[Edaily Starin YUN GI BACK Reporter] While bringing a famous original work back to the screen, the lead actors have actually taken a step back from their source material. Han So-hee and Choi Min-sik, stars of the Korean remake of “The Intern,” chose to “forget” their counterparts—Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, respectively—rather than model themselves after them. This was to avoid being confined by their established images.

The Korean version of “The Intern,” which opened on the 16th, was a film that was bound to draw comparisons from the very start. The original film was widely loved for the chemistry between Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. Since the characters and scenes remain so vividly etched in audiences’ memories, the fame of the original itself was the biggest challenge for the actors in the remake.
Director Kim Do-young addressed this pressure by “localizing” the film. After receiving a script that had undergone multiple rewrites over about five years, he retained the original’s main storyline while reworking the details, climax, and ending. Rather than simply transplanting the familiar story, he focused on refining the emotions and relationships so they would feel natural to Korean audiences.
Han So-hee took an even bolder approach. Recognizing that constantly being conscious of Anne Hathaway’s performance could lead her to inadvertently mimic her tone, she made a conscious effort to erase the original film from her mind. Rather than worrying about “whether she looked like Anne Hathaway,” she focused on how she could portray her character, Seon-woo, in her own unique way.
Choi Min-sik also avoided following in Robert De Niro’s footsteps. Rather than directly adopting the image of a sophisticated older gentleman from the original, he chose to bring out the sensibilities and sense of everyday life of a typical Korean middle-aged man. Instead of imitating a “Korean version of Ben” in a sharp suit, he placed emphasis on capturing the warmth of an adult figure one might actually encounter in Korean society.
The pressure that comes with remaking a famous film was no small matter. Faced with the inevitability of constant comparisons to the original, Choi Min-sik even joked, “I’ll never do this again.” However, once he decided to take the role, he reportedly resolved to focus on “showing our own take” rather than trying to avoid comparisons.
Perhaps Han So-hee and Choi Min-sik’s unique approach paid off. According to the Korean Film Council’s integrated computer network, *The Intern* topped the box office for two consecutive days following its release. Rave reviews are also pouring in. As of the 18th, *The Intern* is recording a 94% CGV Golden Egg Index. The majority of viewers are praising it as “a well-made Korean-style remake.”
Ultimately, the appeal of the Korean version of “The Intern” lies not in how closely it resembles the original, but in how differently it reimagines the story. While comparisons are inevitable for a work that remains vivid in the memories of fans of the original, the actors chose to present characters with a completely different tone rather than trying to avoid or hide from those comparisons. The irony of a remake in which the creators sought to move beyond the original is the most intriguing behind-the-scenes story of the Korean version of “The Intern.”