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| From left, actors Chae Jong-hyeop and Seo Eun-soo, director Lee Chul-ha, and actor Park Sung-woong pose during an online press conference for ENA's new series, "Unlock My Boss," Wednesday. Courtesy of ENA |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Local network ENA's upcoming series, "Unlock My Boss," based on the webtoon of the same name, will unfold a genre-bending story, stretching from comedy to thriller.
The 12-part series revolves around IT developer Kim Sun-joo (Park Sung-woong), who is the founder and CEO of a large IT company. One day, on his way to pick up his daughter, he gets into a near-death accident and mysteriously becomes trapped inside a smartphone.
When unemployed, down-and-out Park In-sung (Chae Jong-hyeop) finds the phone, Sun-joo offers In-sung 10 billion won to temporarily take over his CEO duties on his behalf while helping him find whoever is responsible for the accident along with his secretary, Jung Se-yeon (Seo Eun-soo).
The series is led by director Lee Chul-ha, whose previous work includes the comedy film, "Okay! Madam," and is written by Kim Hyung-min, who co-scripted the Netflix series, "Sweet Home."
"There are different plots weaved together. First, there's the refreshing concept of a person getting trapped in a cell phone. Then, there's the mystery of how he got in there and the romance between the two lead characters ― In-sung and Se-yeon ― as they work together to find out who is responsible," the director said during an online press conference for the series, Wednesday.
"There's also a story about family, as (Sun-joo) tries to find his way back to his family. The story isn't about one particular generation so everyone will be able to enjoy it," he said.
The director added that the series will have a bit more of a serious tone than the original webcomic, saying, "The original piece was based in comedy but the series' writer went more serious, which I liked."
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| A scene from the series, "Unlock My Boss" / Courtesy of ENA |
This is the second time Park is working with director Lee since "Okay! Madam." The actor said that he had faith in the director and that was why he decided to take the role.
"Since this is my second work with director Lee, I trusted him. I thought there should be a reason why he offered me the script. And I finished the scripts for all 12 episodes in one day. I didn't see the webcomic but it was so interesting," Park said. "But I had joined a different project then so I told him my schedule wouldn't work out. Then he told me that I'd be trapped in a cell phone and would only have to do voice acting, so I felt it could work."
The director noted that the series will portray a different image of actors Chae and Seo from their usual appearances in their previous works.
"Chae wanted to play a different type of character from his previous work. And I think he pulled it off well in his own way," he said. "For Se-yeon's character, she's dark and depressed. She might seem devastated at first but she starts to change. Seo always has taken roles that exude bright, 'I can do it' energy, but I wanted to turn that around in this series."
Chae said that he had been interested in the original webcomic even before he was offered the script.
"I chose to take part in this series because I felt the role could bring out a different side of me," Chae said. "I'd read the original webcomic before getting the script. And I thought it was really interesting and wanted to do it right away."
"Unlock My Boss" airs on ENA Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m.
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