By Erin Chew
Hulu has been adding many interesting, riveting and diverse titles on its streaming platform of late. One of these titles is the brand-new Korean series Moving that combines superhero action with some emotional and layered character drama with some lighthearted comedy.
An unprecedented superpower story adapted from the web-toon of the same name, Moving is a fast-paced action series that sees a group of innocent teenagers with superpowers go head-to-head against some of the world’s most powerful governments. Moving’s protagonists have spent their lives hiding their abilities from the world in an attempt to protect themselves and their loved ones from exploitation.
With a story spanning three decades, Moving is written by Kangfull, the creative maestro behind the hugely popular Moving webtoon. A series about young people with super powers is also a story about young people being different and not fully being able to fit in. This generic theme of being different will resonate with many people, particularly for those who grew up Asian in the US or any other country outside of Asia. For the series director Park In Je (Kingdom Season 2), part of the appeal of directing this series was about the changes in his own life and for everyone else who have or do feel different.
“After I worked on Netflix’ Kingdom (season 2), I was thinking of writing and looking at scripts for a movie as a change. Then the pandemic hit, and things change for the better and for the worse. As for me, I had my first kid, and that changed my trajectory and I wanted to direct something which would mean something for my kid and for Koreans and Asians everywhere. The idea of being different needs to be seen as something positive and seen as not being lonely or alone. That is what inspired me to take this one”, Park expressed in a recent interview with AsAmNews.
Digging a little deeper into director Parks statements on being different– this feeling reminded him of his childhood. South Korean society was and is still a largely traditional and conservative society, where achieving high grades and choosing safe professions after going to a good college/university is the general expectation of Korean parents. This was director Park’s journey at the start, but he changed his trajectory to the creative stream and that made him appear different as he broke away from traditional norms and expectations.
“I tried the traditional route – do what my own parents expected me to do. I went to college, and chose a safe degree. However, after graduating I decided to go back to school again and learn about filmmaking and the creative industry. Everyone around me (my family, friends etc) worried about my future and questioned whether I would make enough money to sustain my life. Choosing to be a filmmaker is seen as breaking the mold in Korean society and I was sidelined and felt different. I was always questioned and looked down upon, until I started to make milestones and achievements”, Park passionately discussed.
The series stars many A-listers including Ryu Seungryong (Kingdom Seasons 1-2, Extreme Job), Han Hyojoo (Happiness, The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure) and Zo Insung (The King, Escape from Mogadishu).Starring alongside this established a-list is an impressive collection of up-and-coming actors depicting the story’s teenagers, including Lee Jungha (Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung); Go Younjung (Alchemy of Souls, Sweet Home) and Kim Dohoon. Park mentioned that it was a long, but worthwhile process to cast for Moving, as he wanted to find actors and actresses that look and have the personality of the characters from the original source.
“Casting for this series was one of the most difficult tasks for me as a director. I wanted to give an opportunity to the young up and coming actors in Korea a chance to work with some of the big actors we were able to cast. The hard task was to find actors and actresses which looks similar and could do the characters described in the original web-toon. Finding Lee Jungha, Go Younjung and Kim Dohoon was something that ticked with me as soon as they auditioned – the wait and long casting process was worth it with these young actors and actresses”.
The series Moving can be streamed on Hulu and on Disney+.
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