“An all-time great cast including Seo In-guk and Lee Do-hyun, with over 6 months of hard work”

Director Ha Byeong-hoon, who directed TVING's original series 'Lee Jae, I'm Dying Soon', revealed the secret to completing the best-ever casting lineup.

'Lee Jae, I'm Dying Soon' is a life-changing drama in which Choi Lee Jae (played by Seo In-guk), who is about to fall into hell, experiences death and life 12 times due to the judgment made by Death (played by Park So-dam).

Director Ha Byeong-hoon predicted the birth of a grand worldview that crosses life and death. He revealed the reason for planning the work, saying, "I wanted to try a new genre of drama, not a time slip or comedy. Then, I came across the original webtoon and thought, 'With this material, I can try more diverse genres.'" It can show the fun of various genres with a fast pace, and it was a material optimized for OTT.

Director Ha Byeong-hoon explained the differences from the original, saying, "I adapted it to provide visual interest and a dramatic connection in which deaths are interconnected. In the process, many new characters that did not exist in the webtoon were created." He added, "For characters that were not in the original work, I worked on the script while thinking about the actor who could best express each character," stimulating curiosity about each character.

In particular, it attracted a lot of attention with an all-time cast including Seo In-guk, Park So-dam, Kim Ji-hoon, Choi Si-won, Seong Hoon, Kim Kang-hoon, Jang Seung-jo, Lee Jae-wook, Lee Do-hyun, Go Yoon-jung, Kim Jae-wook, and Oh Jeong-se. Director Ha Byeong-hoon honestly confessed, "We put a lot of effort into casting the actors for more than six months. I was constantly nervous right up until filming. The casting process was more difficult than the script work." He then hinted, “There are actors who have not been revealed yet, so please watch until the end.”

Since different actors had to play the same character, Choi Yi-jae, director Ha Byeong-hoon tried several methods to achieve synchronization. He said, "Everyone worked hard by reading together, actor Seo In-guk showing his own acting, and recording and sharing his voice," giving an idea of the effort he had made so far.

Lastly, director Ha Byeong-hoon said, “Please pay attention to which genre, which actor will appear in each episode, what kind of performance he will perform, and what kind of body Choi Lee-jae will use to avoid death.” In addition, he said, "While the structure was structured so that everyone can easily understand, foreshadowing and devices that only drama fans can find were hidden here and there. I think it will be fun to find them. I hope you enjoy watching the death game with death." Even fun was predicted.

The entire Part 1 of ‘Jae Lee, I’m Dying Soon’ will be released on December 15th, and the entire Part 2 will be released on January 5th, 2024. It can also be viewed in more than 240 countries around the world through Prime Video.

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