Kwon Sang-woo and Jung Ryeo-won in Pain

by javabeans

Aw, aren’t Kwon Sang-woo and Jung Ryeo-won surprisingly cute in these photos for the upcoming movie. I say “surprisingly” because the project’s title is Pain and it’s all about the love story between a man who can’t feel pain and a woman with hypersensitivity to it. Sounds like a laugh and a half, right?

(Korea sure loves the whole thematic-opposites-fall-in-love premise, doesn’t it? Two best friends grow up into gangster and cop. A baby-faced woman falls for an old-faced guy. A rich man romances a poor girl. An uptight careerperson pairs up with free spirit. Girl goes blind, boy gives up his eyes for her. Etc etc.)

The story of Pain: Thanks to an accident in his childhood, Kwon’s character loses the ability to feel physical sensation, and therefore is constantly at risk of injuring himself without knowing it (or realizing in time to prevent it). As such, physical injury is an occupational hazard to acting on a story like this, and Kwon said, “I’ve been hit before in other roles, but never as much as in this movie.”

It also accounts for the funny expression on Kwon’s face in his mid-falling photos below, since he isn’t supposed to be feeling any pain. It’s a tough acting exercise; I remember watching Kim Myung-min repeatedly falling for a scene in My Love By My Side, and redoing the scene over and over because his character was paralyzed and shouldn’t have been able to flail the way a healthy person would have. He had to watch to make sure he didn’t betray any involuntary twitches or expressions of pain, which is similar to the challenge Kwon faces here.

The following photos come from the film’s open set day on April 22 in Seoul’s Mapo-gu, Seogyo-dong, neighborhood. The day’s shoot covered a scene wherein Kwon Sang-woo gets hit by a motorcyclist, and despite the severity of the impact, he can’t feel any pain and just brushes himself off casually.

Jung, on the other hand, adopts a hippie-esque boho look, though really, she’s just a bad hair day away from hobo. I sort of see where wearing five full layers of oversize clothing can look cute — kind of — on waif-like actresses like Jung and Moon Geun-young (okay, also Jang Geun-seok). But I don’t actually think it looks attractive, and I hope it’s a trend that goes away soon.

This movie will also contain the first bed scene for both stars — I would’ve thought for sure that Kwon would’ve had one by now, but apparently he made it through his heartthrob and post-army days without one.

Pain is based on a web-toon, and is directed by Kwak Kyung-taek (of the blockbuster Friend and its sorta-spinoff drama series Friend, Our Legend). It began filming in February, and plans to release in August.

Via Seoul NTN

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