Actor Ji Chang-wook reprises Fabricated City film role for spin-off K-drama The Manipulated

SEOUL – South Korean heart-throb Ji Chang-wook is once again driven by vengeance in the thriller The Manipulated.

Now showing on Disney+, the series marks a rare film-to-series adaptation for Disney+ Korea, bringing South Korean director Park Kwang-hyun and Ji back together to reinterpret Park’s 2017 action hit Fabricated City through a fresh lens.

At the story’s core is a premise familiar to the original: Tae-joong (Ji), an ordinary man whose life is upended after being falsely accused of a brutal crime, discovers that the entire ordeal was orchestrated by criminal mastermind Yo-han (Do Kyung-soo), and sets out on a mission to exact revenge.

During a press conference in Seoul on Nov 3, Park, 56, explained the decision to cast Ji, 38, once more in the established story trope. “When the idea of turning it into a drama first came up, Ji showed his willingness to join even before the script was written. I know he showed great affection for the project by waiting patiently for a long time.

“To me, it was a natural choice. Although it’s not a direct remake of the film, he did such an outstanding job that I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role.”

The series format, Park noted, allowed for a storytelling cadence that the big screen could not accommodate.

“The Manipulated was structured like stages, with two episodes per arc, designed to make viewers unable to stop watching. Through new developments and unpredictable clashes, we aimed to showcase the unique appeal of a series format,” he said.

For his part, Ji said he approached Tae-joong from a new angle, deliberately distancing himself from the character’s film iteration.

“This time, my goal was to express the emotions that arise from the situations rather than focus on the character itself. I didn’t approach the role by trying to connect it with the character from Fabricated City at all,” he said.

“Instead of trying to make Tae-joong multidimensional, my focus was on being fully immersed in his circumstances and conveying those emotions as they are – making sure viewers could follow along with him. That was my biggest challenge.”

Opposite Ji, Do, 32, takes on his first major antagonist role. A member of K-pop boy band Exo, Do has been steadily making his mark as an actor following his role in the blockbuster movie Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds (2017).

“(Yo-han’s) real occupation is a sculptor, but he’s also an evil figure who designs crimes and ‘sculpts’ people,” Do said. To heighten Yo-han’s presence, the K-pop star revealed that he repeatedly dyed and permed his hair to damage it, a visual choice that aimed to amplify the character’s unsettling presence.

Action in The Manipulated is both kinetic and visceral, ranging from man-to-man combat to motorcycle stunts that scale walls. According to Park, the series approached action with “a wide variety of action concepts”. He said: “We used different camera techniques to capture a strong sense of realism.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK