The hidden heroes who created JTBC‘s weekend drama ‘Madame Ok’s Tale’ (written by Park Ji-sook, directed by Jin Hyeok and Choi Bo-yoon) are gaining attention for their presence.

The production process has been revealed as various elements such as the sophisticated directing, sensuous images, and music in ‘Madame Ok‘s Tale’ increase the perfection of the work.

According to the production team, cinematographer Kim Jung-won “thought a lot about the narrative of the character Gu-deok while working on ‘Madame Ok’s Tale’,”and”he put emphasis on the fact that a slave, who was the most looked down upon in the past class society, changes her status to a nobleman‘s daughter and claims to be a spokesperson for the weak. I tried to capture a strong and upright yet fragile appearance”he explained the point he focused on the most.

Regarding the beautiful scenery of Joseon’s eight provinces that is beautifully captured in each episode, “Director Jin Hyeok wanted to capture the four seasons. During the slave era, in order to show the harsh life, we actually wandered through the snowy mountains on a snowy day and filmed a scene crossing a winter river. After our status changed, we filmed according to the season and time when flowers bloomed on the beautiful mountains and lakesides,” she said, sharing a behind-the-scenes story.

Art director Kim So-yeon, who created the unique visuals of ‘The Tale of Lady Ok,’ said, “The overall concept was ‘substitution into a modern work. When I first read the script, it didn’t feel like a simple story from the distant past, but a story about me or the people around me now, so I designed the spaces in the piece as places that could exist in the present. I focused on striking a balance so as not to lose the traditional aesthetic while adding modern elements.”

She also said that she incorporated the character’s ‘dream’ into the performance scene of Jeon Gi-su Cheon Seung-hwi, which received a great response. “’Madam Ok‘s Story‘I thought it was a story about dreams, so the space I wanted to make stand out the most was the space symbolizing ’dreams‘,”and”I tried to decorate the stage where Cheon Seung-hwi shows his dreams in a flashy and dynamic way so that the audience would feel like he was showing off his passion and accomplishments.”

Lastly, music director Jeong Ye-gyeong said about the OST ‘Dedication Yeonseo’, “The texture of love that our drama shows is a beautiful romance with polite manners that thinks of the other person more than oneself, and I tried to capture that kind of longing. When singing to Winter, I told her, ‘This song will be a part of the orchestra itself, so imagine it like that and gently place your voice on top of the orchestra like a feather,’.”

Director Jeong Ye-gyeong, who also worked on the music for the performance scenes herself and utilized her experience in both film music and stage music, expressed her passion, saying, “Director Jin-hyeok told me there would be a performance scene before starting this work, so he trusted me and left it to me, and I put in a lot of effort to take responsibility for my answer.

The details of ‘Madame Ok’s Tale’, which were completed through the worries and efforts of many people, are making the actors‘ passionate performances and solid development shine even brighter.

Episode 11 of ‘Madame Ok’s Tale’ will air at 10:30 p.m. on the 11th.
Reporter Hong Se-young, Donga.com projecthong@donga.com