Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si Shares Their Thoughts On Going From The Siblings Of “Sweet Home” To A Couple In “Youth in May”
Prior to the premiere of the new K-Drama Youth of May, the drama held an online press conference where the cast discussed the storyline and their characters. The drama features several talented stars, such as Lee Do Hyun, Go Min Si, Lee Sang Yi, Geum Sae Rok, and several more!
The storyline takes place in May 1980, during the turbulent times of the Gwangju Uprising. Lee Dong Hyun’s character Hwang Hee Tae is the top medical student at Seoul National University College of Medicine while Go Min Si’s character Kim Myung Hee is a nurse who is struggling with the hardships of life. The two meet and start falling in love.
Lee Dong Hyun shared that his character Hwang Hee Tae is quite lonely.
Hee Tae is a very lonely person. He’s the only stranger in the drama. The drama is about what happens to a group of people when a stranger enters their lives.
— Lee Do Hyun
Though Go Min Si’s character Kim Myung Hee is a nurse, she is not your typical sweet nurse. When needed, Kim Myung Hee isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right. Kim Myung is not an “angel in a white coat” but a “warrior in white.”
The power given to me by the character Kim Myung-hee touched me greatly. I’d always wanted to do a period piece or a melodrama. This project was like fate for me. I carefully reviewed the script and did research.
— Go Min Si
For many K-Drama lovers, seeing the two stars together seems very natural. For those unaware, Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si starred in the hit Netflix drama Sweet Home. Instead of playing friends or lovers in Sweet Home, the two played siblings.
According to Go Min Si, she felt that Lee Do Hyun would be an amazing fit for the Youth Of May. To her surprise, he had already been a top candidate for the role.
When I read the script for ‘Youth of May,’ I thought to myself that it would fit Lee Do Hyun, so I was surprised when I heard he was already cast. We still keep in touch, and I told him that I thought this project would be a good fit for him, but I only found out later that he had already been one of the top casting choices.
— Go Min Si
Go Min Si mentioned she was glad that she could work with Lee Do Hyun once again and to give the fans a new kind of chemistry between them.
I’m thankful and happy to be working with him again. If people enjoyed watching us together in our last project, then we can promise a totally different type of chemistry in this one.
— Go Min Si
Lee Do Hyun added that since the two were playing lovers instead of siblings, they planned how they should act like a couple who the viewers can relate to and cheer on.
Within our last project, we played characters who didn’t see each other as ‘men’ and ‘women,’ but now we were playing characters of the opposite sex who were attracted to each other. We put a lot of thought into how we should approach it and how to make viewers relate to us and feel excited to us them together. I talked about it a lot with Go Min Si and the director.
— Lee Do Hyun
The K-Drama’s director Song Min Yeob shared though the drama mainly focuses on the stories of the younger people during the time,
Set in Gwangju in 1980, It deals with the background of Gwangju in the 80s. It’s a universal story of the young love, mourn, and hate at that time. The main content does not focus on specific incident. It is a story of people who lived that time.
— Song Min Yeob
While many other K-Dramas have faced backlash for historical distortion, Song Min Yeob clarified that though the story takes place in 1980, it is not the main focus of the drama.
The drama is set during a historical period, but it’s not the main focus of the drama. It’s about universal emotions and dealing with the common feelings of love, joy and jealousy among young people who lived in that era. It’s about what the average person will do and choose when faced with unexpected situations.
— Song Min Yeob
