Made in Korea Stars Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung Talk '70s Crime K-Drama

Posted in: Disney+, Hulu, TV | Tagged: Made In Korea

Made in Korea Stars Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung Talk '70s Crime K-Drama

Made in Korea stars Hyun Bin and Jung Woo-sung spoke with us about Disney+ and Hulu's '70s crime K-drama and the importance of authenticity.

Published Tue, 16 Dec 2025 14:37:03 -0600
by Tom Chang
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Hyun Bin and Jun Woo-sung are at the top of their game in the Korean entertainment industry, with Hyun's memorable roles in Secret Garden, Harbin (2024), and Crash Landing on You, and Jun's memorable roles in The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2009), Steel Rain (2017), and A Moment to Remember. The two stars in a new crime K-drama Made in Korea, which is a historical drama set in 1970s South Korea, where an ambitious man (Hyun) lives a double life as an agent for Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) by day and a dangerous businessman by night, who comes face to face with a tenacious prosecutor (Jung) willing to risk it all to bring him down.

Made in Korea Stars Hyun Bin and Jung Woo-sung on Bringing 1970s Crime Thriller to Life

BC: What intrigued you about Made in Korea and playing in the period setting?

Hyun: I think the fact that the story is based on actual major events that took place in the 1970s and how a new fictional storyline is put on top of that through these fictional characters, that's what really spoke to me.

Jung: For me, when I first heard of the title, Made in Korea, I thought that was very brave, because to be able to slap on the phrase "Made in Korea" as the title of your project, that takes guts, right? That took me by surprise, and then when I read the script, I thought, "Okay, I understand why they made the title, Made in Korea." On top of that, as Hyun Bin just said, "The story is based on actual events that took place in the 1970s," and it brings the greed, ambition, and desires of these fictional characters. Unlike other period pieces, where you maintain a distance between the fictional characters and what happened, I was drawn to the fact that Made in Korea throws fictional characters into the heart of these major events. That was one of the things I thought was the biggest appeal, as well as a very courageous take.

How did you prep for your roles, and what did the series allow you to do that you wouldn't normally do in your project?

Hyun: For me, because the character Baek Gi-tae is a member of the KCIA. In fact, the KCIA was an organization back in the 1970s that was the epitome of power. It was a daunting and prominent organization, and part of the branch of the government, so I wanted that to come across just with the appearance of my character. I wanted him to come across as daunting and intimidating. For this character, I put on about 13 to 14 kilograms of weight (28-30 lb for you, Americans), and then you will know when you watch the first episode, but I also had to take Japanese lessons, because I had a lot of Japanese dialogue.

Jung: For me, when I first read the script, and when I read about this character I would be portraying, Jang Geon-yeong, I realized and felt that there's a lot of room for me as an actor portraying this character to design him so much more than what's actually written in text. From his personality, the way he has so many different layers, his multifacetedness as a character, I felt that was something I could really play with. Also, in one of the directions, it reads, "Jang Geon-yeong laughs," Ha ha ha. Reading the text, I thought to myself, "Depending on how I portray his laughter, that gives me a lot of room and a huge spectrum for me to be able to portray a very different type of character." That's how I approached him. I would say that, compared to any of my previous roles, this is a character where I use a lot of different and new acting techniques.

What did you like about working with Park Eun-kyo and director Woo Minho, and do you feel any additional pressure when the entire world gets to see a project like this around the same time?

Hyun: Because this is my second time working with director Woo Minho, especially right after my previous film (Harbin) with him. The fact that this is such a different story, I think, made it a lot of fun for both of us. Also, because we work together, I have a lot of trust in him, and I also know his directing style. In our previous film, it was based on true events and an actual historical figure. This time around, because it's a fictional character, on top of actual events that took place, we had room for a lot of fun with writer Park, I know that she wrote this for a very long time, and that goes to show, because there's so much detail and layers to the text, so I was able to approach the character based on that.

Made in Korea, which also stars Cho Yeo-jeong, Noh Jae-won, Jung Sung-il, and Lily Franky, premieres on December 24th on Disney+ and Hulu.

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