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| From left, actors Lee Soo-hyuk, Yun Ji-on, Kim Hee-sun and Rowoon pose during an online press conference for MBC's new fantasy series "Tomorrow," Friday. Courtesy of MBC |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Actress Kim Hee-sun transformed herself into a pink-haired, stylish grim reaper in MBC's new fantasy series, "Tomorrow."
"This is the first time I've ever dyed my hair pink and cut it this short. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off and felt a bit overwhelmed at first. But I didn't overthink it because I love the series and its story, as well as my fellow co-stars," Kim said during an online press conference for the series, Friday.
Based on the popular webcomics of the same name, the fantasy drama series follows hard-at-work grim reapers who work for an underworld company.
At the company, Koo Ryeon (Kim) leads a risk management team responsible for saving people who attempt to commit suicide.
The series' first episode, which kicked off with a 7.6 percent viewership rating on Friday, showed jobseeker Choi Joon-woong (Rowoon) joining the risk management team. After interfering with Ryeon's work to save a suicidal person, Joon-woong accidentally goes into a coma and is taken to the underworld company, which offers him a job to recover from the coma more quickly.
The actress said she was drawn to the unique plot about grim reapers saving people's lives.
"The grim reapers we know take dead people to the underworld. But in this series, we try to save people from dying. I thought it was such a refreshing idea," she said. "As I played the role, I realized that saving a life doesn't take much: It only takes a few touching, warm words."
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| A scene from the series "Tomorrow" / Courtesy of MBC |
Kim added that she was deeply moved by the role of saving people who have been pushed to the edge.
"All those people need is to be comforted and to have someone by their side. As I'm going through different stories of suicidal people in the story, I would personally feel sympathy," she said. "As I'm acting my lines, I would empathize with them and would sometimes feel as if I'm saying those lines to myself."
Ryeon not only saves people from suicide by making them realize that they are worth living, but also seeks revenge for those who are responsible for driving those suicidal people to the edge.
"I've never played a character like this … This is the first time my character could punish people for bullying others. So it's very satisfying," she said, describing her character. "I'm sure any actor would have gone for this role. She uses supernatural power to punish them outside the law for these cathartic scenes."
As the series is a live adaptation of the webcomics, she noted that she tried her best to bring the image of the character from the original work.
"As this is based on the webcomics, I had to synchronize the character's image with the webcomics. And the signature look of Ryeon is the pink hair," she said, adding that she is enjoying the colorful flair of the character. "Not only does she have pink hair, but she wears red eye makeup. This is also the first time I've worn such trendy outfits in a series … I'm trying out all the looks I've wanted to try."
"Tomorrow" airs every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 p.m.
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