Ji Chang-wook and Wi Ha-joon’s Past Influences Their Approach to Action Sequences

The ongoing Disney+ K-drama The Worst of Evil, is a gripping experience starring two very hot Korean men at its nucleus: Ji Chang-wook and Wi Ha-joon. The actors shared special anecdotes about their roles in the series via a recent chat with CNA Lifestyle.

The plot is chaotic suspense through racing action, erratic shocks, and an unforeseen bond between the two men at hand, though the affinity is untrue; their camaraderie will crumble the moment the truth comes to light (albeit what comes off their rapport feeds our intrigue). Wi plays Jung Gi-chul, typifying transgression; he is a monopoly in dominance, the figurehead of an expansive crime ring linked to illegal drug trading across Korea, China, and Japan.

Ji has Park Joon-mo, a cop who joins Jung’s gang under the guise of Kwan Seung-ho. The weight of a drug-abusing father and a thriving wife who works as an elite agent in the security division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency rocks the boat of Park’s career path; he is competent but without success. To turn things around, Park undertakes the covert operation, but things get odd upon his learning that his wife is Jung’s first love.

Other than that, The Worst of Evil’s frenetic action—overrun with arms, explosions, intense scenes, and dread resulting in plenty of bloodbaths—is also its striking element. Regarding this, Wi recalls that when he was young, he was fond of playing around alone, hopping over walls, and staging fight scenes after watching action movies. When he started acting, his past experiences, like racing in the mountains and a host of other activities, proved invaluable for him to shoot action scenes. “I used to do it as a hobby a lot. But looking back, it turned out to be very helpful when it came to work as well,” Wi told CNA Lifestyle.

Ji’s allure as an action hero is a unique reflection of hegemony. However, he is very alert while choreographing action sequences, regardless of how violent they look on the screen. He mentioned in the conversation that he once became very enthused at a shoot for another show and made a mistake that led to one of his co-stars suffering an injury. “So, I am always very cautious about my emotions while I act because of that memory. It seems like I keep reminding myself constantly while I film not to get emotionally overwhelmed and lose control of my body especially when shooting action scenes.”

He included that while performing fight scenes, his character in The Worst of Evil confronts a lot of challenges, also pointing out that, as he is invading as Kwan Seung-ho, there is a dilemma on how deep he should go in his capacity as a cop. “I made a lot of effort to effectively express the constant internal conflict that Joon-mo experiences every moment,” the actor revealed. Since all of that had to be reflected through visuals, he put an abundance of effort into the technicalities for proper execution and engaged in a bunch of discussions with the director over the storyboard for the same.

The entire exchange is available here.