Tell Me That You Love Me is set to make waves on Disney+.
We’ve watched plenty of KDramas in our lifetimes, but this is the first time we will actually be watching a KDrama where the lead actor does not speak at all. In Tell Me That You Love Me, Cha Jin-woo (Jung Woo-sung) has a hearing impairment and is therefore not comfortable speaking. He then meets Jung Mo-eun (Shin Hyun-been), an aspiring actress who expresses her feelings through words. A straight-up romance in the making, Cha Jin-Woo and Jung Mo-Eun are sure to make you feel things in Tell Me That You Love Me.
Photo from Disney+
What to Expect From Tell Me That You Love Me
True-Blue Romance
After 11 years, Woo-sung is back in the romance world; and although he doesn’t know how the audience will react to Tell Me That You Love Me yet, he shares his excitement about being back in the romance scene. Most importantly, the original Japanese drama really resonated with him, so it was definitely a dream for him to work on it. The personal meaning of the drama to his life, though, he says that he feels like the story will truly resonate with the audience.
What’s more, Woo-sung points out that romance hasn’t really been a prioritized genre in KDramas in the past years. “Because there hasn’t been a lot of romance dramas, there has also been a growing thirst for them,” he states. “I’m excited to be back with a romance drama, and a bit curious and cautious about how the audience will react.”
Photo from Disney+
Shedding Light on Disabilities
Hyun-been, on the other hand, shares her struggles with working on a series where the characters communicate through sign language most of the time. “I thought a lot about how to really be expressive because I’m not familiar with sign language,” she admits. “My character is also someone who is newly acquiring sign language, so to make sure that that process comes off as convincing as possible is one of the things that I focused on.”
She also adds that facial expressions are very important along with other elements that they needed to concentrate on other than the audio. “There’s also the element of the two people having to face each other and look at each other,” she emphasizes. “It was a new experience, and it was very interesting for me. I had a lot of fun learning it. On set, we found ourselves actually communicating through sign language too. While it was indeed a challenge, it was something that was enjoyable.”
Photo from Disney+
This was also Woo-sung’s first time to learn sign language, and he shares that he found it to be a very intuitive expression. “I had fun initially; but when it comes to sign language, each difference in direction and a slight movement in hand can mean something completely different, so it was very difficult to move along the process,” he admits.
“When I had a lot of dialogue in sign language, I would get confused if it’s the right gesture or not because inside my head, I was thinking about the sign language and the dialogue at the same time; but because it was a new experience for me, I appreciated it.”
Lots of Lessons to Learn
Obviously, we don’t want to give too much away to those who aren’t familiar with the drama yet, but Tell Me That You Love Me is set to not just be about romance. There will be a lot of lessons to be learned as you watch it as well, most importantly the importance of communication.
Tell Me That You Love Me is now streaming on Disney+.
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