Lee Dong-wook & Kim Hye-jun Talk Hulu’s A Shop For Killers

Lee Dong-wook & Kim Hye-jun discuss Hulu’s A Shop For Killers including their stunt work, how they connect to their characters, and more.

 

A Shop For Killers is now streaming on Hulu, and is an intense, action packed, k-drama in which there is a lot of mystery, but a lot of great character exploration as well. Lee Dong-wook and Kim Hye-jun star.

A Shop For Killers synopsis: After the sudden death of Ji-an’s uncle, she learns of a suspicious shopping mall that he left behind. Who was her uncle, and what kind of shopping mall did he run? Before Jian can even fathom what is going on, she is attacked by unidentified people who are after her uncle’s supplies.

We caught up with Lee Dong-wook (Jeong Jin-man) and Kim Hye-jun (Jung Ji-an) to discuss the new series. The two reveal how they connect with their characters, as well as the most difficult stunts they performed. They also confess their fondest memory from filming the series.

Lee Dong-wook & Kim Hye-jun Talk A Shop For Killers

Laura Sirikul: Both of you have said that you are living childhood fantasies playing these roles. What was it about portraying these characters that connected you as an actor or as a person?

Lee Dong-wook: It’s really hard to come across killers in your life, so I had to use a lot of my imagination. But I could connect with my character because if something was done to your family, everyone would go to lengths to get the person responsible punished. We wouldn’t do things that Jeong Jin-man, but we would use all kinds of legal measures to make sure that they’re punished. While Jin-man takes matters into his own hands, I thought that if I were Jin-man and I saw my niece, who was all alone because her parents are gone, her grandma’s gone. Then I would want to be her parent. I want to be her friend and become the safe haven for her. So that’s how I connected to my character.

Kim Hye-jun: My character Ji-an could come off as a little bit depressed, lonely, so she’s different from me in that aspect. But when something big comes her way, she’s the courageous type, like the bring it on type. And I think that kind of resembles myself. When she does make bold decisions, I could relate to her as well. There are characters who go to lengths to protect Ji-an in the show, and while I was working with them together on set, I felt consoled because I could feel that they were trying so hard to protect Ji-an, but it felt like they were protecting me too.

Laura Sirikul: A Shop For Killers is so action packed. The action was intense, especially for the both of you. What was the most difficult stunt or fighting that you had to do for the series?

Lee Dong-wook: I’d like to choose a scene that’s not difficult per se but interesting for me there’s a scene where I’m inside a tunnel and I’m firing machine guns all over the place. It wasn’t a difficult scene to shoot but it was interesting because all Korean men go to the army for two years. It‘s mandatory. So they do have a little bit of experience with guns but they never get to shoot and never get to fire machine guns so that was an interesting part.

Kim Hye-jun: I remember the scene with Pasin where I was learning Muay Thai from him. It was a short flashback but it actually took three days for us to shoot that scene. I come off looking very skilled in Muay Thai and in order to for you to look skilled it’s really difficult because they have different postures and kicks and punches. So together with the actor, Kim Min, who played Pasin, we would rehearse all the time, try to come up with some kind of set piece of choreography. And because this was my first time doing martial arts, I think that was the difficult part.

Laura Sirikul: Dong-wook, you’ve always played and you still play the leading man in romance and adventure, who’s usually on his own. But in this drama, you’re not only a mercenary, you’re also a mentor and a father figure who must take care of his young niece. Was this the type of role something you’re looking to transition towards as you evolve as an actor?

Lee Dong-wook: Actually, no, it wasn’t intentional. I just found the script to be very intriguing. And as you said, my relationship with Ji-an could be like uncle and niece. It could be like a father figure or a mentor, tutor, a friend also. So I didn’t really think about transitioning as an actor, but I knew that this would be a new challenge for me because first of all, the script was very intriguing and then I get to do a lot of different types of action with different arms. Just because I was uncle this time, that doesn’t mean I will be uncle forever. So maybe in my next show, in romance or fantasy, maybe I’ll be all lonely again.

Laura Sirikul: Is there a favorite memory for both of you on set? Or did you take anything from the set home with you?

Kim Hye-jun: After I shot scenes together with Dong-wook, we would leave the set and we would go eat together. I remember that one time we ate pork belly together and then we went to a game arcade to play games and that was a really fun moment. Dong-wook thinks it was more enjoyable for me because he treated me to the pork belly as well as the game arcade.

A Shop For Killers is now streaming on Hulu.

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