Drama writer Im Seong-han appeared on her first live broadcast in 36 years since her debut via a phone call with YouTuber Eom Eun-hyang.
On the 17th, YouTuber Eom Eun-hyang held a live broadcast on her personal channel. As previously announced, drama writer Im Seong-han attended as a special guest and participated in an interview via phone call, drawing attention.
Im Seong-han is a star drama writer beloved for works such as "See and Again", "The Mermaid", "Oh My Heaven", "Temptation of Wife", "New Tales of Gisaeng", "Apgujeong Midnight Sun" and "Aurora Princess." Having once announced her retirement, she returned under the pen name "Phoebe" with works including the Love (ft. Marriage & Divorce) series and "Ashi Durian." She is currently meeting viewers with the TV CHOSUN weekend drama "Doctor Shin."
From her first words in the phone interview, Im Seong-han explained the controversial "miljeonbyeong." It was a recurring motif that frequently appeared in many of her works, and Eom Eun-hyang had even made and eaten miljeonbyeong herself before the phone connection. Im Seong-han said, "I also burst out laughing that I used miljeonbyeong so much; I was surprised. I didn't realize I used it that often. The moment I checked, I felt sorry to the viewers. I should have varied the episodes; there were parts that were the same. I want to say I'm sorry."
She explained her know-how, "I absolutely do not eat miljeonbyeong as a staple. Absolutely not. When I was 7 I went to a friend's mother's house and saw it upgraded like that; you have to shape the flour batter with a spoon. And you have to eat it with soy sauce mixed with red pepper powder. The recipe for babies is different. For children it's not spicy, so you skip the soy sauce and add an egg, so the texture is different."
Im Seong-han especially emphasized managing health through eating habits. She said, "In my case there was something protruding beside my face that I thought might be osteosarcoma. I was surprised and went to the hospital, and they told me there really was something on my face. They were going to do a tissue test, but because it was around Chuseok they said they'd do it afterward; they thought it was some acidic thing, so I changed my diet. I want to meet someone for a day and share health know-how. If your eating habits are bad, it will happen again. If your eating habits are good, it's over."
She added, "Internet users, don't worry. I know from breaking a leg while horseback riding; it must be incredibly hard. But now I can't trust horses and don't ride anymore. Looking at the women who compete in the Olympics, all their thighs are thick and they inevitably fly off. Even when riding, I felt sorry for the horse. The bit in the mouth. That made me stop."
She also revealed the current status of actor Baek Ok-dam, who appeared extensively in her works. Born in 1986, Baek Ok-dam is known as Im Seong-han's biological niece. She gained recognition by appearing in Im Seong-han's works such as "Ahyeon-dong Madam," "New Tales of Gisaeng," "Aurora Princess," and "Apgujeong Midnight Sun," often noted as a lookalike of Tang Wei.
Im Seong-han said, "She got married and is raising her child well. She is doing a great job as a mother. I said that focusing on raising the child diligently is good for the children. You can't be perfect at both; the children are important. I told her to be a good mother to the children."
She is also known for casting rookie actors in leading roles in many of her works. Regarding her criteria for selecting new actors, she said, "Because I have all the specific episodes written, I look at whether they fit or not and choose," adding, "Extras are the responsibility of the production department. Only the lead needs to be good."
Regarding the speech pattern known as "Im Seong-han style," she said, "When I debuted, a well-known midcareer actor I could name used a lot of literary language and not conversational language. I am proud. After that I listened carefully to how people spoke. Everyone's speech was inverted and chaotic. So I wrote completely in conversational language."
Regarding anti reactions, she calmly said, "There is nothing to get angry about. I've heard so much about people watching while cursing at the melodrama. When 'The Mermaid' aired, my anti fans even held protests demanding I stop writing." She continued, "Even the president has 48% anti. I of course go through it too. When my viewership share was 78%, if roughly 20 million people in Korea watched, the antis were 15,000. It's not something to be hurt by; rather, I was grateful for the attention. So I tried to write more perfectly. Poet Seo Jeong-ju said that eight-tenths of you is the wind; eight-tenths of me are antis and reporters."
Although Im Seong-han's works divide viewers sharply, she is famous for 'pus-filled scripts.' Im Seong-han awkwardly said, "I don't write with pus." But she added, "As for how far I've gone, writing a daily soap alone including preparation takes almost two years. You can't go out of the house and only look out the window." She lamented, "Because time is short, I try not to sleep much, laying just a blanket on the floor without a bed, resting my head on a few books and sleeping for a few hours. Then later when I try to sleep, I can't."
She said, "I felt like I was going crazy. So I went to a general hospital on my own at 11 p.m. and was admitted. There they prescribed a few sleeping pills. I had never taken sleeping pills before. The first time I took them, my body was already staggering on the way up to the ward. Still, I couldn't sleep. It was extremely painful. It's still painful now. So I realized people who took sleeping pills didn't go peacefully." She revealed, "Preproducing saves you. Writing a daily drama and then a weekend drama is easy. Preparing in advance helps. It was work you could do while exercising and taking it moderately. The 'Doctor Shin' project took about seven to eight months, and there was a process of revising it afterward due to censorship."
Im Seong-han later shocked viewers by revealing that both Ari-young, the protagonist of "The Mermaid," and Seo Dong-ma, the protagonist of Love (ft. Marriage & Divorce) 3, survived in a tightly closed ending.
Above all, regarding the frequent shamanism themes in her works, she said, "I first researched it during 'The Royal Flower Fairy.' There were even rumors that there was some shaman shrine in my house. But I told my actors not to go wherever they said they had been this time. I should be the one to keep the center, but they tell me not to go." She emphasized, "'Doctor Shin' at one point had ratings below 1%. You can see how low the numbers are. If I think I wrote it terribly or people say this drama is not good, I should reflect, but if I think the content is fine and everyone is absorbed, that's fine; there's no need to live by the numbers."
[Photo] Provided by MBC and sourced from SNS-YouTube.
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