How Jung Hae-In Created An Immortal Character In K-Drama ‘Connect’

Jung Hae-In plays an immortal being in the thriller/horror k-drama Connect, but immortality doesn’t prevent his character from feeling emotional and physical pain. His character, Ha Dong-soo, lives a lonely life, afraid of human interaction. He worries others will learn he is not human, which might happen if he’s injured. When injured he can regenerate most body parts, with bloody tendrils of tissue quickly knitting together broken flesh. One day he’s kidnapped by thugs, who want to harvest his organs, not knowing he’s immortal. They remove an eye and before Dong-soo can retrieve it, transplant it into the socket of a serial killer. Somehow Dong-soo is still connected to his lost eye, which means he can see the killer’s horrific crimes.

Although Jung has appeared in dozens of films and dramas since his 2014 debut, he’s never had a role in a thriller/horror drama quite like Connect or appeared in a drama that relied so heavily on CGI.

“Acting-wise, there was not much of a big difference,” said Jung. “As with any other project, I immersed myself in every moment of my acting. The only difference was that it was very important to follow the cinematographer’s camera angles. Since there was a lot of CGI used, it was required for my acting to be as originally planned with the team. I had to research a lot on how to act out these scenes in various ways and discussed my ideas with the director.”

Playing a character with regenerative powers required him to display physical reactions to stimuli he could only imagine. Dong-soo survives imaginary injuries such as falling off buildings or being stabbed, then must contort his body as he imagines it gorily regenerates. Jung was pleased by the way such scenes worked out on screen.

“I was surprised that the parts that I had acted out using only my imagination turned out well,” he said. “I’m grateful for the director and the production team for sharing their ideas and bringing to life what I had acted, according to what we originally discussed and planned.”

The drama is directed by Takashi Miike, a Japanese director whose works cover a range of genres—from family-friendly films to graphic horror and gangster films. He’s known for his dark sense of humor.

“I was a fan of his before coming onboard Connect and have watched a lot of his works,” said Jung. “I learned about the power of humor and wit when working with him. Also, he had the storyboard clearly set out in his head while filming, so I could comfortably follow his directions and act in every scene according to his lead.”

Jung admits that he has to limit the amount of scary shows he watches.

“Whenever I watch any form of creative work, it lingers in my head for a long time,” he said. “This is why although I like watching scary shows I only watch them occasionally.”

Whether his projects are thriller/horror dramas like Connect or a romance drama like Something In The Rain, Jung approaches each role in a similar way.

“The first thing I do for any project or character is to fully read the script many times and try to understand the overall flow and mood of the project,” he said. “While reading the script, I analyze what the character, in this case what Ha Dong-soo, must do and how this character is integrated into the story.”

Jung convincingly immerses himself in Dong-soo as the character pursues the serial killer, a psychopath who makes strange sculptures out of his victims’ bodies. The killer, played eerily by Go Kyung-pyo, soon realizes he’s being watched. Dong-soo, who would prefer to avoid human connections, must connect with others if he wants to become whole.

Jung remembers how cold it was working on the set of Connect, but also how well everyone in the cast and crew worked together.

“It was a cold winter,” he said. “But everyone from the director to the rest of the crew worked closely together and focused on creating this series, which was nice to see. Also, it was surprising and pleasant that I didn’t see or feel the barrier of countries and languages in the process of making this series, as we all worked with the same mindset and goal while filming Connect.”

The drama is based on the webtoon Connect by Shin Dae-sung, which can be found on Naver. Connect airs on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in other parts of the world.