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Im Chul Soo (Mr. Sunshine, Crash Landing on You, Alchemy of Souls, Gyeongseong Creature) shares his thoughts following the conclusion of Our Unwritten Seoul.
Our Unwritten Seoul is a coming-of-age story of twin sisters who look the same but are opposite in every other way, switching lives in search of their real selves.
In the K-drama, Im Chul Soo played the role of Lee Chung Gu, Lee Ho Su's (Park Jin Young) senior, and the representative lawyer of Wongeun Law Firm. Lee Chung Gu suffers from congenital disability but is a pragmatic person who spares no effort to win.
Im Chul Soo shared his thoughts on the show concluding, saying, "It was the same while filming, but usually shoots take a long time. Good projects, though, seem to go by like a 100m sprint. I feel sad, yet also very satisfied."
When asked if he had anticipated Our Unwritten Seoul's popularity, the actor replied, "When I read the script, I thought it was a project that would be talked about over time, but I didn't expect it to become this popular. Still, I was confident that it was a kind of drama people would keep revisiting."
Im Chul Soo also mentioned that he had looked up viewers' comments: "One comment that I particularly remember is, 'I hope things get better between him and Ho Su again.' Inevitably, as the story progressed, my character ended up standing on the opposite side. But I think viewers could still see that he cared about Ho Su. More than anything, I was glad he wasn't seen as a villain."
Playing a multidimensional character that can't be defined in terms of good or evil, Im Chul Soo, needless to say, experienced challenges. "Because he was such a complex character, it was very difficult. I think my perspective [on him] kept shifting. At first, he thought Ho Su would be on his side, but as he saw him repeatedly stray, he wanted to make Ho Su realize something. And yet, he kept slipping out of reach. He wanted to prove, ‘The path you're on is wrong, and mine is right.’ But in the end, I think he probably came to accept things. Maybe Chung Gu, too, wanted to grow by watching Ho Su. Chung Gu was really such a complex and difficult character that I felt I had to approach him with an open mind."
Since the character has a congenital disability in his legs, Im Chul Soo used a wheelchair and cane throughout the K-drama. When asked how he prepared for such a role, he shared,
"What was most difficult for me wasn't the movement, but managing the line of gaze — having to look up at others while sitting. As a lawyer, he would need to raise his head and look at people when communicating, right? I wondered, 'How did he see the world?' It wasn’t physically hard to be in a wheelchair; what mattered was how to understand and see the world from that perspective."
He continued, "The director and writer gave me time and asked me to choose between using a wheelchair or a cane, but I said I wanted to use both. I asked, 'What if, as a person, there are moments when he wants to look someone in the eye — what if he stood up then?' The director accepted that idea, which gave me more choices. Since it's a sensitive part, I studied the movements and direction in detail."
Regarding the lawyer aspect of his character, he said, "Since he's a lawyer, I focused a lot on the vocal part. I thought it would be good to have a distinction between how he speaks in professional versus personal settings, so I trained my voice accordingly. I worked to strip away my habits and make it more neutral and flat so that his rational, lawyer-like qualities would come through. I put a lot of effort into adjusting pitch and tone in a way that would make people want to listen."
He continued, "I don't really have anything in common with Chung Gu, but I am quite a serious person. Since I've played a lot of bright and cheerful roles, people who meet me in real life are often surprised by how serious I am. Aside from drawing from that serious side of myself, it was really challenging [to play the character] because I am such a different person [from him]."
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