Korean webtoon on military duty now a Netflix series

A YOUNG army private is assigned to track down military deserters in the Netflix original series D.P. which premieres today.

D.P. follows the story of army private Joon-ho (played by Jung Hae-In), who is called to become a member of the Deserter Pursuit unit to uncover the whereabouts of soldiers that have gone absent without official leave and encounters the realities of confused young soldiers.

With its realistic portrayal of brutality and human rights violations, the webtoon by Kim Bo-Tong, on which the series is based, garnered over 10 million views.

During an online press conference on Aug. 25 held via Zoom, series director Han Jun-Hee said that D.P. is a story that he wanted to tell.

“These young people in their early 20s, they all go serve in the military. I think people could really resonate with them and put themselves in the shoes of these young lads. This could give us some social issues to talk about,” Mr. Han said in statements translated into English from Korean.

Unlike in the webtoon where Joon-Ho is a corporal, the series portrays him as a young enlistee.

“It starts from when he was just enlisted in the Army so you can see how he progresses in his military rank,” actor Jung Hae-In said.

“When I thought of this series, I wanted to make sure that people wanted to resonate with Joon-Ho and the character. So, I wanted [him] to be someone that everyone could think of as a friend who just started in the military. So, I wanted to portray the history of Joon-Ho, first enlisting in the army and how he progresses onwards,” Mr. Han, the director, said.

The series is told from the perspective of the soldiers catching soldiers and sheds light on the mental torment and growth of young people.

“There were some social issues that were incorporated into the series. The webtoon, it’s a little more dark and somewhat deep and in terms of stories, so we wanted to make sure that this was scalable, so it could be brought on to screen,” Mr. Han said of his focus for the series.

“I wanted to make sure that this was a humanistic drama. And I thought a lot about how we could portray writer Kim’s mind and his perspective on screen,” he said.  — Michelle Anne P. Soliman