Actress Shin Min-a (41) has returned with a rough face, stepping away from her 'Romantic Comedy Queen' image.
The Netflix series 'Bad Fate', released on the 4th, is a crime thriller depicting the intertwined stories of six individuals caught in a bad fate they want to escape from.
Since its release, it has ranked first in the 'Today's Top 10 in South Korea' series category and reached fifth place in the global Top 10 series (non-English) category within three days. It recorded 3.6 million views (the value obtained by dividing the total viewing time by the total running time of the work) in just three days, achieving a remarkable feat by making it to the Top 10 list in 37 countries.
'Bad Fate' is the first series work by director Lee Il-hyung of 'Prosecutor's Odyssey', featuring characters with different stories and desires, including the witness (Park Hae-soo), the lead (Shin Min-a), the loan shark (Lee Hee-joon), the street thug (Kim Sung-kyun), the glasses guy (Lee Kwang-soo), and Yoo-jung (Gong Seung-yeon), depicting their process of falling into the trap of bad fate. Shin Min-a played the role of Joo-yeon, a surgeon living with trauma.
In an interview held on the 9th in Seoul, Shin Min-a said, "It's the first week since the release, and I'm happy that many people liked it. Since the promotion started, it's nice to hear that people found it interesting after watching it. Many people around me have contacted me after watching it," she said.
When asked about her reason for participating, she replied, "When I received the script, Joo-yeon appears a bit later, and it felt fresh. The character didn't even have a name, and other characters kept appearing, making it unpredictable. Even though my character hadn't appeared yet, I felt like I had to do it because it was so interesting. I watched it without blinking, like reading a mystery novel. I thought it would be very difficult to act as Joo-yeon, so I felt I needed to think a lot about it. I thought it would be fun to participate in telling the story," she explained.
Shin Min-a, who revealed that she usually likes genre works, expressed, "I have a desire to show various sides of myself as an actress," and added, "When I received the script for 'Bad Fate', I wondered if I was a bad person too, but I wasn't. However, I hope to have the opportunity to play a villainous character like the one in 'Bad Fate' someday as an actress."
Regarding her relatively small amount of screen time, Shin Min-a said, "There are good aspects to it," explaining, "In the script, our roles are divided. So there is pressure, but there are also parts where the burden is lessened. I haven't done many works with a lot of actors, but that's the trend these days. It actually helped during promotions. It's nice to work with such excellent actors who share the same mindset," she joked.
When asked who she thinks is the biggest villain among the characters in the work, Shin Min-a said, "I can't distinguish between them," but added, "The loan shark seems to be the worst. The glasses guy seems bad in a different sense. But the loan shark, who plans to commit murder for his father's insurance money, seems like an unforgivable bad guy," she replied.
She continued, "I thought the loan shark's character was strong in the script, but when actor Lee Hee-joon brought his emotional depth to it, it became even scarier. In the script, he seemed like a one-dimensional bad guy aiming for his father's insurance money, but that lack of guilt made him even scarier and created tension," she said, adding, "There were many impressive scenes. The glasses guy cursing in the car felt so real that it was scary."
She also mentioned the choice of Joo-yeon in the latter part of the story, which some have found frustrating.
In response, Shin Min-a explained, "Due to the nature of the script, Joo-yeon is a character who faces her past trauma in the current situation, which is different from other characters. The director considered multiple versions for the ending, and he wanted Joo-yeon, as a victim, to have a different energy from the perpetrator. At first, I thought about going for a stronger energy, but I agreed with the director's opinion," she said.
She added, "Due to the nature of the genre, the catharsis at the end should be strong for the viewer to feel satisfied. I also thought that might be more refreshing, but since Joo-yeon is a victim, I think they avoided having her take revenge in the same way as the perpetrator. In that sense, I also felt a desire to protect the victim. Even if it feels frustrating and lacks catharsis from a character perspective, I believe this ending fits the story of the work. I think it actually made the message stronger," she concluded.
[Yang So-young, Star Today Reporter]
