EXCLUSIVE: Director Lee Won-seok on Oh Jung-se Crying Every Take in *Wild Thing* MV

Director Lee Won-seok has revealed the behind-the-scenes story of the "I Like You" music video for *Wild Thing*, the film comedy in which Oh Jung-se plays Choi Sung-gon, a fictional 2000s ballad prince.

*Wild Thing* follows Triangle, a three-member mixed-gender dance group that disbanded overnight after an unexpected incident at the height of their fame, now chasing a comeback shot twenty years later. Within the film, Choi Sung-gon is the group's original "ear-boyfriend" — flowing long hair, white shirt, honey voice — whose signature ballad "I Like You" once logged 39 consecutive weeks at number two.

The music video, now past 1.95 million views, pays homage to the dramatized sad-ending MV format that dominated the early 2000s: mournful lip-sync, a hazy first-love narrative, 4:3 aspect ratio, retro filters, and the signature soft-focus lighting and eye-lighting effects of the era.

Lee, who previously drew out another side of Oh Jung-se in *How to Use Guys with Secret Tips*, said he agreed to direct without hesitation. "After hearing 'I Like You,' it kept looping in my head like I'd fallen under some crazy spell — then the offer came in, and I said yes, no question," he told Herald Muse.

He described Choi Sung-gon's appeal as "sad eyes and lips, silken hair, and a voice that sounds like it's carrying a lifelong grudge." On the concept, Lee said the original idea had Choi as an angel wandering in grief over a lost love, but Choi pushed back the night before the shoot: "He said, 'The one who stays and waits is sadder than the one who leaves' — so we changed the setup."

On set, Oh Jung-se cried through every take — no tear stick. "I kept asking for more, more desperate," Lee said. "As filming went on, what I was feeling crossed from sadness into something almost manic, so I ended up using mostly shots where he's looking away rather than straight into the camera."

The harp in the video came at zero cost. Lee had originally wanted Choi Sung-gon to play one, but the rental fee was prohibitive. Then a listing appeared on a secondhand marketplace: an elderly man donating his harp because his eyesight had deteriorated too much to use it. "He even included a how-to book," Lee said. "I passed it all along to Choi Sung-gon, and he came back the next day having genuinely mastered it."

"Making this music video was its own drama," Lee said in closing. "Everyone ran around putting it together by hand, so I'm grateful so many people have embraced Choi Sung-gon and 'I Like You.'" *Wild Thing* is currently in theaters.

고막남친 (gomak namchin, "eardrum boyfriend") is a Korean pop-culture term for a male vocalist so vocally appealing he's considered a parasocial romantic ideal — a distinct 2000s idol archetype the film is sending up.

a vocalist so soothing he's framed as an imaginary boyfriend; the character Choi Sung-gon is built on this archetype