 2006 was the
writer for one episode in Drama City Series - 인간 말종 개상구
(me:
aired on 2007.04.07), and debuted with series Partner
in 2009 with Kim Hyeonju and Lee Dongwuk. Kim in 2008 also was involved with KBS Drama
City series, but soon
went into movies, writing the scenario for ie. Oh My God, so The Princess’
Man is actually a drama debut.
They actually met as KBS fellows and collaborated on
The Princess’ Man for a year,
creating so called “Lavish Sageuk Faction”.
“The ending is
sill reverberating in our heads. As it was a tragic theme, there is a lot of
lingering memories still.” They both refused to have pictures taken as they
gave their answers.
► It looks as if there was lot of distress over the ending. Whether to
kill the main characters or not. When did you decide on the ending?
Jo: Personally
it wasn’t of any importance whether it would be happy ending or sad ending. In
any case, no matter if one person survived or two of them, it was unrealistic
for the complete happiness, and that gave us a lot of possibilities. Shortly
after we realized that, we decided that only robbing Seung-yu of his eyesight
will stop his revenge. We thought we would be stoned by the audience but
surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. (laughs).
Kim:
As for me I wanted tragic ending. Writer
Jo was unmovable though. I though that unless he dies, he will never stop
seeking revenge, but this was a good compromise. It may seem as a happy ending but
I like the sad tightrope walking.
► Looks like mixing fiction with reality was fun.
Jo: It was fun
to combine them and to embroider them. Our job was to find crevices in history.
And when we immersed ourselves in this history, we felt as if Gyeyujeongnan was happening around and to us as well. We were presented what actually
happened so we couldn’t create anything new. However, there were empty spaces
here and there so we chiseled and filled them up, which was fabulous job.
Kim: It’s hard to
continue with the story that isn’t true in sageuk. This way, The Princess’ Man
has more solid roots than, let’s say Chuno. For everyone a different approach
to a well known historical fact is some kind of pleasure. This background has
quickly a huge role. Some other dramas are content with establishing one place
for shooting, but in our case, we had a lot of historical facts going on and
drama required the location to be changed often, every few episodes. At such
times I really felt that writing this scenario was painful.
► Where the reality ends?
Kim: The
conversations between young people are fictitious. We don’t even have the
evidence Seryeong actually existed. In records one daughter of Suyang suddenly
turns into two. But Seung-yu also almost doesn’t appear. As for Shin Myeon we
know he was dispatched to fight Lee Shi Ae rebellion (me: in 1467), and he died after that, in times of the Coup
d’état he was a young man. Between Lee Shi Ae’ rebellion and Coup d’état is 10
years of a gap, but we ignored that. Jeong Jong was around the same age as
Danjong, in reality. But the fact remains they were real and their relationship
as well. But as we wanted to keep the real historical facts intact, we had to
adjust the time issues accordingly.
► It is impossible to avoid criticism for distorting the history.
Jo: I think it’s worth it if,
instead of distortion, we may call for the more interest into the history
itself. When I saw that the events shown in the drama were first on the “search
list” on some portals, I felt happy. I wish that people who know nothing about Gyeyujeongnan may find this drama interesting, I wish we could revive back one or two
chapters of the history long time dead.
Kim: It’s clear
that we dared to slightly distort the history but not on a great scale. We
stressed out the older characters of the period like Suyang or Kim Jongseo, but
on top of their history we gave them emotions. I don’t think it deserves the
criticism. We haven’t rewritten the history, but we have painted the tragic
love in the middle of history.
► During the production, what was the hardest and what was the fluffiest
part?
Jo: The most
frustrating part was the approach to Seung-yu’s failed revenge in the latter
half of the drama. We couldn’t turn him into some hero. Despite the failing, he
was still bound on revenge and that was the most difficult. We had Romeo and Juliet as some
hint, but in fact we worried a lot about the feelings of Seung-yu and Seryeong.
Personally, I liked “sayukshin” (사육신) part the best. This is a very well-known
story, they died wanting to protect their values and standards, and I wanted to
portray that in a way so I could feel it was worthwhile.
Kim: Jonghak is the result of
imagination. In fact girls weren’t educated at Jonghak, but we had to somehow
tie Seung-yu with Seryeong. As it was essential to the love story later on, it
seemed as the good idea. As for “sayukshin”, we brought along Yi Gae who was
from Jonghak into the group created by Seong Sammun and Park Paengnyeon and made
him the centre. Yi Gae was in fact Danjong’s teacher.
► What you, as writers, achieved through this drama? Was the cooperation
difficult?
Kim: The most important is the
fact we handled the tragedy. We feared how the audience accepts the failed
history, but it looks like the ratings didn’t drop even though this amount of
tragedy. Plus, as the “faction”, I could broaden my category of imagination
power. We bickered often over the proportion between politics and romance but
in the end it looks like writer Jo’s opinion was right. I hoped that the
viewers of our drama pondered on how the love between Seung-yu and Seryeong
would develop. I lost (to writer Jo). It was something impossible to achieve
all alone, so I’m grateful I could learn under the amiable shade. (laughs)
Jo: Oi, we did
have in fact some clashes about how to handle things in politics and we shared
contrasting opinion but it’s not as if we were constantly fighting. As we
didn’t have much time, one person couldn’t write the scenario at all. There is
a viewpoint against sad melodrama on TV, but I feel that what happened in
episode 14, when Seung-yu brutally kidnapped Seryeong, won people’s heart for
those two tragic love story.
If it wasn’t for director
and writer Kim, this story wouldn’t be possible. It was hard but meaningful
work for me.
Copyright (translation): ©Ethlenn
Notes:
“Lavish Sageuk Faction” - 명품 팩션 사극 (myeongpum faktion sageuk)
Sayukshin (Six Martyred Ministers): read here
