"The East Palace" Series Aims to Blend Korean Beauty with Universal Story

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- The upcoming Netflix original series "The East Palace" seeks to highlight the visual beauty of traditional Korean palaces, while keeping its story universal enough for global audiences to follow, its director said Wednesday.

Set in a doomed royal palace, the action-packed series follows Gu-cheon (Nam Joo-hyuk) and Saeng-gang (Roh Yoon-seo), who sets out to uncover the source of a curse under orders from the king (Cho Seung-woo), who has lost all but one of his sons to the deadly curse.

Gu-cheon, a lonely spirit catcher who gains the ability to move between the real world and the world of spirits following his mother's death, and Saeng-gang, a court lady who can hear the voices of spirits, develop a strong bond as they work together to get to the bottom of the curse gripping the royal bloodline.

"In terms of visuals, I wanted to show audiences the beauty of royal court attire and palace architecture. I was in awe every time I saw those visuals during the shooting and thought it would be wonderful for more people to discover them," director Choi Jung-kyu said at a press conference.

"There are many Korean elements, such as the sentiment, the palace and the costumes," Choi added. "I hope we can offer something to enjoy with such aspects."

At the same time, the director said he did not want to put those Korean features at the forefront but rather blend them naturally into the story.

"One thing we really paid attention to was bringing in Korean elements naturally, which was inevitable because this is a period drama," Choi said. "We also focused on the pace and rhythm, so that more people can enjoy it regardless of their language and (cultural) background."

As part of such efforts, the production team put considerable work into developing the visuals of the various spirits and ghosts that appear in the series, many of which originate from Korean folk tales.

"Rather than going into detail about the different types of supernatural beings that have Korean roots, we tried to express their characteristics more intuitively through appearance," he said.

For the faint-hearted viewers who are not usually fans of occult horror, the main cast stressed that while the story is intense, it is not "too scary."

"A pond appears in 'The East Palace,'" Cho said. "While it may look calm on the surface, there is a gripping sense of tension beneath it, as if the eye of a storm were hidden below. I think viewers will be able to feel that intensity, along with many other emotions."

Nam, who marks his return to acting after completing his mandatory military service, encouraged audiences to watch the series.

"Some people have said they saw the trailer and teaser, and thought it might be too scary to watch," he said. "I cannot say it is not scary, but I am not good with scary things, either, and I still filmed it. It is scary but also full of spectacular things to see."

"The East Palace" is set to premiere next Friday.