Netflix series Genie, Make A Wish writer Kim Eun-sook unveils a new Shinsegae of fantasy romantic comedy.
Genie, Make A Wish, which is released Oct. 3 (Fri) ahead of Chuseok, is a stress-free fantasy romantic comedy about Genie (played by Kim Woo-bin), the lamp spirit whose career was interrupted and who awakens after about a thousand years, meeting the emotionally deficient human Ga-young (played by Suzy) and engaging in a bet over three wishes. The naive-to-the-world Genie and the emotionless Ga-young's precarious wish contest promises a wildly original story.
Genie, Make A Wish is drawing intense attention as the new work from writer Kim Eun-sook, whose existence is a genre unto itself. Kim Eun-sook, who created sensations with works such as The Glory, Mr. Sunshine and Goblin, returns this time with a fantasy romantic comedy that skillfully blends reality and fantasy.
Earlier she described Genie, Make A Wish as "a stress-free, no-starch taste fantasy romantic comedy," arousing curiosity. She added, "The easiest and fastest way for people worn down by daily life to become happy is through drama. Among the many genres, romantic comedy is a magical everyday genre: watching wonderful actors complete love in sweet and cringe-worthy ways makes you thrill along, and in doing so you forget your weary routine and heal while laughing and crying."
As soon as the trailer was released, the unique characters played by Kim Woo-bin and Suzy became a topic of conversation. The premise that the wish-granting Genie is Satan who corrupts humans, and that the romantic comedy protagonist is a strange and beautiful woman who cannot feel emotions, along with other twists on familiar elements, sparked imagination with a fresh and novel mix of characters. The acting transformations by Kim Woo-bin and Suzy, who perfectly embodied these roles, also attracted attention.
Writer Kim Eun-sook explained, "Genie is a mercurial character who must be cool, fall apart, then be deadly in an instant — a role that requires the actor to use every emotion and expression," and added, "Playful face, handsome face, cold face, lonely face, and above all the face of someone in love — the need to express all of these made me understand why people say an actor has 'a thousand faces' when I watched Kim Woo-bin."
Regarding the character Ga-young and Suzy, she described, "Ga-young is an extremely rare character that paradoxically has the outward label of 'psychopath' and the inner implication of 'the human will to do good.' Her world is guided only by her grandmother's rules and the routines she created, so she repeatedly and quietly but fiercely battles Genie, who keeps pushing her beyond her map. That strange and beautiful woman was the Ga-young I envisioned, and despite being a difficult character, Suzy reassured me by saying she was actually very excited."
The following is the full Q&A with writer Kim Eun-sook.
Q. What does the romantic comedy genre mean to writer Kim Eun-sook?
The easiest and fastest way for people worn down by daily life to become happy is through drama. Among the many genres, romantic comedy is a magical everyday genre: watching wonderful actors complete love in sweet and cringe-worthy ways makes you thrill along, and in doing so you forget your weary routine and heal while laughing and crying.
Q. How was the meeting with actors Kim Woo-bin and Suzy, who play Genie and Ga-young?
Genie is a mercurial character who must be cool, fall apart, then be deadly in an instant — a role that requires the actor to use every emotion and expression. Playful face, handsome face, cold face, lonely face, and above all the face of someone in love — the need to express all of these made me understand why people say an actor has 'a thousand faces' when I watched Kim Woo-bin.
Ga-young is an extremely rare character that paradoxically has the outward label of 'psychopath' and the inner implication of 'the human will to do good.' Her world is guided only by her grandmother's rules and the routines she created, so she repeatedly and quietly but fiercely battles Genie, who keeps pushing her beyond her map. That strange and beautiful woman was the Ga-young I envisioned, and despite being a difficult character, Suzy reassured me by saying she was actually very excited.
Q. How did you design and develop the other characters in Genie, Make A Wish besides Genie and Ga-young?
I recommend viewing Genie's brother 'Soo-hyun,' the mysterious woman 'Mi-joo,' and Ga-young's friend the dentist 'Min-ji' with no prior information. There will be fun in discovering the pieces of information scattered throughout the show and in predicting how their relationships will unfold.
Other major characters include the 'wishers.' When creating these characters I thought a lot about lack. Every human life has lack, and when asked to state a wish most people try to fill that lack. But the ways of doing so can be good or evil, so I built the wishers' characters while asking, 'How do humans deal with lack?' and 'How should I handle my own lack?'
Q. Was there anything important you considered when setting the story's spatial background?
Because the lamp is the space where Genie was imprisoned and punished for 983 years, I wanted it to feel desolate, and later, as Ga-young fills the lamp with various items, I wanted to show the once distant place becoming a cozy space full of life. I wanted to express Genie's emotional changes visually like that, and when the staff first saw the footage they thought, 'my Genie.' Cheongpung Village was set as a space contrasting with Genie's Dubai desert: rather than a city, it is a Korean-style countryside village where green mountains and land and water that nurture life beautifully come together.
Q. To fans waiting for Genie, Make A Wish
Because the work's premise involves three wishes, I inevitably had to tackle somewhat weighty gods such as human desire and nature, the two-sided dreams of good and evil, and the depth of love. Since it's a rom-com, I tried to write even the terrible gods as charming, and the result is the strange and beautiful Genie, Make A Wish. So this Chuseok you might enjoy gathering together and immersing yourselves in the charms of Genie, Make A Wish. Rather than nagging like 'get married' or 'get a job,' I hope you have a rich Chuseok filled with soft conversations like 'what is our daughter's wish?' and 'what is mom's wish?'
The enchanting fantasy romantic comedy Genie, Make A Wish will be released worldwide on Netflix on Oct. 3 (Fri).
[Photo] Netflix
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