K-Drama Star Yeo Jin Goo’s Movie “Ditto” Made Him Think About Love In His Life

K-Drama stars Yeo Jin Goo and Cho Yi Hyun are together in the film Ditto, a remake of a movie of the same name from 2000, getting a present-day treatment depicting young adult life and love. The new romance film revolves around a man named Yong (Yeo Jin Goo) from 1999 who communicates across time through radio with Mu Nee (Cho Yi Hyun) from 2022.

Yong is a mechanical engineering student who falls in love with a freshman, Han Sol (Kim Hye Yoon). He borrows his friend’s ham radio and ends up communicating with Mu Nee, a sociology major attending the same school but claims she’s living in 2022. Despite the time difference, Yong and Mu Nee become closer and enter a romantic relationship.

Yeo is happy with playing a romantic character, very different from his usual roles in K-Dramas.

I really wanted to add a young adult romance genre to my filmography during my twenties because I’ve mostly taken part in heavy genre works since I was young. I wanted to diversify my filmography. I was hoping to play a role that would capture myself in my 20s … I wanted to share the side of myself that I’ve never shown before, like a comfortable side.

— Yeo Jin Goo

Director Seo Eun Young is behind the remake of Ditto. He slightly changed the film’s narrative to encompass everyday worries and dreams that today’s youth face. Seo hoped that these changes and what the characters go through would resonate well with millennials and Generation Z audiences.

Yeo expressed that Ditto made him think about love or the lack of it in his life due to work and other priorities. Yeo has been acting since he was eight years old and felt like he avoided romance because of his career.

Working on Ditto was a means for him to see how young people nowadays approach love or tend to be wary of it like he was. But he does think of love and having a relationship.

“Reality was more important, and I thought my reality had to be more perfect for me to have room for love. Particularly as an actor, I have to focus my entire energy on acting for periods of time. And I don’t have the ability to commit fully to both my work and relationship.

My situation is not all that different from my friends. We all ask each other, ‘Why aren’t you meeting someone?’ We all say that we’re just not ready. We believed that it was more important to focus on work. We’ve just started to become accepted as members of society or still are in the process of it, and that’s how I felt before I starred in ‘Ditto.’

But now, the concept of love cannot be kept at bay. I was overthinking all the responsibility and commitment which comes with it [even before I tried]. And it’s all part of the experience and personal growth to meet someone and love them. But I think people nowadays feel a bit awkward about committing to their emotions.

— Yeo Jin Goo

When asked about his ideal type of girl, Yeo had a list of attributes that he shared.

I want her to be bright. I love fooling around and doing role-plays, so I hope she’s someone who can keep up with me on those things. I also hope she isn’t picky about food. I’m the type of person who’s sincere about what I eat, so I think it would be frustrating if I couldn’t share that happiness with her.

— Yeo Jin Goo

Ditto is set to hit local theaters on Nov. 16.