Our Story - Binjin

Chapter 56: Preparing for Crash Landing on You

Author's Notes: Maldives will be the next chapter 😊 in this chapter, I wanted to touch on the preparation work they did before filming even started. I re-watched some of their interviews for CLOY today when writing this and lol, it made me feel like watching the show again!
Hope you enjoy this!
Alert, there's some adult content in the last story, please skip if you wish to.

Once they decided to accept the drama, Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin started to prepare for it. The public usually sees only the glamorous aspects of an actor's job, the finished product, the beautiful clothes, red carpets, etc. In reality though, the seemingly effortless glitz and glamour is really the result of hard work done behind the scenes.

Hyun Bin studied his character Ri Jeong-hyeok and after discussion with the Writer Park, Director Lee and Ye-Jin, he identified three areas to work on, firstly, he'll need language classes on North Korea accent, secondly, he wants to bulk up his frame and thirdly, he'll need to brush up his piano skills.

In Ye-Jin's case, her biggest challenge was to bring to life Yoon Se-ri and make the audience fall in love and empathize with her. She had a lot of lines in the script and needed to make them witty and relatable. Ye-Jin spent her time studying the script and watching other comedic shows to learn techniques used by other actors to bring out humor. She quickly realized the advantage of having Hyun Bin as her partner. Because she knew him well and had a good understanding of his sense of humor, she had plenty of ideas on how she could leverage him to bring out the humor in some of the scenes. She was starting to get excited about filming.

Story 1: Hyun Bin's language classes

As Ri Jeong-hyeok is a North Korean, the very first thing Hyun Bin needed was to be able to speak comfortably with a North Korean accent. He had taken lessons a couple of years back, when he played the role of a North Korean detective in the movie Confidential Assignment. Hyun Bin thought it would not be too difficult to pick it up again.

The production team engaged a North Korean language teacher, Mr Kwak. He was a former North Korean who had defected to the South. Language skills aside, he was also able to share insights on the way North Koreans lived.

Even though Ye-Jin didn't need to speak like a North Korean, she felt that it was important to have a realistic view and understanding of life in North Korea. She joined Hyun Bin for a few sessions with the Mr Kwak.

VAST Office

Manager Kim and Ye-Jin arrived at the VAST office that morning. Ye-Jin was joining Hyun Bin's session with Mr Kwak to learn more about North Korea.

By now, she was familiar with the VAST office layout. They took the carpark lift directly to Hyun Bin's office level. Ye-Jin smiled at the receptionist, Eun-Min who stood up once she saw them.

"Is he inside his office, Eun-Min shi?" Ye-Jin asked.

"Yes, Onni, he's inside." Eun-Min beamed at Ye-Jin. "And Onni, thank you so much for the skin cleanser machine. Its really fantastic. See, my face looks clearer, right?"

A couple of weeks back, Ye-Jin was waiting for Hyun Bin to go for lunch when she heard Eun-Min and another colleague talking about the new cleanser machine. Eun-Min was deciding if she should buy it. It happened to be a brand Ye-Jin was endorsing and she had been given a few sample sets. Ye-Jin offered to pass her a set and sent it through Hyun Bin last week.

"I'm glad you found it good," Ye-Jin smiled. "Let me know if you have feedback and I'll pass back to the company. I'll talk to you later." Ye-Jin waved.