Spoilers ahead for Soul Mate, now streaming on Netflix.
Ok Taec-yeon and Hayato Isomura, the stars of Netflix’s romantic drama Soul Mate, will accept full responsibility for making their viewers cry.
The eight-episode series, written and directed by Shunki Hashizume, dropped on Netflix on May 14. It depicts the relationship between college ice hockey star Ryu Narutaki and Korean boxer Johan Hwang, which simmers and crescendos across Berlin, Seoul, and Tokyo over the course of 10 years.
Hayato, the star of Alice in Borderland and the Japanese adaptation of Suits, steps into the role of Ryu, who carries the guilt of inadvertently tearing his best friend’s life apart and winds up fleeing Japan. He’s paired with 2PM member Taec-yeon (who starred in Vincenzo and cameoed in XO, Kitty) as Johan, a troubled young man in a sticky situation.
“We weren't trying to jerk the tears of the viewers,” Taec-yeon tells Teen Vogue about the sentimental ending. “We just wanted to show the people how love can be expressed through different words and situations, and if they resonate with Johan and Ryu, they'll cry a little, but they'll appreciate the beauty of our soulmate relationship.”
Soul Mate is an epic feat of longing and belonging. What these men face should not be theirs to carry, those festering wounds that thrive in tight, unacknowledged spaces. The fates draw their lives together, intersecting so that Johan can save Ryu from a church fire, converging again so Ryu can embolden Johan in a boxing match. What are we to each other? How deeply knotted can our ties become? As Ryu and Johan gravitate toward each other, these are the questions that keep the series in motion.
Teen Vogue caught up over a video call with Hayato (via interpreter) and Taec-yeon to unpack their mammoth decade-spanning series and their hopes for what viewers and fans might glean from it.
Ok Taec-yeon: The experience was very different for me and Johan. I had to emphasize the loneliness of Johan, how he had no family to welcome him back, and it’s a struggle that he had to face all throughout his life. I just wanted to make sure that people who see the show feel and resonate with Johan, how he's a lonely guy, and doesn't have anyone to lean on.
OT: The military itself is very long and strenuous, very hard work, and it takes about two years of a person's life in Korea, basically. But as duty calls, as a Korean citizen, we all have to do it, and I just had the urge to actually fulfill that duty. But for Johan, I don't think he felt the necessity, but he felt a little bit of freedom from boxing and all the societal problems that he had to face. Maybe it was like a little getaway, in a way. But then again, being away for two years of his life, and being away from Ryu itself was not a good time. But it just happens to be one of those times where you just have to endure it.
Hayato Isomura: When I go into a project, I run through everything and do whatever comes to me. But Ryu, with Arata, ran away when Arata told him he loved him. I have no experience running away from something in my own life, so I wasn’t able to relate to Ryu in that way. But I understood the situation. He had to run away. There was no other choice for him. If I was in his place, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to face that difficulty, so understanding him emotionally, like when he was playing ice hockey, I can understand, but not relate, because I’m a different person than Ryu. Maybe that was why I wanted to play him, because he was different.
HI: Johan changed Ryu’s life in a dramatic way. For myself, I feel that when I face a problem, I always try to solve it on my own, but recently I’ve learned that something really positive comes out of leaning on someone, and you will find a different path forward. Working on Ryu and having Johan as your soulmate, he was able to move forward emotionally, so I learned that leaning on someone is an important thing.
OT: As a Korean-speaking person, when you get emotional, you revert back to the mother tongue, right? So I think it shows that Johan is very emotional. And the director Hashizume-san, we talked a lot, and we wanted to show that Johan is very vulnerable at the moment…It’s those choices that kind of make him more real, so I'm very appreciative of the director saying we should speak that line in Korean. I think it was a good choice.
HI: The ice hockey learning was very tough for me, so I felt like a deer, and I had to practice every day for many, many weeks. So I still love playing ice hockey, and I wish that ice hockey in Japan would really be more popular.
HI: It’s basically “soulmate” in a nutshell. There are a lot of LGBTQ+ shows in the world, a lot of depictions being more affectionate, like having a kiss scene or a love scene, but we don’t have that. It’s more about their emotional connection. I feel that it’s a very new way of capturing a relationship between two people.
OT: For me, it’s more like what Isomura-kun said. It's not about being physical. It's not about that. I think the whole show is talking about different types of love and how love can be shown in a way that doesn't really have to be sexual or physical. It just shows very different varieties of how love can be expressed.
OT: Yes…since we show the whole story in a 10-year time period, it's not about being immediate. The love is not immediate. It just shows how soulmate, the word itself, is very different from just being a lover. I think that's the only way we can express the whole “soulmate” in a different way, I guess.
HI: Ok Taec-yeon, he really goes full on when he's acting, and he welcomes anything; he’s ready. He’s like, “Whatever you throw at me, I will catch it” kind of vibe. That's his personality, and that's the way he is with acting, too. And I was there to just appreciate that.
OT: Being on set with Isomura-kun was always fun and exciting. I’m very cheerful, and I'm very light-minded when I'm on set. I try to cheer everybody up. Sometimes it could be a little bit annoying and noisy. But he's always on set, always being very calm. When the films were rolling, he would always calm me down. He would actually catch everything that I do, every time we had to do some acting, so he's very responsive and quick on his feet. I felt very amazed. I was amazed by his performances as well.
HI: For me, after watching Soul Mate, if people can ask themselves, Do I have a soulmate, even if it's not a soulmate, thinking about somebody they care about. That's more than enough for me. If this drama could be something to evoke that question, that would be great.
OT: For me, I think it’s about the same as Isomura-kun, but a little bit different is finding hope. Johan has a terminal illness, but he doesn't stop, and he doesn't give up, and finding that soulmate in Ryu gives him hope to go on, even though his fate is already sealed. So I think finding that happiness, even if you have what's coming up to you, every day, finding that hope and happiness. I hope the viewers also find that happiness to go on.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
