“Perhaps Love,” a new movie directed by Cho Eun-ji and starring Oh Na-ra, offers a different take on relationships than most South Korean films.

Oh’s character, Mi-ae, secretly dates Soon-mo (played by Kim Hee-won), a close friend of her ex-husband, Hyun (played by Ryoo Seung-ryo). Soon-mo, a publisher, works with Hyun, a writer struggling to overcome writer’s block.

Oh explained during an interview with a group of reporters via Google Meet that she hadn’t experienced much difficulty relating to Mi-ae and her secret love affair with Soon-mo.

“If she was still married to Hyun, it could have been a difficult story, but she wasn’t,” Oh said.

“It’s been 10 years since they separated, and also there is a line that Soon-mo says that helped me understand their relationship better.”

Soon-mo says in the film that he was the one who loved Mi-ae first, which led Oh to imagine that there must have been an untold story between the two before Mi-ae got married.

“Also, I thought that when Mi-ae was having a difficult time, going through the divorce process, Soon-mo probably was there for her. So them falling in love seemed natural to me.”

Oh went on to talk about Kim Hee-won, who played Soon-mo.

“I actually met him for the first time at a screening event before we started shooting this movie. Although we’d never met before in person, I brightly said hello to him,” Oh said. “I think he thought of me as someone he knew because he was not shy at all. I’ve heard that he is a shy man. Then his manager reminded him that I was Oh Na-ra and we’d never met before. He was surprised and quickly disappeared.”

Oh burst into laughter while recalling the incident and said it had helped them become close with each other quickly when they met again for the movie.

Aside from the love story between Soon-mo and Mi-ae, the film also humorously features diverse interactions between the characters. It shows Hyun and Mi-ae’s ongoing complex relationship, as they have to deal with their son Sung-kyung (played by Sung Yoo-bin), who is going through puberty.

Then Hyun unexpectedly gets to co-write a novel with a talented student named Yoo-jin (played by Mu Jin-sung), who is gay and has feelings for Hyun.

“Our movies’ two key themes are love and relationships,” Oh said. “It shows different forms of love and tells that there’s no right or wrong and we should acknowledge them as they are.”

During the interview, Oh also showed her respect for actor-turned-director Cho, who is debuting as a commercial feature director with “Perhaps Love.”
 

“I did not have any prejudice against her just because she is an actor-turned-director. When I first met her she ran through the script with me. She analyzed each scene so much that it made me feel like I’d watched the entire film already after listening to her,” Oh said.

“Also, when giving some negative feedback she made sure to do it privately. I think she is doing this out of her experience. Maybe someone embarrassed her with negative feedback. I thought this was thoughtful of her,” she added.

“Perhaps Love” will hit local theaters Wednesday.