The producer of 'X's private life' clarified prejudices and misunderstandings about the program.
TV CHOSUN's new variety show 'X's private life' producer Kim Seok-hyun held an interview with OSEN at the TME Group office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on the 27th.
'X's private life' is a real observation program that watches X's life after divorce and meetings with new romantic partners from the perspective of the ex-spouse. Episodes 1 and 2, which aired on the 17th and 24th, told the story of actor Park Jae-hyun and his ex-wife Han Hye-ju.
When asked how he felt about airing the first episode of 'X's private life,' Kim Seok-hyun said, "Actually, before the broadcast aired, many reacted that the title was a bit sensational and that it dealt a lot with divorced couples. Also, because pre-release promotion suggested secretly watching the private lives of ex-wives or ex-husbands, I heard comments like 'Isn't that too sensational?' and 'There are already so many harmful programs in the world; are you making another polluting program?'"
He continued, "It might upset some people, but it didn't for me. We did deliberately lead things a bit to attract interest, but the program's content is not like that. I never wanted to make programs that harm the world, and I've always wanted to make programs that help participants even a little. I don't know if viewers felt this wasn't a polluting program, but I hope they understand the truth."
He explained the reason for the title 'X's private life,' saying, "The expression 'X' has a double meaning. It can mean 'EX,' and X can also be when you say 'bad X.' We embraced that ambiguity. Since it's not just watching the life of an ordinary person, emotions get very complicated. The main writer Kim Jung-sun and I 고민ed over what title could express those emotions, and we decided to go with a provocative title while making the content a kind program that helps the world."
He also explained why he planned the program: "I have a happy family and live well, but many people around me have divorced. From what I saw, they were all decent, good people. The reasons for those divorces were more often economic reasons, differences in child-rearing values, conflicts with in-laws, business failures — emotions between the two remain, but many divorced for other external reasons. Yet programs dealing with divorce make divorced people look like failures, people who want to hide. There's also a strange culture that considers it odd for divorced people to even contact each other. I heard Korea's divorce rate has surpassed about 30%, and I wanted to understand those people and help their lives afterward."
Kim Seok-hyun said, "I hope people can comfortably accept that emotions are being sorted out after divorce. People also tend to keep finding fault with the other person as a way of caring for their spouse. Among people I know who divorced, few said 'It's my fault.' That's inevitable. But I wanted to make a program where people can see how someone changes when their ex-partner lives without them and meets someone else, and reflect on themselves a lot."
The plot of watching an ex-spouse meet a 'new romantic partner' was for this reason. Kim Seok-hyun said, "You might be curious how they get along with someone else when you didn't match with them. Watching that, you realize, 'I thought my spouse was lacking, but they just didn't match with me — they're a good person.' That becomes clear in episodes 3 and 4 and 5 and 6. Even though they didn't match with each other, they can be so happy with someone else. It's not only me; the surrounding environment didn't match. Watching that makes you think a lot."
He said, "While making the program the production team was surprised; the creators thought a lot more than expected. But everyone is different — men and women and personalities differ. These days there's MBTI too. Even after producing and monitoring, many viewers say 'men are bad' or 'no, women are strange,' opposing views abound. Visible flaws differ by person. So people who see each other's strengths are happier together, and there are limits to how much people can adjust to each other; we realized that during the program."
He went on, "I hope viewers learn what kind of person they are by watching this program. Questions like 'What kind of person would make me happy?' or 'Would my heart be stable?' But most people think 'If I meet someone, will I be financially stable and will life look good?' especially these days. I hope that won't be the standard of happiness or life, especially for marriage. These days many shows make viewers not want to marry. Depending on the case that may be true, but we don't want our show to be like that. Rather than 'don't marry' or 'marry,' I want it to be a program that makes people reflect on how good they were to their partner."
He said the production struggled not to portray either side as villains. Kim Seok-hyun said, "In well-made war movies, aren't the people portrayed as good? For example, in Taegukgi: Brotherhood Of War, Jang Dongkeon and Won Bin are brothers who love each other but circumstances force them to point guns at each other. Our program is similar. Rather than showing bad people, we wanted to tell why the world made them divorce — people's stories and contemporary social stories. So there's no narration to let viewers focus on that. We don't intend to force-feed viewers with subtitles or narration. We wanted to include diverse people's stories so viewers can feel 'people are diverse' and 'ways of life are diverse; they're different from me but not bad.'"
He said, "I wanted to portray honest stories of unexaggerated people. Showing the meeting and parting of married couples, who have the closest relationships in life, truthfully will make married viewers more immersed and self-reflective, divorced viewers will empathize and reflect, and single viewers will abandon unnecessary fantasies about future partners and think realistically. I wanted to make a program that asks many questions and provokes thought. There are shows that make you feel 'That was good,' 'That was fun,' 'Time flew,' and shows that make you think 'I want to do what they did.' Nowadays those two types make up 99%. I wanted to make a program that makes people think a bit more, not necessarily philosophical, but deeper."
Therefore, unlike other divorce variety shows, 'X's private life' does not show scenes where the X couple confront each other in the same space. Kim Seok-hyun said, "Scenes where they appear together in the broadcast are all composite. Except for meetings during custody exchanges, there were no other scenes of them meeting. There's no need to exaggerate everyday life. Of course there's temptation — some argued 'you need that to get viewers' or 'you should do these things.' But that would go against the program's purpose." He emphasized the show is not one that pursues 'dopamine.'
He said, "Sometimes the meeting itself is tragic. It would be great if people could overcome that, but there are points they can't overcome. In our program you can see where things went wrong. Other programs might have couples receive mental counseling or think they must change the person's character. We don't approach it that way. We're not psychologists or dating coaches, and we don't cheer that someone who meets a new person will do well. I hoped some who see their ex might think 'I was wrong; I should go propose again.' Couples like that could emerge after a year or two on the program. We're not forcing it. We don't want to force 'if you fix this you'll be happy' through role play. You can't just be fixed — you have to realize it yourself."
He added, "Viewers may misunderstand by judging only from the title, thinking it's voyeuristic or sensational, just stirring dopamine and boosting ratings with lots of weird seasonings. It's not that kind of attention-seeking program. I hope people see it as a program that prompts warm thoughts and serves as healthy material for social debate. Just because past shows dealing with divorce or new relationships used a lot of seasoning, I hope people don't refuse to sample ours thinking 'won't it taste predictable?' Try three spoons first; if you like it, keep watching. You'll know whether it's rich stock or just seasoned. I hope people recognize it's a real beef-bone broth and give it lots of love." (Continued in interview 2.)
[Photo] OSEN reporter Min Kyung-hoon
[OSEN]