The Bashful Side of BYJ

The following is another part from the book "Another Winter Sonata" written by the scenario writers of WLS, Kim Eun-Hee and Yoon Eun-Kyoung (published Sept. 2004)

Our first encounter with BYJ and Choi Ji Woo (CJW) took place in the elevator of the annex of KBS. On that day, all the actors were to assemble for the first reading of the script. Arriving there with mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety, we hurriedly jumped into the elevator as it was half closing. Pardoning ourselves the moment we got on, we saw two people who looked familiar. Greeting them with our eyes thinking, “I know them… who were they…?” It only took a half a second to realize the truth.

“You stupid! It's BYJ and CJW of course!”

This is how we first met Yujin and JS.

On Bae Yong Joon

Indeed He was a Handsome Man

The first impression of BYJ –ssi who appeared wearing a black leather hat low over his eyes, was that he was truly “Jun Sahng” himself. The slightly dark skin, sharp intelligent eyes, and the stiff expression he wore when he asked quietly about his character showed “the JS –like charisma that made him difficult to approach”. Perhaps it seemed so all the more, because the character he played in his previous drama was that of a cold person like JS. However, as you all know, JS may seem cold on the outside, but he is actually a boy of a very sensitive and shy nature. When we met for the first time for the script reading, we realized instantly that “BYJ also had these qualities”.

To be honest, the most embarrassing and awkward time for scriptwriters is the day of the script reading when we meet the actors for the first time. As much as it is a happy moment for us to have the imaginary characters come to life with the help of the actors' voices, it is unavoidable to have the feeling of sitting on a bed of nails, under the pressure that “we should have done better”.

CJW has to get into becoming the 18 year old Yujin and run around the lake with JS…, BYJ has to identify with JS and drop leaves over Yujin pretending it’s snow, promise to go on a date with her on the first snow of the season… As scriptwriters, we were afraid that we had ended up writing something that would give one the shivers. We felt responsible, and wanted to crawl in a hole to hide ourselves.

Frankly speaking, the script of episode 1 and 2 had too many scenes that were way too corny for a grownup man over his 30s to play (We were aware of this. But JS was still a high school student, so even if it seemed like a corny scene from a grown up’s perspective, we needed to put it in).

The highlight of the day was the scene of the first kiss between Yujin and JS. When JS made the 2 snowmen kiss and jokingly say, “you lucky guy”, BYJ got stuck in the middle of his line, and ended up bursting into laughter as he was not able to get it right. Most of the other actors in the room laughed, too. Feeling guilty (!) for making the lines so “corny”, we took a peek towards BYJ and tried to see how he was reacting. He seemed to be finding it uncomfortable to act out such a scene, and with the script covering his face, he was expressing great embarrassment. In that moment we thought, “Huh? This is rather unexpected…” The “cold, intellectual charismatic young man” we were used to seeing on TV was no where to be seen, and instead, sitting in front of us was a bashful boy … “Oh, Yonsama, who would of thought you possessed these endearing qualities!”