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Ji Chang Wook on his latest Disney+ original The Manipulated.
On December 11, Ji Chang Wook shared his thoughts on the K-drama and why he pushed himself despite the difficulty of the action scenes.
The Manipulated is an action drama that follows Tae Jung (Ji Chang Wook), an ordinary man who gets wrongfully imprisoned for a heinous crime, only to discover that everything was orchestrated by Yo Han (Doh Kyung Soo). He then sets out to take revenge on him.
Ji Chang Wook, who eagerly anticipated Fabricated City (Korean original story) being developed into a series, remarked, "Naturally, I thought, 'Shouldn't I be the one to do this?' The script was really fun. When I received the offer for episodes 1 through 4 and read it, the first thought that came to mind was that it was interesting and that I wanted to do it well. After filming Fabricated City 10 years ago and receiving the offer for The Manipulated, I felt some pressure about how I should approach a story I had already done. Since it's a series, unlike a film, the narrative changed a lot. You can see it as a different work, but that itself was a big challenge, and I think I also felt a strong desire to develop and build upon the project from 10 years ago."
Regarding how he researched his character, he said, "I think the writer's capabilities played a huge role in turning the film into a series. Taking a two-hour movie and recreating it with many characters and narratives required a lot of effort from the writer in many aspects. For this project, rather than creating a character and presenting it, I thought it would be better to dramatically express what I can express in those given situations... I think I spent a lot of time thinking about how the audience could follow along through Tae Jung's point of view."
He said he paid particular attention to Tae Jung's emotions in the early part of the story, where he hits rock bottom. "There were devices used to deliberately drag the protagonist down to the lowest point, and I thought that Tae Jung had to reach rock bottom for the audience to really empathize with him. So I focused a lot on that. After going to prison, he attempts suicide, and although he may have later started to recover while doing copy-room work, he is still mentally shattered. I imagined him being so broken that he even starts to believe he committed a crime he actually didn't commit. Hearing the words of a new inmate, he begins to wonder, 'Did I do it?' — and I think that moment served as a kind of inflection point, a turning point for him."
Ji Chang Wook also opened up about the difficulties he faced physically. "It was physically exhausting, but part of that exhaustion came from my own ambition. Since the role itself is one where the character is constantly suffering, that was also extremely tough. There was a lot of action. Starting from episode 1, there was motorcycle action, and from the prison scenes onward, it was action nonstop. The car chase scenes were a major component, and even after that, there was yet another big action sequence.
It was a project with a huge amount of action, and because I wanted it to be done well, I talked a lot with the stunt coordinator. I paid a lot of attention to this work. There's a feeling that Tae Jung levels up as he progresses through different stages. Inside the prison, there's hand-to-hand combat, then there's the car-chase action, and after that, there's an even more developed, almost comic-book style of action. I wanted to express those layers well. Rather than grounding it in realism, I wanted it to feel refreshing as a [purely] entertainment-driven drama. I wondered what it would be like if it were somewhat cartoonish. Because I was doing so many action scenes, I think people started looking at me with pity. Maybe because they saw how much I was suffering, the staff members were especially kind to me."
To the question of whether there were any external or physical changes, he replied, "I thought it would be good if I looked worn out, so I even considered losing weight. But the shoot itself was already so demanding. After training, I don't think I tried to bulk up or build muscle."
Given the many types of action scenes, there were many stunt doubles as well. "I did what I could myself, and for the things I couldn't, we used doubles a lot. There's a car-chase action scene with Yang Dong Geun sunbae. There was a sequence we shot almost like a one-take, and for that, I did some of it myself, and we mixed in the stunt double with camera techniques and the way the shots were arranged so it wouldn't be noticeable. With action, it's not easy to do 100% of everything [myself], so they helped where needed, and for the parts I felt ambitious about or thought, 'I can do this better,' I did those myself. If I had to quantify it, I'd say it was about fifty-fifty. I think action [on-screen] is created together with the doubles and the action team. You can't set and coordinate the [choreography] on your own, so we always work together."
Ji Chang Wook also shared doing multiple action works recently — including The Worst of Evil, Gangnam B-Side, The Manipulated — "Whenever I do action, I always think the same thing: that I don't want to do action again. It's so exhausting, and it takes such a toll on the body. But honestly, with The Manipulated and with every project, I think, 'Maybe this will be my last action project.' As I get older, there are times when I cannot do well, contrary to my intentions, so I wonder, 'Maybe this is the last time. I shouldn't do this anymore.' But then, after finishing the next project, without fail, I end up thinking again, 'Maybe this is the last one.' I think I'll still be repeating this a few years from now."
As for any talk of a second season, the actor straight up commented, saying, "There has been absolutely none." "You never know how people's feelings might change, but this project was so exhausting that I really don't want to take action for a while." Yet, "If they offered a Season 2, I would be very grateful and feel happy about it too," he said, laughing.
When asked whether he felt he achieved what he set out to, he shared, "I didn't think I would. I always take on a project with ambition, but I rarely feel satisfied. But the audience's evaluation is different. When many people say it's fun and give compliments, it feels like a gift, something to be grateful for. Personally, I feel I did well in line with my own ambitions, but it doesn't feel like it came out perfectly. It's not about wanting big commercial success. Success isn't something that happens just because I want it. Of course, I hope things do well, but doing my best doesn't guarantee that. So my mindset hasn't really changed. I think I just tend to obsess over and pour a lot of ambition into the acting and into the work as a whole."
Starring in The Worst of Evil, Gangnam B-Side, and The Manipulated, and now in the upcoming Korea-Japan co-production drama Merry Berry Love, Ji Chang Wook has earned the nickname Disney+'s son. Regarding his continued collaboration with Disney+, he said, "I am always grateful. The fact that someone hires me, makes an investment, and guarantees my fee means that, as an actor, I have a purpose and a role to play. I am grateful for that in itself. Because of that, I think I tend to get more ambitious, and maybe that's why I also suffer a lot. I try to give my best for the guarantee [of the wage], but as an employee, I feel deeply thankful to those who hired me, and I work fiercely so that they never feel [employing me] was a wrong decision."
