With Kim Woo Bin leading a stellar cast in Netflix's latest original Korean content offering, we're betting that this six-episode series will rank in the Philippines' Top 10. And if we're gonna be honest here, it definitely deserves a spot on the list of the streaming platform's highest-ranked shows.
Helmed by Baeksang (aka South Korea's version of the Oscars) nominated director Cho Ui Seok, Black Knight is set in a post-apocalyptic version of Korea after a natural disaster leaves Earth nearly uninhabitable. The fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of the the Black Knights, who are far from your average delivery men.
The hero of our story is deliveryman 5-8 (Kim Woo Bin), who is considered the strongest of them all. Secretly helping refugees along with a select group of comrades, 5-8 is more than just a deliveryman. He is a hero to those without an identity and hope.
Meanwhile, refugee Sa-wol (Kang Yoo Seok), dreams of becoming a deliveryman and living a better life together with his family, which includes Defense Intelligence Command major Seol-ah (Esom), who rescued him as a boy. But Sa-wol soon learns that everything is not as it seems after entering a deliveryman contest organized by Ryu-Seok (Song Seung Heon), the CEO of Cheonmyeong Group, who has no intention of sharing his world with refugees.
With a star-studded cast that includes Kim Eui Sung, Nam Kyung Eup, Jin Kyung, and Baeksang winner for Best New Actress Roh Yoon Seo, Black Knight is a must-watch for fans of action flicks, dystopian worlds, and thrilling plotlines.
Here are ten interesting things we learned about Black Knight after attending the show's press conference and talking to the cast:
1. Black Knight is based on a webtoon.
Director Cho revealed that compared to the webtoon, the worldview depicted in the TV series is the same, nearly identical tbh. The main difference between the original and the adaptation is the characters. "Because there's a lot of characters in the webtoon, I tried to boil down those characters to the gist. And we have some new characters added as well." He also talked with Lee Yun Gyun (the creator of Delivery Knight), who informed him to "feel free to change the webtoon." And so he did!
2. The series' English title is actually a ~clue~ to the real jobs of 5-8 and his team of deliverymen.
In the daytime these deliverymen are charged with delivering oxygen and other essential supplies to various households. At night, they come together as a sort of "black knight" for the refugee people. According to the director, "it’s good to think of them as a group of knights; delivery men by day but actual black knights at night."
3. Song Seung Heon may look stern and stoic, but he's actually hilarious IRL.
Director Cho cast Song Seung Heon to play the charismatic Cheonmyeong Group heir Ryu Seok because "I wanted to see him use his handsome face to portray the evil acts that his character commits." Seung Heon wanted to add a layer of loneliness and pity to this role, but on set he is apparently the life of the party!
Woo Bin shared that his co-star actually jokes around a lot: "He tried to ease the atmosphere on set." Seung Heon also has a really good sense of humor, Esom added. "He would keep joking around on set. It’s not the type of joke that you think is hilarious upfront, but later on you think about it and you realize it’s really funny."
Seung Heon found his castmates' revelations amusing: "A lot of people tell me this, that I am humorous on set. I am not that humorous, or I don’t joke around too much. But it’s because I have the image of a very stoic kind of character, that’s why people think if I make a little joke they think it’s really funny."
4. Song Seung Heon also loves to take selfies on set!
One thing the audience *did* find funny was the actor's penchant for selcas! "When I’m done with a project or when I’m working on a project, we want to upload things to Instagram. If I don’t have the photos ready, I don’t feel good. So when I’m working on a project I try to take as many selfies and photos as possible because I want to savor the moment."
When the host asked the cast to demonstrate, Esom went up first. "Seung Heon would always hold the cellphone like this [pose] and we would pose for the camera." "Yes, out of nowhere Seung Heon would just hold his phone up and we would get into poses," Woo Bin continued. How cute!
Fun fact: Seung Heon and director Cho have been friends for 20 years, and on the day of the press conference (May 10) a fan of the actor informed him that it was the anniversary of Make It Big, Cho Ui Seok's directorial debut film that he appeared in! "It was released on May 10, 2005, so 21 years ago; time flies! I’m just really happy that I got to work on this project together with an old friend of mine," he said.
5. Black Knight is Kim Woo Bin and Song Seung Heon's second time working with Director Cho Ui Seok.
As mentioned earlier, Seung Heon and the director worked together on 2005's Make It Big, while Woo Bin starred in 2016's Master alongside Lee Byung Hun and Gang Dong Won.
On working together for a second time, Woo Bin said it was the script that initially reeled him in, because "until recently we were all wearing masks." However, the most important factor in making up his mind was director Cho. "We worked together on the film Master seven years ago and since I really enjoyed the experience, I thought it’d be pure delight to collaborate with him once again...We kept in touch after we were done with Master so we knew each other quite well and he knew from the get-go how I was going to portray this character. Chemistry with him was just effortless and I felt like we were one team from a long time ago."
Meanwhile, Seung Heon declared that due to their longtime friendship, he had absolute trust in the director. "The biggest reason why I joined the cast was my faith in Director Cho Ui Seok. He was still developing the ideas for Black Knight when I told him I would love to work with him in whatever role he would offer because it would be a great way to reunite with him after a long break."
6. Director Cho was so impressed by Kang Yoo Seok, he wanted the 28-year-old to become an "Action Monster."
Yoo Seok revealed that he felt "very pressured" after the director told him of his expectations. "After I got my part through an audition, Director Cho Ui Seok told me that he wanted me to "become an action monster" for the role. And the role did require me to do a lot of action scenes. Three months prior to production, I worked out everyday with the stunt team. I built a lot of physical strength through that process, and when it came time to shoot the action scenes, I could see all that hard work paid off. I worked from the ground up to prepare thoroughly for this role."
7. Speaking of Black Knight action scenes, Esom trained as well—but her preparations turned out quite differently.
"In the beginning, I trained for my action scenes," the actress disclosed. She and Yoo Seok actually worked out together in the stunts training center! But then director Choi said ""I don’t think you need to work anymore on that." I put a lot of time and effort into preparing for my action scenes," she laughingly teased him, to the delight of media in the room. "In this drama I have quite a lot of action screens and I work with guns a lot. I want people to think I am someone who knows how to deal with guns."
Earlier in the presscon, director Cho did say this: "[Esom] has very long arms and legs, so when I was speaking to our costume team we wanted to remodel the military uniform to fit her nicely...The moment I saw her in her military uniform, I knew that I had Seol-ah standing in front of me."
The presscon host also gave major Seol-ah a new nickname! "Rather than 'soldier', how about 'som-dier'?" (a combination of Esom + soldier) Esom laughingly agreed and shared, "I like that, I like that nickname."
8. Black Knight was not the first project Kim Woo Bin and Esom worked on together.
Esom shared that when she first heard Woo Bin would be be attached to this project, she felt very happy and looked forward to working with him again. "When we were shooting our very first scene together, we had oxygen masks on and we would just look into each others’ eyes. I could feel that energy coming out of his eyes, so I thought he was such an awesome actor."
"I told her that I was happy but she never told me that," Woo Bin joked laughingly. "I was very happy to see her again. The first scene is always a big pressure on you, but because my previous work ended a little later, I got on board [on Black Knight] a little later, too. But I talked with Som about the past, and I felt like, "Okay, we survived in this industry." [We debuted together as models and] we were struggling, directors would scold us for our performance, but now we’ve grown and become these solid actors so I was very happy."
Woo Bin had more to say about partnering up with Esom once more. "It has been a very long time since we got back together, and my very first scene was with Som. She was very different from the very lovely, bubbly girl I knew. She was oozing charisma…she looked not only great in the military uniform, but just her aura and her energy, it was all very stern. I loved to see it. I was very happily surprised, and I just had a great time working with her." Aww, we love the supportive energy between these two! And in case you're curious, the two previously appeared together in 2011's KB2 psychological thriller drama White Christmas.
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9. The cast have thought of what they'd to to survive a deliveryman tournament in Black Knight if one took place in real life.
When faced with the hypothetical scenario, the cast looked stumped for a moment. "I’m not confident that I'll make it to the end of the competition…because I’m tall, out of these four I think I can win against director Cho," Woo Bin jokingly said. Seung Heon confidently opened with, "I think I’m going to win…just kidding. I’ll try my hardest to advance until the very end." Esom also gave a positive answer: "I think I would also participate. I think I’ll keep trying until I win." But Soo Yeok left everyone laughing when he proclaimed "I’m the youngest so I’m going to win." Woo Bin had the last laugh when he ended with, "I’m sure I’ll do a better job than director Cho."
10. Could they survive a different type of apocalypse, though? We found out!
During the roundtable interview, we asked the cast if there was a type of post-apocalyptic world they thought they *could* survive living in. For example: a deadly virus, a different natural disaster, an alien invasion, zombies, you name it.
Seung Heon happily chimed in to answer first. "This is not necessarily about survival in an apocalypse, but I have always had this curiosity for alien life. I want to get to know and befriend aliens." *laughs* "The galaxy is really wide, I don't think Earth is the only planet where there's living creatures. So I would love to meet other living creatures. I watch a lot of documentaries about alien creatures as well, so it doesn't necessarily have to be a dystopia, but I would love a chance like that."
Meanwhile, Woo Bin was quick to joke: "I also shot a movie called Alienoid, and in the movie I'm actually a robot made by aliens. So I think I will get to understand what the aliens are saying and what they had in mind."
Overall, Black Knight is a little bit dream-like for a dystopian series, with a surprisingly deep message. Director Cho put it simply: "5-8 lives in a dystopia, but he dreams of a utopia. I hope we can usher in a society equal for all where everyone can be happy. I think that’s a message that I wanted to convey through the show."
You can watch all six episodes of Black Knight on Netflix.
