Hot on the heels of the success of Kingdom, the first Netflix original from Korea, comes the ambitious Arthdal Chronicles. The epic fantasy, set at the dawn of civilisation, is a story of heroes, tribalism and power struggles in the mythical land of Arth.
The series, which premiered in Thailand last Saturday, is directed by Kim Won-seok and features a total of 18 episodes over three seasons. With it reportedly costing 1.4 billion baht to produce, Arthdal Chronicles is about epic battles and mythical setting where some critics have called it South Korea's answer to Game Of Thrones. However, this isn't necessarily a comparison that the showrunners welcome.
"I wouldn't even think of comparing it to Game Of Thrones. Our goal isn't to create something similar. I don't think it's an appropriate comparison," said screenwriters Park Sang-yeon and Kim Young-hyun at a press conference in Seoul last month. Sharing the stage with them were stars Song Joong-ki, Kim Ji-won, Jang Dong-gun and Kim Ok-vin.
The award-winning screenwriters, best known for Deep Rooted Tree and Queen Seondeok, explained that Arthdal Chronicles took them seven years to write and has its own unique story and flavour.
"We tried to create a great series by building a fictitious world of our own, from our own imaginations. I hope you appreciate our series for what it is," said Young-hyun.
Arthdal Chronicles sees popular actor Song Joong-ki return to the small screen for the first time in three years. He plays Eunseom, a young warrior who is loyal to his tribe, but struggles with his own identity. It's a different kind of role for the actor than his fans are used to, with dramatic battle scenes and daring exploits on horseback.
"Thankfully I did a lot of horse-riding training for another film, so that certainly helped. But because it had been a long time since I'd practised, it took a lot of effort to get the hang of it again," he said.
While it looks like a historical drama, something that Korea excels at, Arthdal Chronicles is a different kind of show. It doesn't take inspiration from any documented period in history. This presented a new challenge for the actors in terms of how they approached their roles.
Kim Ji-won, who plays Tanya, Eunseom's first love interest, said that a lot of imagination was required to develop each character.
"I spent a lot of time imagining what is unwritten in the story. What kind of backgrounds do these people have? What kind of world did they grow up in?" she said.
"I tried to refer to movies set in ancient times. But when we started filming, I realised what the script was written for -- to capture this amazing nature as it is," she added. Arthdal Chronicles was partly filmed on location in the jungles of Brunei.
Song Joong-ki and Kim Ji-won previously starred alongside one another in the hugely successful 2016 drama Descendants Of The Sun. The two stars talked about working together again after three years.
"We didn't have many scenes together in Descendants Of The Sun," Joong-ki recalled. "Working alongside her this time made me realise what an amazing actor she is."
"[Our characters] are more like friends in this series," Ji-won explained. "So I felt more comfortable."
Perhaps the show's biggest star is Jang Dong-gun, who plays Tagon, a powerful warrior and tribal leader. But while his character is dark and serious, Dong-gun said that the atmosphere on set was quite the opposite.
"Being on set was great fun," he said. "Of course, we had a lot to film and there were many scenes that were challenging, but everyone, from the cast to the crew, had such great chemistry. I was never bored while waiting to shoot my scenes.
"My character is the leader of The Daekan Forces, so I spent a lot of time with the actors who play the other members of the group. We had such a great time filming together, joking around with each other."
Given the show's the complex storyline and characters, actor Song Joong-ki asked audiences to be patient with the first couple of episodes.
"A lot of ideas are introduced in the early episodes. There are different species and tribes, and the show uses terminology you'll have never heard before. There are even different languages that the writers created," he said. "Once you get the hang of this, you'll be able to follow the rest of the series quite comfortably."
With the increased global popularity of dramas and other TV content from South Korea in recent years, Netflix is licensing a wider range of Korean films and TV shows. The success of last year's Mr. Sunshine and this year's Kingdom and Arthdal Chronicles have helped Netflix surpass two million subscribers in South Korea and attract many more fans of K-drama internationally.
Kim Ok-vin, who plays the role of Taealha, the first empress of Arthdal, said that she's a huge fan of Netflix, and hopes that the streaming site helps Arthdal Chronicles to find an international audience.
"I hope many people watch the series. It's the first of its kind in Korea. I think it'll be received quite differently from other Korean series of shows," she said. "We had to build everything from the ground up to create a new type of story. We hope that will be one of the key aspects to this series. I'm excited to see what reviews we receive. Simply the fact that it is being released on Netflix and that I'm part of this project makes me feel so happy."
