Our Story - Binjin

Chapter 65: CLOY - Filming in Sacheon

They were traveling to Sacheon, Samcheonpo harbor, to film the scene when Se-Ri attempted to leave North Korea via the fishing boat. It was a night scene and they would be filming through the night. They departed Seoul around 2pm to start the three hour drive.

Scene 1: First kiss between Jeong-Hyeok and Se-ri

This was the scene where Jeong-hyeok and Se-ri were about to be caught by the naval officers. The quick thinking Jeong-hyeok recalled Ju-muk's story about how South Koreans got out of sticky situations by pretending to be lovers and realized it was a potential way out of their current situation.

Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin were running through their actions and lines with Director Lee. The three of them were squatting in a dark corner, which was supposed to be the cargo hold area.

"Should I kiss her from this side or that side?" Hyun Bin asked as he enacted kissing Ye-Jin from the left, right and left again for Director Lee to assess the visual impact. Hyun Bin was so focused that he didn't realize he came very close to actually kissing Ye-Jin. Director Lee even jokingly told Ye-Jin to slap him and she playfully responded and Hyun Bin reacted by pretending to fall from the slap. They laughed at the impromptu ad-lib which actually looked quite credible despite it being a joke.

The close proximity wasn't uncomfortable to Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin as they obviously had an even closer physical relationship in real life. They didn't realize it was raising some eye-brows among the crew though. Hyun Bin came so close that most actresses would probably feel uncomfortable. It seemed odd to them that Ye-Jin would not take issue with the proximity. This was one brownie point for the group betting that they were dating.

This scene was meant to be lighthearted and both Ye-Jin and Hyun Bin were laughing as they walked through their lines. Ye-Jin was groaning that she's definitely going to NG later, she didn't think she can stop herself from laughing. Hyun Bin smiled indulgently. The crew were all enraptured by their bantering.

They finally started to film the kissing scene. In truth, this was a comedic scene and there was no artistic beauty needed for the kiss. They didn't even really need to kiss to clear the scene. However, it was clear to the crew that Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin had no intention of faking the kiss. From the first take, their lips met square on and they kissed with force if not finesse in order to bring out the comedic aspects. Also, for actors of their caliber, they NG-ed too many times. The first time, Hyun Bin moved too quickly and Ye-Jin laughed, the second time, Hyun Bin lost his balance, the third time Ye-Jin tipped forward. They cleared it only on the fourth take but re-did the scene again after monitoring as Ye-Jin felt that Se-ri could use her hands to run across Jeong-hyeok's back in an exaggerated fashion to increase the comedic effect.

The crew ended up were even more confused about Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin's relationship. Why? While kiss scenes look nice and romantic in dramas, in reality, most actors disliked them. Actors were usually careful to do the minimum to achieve the requirements of the scene. They usually want to finish in one take to minimize their pain. Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin's attitude towards their kiss scenes were a little strange though. It wasn't that they looked like they enjoyed the kissing - after all no one in their right mind would enjoy kissing in front of one hundred strangers but they didn't seem to mind it as well. They were going through the kissing scenes in a very relaxed manner - which was good, just not usual.

At the end of the scene, they left more than a few persons scratching their heads, were they just so professional that they didn't feel anything or were they really dating so the kissing wasn't a big deal. It was hard to tell.

Scene 2: Argument by the dock after their failed attempt

Ye-Jin had been preparing quite a lot for this scene. She had a lot of lines and needed to bring out the comic aspect of the scene. She had been discussing with both Director Lee and Hyun Bin but was still uncertain of the best way for her to put across the scene.