Kim Go Eun shines in dual roles in The King: Eternal Monarch

Kim Go Eun plays dual roles in the Netflix Korean series The King: Eternal Monarch, which follows a love story that takes place in parallel worlds. One is a Korea that is a constitutional monarchy and the other is patterned after present-day Korea.

Go Eun stars opposite K-drama “king” Lee Min Ho as the titular character in his comeback project after a three-year absence from showbiz due to mandatory military service.

The 28-year-old actress takes on characters who find themselves not only in parallel universes but also on opposite sides of the law. Jeong Tae-eul was lovingly raised by a single father, while Luna was orphaned as a child. Tae-eul became a relentless police inspector assigned to solve violent crimes, while Luna became involved in criminal activities and served jail time.

Eternal Monarch, which is written by Kim Eun-Sook? (of Goblin fame), is now midway through its 16 episodes. The first half establishes Go Eun as Jeong Tae-eul, who is pursued romantically by Min Ho as Emperor Lee Gon after looking for her all his life because he believes she saved him from death as a child. The last two episodes have now introduced Luna, who is expected to spice up if not cause serious trouble in the series. The recent episodes also showed viewers glimpses of how well the actress is able to channel two completely different people despite having the “same face”.

Even her leading man is impressed. Lee Min-Ho said of his experience acting alongside the actress for the first time: “Kim Go-eun’s strength is how the expression in her eyes changes in a moment. It can be intense at times and innocent at other times. Her spectrum with other projects such as Chinatown and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin) has been broad, and I could understand why when I saw her expressions.”

The Philippine STAR and other press recently talked to the main cast members, including Go Eun, in a recent virtual interview.

“Jung Tae-eul is a police detective in the Republic of Korea. Her father runs a taekwondo studio, so she started teaching children as a taekwondo instructor in high school. Luna is an orphan who had to do everything on her own from a young age. She did whatever she had to in order to survive. She named herself after a stray cat and she’s a very troubled character,” she said of her characters.

The first thing she did to better essay her dual roles was to take up martial arts classes. “First of all, I took some Taekwondo lessons. And also because I was given the role of a female detective, I looked at interviews done by actual female detectives and I tried to look into what kind of mentality they had or they brought to the job, and also what their working environment was like,” she said.

“I did these things because I wanted the viewers to see me on screen and be convinced that she has actually worked in that working environment with that kind of mentality. And as for the rest, everything was written in the script. The personality, the tone of speech or the sort of the vibe that the character had, I was loyal to the script.”

While she was tightlipped about her other character Luna from the Kingdom of Corea (no spoilers!), she shared what she loved about playing Tae-eul. “I personally admire the attitude and mindset she brings to her job, and also in the face of danger, she really brings that mindset and mentality and really gets in between or intervenes on the scene. And I think that takes a lot of courage.”

Asked what she enjoyed the most during filming The King: Eternal Monarch, Go Eun mused, “For the first time, I could say that I put handcuffs on another person for the first time... It felt really new and it was interesting.”

(Fresh episodes are streamed on Netflix every Friday and Saturday nights.)