Having a superpower seems less like a blessing and more like a curse to the characters in Disney’s original k-drama Moving. Played by actors Lee Jeong-ha, Ko Yoon-jung and Kim Do-hoon, these high school students are lonely and often anxious, hiding their superpowers, until they find each other. Lee’s character Bong-seok has a tendency to float away. He might learn to fly one day, but for now it’s a struggle to stay grounded. In a recent Zoom interview Lee, who previously appeared in the dramas Nevertheless and Run On, confessed that he was eager to play Bong-seok because of the character’s ability to fly.
“I thought to myself, will I be able to pull off the wire action,” said Lee. “And I thought, why not? Let’s do it. Let’s take on the challenge. So, I think that the process has overall made me stronger and it has also taught me so much as an actor and based on all of those lessons learned through the production process, I think I can be better at life in general.”
Kim’s character Gang-hoon successfully hides his super strength. As the studious and sometimes meek class president, it’s hard to imagine he could knock over a tree with his fists. For Kim, who can also be seen in The Law Cafe and Today’s Webtoon, the story of Moving had many appealing elements. It’s a genre he really likes,
“As a reader I just enjoyed the script so much,” said Kim. “I was especially drawn to my character Gang-hoon and his narrative with his father really tugged at my heartstrings.”
Ko’s character has super strength and the ability to heal from almost any kind of injury. The actress, who previously starred in Alchemy of Souls, Law School and Sweet Home, was drawn to the drama partly because she liked her character’s forthright nature.
“When I met the character Hui-soo, I found so many similarities between myself and my character,” said Ko. “I was especially drawn to her personality, just the way that she’s very unapologetic and brave and confident, the way she would say things and her attitude overall.”
The complex action scenes that these actors appear in required months of preparation.
“Because Hui-soo is a student who wants to become a physical ed major, I actually went to the academy that helps you prep for the entrance exam for physical ed majors,” said Ko. “I went there for about three months and during that time I learned a lot of the actions, the posture. Overall I just tried to make the character’s movements and her appearance as organic and natural as possible.”
In one mud- and blood-splattered action scene Ko’s character Hui-soo takes on 17 bullies and thrashes them all. It’s an impressive scene, partly because of the staging it must have required, but also because of the terrifying rage Ko conveys.
“Not only is it one of the most impressive scenes for me on a personal level, but I think it’s one of the most important scenes for the character Hui-soo,” said Ko.
While she practiced the sequences with the action team, setting the scene in mud meant a lot could go wrong.
“We weren’t able to do 100% of the sequences that we rehearsed,” said Ko. “However, because of the variables due to the mud, I think it actually became more realistic and convincing and more dynamic. I thought that the final results actually came out even better.”
To build muscle and become more nimble for his scenes, Kim began weight training as soon as he was cast. He also kept to a strict diet. “This allowed me to do action scenes with a lot more ease,” he said. “And for the first time in my life I started Taekwondo and that definitely helped with the kicks that I had to perform.”
Floating might seem easy, but it required a lot of wire work, while at the same time Lee had to gain 30 pounds for his role. “Even though my character Bong-seok is someone who has the ability to fly, I soon learned that just being good at wire action wasn’t going to cut it,” he said. “There was a lot that had to be expressed through my body movement, so I actually took up dance classes and I also started Pilates. “
Playing characters with superpowers might be fun, but having a power in real life was not equally appealing to the actors. While Kim was curious about what it might be like, he decided he would not want one.
‘If I really have the opportunity to have a superpower, I think I’m going to choose not to have it,” said Kim. “Working on this series Moving, I thought more and more about how having a super power like that could definitely be a very burdensome curse. I almost feel like I would have to try to live as a hideout.”
Ko was also against the idea, at least when it came to a super power others might be aware of. “I feel like there’s definitely going to be side effects, so I would probably choose to not have any super powers,” she said. “However, if I had to absolutely choose having some kind of super power, I would like the ability to be able to dream in whatever genre I want every time I go to sleep. I feel like that would probably be the safest and the most fun.”
Lee was more open to the idea. He would love to be able to save people. “I want one, I want a superpower,” he said. “The reason I say that I would like a superpower is that while it’s true that it could be a curse, one thing that I really came to realize during the production and also as I was watching the final scenes of Moving was that it could be a blessing if it is used right.”
Moving is definitely a superhero drama, but there’s more to it, said the cast. And that’s what makes it special.
“If I were to describe the message that our series wants to convey in one word,” said Kim. “I would say that it would be the word together. Because all the characters that you see in Moving, whether or not they have superpowers, what they all want is to have someone by their side, to have someone on their side. That could be a family member, it could be a friend or someone you work with. Various forms of coming together and being on the same side, I think, and also how people want to come together and protect others together.”
For Ko the drama says something important about being different, about having unique gifts.
“This is actually part of the line that Hui-soo says in the show, the fact that they’re not weird, just a little bit different and a little special,” she said.. “I think that is the ultimate message that Moving has as a series, and I think while this is a message that many different works deliver, one of the reasons that it is so strongly conveyed in the series Moving is because it is a superhero genre that is based on family. The way that everyone tries to understand each other, acknowledges one another and sacrifices for one another.”
Lee sums up the series’ appeal in another word: love.
“While there are many different genres in Moving, if I were to choose one word that permeates all of it, I would say that it is love. The love between parents and their children, the love between friends or the love that you have for your parents as a child. These are emotions and different types of love that we see everyday all around us. I think that the series Moving is something that tells you or tells whoever is watching, that you are worthy and that you are worthy of being loved.”
The Disney drama, which also stars Zo In-sung, Han Hyo-joo and Ryu Seung-ryoung, airs on Hulu in the US.
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