Jang Dong-yoon and Park Yu-na's first screen life in Korea, 'Long D'

'MZ Generation' actors Jang Dong-yoon and Park Yu-na attempted the screen life genre for the first time in Korean film through the movie 'Long D'. The two tell a realistic story of a long-distance love.

On the 25th, a press preview of the movie 'Long D' (directed by Lim Jae-wan) was held at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Actors Jang Dong-yoon, Park Yu-na, and director Lim Jae-wan attended the press conference held after the preview.

'Long D' tells the untact love story of Do-ha (played by Jang Dong-yoon) and Tae-in (played by Park Yu-na), a couple of the same age who have been in a long-distance relationship for five years before turning 30. In particular, it is the first Korean film to showcase the screen life of the romantic comedy genre.

Screen life is a genre of movies that consists only of SNS windows, web cams, and YouTube screens through the screens of digital devices such as PC, mobile, and CCTV. It shows the process of Do-ha and Tae-in, who have their own concerns, entering a new phase as they begin a long-distance relationship in a screen life format.

On this day, director Lim Jae-wan said, "'Long D' is a modern movie and was made with freshness and spirit." He added, "When I first received the offer to direct, I was worried about whether romantic comedy and screen life would fit well. However, I sympathized with the story I was trying to tell, and it seemed like it would be an indispensable part of real life, so I thought it would fit well with the screen life genre."

There is a difference from 'Long D', which has a similar genre to the movie 'Search', which was released in 2018. Director Lim Jae-wan said, "The genre of our film is a romantic comedy. It is different from 'Search' in terms of content because it has to capture the sweet and vivid story of a lover. We used most of the actual applications and SNS. We tried to be as accurate as possible. He pointed out, “The content aspect and leading the story are the big differences.”

In the play, Jang Dong-yoon plays the role of Do-ha, a newcomer to society. Doha and Taein start out as fans and then become lovers. Tae-in, played by Park Yu-na, is the vocalist of an indie band. Tae-in proposes a long D to Do-ha first.

Director Lim Jae-wan explained the reason for casting Jang Dong-yoon and Park Yu-na. He, who valued freshness, said, "The role of Do-ha was planned from the beginning by actor Jang Dong-yoon. Due to the nature of the screen life genre, there are a lot of close-ups, and in that respect, actor Jang Dong-yoon fit the image I had in mind. Actor Park Yoo-na is naturally talented, aside from being an idol trainee. We He even suggested that we release an album. The staff often said that Taein was really like Taein.”

Regarding the reason for choosing 'Search', Jang Dong-yoon said, "I thought it would be fun to film the Do-ha character in the scenario, the events that occur in the movie, and the dialogue exchanged between the two people in a screen life style. It's a fresh and new way to watch. “It was rare and novel,” he said.

Park Yoo-na, who worked as an idol trainee for two years when she was in high school, said, "As soon as I received the script, I heard that Tae-in would sing. My dream was to be a singer as well. So I thought I would try to fulfill that dream. I think I realized my dream after watching the movie." “I wanted to take on the challenge (since it was my first time doing it in Korea). I wanted to hold the camera myself and try acting. When the offer came, I said I would do it without hesitation,” he said with a laugh.

Jang Dong-yoon and Park Yu-na show off their chemistry through video calls instead of face-to-face acting. Jang Dong-yoon said there were difficulties and said, "As I prepared in advance, I met more people and became closer. Since most of the scenes involved video calls, I filmed the video call scenes while actually having a video call with actress Park Yoo-na." On the other hand, Park Yuna made people laugh by saying, "Thankfully, my brother filmed it first and I acted while watching the video. It wasn't that difficult for me. My brother took care of me a lot by my side."

'Long D' will be released on May 10th.

Kang Min-kyung, Ten Asia reporter kkk39@tenasia.co.kr