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The 10th Oksoon also sobbed in the 'marriage war', and the camera director also cried together.
tvN's new entertainment show '290 Million' (director Lee Won-woong/writer Kang Sook-kyung), which is scheduled to be broadcasted at 7:45 pm on Sunday, July 2, is about ten couples with various stories proving their faith and love for each other and getting married. A real couple survival on an overwhelming scale that captures the process of running towards the finish line. Producer Lee Won-woong, who made the genre of military survival a great success with 'Steel Troops', and writer Kang Sook-kyung, who fascinated people all over the world with 'Physical: 100', are receiving a lot of attention as they are in harmony. In the meantime, following the first interview with PD Lee Won-woong of '290 Million' and writer Kang Sook-kyung's planning intention, the second interview with the actual shooting story of prospective couples is revealed and catches the eye.
Below is a Q&A with the production team.
Q. The 'survival of prospective couples to win the prize money of 290 million won' is exciting. What will be the focus of prospective couples?
Lee Won-woong PD: While most dating programs depict the process of people falling in love for the first time, '290 Million' starts with a couple who have already fallen in love. The mindset of other survival contestants and prospective couple participants was different. He had the courage to face any high-difficulty mission as he faced off with the most trustworthy and reliable side of himself, and he was unstoppable and honest.
During filming, there were many pictures that went beyond the expectations of the production team. Author Kang Sook-kyung and I have done extreme survival games like 'Steel Squad' and 'Physical: 100', so the missions given to the participants are fairly difficult. However, the prospective couple participants slowly completed all the missions prepared by the production team with great courage and unity, probably because 'the person who loves me the most in the world is next to me'. I thought that if we fell in love, everyone would be at the level of a special forces unit.
Q. I heard that the filming of '290 Million' didn't go as expected. Can you tell us more vividly of the actual shooting site?
Lee Won-woong PD: The prospective couple participants cried a lot before and after the mission. As I participate in survival, I feel that my emotions become richer and more honest. Once, a couple who finished an extreme mission in the sea hugged each other and cried so sadly, but the camera director who was filming it also held back the sound of beep and sobbed together. I mean the director who fought silently with me in rough terrain such as 'City Fisherman' and 'Steel Troop'. When I later asked why he cried so sadly, he said, 'Seeing the prospective couple hugging each other tightly and bursting into tears, I burst into tears for no reason. He said he was a bookkeeper himself.
I felt like I knew that too. The belief that I will not be shaken even if I show my ugliest and weakest self to someone else. There is something that moves people's hearts in the sight of prospective couples crying and rolling together.
Q. There must have been a lot of applicants for '290 Million'. To what extent, which applicants are the most impressive?
Writer Kang Sook-kyung: More than 500 couples applied. Of these, only ten couples were selected as finalists. The ages, nationalities, and reasons for falling in love were so diverse that I wondered if there could be such a diverse group of couples in the world. So, the process of selecting ten couples was serious and took a long time. A couple who went through a breakup and want to remarry, a couple who met their first love in school for 15 years, a couple who started living together after a month of dating, and a couple whose affection deepened through sick care rather than sweet cohabitation due to a car accident. There are no couples who don't.
Q. There are many survival programs for the general public. What is special about survival programs for prospective couples?
Lee Won-woong PD: Recently, I thought that programs featuring ordinary people were experiencing 'authenticity controversy'. It's hard to define what authenticity is, but viewers seemed to see right through 'no authenticity'. While planning '290 Million', I was determined to do a survival show with the theme of 'participants must be sincere'. 'If you appear on a TV show with someone you promised to marry and live with, wouldn't that be true?'
That's why we went through a rough process to finally select ten couples. Having to appear on a survival program with a lover who promised to marry soon is a decision that requires a lot of thought. In particular, since marriage is not only done by two people, there were couples who refused to appear in the show because their parents opposed it.
So, what I can say with more confidence is that the couples who participated in '290 Million' really love each other deeply, and their feelings are never false. I think it will be a time to reconfirm the pure form of love, what it is like for a man and a woman to love each other, and what actions and emotions they experience when they are in love.
Writer Kang Sook-kyung: I, too, personally feel the sincerity of a prospective couple. When you film in the same space as the contestants, you empathize with their emotions and quickly fall into their lives. It's heartbreakingly moving and respectful when participants throw everything in order to achieve their dreams.
Also, '290 million' has sportsmanship like 'Physical: 100'. The winning couple respected the losing couple, and the losing couple acknowledged the winning couple. And there is another skinship that 'Physical: 100' doesn't have. If you win a mission, because it's hard, because you're eliminated, or if you just make eye contact, you express affection. It's so natural, and sometimes the expression of affection is also competitive, so sometimes I'm mistaken that I'm filming a drama. On the other hand, a single word fights, and even a single indifferent look makes you cry sadly. I'm sure it's a survival program with a unique color that makes you forget you're filming because every moment on every day you shoot is so real.
Real couple survival tvN's '290 Million' will premiere on July 2nd (Sun) at 7:45 pm.
Reporter Ryu Ye-ji and Ten Asia ryuperstar@tenasia.co.kr
