'Gyeongseong Creature' Director Reveals Show Secrets

A struggle for survival in the "most turbulent of times" forms the backdrop of Gyeongseong Creature, the engrossing new K-drama series released Friday on Netflix.

Set in the spring of 1945 in Gyeongseong, the name of the present-day South Korean capital of Seoul during Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula, the show has Tae-sang (played by Park Seo-joon from The Marvels film)—a wealthy Korean pawnshop owner in the Bonjeong district—go on a search for the mistress of a powerful Japanese official. He threatens to strip Tae-sang of his wealth if he fails to find the missing mistress.

Tae-sang later crosses paths with Chae-ok (played by Han So-hee from Nevertheless and My Name on Netflix) and her father, who are also in search of a missing person, Chae-ok's mother.

They join forces to help each other on their individual quests and soon discover a dark secret in the lower level of the Ongseong Hospital, where prisoners have been held as test subjects in a medical experiment. The prisoners are injected with a serum containing a parasite-like specimen in an effort to turn them into creatures.

These creatures were more an afterthought rather than the main subject of the new series, Gyeongseong Creature director Chung Dong-yoon said in February when Newsweek got a behind-the-scenes look at the set in South Korea.

"We were having conversations about what kind of story we wanted to tell, so we thought of the Gyeongseong period. But we also wanted to add something that would make it more universally resonant rather than it being just pertaining to our own [Korean] history.

"So we decided to bring in the concept of creatures and put it together with the period of Gyeongseong to tell our story," the director said during a Q&A panel on the set of the Moonlight Bar, one of the key locations in the show.

'The Most Turbulent of Times'

The drama unfolds in a period when tensions were running high, just months before Japan was defeated in World War II, marking the end of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula. The narrator in the first episode says that "the shadow of defeat loomed over Japan" and "in the hopes that Japan may fall, Joseon [Korea's last dynasty] was quivering in silence."

Chung chose to set the show in this period "because it was the most turbulent of times." The story follows two young characters, Tae-sang and Chae-ok, "who longed to survive within such a turbulent time," and "what they go through, what they experience and how they survive all of the turbulence."

The director said that even if he did not live in these times, "the human experience and the human story is not very different from one another. I feel that the emotions that I go through living in 2023 may not be that different from what the people who lived in those times had to go through."

Between People, Places and Choices

Many people during this era were caught "between" various people, places and choices, the director said at a press conference in Seoul this month. For example, Korean men were forced to enlist in the Japanese army or face a "torture chamber" by refusing to do so, as the series shows. This dilemma is a central theme in the show.

The director said that "between is such a fitting word for our chosen setting of the spring of 1945. There were many gray areas and two sides to everything, requiring everyone to question which direction they should be headed. All historical periods have two sides to them. Even during the toughest times, people find happiness and laughter in little things.

"So for the Bonjeong district and the House of Golden Treasure [the pawnshop], I tried to convey the little moments of joy and kindness in people's lives. Those were difficult times, but I wanted to show that they were living their lives to the fullest, even indulging in some luxuries," he said.

The series' writer, Kang Eun-kyung, agreed at the press conference, noting that we all face many "between" experiences in the times we live in now and navigate life by constantly choosing between sides.

"We ask, 'Do I choose this or that?' Or 'How should we live as human beings? What comes first, survival or humanity?' Depending on which side you choose, discernment between good and evil takes on different meanings," she said.

The writer said that Tae-sang is a prime example of someone caught between two sides. "His survival necessitated him to get along with the Japanese, but he must have asked how much his pride could take and how far he could be pushed," Kang said.

The Creature's 'Emotionally Resonant' Character

At this month's press conference, Kang said: "Conceptualizing the creature began with the idea of a mouse striking out against a cat. A parasite in a prey's head making it fearless against its predator was an interesting concept to me. Working with the idea of a parasite, I freely imagined how powerful that parasite could be and all the possibilities that could happen."

The most important aspect of conceptualizing the creature was "making things seem very real," Chung said at the press conference, adding, "I wanted it to be more than an oversimplified sci-fi figure."

He also thought the backdrop had to feel authentic to draw viewers in, and the protagonists needed to "look real" while running away from the creature or fighting it. "So I avoided giving them unreasonable, unbelievable powers," he said.

The aforementioned duality and juxtaposition of opposites are also embodied in these creatures.

After several failed trials among the human test subjects in the lab, the Japanese general finds success with one woman, who had been brought from Seodaemun Prison, a real-life prison at the time where Korean independence activists were sent. This woman, who later turns out to be Chae-ok's missing mother, is turned into a powerful, bloodthirsty creature.

One of the scientists managing the experiment later suggests making "strategic" use of the creature because "we are in dire need of a powerful weapon that could turn the tides of the war in our favor."

During Newsweek's set visit earlier this year, the director noted that the show's creatures, given their nature, are "presented in a way that's very scary, cruel and brutal."

However, Chung believes "these creatures will feel emotionally resonant too. I feel that they are going to be tugging at the heartstrings of our audiences when they see our creatures—the story is going to allow for that."

The director said the story focuses on not only the battle to fight against these creatures but also how they are "intertwined with these other human characters. So I would dare say that if you watch until the end, you might shed a few tears."

Part 1 of Gyeongseong Creature is available for streaming on Netflix. Part 2 will be released January 5.