Kim Jae-young “I‘m glad I didn’t die in the drama and got a happy ending... Thank you Park Shin-hye” [DA: Interview ①]
Actor Kim Jae-young looked back on the meaning of the drama ‘The Judge from Hell’, in which he starred.
In an interview for the finale of the SBS drama ‘The Judge from Hell’, held at a cafe in Hakdong-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 5th, Kim Jae-young expressed the meaning of the drama as “It was an opportunity for me to see a bright future as an actor”. He previously achieved double-digit viewership ratings with the tvN drama ‘100 Days My Prince’, but explained that this project was especially meaningful because he was the lead actor, expressing his excitement by saying, “I saw a lot of hope for the future”.
The final episode of ‘Judge from Hell’, which aired on the 2nd, depicted an open ending to the romance between Kang Bit-na and Han Da-on along with the thrilling cider of punishing human trash who deserve to die and sending them to hell. Starting with a viewership rating of 6.8% for the first episode, ‘The Judge from Hell’ ended on a high note with a final episode viewership rating of 11.9% (provided by Nielsen Korea).
Kim Jae-young said, “We all watched the last episode at a rented CGV in Yeouido, Seoul. I almost cried,” and added, “I was glad it was a happy ending. In my previous works, there were many death endings and not many happy endings. This time too, he died in the second episode, and after that, there were many times when it seemed like Han Da-on would die, so I thought, ’Will he kill me?‘ but I’m glad he didn‘t.” He added that he found out about the ending about two-thirds of the way into filming.
Kim Jae-young expressed his joy at the work’s success, saying, “I think my thirst for box office success has been quenched a little. (Park) Shin-hye has a lot of lines, but I‘m also happy that the drama I worked on as an important character got good ratings,” he said. “I had a lot of worries. ’Will I ever be able to do a drama that gets good ratings?‘, ’What if it doesn‘t work out?’ But I‘m so happy that it did.”
Kim Jae-young also expressed his gratitude to Park Shin-hye, with whom he worked on a love line. He said, “Shin-hye is my younger sibling, but isn’t she a huge senior? I‘ve seen her on TV since I was little. At first, it was hard to even make eye contact at the dinner table. But she approached me quickly and always greeted me brightly, so it worked out quickly.” “Shin-hye was a friend who was good at keeping her balance on set. He said, ”Even when I was tired, exhausted, or in a bad mood, he kept me centered, so I was able to film with him.“
Kim Jae-young, who expressed his desire to become ’Park Shin-hye‘s man’ during the production conference for ‘The Judge from Hell,’ confessed, ”I think I‘ve earned that title a little bit. I didn’t think the project would do this well, but I was curious and excited because the script was fun to read after a long time. I was curious. Since it was my first fantasy work, I had high expectations for how it would be expressed.“
He also said, ”I felt my popularity because people recognized me on the street. Many young people recognized me, and I also gained a lot of female fans. Recently, an old man at a meat restaurant recognized me and asked, ‘Are you the detective who came here?’ It was the first time an old man recognized me, so it was strange.“ He added, ”When I searched my name here and there, there were many people who thought I was cute, and there were many people who sympathized with the character, so I was grateful. At first, when I was chasing after Judge Kang Bit-na and interfering with her, I felt bad because there were a lot of reactions like, ‘Get her off,’ but after that, I felt good because there were a lot of good comments,“ she said, sharing her honest thoughts.
Jung Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com
Photo courtesy of JIB Company
