Ryu Seung-ryong on why the story of Kingdom is important today
South Korean star Ryu Seung-ryong plays with gusto and convincing viciousness the power-hungry Minister Cho Hak-ju in Netflix’s period zombie series Kingdom.
In real life, or at least from what Pinoy reporters saw in a recent video-conference chat with the main cast, the 49-year-old veteran actor who top-billed some of Korea’s top-grossing films like Extreme Job and Miracle in Cell No. 7 was super funny, if not the funniest. He was clearly a charmer during the interview, who loved sending across the screens the signature Korean finger hearts. It made us forget, even for a moment, of Cho Hak-ju’s skillfully sinister ways, and whose character development delivers one of the biggest shockers in Season 2 of the series. For those who haven’t caught on the Kingdom fever yet, it’s been streaming on Netflix since March 13.
Set during the Joseon era, Kingdom tells the story of exiled crown prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) and his small band of supporters who are working to save people from a mysterious outbreak that turns them into the undead. At the same time, the prince tries to reclaim his place as rightful heir to the throne, but chief state councilor Cho Hak-ju does everything in his power to keep that from happening.
Seung-ryong recalled his reaction when he first read the script for the follow-up season: “I thought, ‘This is going to be crazy.’ The season doesn’t simply solve the mysteries, but the way it does it is perfectly neat. And not only does this season solve mysteries, but it also lays out even more amazing mysteries.”
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No doubt Seung-ryong is also one of the most popular actors from the series which has since become a global hit. Still, he couldn’t believe he would be recognized during an overseas trip.
“I met some animal lovers in Zimbabwe and South Africa, who live alongside wild animals in a wide grassland. They recognized me,” he recalled.
“I was very surprised. They did some impersonations of characters from Kingdom and then ran away. But I could see how popular the series was.”
Asked what he enjoyed the most from playing his villain role, he mused, “What I enjoyed from playing the role of Cho Hak-ju would be that I did all of my acting in a very comfortable and warm setting (compared to the others).”
He also believes that his character didn’t start out as an absolute evil. “In the very beginning, I’m sure he had a sense of justice and a sense of need to really rebuild the nation in the way he saw right. However, during the process, he stuck with the wrong direction and the wrong values, which were mixed with the hunger for power and desire…
“There are reasons, at least to him, for what he is doing, and he gives a certain sense of legitimacy to all of the things that he does. So that is something that can be unique about him compared to other evils. And I do think that if I were to find something charming about him, it would be the charisma that he used to really overcome and get to where he is in the story.”
Nevertheless, for the actor, how his character has evolved is scarier than the undead in Kingdom.
“Cho Hak-ju is someone who shows how terrifying man’s desire for power and false beliefs can be. I tried to maintain the tension that was created in Season 1. In Season 2, I focused on portraying how Cho Hak-ju expresses his desire and reaches emotional extremes while continuing to express that human greed and desire are more terrifying than the undead without big physical movements,” he said.
It’s not hard to notice that Season 2 comes at a time when Korean content and talent are having an “unprecedented” global moment, especially after the Hollywood success of the Oscar-winning Parasite. Seung-ryong hopes that Kingdom makes a good representation for Korean-made content in the global streaming business. “We now have BTS representing the K-pop industry and Parasite for the Korean film industry, and please continue to support our series so that Kingdom can surprise the world again as the counterpart that represents Korean content in the streaming industry.”
As the final question during the video-conference, The STAR asked what he thinks is the importance of the story of Kingdom in today’s times.
Seung-ryong said, “I personally don’t think that that is an important factor to the story. We try to portray what is the most unique to Korea. And I think that what we tried to do was to unravel a story that could resonate with everybody despite time and space in the most beautiful setting, wearing the most beautiful wardrobe and creating everything that is most Korean and that happened to be Joseon (era), because power struggles have always been there and will always be there.”
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