Park Seo-joon breaks out of typical rom-com character mold

Following news is written by Lee Gyu-lee

Park Seo-joon often plays a typical "pretty boy," stealing girls' hearts with his flawless skin and charming smile.

That

has seen him cast as a wealthy and successful businessman sporting a

luxurious suit in TV dramas "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim" and "She

Was Pretty."

The poster for "The Divine Fury." Courtesy of 1st Look

But in his new movie "The Divine Fury," Park makes a big departure, playing a dark character.

"I almost always have played a positive and funny character, so a completely different character was something that I've always wanted to try," Park said at a news conference at Lotte Cinema in Gwangjin, Seoul, Wednesday.The movie is about a priest sent from the Vatican and a pro fighter who team up to exorcise evil.

Park plays mixed martial arts champion Yong-hoo who gets supernatural powers for an inexplicable reason. His character is filled with bitterness and doubt from losing his father at a young age.

He said he thought hard about how to play the character. "This movie is  full of realistic visual effects, pushing for a new horizon on Korea's occult and supernatural movies."

Director Kim Joo-hwan said: "This movie is different than previous occult movies
in a way that it depicts a larger view of the supernatural world. This goes beyond Catholic religion."

Veteran actor Ahn Seong-gi plays the priest who leads the exorcism. He told reporters he learned Latin for a month and showed off his Latin lines from the movie at the press conference.

"I still mumble the lines as a force of habit, even though it has been months since filming was completed," he said.