Jang Ki-yong, Chun Woo-hee find uncommon chemistry in 'The Atypical Family'

Jang Ki-yong, Chun Woo-hee find uncommon chemistry in 'The Atypical Family'

SEOUL, June 27 (UPI) -- The Atypical Family's Bok Gwi-ju (Jang Ki-yong) has seen better days.

The entire Bok clan has, in fact. Most members of this Netflix K-drama's titular family possess superpowers but have lost them to what the youngest, I-na, calls "modern lifestyle diseases."

Bok Gwi-ju has the ability to time travel back to happy experiences from his past -- but he can no longer find any happy memories since the tragic death of his wife seven years earlier. His sister, Bok Dong-hee (Claudia Kim/Soo Hyun), once could fly but now is stuck to the ground as she struggles with body image issues, overeating and obesity.

The matriarch, Bok Man-huem (Go Doo-shim), has precognitive visions in her dreams -- including lottery numbers and stock market movements, which has allowed the family to amass a vast fortune. She, however, has insomnia.

The gloomy tides begin to turn when outsider Do Da-hae (Chun Woo-hee) enters the scene. She first shows up to save the life of Gwi-ju, who fell (or perhaps jumped) into the sea. In a seeming coincidence, she then treats Man-huem at her massage clinic and does such a deft job that she is immediately invited into the Bok inner circle.

We soon learn, however, that Da-hae is part of a scheme to infiltrate the family and siphon off their wealth by marrying Gwi-ju and gaining control of the estate (echoes of Bong Joon-ho's Academy Award-winning Parasite are unmistakable).

The plot continues to thicken across the twelve episodes of the series, produced by South Korean studio SLL, as Da-hae's arrival actually begins to restore the family's lost powers and genuine love blooms with Gwi-ju.

The Atypical Family, which concluded its first season earlier this month, has found an audience with its unique blend of rom-com tropes, supernatural elements, social commentary and satire. The series topped South Korean cable television charts throughout its run and has remained a fixture on Netflix's global Top 10 list.

It also discovered an uncommon chemistry with its leads, Jang Ki-yong and Chun Woo-hee, who worked together for the first time on the project.

Chun, primarily known for her critically acclaimed roles in genre-hopping films such as Han Gong-ju, The Wailing and Anchor, said that she was able to tease out new depths in the conventions of romantic dramas as the season progressed.

"The more I work in this genre, the more interesting it gets," Chun told UPI in an interview. "I also realized that I surprisingly go [well] with the acting in melodrama, and the chemistry I developed with the other actors was enjoyable."

Chun imbues Da-hee with multiple layers as the story evolves, moving between deceitful, sincere and deeply sympathetic as we slowly learn the tragic circumstances that have forced her into her current situation.

"I put a lot of effort into thinking about how people who have experienced death in their lives approach the living," Chun said. "I wanted to capture the way they carry on with life, weighed down by a certain sense of debt and obligation, but hiding themselves, while still maintaining a light and playful humor."

Her co-star Jang Ki-yong (My Mister, Sweet & Sour, My Roommate Is a Gumiho) is a more familiar face in the romance realm but was missing from the public eye for nearly two years as he fulfilled his mandatory military service in the South Korean army.

The Atypical Family was Jang's first project after being discharged in February and he told UPI it took some time to get back into the flow, even when posing for publicity photos.

"In two years, a lot has changed, and it was not easy to adjust to it," he said. "For example, at my first event after returning from the military, I didn't do the 'cheek heart' pose correctly and ended up with a weird photo. Some friends of mine contacted me to say the photo was hilarious."

The model and actor said the time away also changed his perspective on work.

"In my 20s, I was kind of living life to the max and treating work like homework," Jang said. "But after serving in the military and entering my 30s, I'm glad that I can enjoy my work more and appreciate it more."

Gwi-ju skulks around under a melancholy cloud throughout much of the early part of the series, but Jang said he tried to find ways to allow the character's earlier personality to occasionally pierce through the darkness.

"I felt like Gwi-ju was a character who tried to regain his happiness rather than giving up on everything because he felt helpless," he said. "So, I portrayed his depression in such a way that his current depressed state was not his original state, and from time to time, the bright original state of his past was visible."

For a series with one foot firmly in the realm of fantasy, The Atypical Family builds a moving, even wrenching, dramatic arc that has resonated with audiences in the real world.

The show "provides comfort and empathy through a fantasy metaphor of modern people's inability to properly live in the present," Chun said.

"Many people told me that they couldn't wait for the next installment," she added. "I think there are many parts that people can relate to through the characters as if it were their own story.

The Atypical Family concluded its 12-episode first season in June. All episodes are currently streaming on Netflix.