After 3 Thrillers, Kim Young-kwang Returns to K-Rom-Com and Admits It Took Real Adjustment

Kim Young-kwang's first reaction to the script for Charge Me If You Can was that it read like a shojo manga, which turned out to be exactly why he said yes, and also why the early weeks of filming were uncomfortable in ways he hadn't anticipated.

At the press conference held on the 1st at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Kim Young-kwang sat alongside co-star Chae Soo-bin and director Park Su-won to talk through the Netflix original series ahead of its October 9 premiere. He'd spent the better part of recent years in dark genre territory, thrillers and noir projects like Somebody, The Villain, and Trigger, and coming back to the fizzy rhythms of a K-rom-com required what he called an "adjustment period."

"In the early scenes, there were moments that felt almost cartoonishly over-the-top, and I was acting them a little embarrassed," he admitted. "But the director would say, 'I think it's fine?' So I thought, okay, if he thinks it's fine, then it must be fine." He laughed recounting it. Park Su-won, for his part, offered a deadpan diagnosis: "He'd come straight from a genre project, so there was a bit of jet lag." The director added that he'd actually resorted to applauding Kim on set between takes, clapping and calling out "you can do it!" to coax him through the giddier scenes.

Chae Soo-bin, watching it all unfold on set, put it simply: "He'd act the scene and then look embarrassed."

What the show is actually about

Charge Me If You Can is adapted from a web novel of the same name. The setup sits squarely in fantasy rom-com territory: Kim Young-kwang plays Baek Ho-rang, a third-generation chaebol heir whose artificial heart battery is running dangerously low. Chae Soo-bin plays Na Bo-bae, a drama screenwriter who has spent her entire life unable to hold anyone's hand because her body generates uncontrollable electricity. The premise locks them together by necessity, she is the only person who can recharge him, and from that contract relationship, something more complicated grows.

Kim Young-kwang described the early costume work as one way he got into character. Most of Baek Ho-rang's wardrobe was custom-made for the role, and Kim personally pushed for silk pajamas in a scene where Baek Ho-rang runs through his morning routine. "Even at home, he needed to look effortlessly stylish," he said.

Chae Soo-bin said she was drawn to the project partly because of a specific pitch from Director Park. "He told me, 'It's familiar, but I'm confident I can make it more fun,'" she recalled. "That's what made me decide to do it." Her character Na Bo-bae goes through a full emotional arc: early episodes find her convinced that meeting someone her electricity cannot affect must be fate, then comes friction, and eventually a warmth she hasn't known before. "Both characters are carrying real pain," Chae said. "Baek Ho-rang is perfect in front of everyone else, but in front of Na Bo-bae he lets himself be a little goofy. I wanted to show how affection builds when you see that side of someone."

The chemistry that convinced the director to stop calling cut

Director Park Su-won said he deliberately let cameras roll past the scripted moments to see how far Kim and Chae would take their scenes through improvisation. "Their chemistry showed up so clearly that I wanted to see where they'd go if I just didn't call cut," he said. Chae Soo-bin confirmed the feeling on her end: "He gave us space to build scenes together on the day. I got to try things I wouldn't normally have the room to try."

There's an additional layer of meta-playfulness in the series: Na Bo-bae is a screenwriter, and the drama-within-the-drama she's writing is performed and dubbed by Kim Young-kwang and Chae Soo-bin themselves. Kim called out his co-star's commitment to those sequences specifically. "She completely disappeared into that other character," he said. "It was remarkable to watch."

Kim Young-kwang flagged episode six as the one to watch for the moment Baek Ho-rang stops being able to rationalize his feelings. "That's where he really goes, 'What am I supposed to do with this?'" he said.

Chae Soo-bin closed the press event with a simple ask: "Watch it comfortably, and you'll find both warmth and something to laugh about. I hope people enjoy it." Director Park put it in the language of the show's own title: "I hope viewers feel like they've been recharged, episode by episode."

Charge Me If You Can premieres on Netflix on October 9.