Director Kim Gyu-tae said SBS’ new rom-com “It’s Okay, That’s Love” is a “necessary drama” regarding its message to society.

At a drama premiere conference in Seoul, Wednesday, the director admitted that some of the socially awakening ideas embedded in “It’s Okay, That’s Love” could appear “heavy” and “unfamiliar” to the audience. But dramas with social messages should not be shunned, he alleged.

“I think it (“It’s Okay, That’s Love”) is a necessary drama. I am sorry about (some) dramas with (social) messages have been shunned. Both the writer and I tried to pay much attention to have the message delivered more effectively, fun, and comfortable,” Kim said.

Written by Noh Hee-kyung, the drama contains both rom-com plots and character development, and addresses the discrimination of minorities, such as mentally ill people, criminals and emotionally ailing people. Some scenes include Gong Hyo-jin, the psychiatrist heroine, bathing her physically and mentally impaired father or being attacked by psychologically disoriented patients. A confined murderer with mental disorder also appears in the drama.

In such context, the director has underscored the fact that the drama breaks away from the traditional genre of a medical rom-com. He called “It’s Okay, That’s Love” “a hybrid” that puts more weight on breaking the social prejudices toward the minority groups.

“Ms. Noh, the writer, has the seriousness and the weight and I have the lightness and mass-friendliness. Together we make a great synergy,” he said. “It’s Okay, That’s Love” is the third drama that he worked on with Noh.

The director said he was pressured about the difficulty of bringing the story to the screen without deviating too much from the rom-com frame.

“I personally found it hard to keep the balance between a rom-com and a conventional (melodrama). Every one scene would contain both features.

So long as this balance stays unbroken, the drama will be close to a perfection, the director confided.

Starring Gong and actor Jo In-sung, “It’s Okay, That’s Love” portrays the love story between a crime novelist and a cold, chic psychiatrist. The director said that the actors in “It’s Okay, That’s Love” are so experienced that he had little difficulties with their acting style.

The Korean drama will air simultaneously in Korea and China on July 23 at 10 p.m., on Korean television broadcaster SBS and Chinese video platforms Youku and Tudou.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)