Popular Korean actor Lee Min-ho who was last seen in the K-drama The King: Eternal Monarch, is returning to the small screen with upcoming drama Pachinko.
In it the 34-year-old plays the role of Koh Hansu, who Lee described in a new interview with Esquire Korea as “a villain by all means”.
Lee also spoke on why he chose to play the role of an antagonist for the first time in his 15-year career.
“Now that I’m in my mid-30s, I prefer to be involved in what’s ‘real’. If it’s far from real, I can’t agree (to the project), and this (selection process) is getting harder and harder.”
Pachinko is an Apple TV+ series based on a novel of the same name, written by Korean American author Min Jin Lee. The New York Times bestseller spans through eight decades and four generations, as the characters search for identity and success.
Filming locations for the series included South Korea and Canada.
The Heirs star shared: “When I got the offer to audition for Pachinko, and read the script, I was convinced that with this project, I could give it a go. I wanted to try it once. I think, thanks to this conviction, the audition went well.”
Lee had revealed in a previous interview that his Pachinko audition was his first after a decade and this had caused him to worry briefly.
"In the car on the way to the audition, the thought suddenly occurred to me. 'No, wait a minute. If I go to an audition and fail, would there be rumours?'"
While Lee is not totally opposed to the fantasy-romance genre in the near future – as some of his more popular dramas fall in this genre namely The King: Eternal Monarch and Legend Of The Blue Sea – he stated that they have to be "a bit different”.
He explained: “There are stories that are realistic and appropriate for each age range – whether that's a desperate one, or one that heals.
“I don’t think there will be any more stories of showing up to save the female character when she’s in need. When characters grow older, they seldom find themselves in that kind of danger. And women these days also save men.”
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