Will blockbuster drama "Iris" get to pop the champagne?

"Someone said we should pop the champagne here. But we'll pop it once the series really becomes a hit," a member on the production crew of TV series "Iris" said of his confidence in the drama at a press conference held Monday at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul. As such, it would be strange if broadcasters did not take an interest in this drama starring A-listed actors including Lee Byung-hun, Kim Tae-hee and Jung Jun-ho, was in production for a year and has been promoting itself as a 'major blockbuster action drama'. A mass of media companies gathered to the press conference where the directors and stars of the upcoming KBS drama had to answer to a flood of questions for an hour.

The reason "Iris" needed to have and could even bring together such a cast was because of the scale of story which includes a confrontation between North and South Korea's intelligence agencies and the conspiracy surrounding the United States' military industrial complex. Edited versions of the first two episodes of the drama revealed at the press conference did enough to emphasize this point. Actors were constantly seen engaging in the action scenes which Lee called "close-to-life, like in the Jason Bourne series." Lee dangled in the sky on a single rope and Kim herself acted out a fighting scene in the subway. The drama was on a larger scale and contained more complex action scenes compared to previous films based on similar topics such as "Shiri". "Iris" also took the taste of its 21st century viewers into consideration, using satellite and closed circuit television technology to display various types of pursuit scenes rather than simply blowing up more explosives or having gunfights. Lee and Jung's acting was as stable as expected as their ad-libs tossed here and there into the script loosened up the mood at appropriate times.

Hence, it may be from the confidence in these factors that directors Kim Kyoo-tae and Yang Yun-ho emphasized in having to take a "drama-like approach" rather than worrying over the scale or perfection of the drama. Their concern was that the audience may become puzzled with the various characters involved in the story based on the two Koreas and the military-industrial complex of the U.S. "We can't pinpoint to a main enemy because the story is on such a large scale," Yang said of his worries regarding the drama, adding that they tried to make the first three episodes easier and more comfortable for the audience to understand. That is why "Iris" still has a few more episodes to shoot although it went into production well ahead of time. This is where you can see the producer's concern in having to create a so-called 'blockbuster' with topics unrelated to recent trends. In times where the drama market continues to shrink due to the economic downturn and viewership rates are on the fall, will "Iris" really get to pop the champagne?

Lee Byung-hun: as Kim Hyun-joon, at the center of the melodrama and action
"I had a double but they said they needed my face too so we ended up shooting the same scene twice." This statement showed how hard of a time Lee had shooting the action scenes in "Iris". Like fellow actor Jung had jokingly said, "I didn't have to go through as much trouble as Lee because my character was a rational guy," Lee played the character with the most action scenes. And it is because while in the big picture, "Iris" is about the security situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the story is also about "how national intelligence agent Kim Hyun-joon changes drastically in extreme situations". Lee has to act out a wide range of emotions -- from the slightly humorous character in the beginning of the drama alongside Kim and Jung to the agent feeling extreme anger. That is why he says he "focused on acting like how a real spy would" rather than trying display how attractive he can be at both ends of his emotions.

Jung Jun-ho: as Jin Sa-woo, the character with a complex to always be the best
"You have to wear a bulletproof vest to attend a press conference with this guy because he makes up so many of the things he says," Lee said jokingly while refuting comments Jung made about him. But this statement in itself showed the role Jung played on set of "Iris". He, along with actor Kim Seung-woo, were the ones who set the mood while shooting and helped co-stars Kim Tae-hee, Kim So-yeon and TOP to adjust to their own and opposite roles. The character Jin Sa-woo he plays in the drama is also a catalyst amongst the other roles. He is best friends with Kim Hyun-joon in the beginning of the story but feels a secret rivalry to him deep down inside, and then is becomes conflicted as he starts to love Choi Seung-hee, played by Kim Tae-hee. That is how much of an unpredictable character Jin is. Jung, who is known to have ad-libbed all the comical scenes in the beginning, said "I was worried that Jin may seem too much of a serious guy since the story is about intelligence agency officials so I tried to add a bit of myself into the character."

Kim Tae-hee: as spy Choi Seung-hee, who can do everything from action to profiling
Kim Tae-hee shows more various sides to her than we have seen before while playing Choi Seung-hee in "Iris". She tried so hard that she "lost a good amount of hair" shooting several takes of a scene where she gets her hair yanked by a terrorist and also had to act like a female whom nobody can quite figure out until her identity as an intelligence official is revealed. Kim said she herself tried to create the various sides her character has -- showing the more loving and ladylike sides to her in the beginning of the drama for the melodrama scenes but showing more spy-like sides to her after the tenth episode. She said she also learned Japanese while on location in Japan in an effort to imitate the nuance of the language as best she could. She was also teased by her fellow actors as eating a lot, which she did to keep up her physical strength to shoot the various scenes, but it has served as the grounds to which she will probably be able to display more various acting skills.

Kim Seung-woo: as Park Cheol-young, "the North Korean spy with better style than the South Korean spy"
Kim Seung-woo, who plays North Korea's top spy, said he contemplated over whether to speak Korean in the dialect used in North Korea's main city of Pyongyang or in the standard South Korean dialect. He said he decided to use the South Korean dialect after seeing a boxer from North Korea use the Southern dialect well. That is how much thinking he put into his acting. Kim said his character Park has "an unflinching mind for his country and accurate judgement" -- qualities to make the perfect spy. Kim also expressed his affection for "Iris" saying, "Taking on a production as big as 'Iris' may be an opportunity which may never come again." Kim had big hopes for the new series. "We've finished shooting over half of it and I am pretty sure that it will be good. I'm extremely satisfied. I hope that through this drama, fans overseas will be able to feel the uniqueness of Korean dramas, the energy of the actors and the skilled technology of the producers."

Kim So-yeon: as Kim Sun-hwa, the North Korean female spy
Kim plays a female killer in a North Korean intelligence agency. And it is why she had to get 12 stitches after suffering an injury while shooting an action scene in the drama. She said she in particular had a hard time carrying around the sniper gun which was "heavier than I thought and too long to carry in one hand". So she studied actress Kim Yun-jin's acting from hit film "Shiri" to analyze her own character. Kim So-yeon said she is worried a lot about the melodrama acting she will have to do opposite Lee into the second half of the drama. However, she says she is happy to be "taking on a role in the best production ever".

TOP (Choi Seung-hyun): as Vick, the killer who speaks with his gun
Big bang member TOP, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, plays the role of a killer hired by U.S. military-industrial complex "Iris". His character is a sniper who maintains composure rather than physcially engaging in the fights. That is why TOP focused on his gun acting over anything else, going to shooting ranges to practice shooting live bullets. He said he also watched his favorite classic movies including "A Clockwork Orange" to analyze the acting of various characters. TOP had previous acting experience KBS TV series "I am Sam" but "Iris" is on a different scale from it. "I wasn't interested before but I now feel responsibility and want to do well."

Senior Reporter : Kang Myoung-Seok two@10asia.co.kr
Photographer : Chae ki-won ten@10asia.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr, Jang Kyung-Jin three@10asia.co.kr