Wi plays Lee Joon-ho, a former student who returns to teach at his cram academy.
Wi Ha-joon is known primarily for his roles in Korean dramas such as the mega-hit Squid Game. He’s good at action scenes, which he demonstrated playing a risk-taking alter ego in Bad and Crazy, and he delivers a memorably subtle performance as a vulnerable gangster in The Worst of Evil. While he did get to woo Lee Na-young as a second lead in Romance Is A Bonus Book and provide a romantic interest for Kim Go-eun in Little Women, Midnight Romance in Hagwon delivers his first leading role in a romance drama. It’s the first, but not likely the last. He and co-star Jung Ryeo-won demonstrate ample romantic chemistry to propel the storyline, which is set in a competitive afterschool cram academy.
“It was a genre that both the fans and I had always wanted to do,” said Wi. “And I am happy to be able to accomplish it through The Midnight Romance in Hagwon. Most importantly, I was able to experience a wide variety of emotional acting and deep romantic acting through this work, and I was happy and learned a lot while working with the director and other actors.”
In Midnight Romance in Hagwon he plays Lee Joon-ho, a former student at the academy he once attended to get some academic help. After turning his grades around, he attends university and lands a prestigious job, before unexpectedly returning to the academy as an instructor. It’s not his love of academics that prompts his return but rather his feelings for the star instructor who inspired him. Love inspires him to make a pretty dramatic change. Would this kind of move seem foolhardy or romantic in real life? Wi votes for romantic.
Wi's character has never forgotten his former instructor, played by Ryeo Jeong-won.
“Yes, I think it’s quite romantic,” said Wi. “I think it's a great blessing to meet a good person who leads me to a better direction in life. I think leading each other to a better direction in life through love is true and romantic love.”
It takes Joon-ho quite a while to woo his instructor, who continues to think of him as a student. Slow-paced real-life romance is the specialty of the drama’s director Ahn Pan-seok and that’s part of what drew Wi to the role. He worked with Ahn before, playing Son Ye-jin’s younger brother in Ahn’s drama Something In The Rain.
“I really like director Ahn Pan-seok’s work, so it hugely influenced my decision on choosing it,” said Wi. “I watched a lot of his content, including Something in the Rain which I was in, One Spring Night, Secret Affair, etc. I am a huge fan of his.”
There are some comparisons to be made between some of Ahn’s other popular dramas and Midnight Romance in Hagwon.
“I think they are different in terms of when love begins and how it deepens,” said Wi. "Secret Affair is a story of conflict and anguish between social norms and feelings of men and women as emotions and joys as talented students and artistic partners expand into feelings of love. Our work is a romance drama that shows the development of a relationship between two people who were once student and teacher and who meet again as colleagues at an academy and fall in love after overcoming the challenges. To summarize, you can think of The Midnight Romance in Hagwon as a realistic office romance drama.”
Midnight Romance in Hagwon is produced by Studio Dragon, the production studio behind previous k-drama hits such as The Glory, Queen of Tears, Gyeongseong Creature, Celebrity, Crash Course in Romance, Under the Queen’s Umbrella, Little Women, Alchemy of Souls, Crash Landing on You and It's Okay to Not Be Okay.
The drama airs in the U.S. on Viki.com.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
