Netflix‘s most anticipated series of the first half of 2025, ‘Fooled By You’, is finally unveiled. ‘Fooled By You’, which has received much anticipation from viewers since its production was confirmed, is drawing attention to whether ‘Fooled By You’, which features director Kim Won-seok and writer Im Sang-chun, as well as acting chemistry between IU and Park Bo-gum, will be able to live up to expectations.

On the morning of the 5th, a production conference for the Netflix series ‘Fooled By You’, was held at the Grand Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Conrad Seoul Hotel in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Actors IU, Park Bo-gum, Moon So-ri, Park Hae-joon, and director Kim Won-seok attended the conference that day.

Director Kim Won-seok began by saying, “As I’ve said before, this is a tribute to the grandparents and parents‘ generation. And it was planned as a song of encouragement for the children’s generation. “I made this with the hope that the invisible walls between generations, genders, and people would be broken down, even just a little,” she said of the planning intent.



IU said about the reason she chose ‘Fooled By Strangers’, “This is my second time working with director Kim Won-seok, and I‘ve always been a fan of writer Lim Sang-choon. As soon as I received the offer, I just wanted to do it. After reading it, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I told him I wanted to do it in less than a day.”

Park Bo-gum then said, “I was a fan of writer Lim Sang-choon. I got to film this piece after I finished my military service and was discharged. I wanted to do this piece because I expected to work with director Won-seok. I thought that when my family saw this piece later, they would say that it was a good idea for us to work together, so I did it together,” drawing attention.

Director Kim Won-seok said, “I wonder if you‘ll think it’s a sad story because the actors cried a lot. It was a script that made you laugh while making you cry. It was funny and heartwarming but also made you cry. In a way, it was a work that I really wanted to do. I‘ve been lucky enough to work with good writers, and the rule is that I discuss casting and post-production editing with the writers. Most writers have their own ideas. If I can implement them well, it helps me. The most important point of directing was to try to bring out the writer’s human touch, the ending of the character that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Then, I had to cast really good actors and have them act in a good environment,” explaining the parts he focused on while directing “Bokssak I Was Fooled.”



Regarding the reason for releasing 16 episodes over 4 weeks, Director Kim Won-seok said, “16 episodes were a bit long for binge-watching these days. Also, viewers these days tend to skip ahead. If you watch it that way, you won‘t be able to feel the essence of the drama. If you watch the beginning carefully, the later parts are more interesting. You can watch the later parts first, but I think you can watch them like you’re picking out dried persimmons one by one. Since we‘ve shared the four seasons of life, I tried to do it in that sense as well,” she explained.

Regarding the part she focused on while acting as Moon So-ri and IU, “I guess we were filming first, so I was worried a lot while keeping the connection in mind. We talked a lot about it. On the other hand, if I really saw a picture of my mother when she was young, I thought, ’This is my mother? That‘s ridiculous.’ I thought that it would be closer to reality if there were some parts that were connected, but other parts were different.” “I thought that the speech should be a little similar, so we read each other‘s lines interchangeably. Also, IU has a small dot, and that dot is like a signal to me, so I always asked the makeup team to put a dot on it. I tried to connect the actions and speech patterns of each other in the script.”

IU said, “The dot is mine, so it could have been erased. But my senior was considerate while filming it. It felt like I was continuing to live with my original dot. My senior made the suggestion first, and I went to his house and talked a lot about the overall project. I got closer to him while talking about interesting things and found common ground.”

Director Kim Won-seok said about the reason he cast actors Park Hae-joon and Park Bo-gum for the role of Gwan-sik, “Gwan-sik requires acting skills, but I thought that what was more important was that the actors themselves be kind. I thought that the kindness that the two actors exude should be connected. Of all the actors I’ve worked with, Park Hae-joon is the kindest. Even his dry jokes are forgiven because he’s kind. I’ve heard so many rumors that Bo-gum is kind. When Bogum plays this role, I thought it would be a powerful Kwan-sik if he showed a side of himself that he hadn’t shown before. That‘s why I cast him,” he said, raising curiosity.

When asked about her feelings about working with Park Bogum, IU said, “Personally, I think it was really great. He’s the same age as me, and we‘ve known each other since our teens. It was our first time working together in earnest, but strangely, I felt comfortable from the first shoot. That’s why I was able to share ideas with Bogum more comfortably than ever. He was a really good partner.”

Park Bogum continued, “I was a little touched. We first met in a commercial when I was a teenager, worked together briefly in my 20s, and worked together officially in my 30s. As I got older, acting itself became more precious. It was a really fun project to work with him. I think we became closer while doing promotional activities, so I thought it would be fun to work with him again in another character.”

When asked if ‘Doomsuda’ deals with the Jeju April 3 Incident, Director Kim Won-seok replied, “To get to the point, it doesn‘t appear. We start in the 1960s. It’s after the end of the period. They must have felt pain, but that‘s not directly expressed. I think it would be more appropriate to say that Jeju Island was a place where people from various backgrounds lived together at the time.“

Regarding how ‘Doomsuda’ would be understood by global viewers, Director Kim Won-seok emphasized, “When we planned it, we actually planned it with the thought that we really wanted Korean viewers to see it. When it was scheduled for Netflix, we wondered how foreigners would perceive it. We made sure that parts that could be understood metaphorically or in a Korean context could be well expressed in subtitles.”

Director Kim Won-seok, who reunited with IU after ‘My Mister’, said, “Ji-eun is an amazing actress. She was already amazing back then. I think it was then that he became more widely known as a good actor. He didn’t grow while doing ‘My Mister’; he was already an excellent actor. When I look at him now, he seems great. He‘s continuously developing musically, and when I think about how he’ll develop even more in acting and how much effort he‘ll put in, I think he’s amazing,“ he said with great praise.

Meanwhile, ‘BokSsak CheotSaSuDa’, which will be released on the 7th, is a Netflix series that unfolds the adventurous lives of Jeju-born ‘rebel’ Ae-soon and ‘unstoppable iron’ Gwan-sik over the course of four seasons.

Writer Im Sang-choon, who wrote ‘When the Camellia Blooms’ and ‘Fight for My Way’, and director Kim Won-seok, who wrote ‘My Mister’, ‘Signal’, and ‘Misaeng’, have joined forces for this series.

Choi Yun-na, Donga.com reporter yyynnn@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.