Credits: These are Byunghun related articles wonderfully shared & translated by antisocialnot at the IRIS-soompi thread and IRIS artwork created by 2uss

November 4, 2009

Lee Byung Hun holds a ’surprise birthday party’ for Kim So Yeon on-site

Source: news.nate.com

Kim So-Yeon, who plays the charismatic North Korean guard in KBS’s Wed-Thur drama IRIS, had about 3 birthday parties played out for her last week.

Lee Byung Hun and the 2 directors, Yang Yoon Ho and Kim Gyu Tae held separate surprise birthday parties for her. While Lee Byung Hun prepared cupcakes for Kim So Yeon, Kim Gyu Tae (the director) and the crew prepared a birthday cake for her to celebrate her birthday.

Kim So Yeon was so engrossed in playing her role that she didn’t even notice that the crew had prepared a birthday cake and party for her. As such,  she was visibly touched when Yang Yoon Ho (the director) handed her her birthday cake. After proceeding to Incheon for filming later on in the day, Kim So Yeon celebrated her birthday again with Kim Gyu Tae and crew. It was a very memorable experience for her as she had 3 ‘birthday cakes’ to cut in 1 day.

Kim So Yeon expressed that ‘this is the best birthday i’ve ever had’ and her feelings of gratitude towards the staff for preparing the birthday celebration for her.

Meanwhile, Kim So Yeon has received favourable reviews for her role as a strong agent in IRIS from viewers.

**translated by antisocialnot**

Were the sudden ‘lovelines’ in IRIS a mistake by the production team?

Source: news.nate.com

The reason for the sudden loveline between Kim Hyun Joon (Lee Byung Hun) and Kim So Hwa ( Kim So Yeon) has been revealed to be the mistake by the production team.

From wanting to kill each other, and then progressing to walking arm in arm indicated that some time had passed in the drama.

As the production team wanted to bring out the love triangle between Lee Byung Hun, Kim Tae Hee and Kim So Yeon, they resorted to this method. However, this was also met with many objections as some felt that it was too quick. The production team wanted to bring out the ’speed’ essence of the drama as well as make use of the popularity of the drama at the same time. Thus, this love triangle idea was conceived.

The feedback from viewers was that it seemed a little too quick for Lee Byung Hun, who fled to Japan to avoid being killed, and Kim So Yeon, who pursued him to try to kill him, to fall in love. The production team has also admitted that this was indeed unrealistic.

In the drama, Kim So Yeon told Lee Byung Hun that ” If I don’t kill you, I’ve nowhere to return to” , to which Lee Byung Hun replied ” Then kill me. But not now. I’ve something to do. You can kill me after that”.

In relation to this, the production team stated that there was a period of about 2 months whereby both Kim So Yeon and Lee Byung Hun lived in the same hourse. However, this scene was edited out. They wanted to show how Kim So Yeon grew to like Lee Byung Hun and also, the subtitles of ‘2 months later’ which was supposed to be added in, was left out.

This left viewers feeling very confused over the relationship between the two in the show. However, the director praised Kim So Yeon’s acting by saying that through her portrayal of So Hwa, with her intense gaze, strong but feminine character, it helped to cover up the flaw in the script.

Meanwhile, the highly rated IRIS continues to showcase the relationships between Sawoo and Hyun Joon, as well as the upcoming scene whereby Hyun Joong goes over to NK to help. In addition, the loveline between Hyun Joon, Seung Hee and So Hwa continues to thicken, making for an interesting watch.

**translated by antisocialnot***