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The Korea Times

By Park Jin-hai
This article contains spoilers for Gyeongseong Creature season one.
The director of Netflix’s Gyeongseong Creature, Chung Dong-yoon, expressed surprise and gratitude at the global response to the drama series, particularly from Japan.
He acknowledged the difficulties of crafting a narrative grounded in the harsh historical reality of Japanese military experiments during South Korea’s colonial era, when it was under Japanese rule.
“In light of the influence of the Korean Wave [the rise in global popularity of Korean popular culture], particularly in Japan, Korean actors have been hesitant to take on projects of this nature for nearly a decade.
“The fact that actors like Park Seo-joon and Han So-hee, who have immense popularity in Japan and globally, have chosen to participate in this project is, I believe, an act of great courage,” Chung said in an interview.


The second season of the show, released worldwide on September 27, soared to the No. 3 spot on Netflix’s global TV show rankings just two days after its release.
The series topped the charts in Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand and ranked within the top 10 in 80 countries, including Japan, where it ranked fourth, according to the streaming analytics site FlixPatrol.
“Initially, we didn’t have high expectations for a global audience, as we anticipated it might be difficult to garner interest in Korean history abroad. Many people, even today, still confuse Korea with Japan or China,” Chung said.
“So I think a big part of its popularity was due to the actors. Their participation has been instrumental in raising global awareness of Korean history, especially considering the common misconceptions that still exist.”

Season 2, set in Seoul in 2024, continues the story of Park and Han’s characters from the first season as they unravel the unfinished threads of ill fate and destiny in Gyeongseong, as Seoul was called during the Japanese colonial era.
Chung stressed that the drama is not intended to be anti-Japanese but rather aims to convey a universally resonant message that “forgiveness and forgetting are different”.
“There are victims, and there are those who have committed terrible acts and still hold power. Even as time goes on, new victims continue to suffer,” Chung said.
“We must not remain silent and must continue to speak out against these injustices. I believe this is how we can create a better world.”
Regarding the criticism about the limited screen time given to the tentacled creature in season one, Chung explained that it was not a typical monster designed for action sequences. Instead, it was presented as a subject of scientific experimentation.
“[The] creature is a transformed experimental subject exposed to anthrax, so rather than being depicted as overly strong or large, we wanted to focus on the emotional aspects.
“In season one, as the creature was Chae-ok’s mother, we emphasised a sorrowful expression and swollen eyes caused by hitting the bars of her cage, allowing viewers to still see her as a mother,” he said.

In season two, he introduced a more diverse range of creatures. The first creature was imagined to be muscular, the second more feminine, and the third larger and more powerful.
Despite their monstrous appearance, he wanted to depict the creatures as victims of experimentation so that viewers could feel empathy for them, he said.
“After the face-off with [one] creature, Ho-jae says, ‘You’re suffering too, aren’t you?’ It’s meant to show that they’re also experimental subjects and that they don’t want to be doing this.
“I wanted to highlight that point, even if just for a moment. When Ho-jae says, ‘You don’t want this either,’ the creature retreats quietly,” Chung explained.
The director said he wants to create an alien series someday.
“My lifelong dream is to go to the moon and see Earth. I’ve always been drawn to that story. Watching the sci-fi film The Moon [2023] made me realise how far Korea’s technology has come. I think we can do even more in the future.”
Read the full story at The Korea Times.


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As season two of the Korean drama drops, Gyeongseong Creature director Chung Dong-yoon opens up about the challenges making it


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