Korean actor is Linda Chung's man

One of the questions on reporters' minds was why South Korean actor Yeon Jung Hoon was selected to co-headline the Korean telemovie of A Time Of Love.

Yeon, 35, is recognised primarily as a character actor, especially with his roles in TV dramas East Of Eden (2008) and Vampire Prosecutor (2011).

For TVB's first cross-cultural project, why didn't producers go with a more popular K-pop poster boy?

"Yeon Jung Hoon is actually quite famous outside of Korea and most importantly, he speaks fluent English. He lived in the US for six years," said Mr Kim Choon Kil, vice-president of Korean television station KBSN, TVB's partner in A Time Of Love. "For a crossover project, language is important."

While Yeon had no problems communicating with co-star Linda Chung in English on set, when the cameras rolled proper, Chung's lines were in Cantonese and his in Korean.

"Many times, it became a guessing game, we had to play it by feel," quipped Chung with a laugh.

Yeon said that even though they read each other's scripts beforehand, there was "still some difficulty" interpreting the other party's emotions. On the whole, however, TVB's filming style was "pretty similar" to South Korea's, he said.

A Time Of Love airs on TVBJ (StarHub TV Ch 838). Malaysia telemovie: Jan 26, 8pm Singapore telemovie: Feb 2, 8pm Korea telemovie: Feb 9, 8pm Japan telemovie: Feb 16, 8pm

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