PUBLISHED ONSeptember 02, 2025 10:30 AMBYKristy ChuaSpies, espionage, secrets, and romance all in one - but sweeten the deal with two familiar faces returning to our TV screens.
On Sept 2, AsiaOne attended the virtual press conference for Disney+'s upcoming K-drama Tempest, a spy thriller series with a star-studded cast led by South Korean actors Gang Dong-won and Jun Ji-hyun, also known as Gianna Jun.
Tempest follows the story of Seo Mun-ju (Ji-hyun), a skilled former diplomat who tries to uncover the truth behind an attempt made on the life of Jang Jun-ik (Park Hae-joon), a presidential candidate.
When accusations of being a North Korean spy are made against him, Mun-ju digs into his past at the risk of her safety. Thereafter, she comes under the unconditional protection of Baek San-ho (Dong-won), a mysterious mercenary with a suspicious history.
This series marks Dong-won's return to television after two decades, with his last K-drama role in Magic dating back to 2004. While the 44-year-old mostly takes on film projects, he chose to come back to the small screen with Tempest thanks to his co-lead.
"I decided to join because of Ji-hyun," he said. "Between us, we've never had the chance to collaborate until now. I was so happy to finally work together with her."
Similarly, this marks Ji-hyun's acting comeback after four years, having last starred as Seo Yi-kang in Jirisan (2021).
Echoing Dong-won's sentiments, Ji-hyun, who turns 44 in October, told members of the press: "I'm a longtime fan of his, and I'm not lying, for real. So I've always wanted a chance to work with Dong-won and that was a big reason why I took up this role.
"I'm a fan of his physique and over the course of filming, I got to know him as a person and became an even bigger fan."
With other cast members including South Korean actors Joo Jung-hyuk, Oh Jung-se and Yoo Jae-myung, and American actor John Cho, Ji-hyun joked that their looks elevated her experience on set.
Particularly, in her greetings to Hae-joo, she would say hello and compliment his looks every time.
"I had the best working environment ever because everyone was so handsome,"Ji-hyun said in jest. "I never blinked on set so I wouldn't miss out on their handsomeness."
Several American cast members including John were not familiar with the Korean language at the time of filming. As one of the series' producers and a fluent English speaker, Dong-won "stepped up" and bridged communications between the English-speaking cast and Korean team.
When he visited Singapore in 2018, Dong-won told The Straits Times that he had been learning the language for five years as he wanted to travel and communicate without the aid of a translator, with hopes for career opportunities abroad.
When asked about what melodrama could be expected in Tempest, Ji-hyun said: "This is going to be a truly adult-type of melodrama. Mun-ju and San-ho come from very different backgrounds and are drawn to each other because they're so different. And the more they learn about each other, they look back at themselves like it's a mirror image.
"On set, we always wondered if we've ever had such a deep, aged kind of melodrama and we loved it."
Acknowledging their on-screen chemistry, Dong-won added: "If we met when we were younger, this experience would have been totally different. But when we looked at the monitor on set, we half-joked that it looked like we've 'been there, done that' and know things.
"The way we looked at each other felt mature and if we were younger, we probably wouldn't know certain things - but now [at this age], we do."
The first three episodes of Tempest, also starring Kim Hae-sook, Lee Mi-suk and Lee Sang-hee, will be available for streaming from Sept 10 on Disney+.
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