Director Jang Hang-jun and Park Ji-hoon as Prince Danjong

Actor Park Ji-hoon, who is on the verge of surpassing 10 million viewers with his role as the tragic King Danjong in the film 'The Man Who Lived with the King,' has announced a new transformation in his upcoming project, the TVING original series 'Legend of the Mess Hall Soldier.' In this series, Park Ji-hoon will play the lead character 'Kang Seong-jae,' and his appearance in uniform has already heightened fans' expectations. 'Legend of the Mess Hall Soldier' is a military cooking fantasy drama based on a popular web novel of the same name and is scheduled for exclusive release on TVING in May.

The film 'The Man Who Lived with the King' began with 110,000 viewers on its opening day, but through word-of-mouth, its audience numbers steadily increased. It achieved a remarkable feat by surpassing 10 million viewers in just 31 days of its release, conquering the Lunar New Year holiday with its "grass seed" box office success, which means slow but steady growth. Even in its sixth week of release, the film is attracting nearly 200,000 daily viewers on weekdays, with projections reaching 15 million viewers. The movie was jointly produced by 'Onda Works' and 'BA Entertainment,' and Im Eun-jung, CEO of the new production company Onda Works, experienced the joy of a 10 million viewer hit with her company's debut project.

CEO Im Eun-jung began planning and developing 'The Man Who Lived with the King' after seeing its original concept while working in the investment team at CJ ENM. However, due to reasons such as the pandemic, production was halted. She then went independent, established her own production company, and presented this work as her company's first project. The competition between villages over the selection of the exile location was developed through collaboration with writer Hwang Sung-gu. CEO Im analyzed that the reason for the massive box office success was "because the longing for cinemas had accumulated," and she expressed pride in the enthusiastic response from audiences in their teens and twenties.

When Park Ji-hoon received the offer to play Danjong, he initially had many concerns. However, he was encouraged by director Jang Hang-jun's words, "Danjong, it has to be you," and decided to take on the role. To portray Danjong's "dry" demeanor, he underwent thorough preparation, including losing 15kg and living a life of hardship. From his first shoot, he had to express strong emotions in a scene facing Han Myung-hoe, and muscle tremors naturally appeared during filming. Park Ji-hoon built up his emotions through his interactions with senior actors, and he revealed that before filming the final scene, he and Yoo Hae-jin deliberately avoided each other to maintain emotional restraint.

Director Jang Hang-jun praised Park Ji-hoon as "a future of Korean cinema with excellent emotional restraint that a 20-something actor cannot possess," and lauded Yoo Hae-jin as "​the greatest actor alive." 'The Man Who Lived with the King' is a story about the exiled King Danjong and the villagers in Cheongnyongpo in 1457. It surpassed 12 million viewers in 36 days, climbing to 15th place in box office history.