Seo Kang-joon confirms webtoon adaptation From A Distance, A Green Spring

166 February 6, 2017June 18, 2021

Seo Kang-joon confirms webtoon adaptation From A Distance, A Green Spring

by girlfriday

The upcoming adaptation of campus webtoon From A Distance, A Green Spring has found a home at KBS, and is planning to broadcast in the spring (naturally). The first actor to sign on is Seo Kang-joon (Entourage, Cheese in the Trap), who has been cast to play the second lead, though this webtoon is actually more about bromance than romance, which makes him part of the leading bromance pair. His character is a puppy-dog freshman who takes a liking to a sunbae and follows him around, leading to an unlikely friendship between two very different boys.

I started reading the webtoon by Jinyoong just to get a feel for the story, and ended up reading way more than I anticipated because I got sucked in by the adorable bromance. It’s a college campus webtoon that’s similar to Cheese in the Trap’s thoughtful, slice-of-life style, about twentysomethings in the spring of their lives, except this one has a focus on friendship. The webtoon’s tagline is: “If you look at life from far away it’s a comedy, and if you look at it up close it’s a tragedy.” The drama is about the in-betweenness of contemporary twentysomethings, no longer youths but not yet adults, trying to figure out life.

I’m not sure if the drama is reworking some of the characters, because most of the press releases seem to conflate the two leads in some way. But in the webtoon, the leading man is a prickly third-year student named Nam Soo-hyun who comes from a poor family and works three part-time jobs to support his mom and younger brother while going to school on a full scholarship. He’s infamously rude and blunt, and doesn’t care at all what other people think of him. (He’s the tall one with dark hair in the manhwa stills below.)

Then there’s bubbly freshman Yeo Joon—the role that Seo Kang-joon has been cast to play—who’s the opposite of Soo-hyun in every way. Joon grew up as the maknae of a wealthy family and knows how to get along with everyone. He cares a little too much about what other people think of him, but it’s because he’s so starved for approval. His father is physically abusive and both his parents think he’s worthless for going to a second-rate university, and he grew up in the shadow of a perfect hyung. He’s quick to cry and witty and fun, and he’s the type of person who’s always surrounded by people but feeling lonely. (He’s the short blonde character.)

The two boys get stuck doing a group project together, and even though everyone around them thinks that Soo-hyun is an uppity asshole, Joon develops this adorable hero-worship for him and follows him around like a an eager puppy, though Soo-hyun finds him annoying at first (one time when they come to class dressed in similar outfits, Joon squeals, “It’s a couple look!” and Soo-hyun takes off his jacket immediately). Through one little white lie that Joon tells, the boys end up becoming roommates and genuine friends.

Seo Kang-joon could really use a nice lovable role after playing THE WORST character ever in Entourage, who was pretty much the crappiest friend and most entitled diva on the planet (seriously I don’t know what the writer was thinking with that character). I wouldn’t necessarily have pictured him as Joon; for example, fantasy castings for the character put Yook Sung-jae in the role, for obvious puppy reasons. But maybe Seo Kang-joon is shooting for an image transformation, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. The bromance of this story is so cute that now I’m eagerly anticipating the drama adaptation. Don’t let me down!

From A Distance, A Green Spring is being planned for a May broadcast on KBS.

Via IS Plus

166

Required fields are marked *

51 quinn

June 18, 2021 at 10:08 PM

not me thinking this was a bl-💀

Required fields are marked *

irmar

June 22, 2021 at 12:19 PM

It was. Search for it on daum and you'll see the images.

Required fields are marked *

52 irmar

June 22, 2021 at 12:19 PM

Why do you keep saying "bromance"? In the webtoon, at least, it's a love story between the two men. The drama is changing this (I've watched the first 4 episodes right now), but the BL vibe is still strong, making it very weird - on one hand we see the boy chasing around the tall sunbae and looking at him with adoring eyes, and on the other hand we should believe he's straight and he likes a girl. Very weird.

Required fields are marked *

53 SKJ is a brilliant versatile actor who keeps growing, thanks.

December 1, 2022 at 4:24 AM

All I can say is… Thank God this didn’t happen.

Maybe his agency dropped the offer when the webtoon took a BL direction or maybe because they realised KBS and the drama producers would be editing the original plot to remove the LGBT elements and also add a more prominent romance for the lead character (which was Yeo Joon, the role SKJ was offered)

Whatever the reason I’m glad SKJ wasn’t a part of this project because even though the drama adaptation (2021, Park Ji Hoon as Yeo Joon) was not particularly bad and liked enough by average youth drama viewers and most of all served well for the male lead actor as his performance was received positively.—

If SKJ had done it back then, there is no doubt that he would have been made to bear the brunt of the hate for the drama’s flaws and its changes from the webtoon original. Even if the poor guy had done his job and acted well, people (like the ones on this page) would drag the CITT brouhaha and blame him for the drama being different from the webtoon LOL or the unnecessary focus on romance. (Because obviously actors are writers or producers. A fact even less true for Korean actors. They hold the least amount of power in the kdrama industry. Even more so for rookies or less well known actors. Their agencies have a stronger control than they do. i.e. Even considerably popular artists can get abused by their agencies, such as the recent case of Hook Ent. holding back 5 years worth of music revenue for Lee Seung Gi. So a rookie that operates as part of a group not even a solo artist like SKJ with 5urprise, even if Fantagio, a very troubled agency in general, did make some missteps considering CITT, it does not actually reflect the artist themselves).

On that note, the boy did well in BOTH, Cheese in the trap AND Entourage. The problems with both those dramas were clearly the writing, not the acting.

His character in Entourage being an unlikable celebrity diva is not actually his fault NOR anything to do with him in real life. The original American series had the same flaws the remake does. In that the character of Vincent (SKJ’s Cha Young Bin) lacks character development and growth, is somewhat unlikable (same personality traits), and gets overshadowed as a character or as a audience favorite by the characters of Ari Gold (Jo Jin Woong’s Kim Eun Gap) or even his manager best friend (Park Jung Min’s Ho Jin).

Also as Entourage is originally an American series, which doesn’t have the same rigid format of “Male Lead” “Second Lead” and the Korean remake maintains the template, SKJ’s character in Entourage is not actually “The Main Lead” and all the association that comes with that title from Kdrama audiences. The drama is more of an ensemble cast of a group of guy friends and the agent (Gold/Ceo Kim) with the plot focus being on these friendships, “the entourage” and an exaggerated behind the scenes portrayal of the entertainment industry.

It was never a drama that was suitable for the...

Required fields are marked *

…

December 1, 2022 at 4:25 AM

It was never a drama that was suitable for the Kdrama industry. In fact, Entourage is not very suitable as an adaptation period, Korean or otherwise because at its core it lacks depth, meaning and plot. And the humour is heavily male oriented (all the characters were tamed down in the Korean version) and it features a lot of casual sex and drugs (not something that flies well in Kdramas even now, let alone in 2016).

So for the love of god, let’s stop blaming the actors for the drama failing to capture audiences, when they have no control over it. It was the writer/director/producer who should have thought of how to appeal to the Korean public and average Kdrama audiences and how to add their own flavour of humour that would be acceptable and considered funny by the public who would be watching them.