Actor Park Jung-min has captivated the public once again with his delicate portrayal of a three-dimensional character who loses his warm heart due to anger and betrayal. This is his first leading role in a historical drama, the Netflix film ‘The Emperor: Owner of the Mask’, which was released on the 11th and is receiving favorable reviews.

In the film, he plays Jong-ryeo, the son of the highest military family in Joseon. He is overcome with betrayal when he hears that his family‘s servant Cheon-yeong (Kang Dong-won), with whom he had shared a friendship that transcended social status since childhood, murdered his entire family, and is reunited with him as an enemy after the Imjin War.

When we met at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 14th, he said that he “admired” Kang Dong-won, who played Cheon-yeong, in real life and said, “He’s more manly and delicate than I thought. He also said with a laugh, “He gave me a lot to eat.”

○ “I absolutely had to do Director Park Chan-wook’s script.”

Park Jung-min said that he decided to appear in the drama right after receiving the script from Director Park Chan-wook, who wrote it, and added, “Director Park Chan-wook, my idol, offered to do it, so I accepted it without hesitation.”

“It was my first historical drama, so it was really hard. I had to do a lot of action training. The costumes were uncomfortable, and there were a lot of scenes where I had to be covered in blood, so I couldn’t even eat properly while filming. It was so hard that I said I wouldn‘t do historical dramas for the next five years.”

Right after the casting was announced, the movie became a hot topic online with comments like, “Kang Dong-won becomes Park Jung-min’s servant”.

“I saw an internet comment saying, “Park Jung-min‘s face is ‘until he becomes the nobleman. So it’s not an unrealistic casting. Haha. I think there are a lot of funny memes (related to the casting).”

○“Reason for starting a publishing company”

In addition to ‘actor’, he also has another title, ‘publishing company president’. Having shown his consistent love for books while running a bookstore in the past, he founded and is currently operating a one-man publishing company, ‘Untitled’, in 2021. In addition to his own books, he also helps new writers debut.

“I run a publishing company because I really enjoy it and find it fun. Through my publishing company, I want to introduce writers who write stories and articles that protect and shed light on the parts that many people try to ignore or neglect, and the parts that are neglected and neglected.”

As the CEO of a publishing company, Park Jung-min also said that he was very happy to hear the news that author Han Kang had recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He emphasized that he was such an ardent fan of the author that he created a separate “Han Kang author section” when he ran a bookstore.

“I cried a lot while reading author Han Kang’s books. My favorites are “White” and “Human Acts.” Actually, I expected author Han Kang to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Everyone considered a Chinese writer to be the most likely candidate, but I thought Han Kang‘s writing would be a good fit.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com