With “Descendants of the Sun” actor Song Joong-ki holding his last three scheduled China leg of his Asian tour for fan meets, the 30-year-old could soon be able to concentrate on filming "Battleship Island” in Nami, Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.
But this early, the Hallyu star is preparing for his role as Park Mu Young by losing weight by diligently exercising and going on a diet, reported Kapanlagi, an Indonesian-language website. Explaining why he had to shed pounds, Song Joong-ki said during the press conference for his Hong Kong fan meet “Because the film is taken from a true story that inserts background of Korean history, I had to look thin to customize my character from more than 10 years ago.”
Song Joong-ki admitted that the diet is not easy because there are sometimes temptations that makes him forget the diet. He also said he is afraid of not following the diet, citing his best friend Lee Kwang Soo – his special guest at the Hong Kong fan meet. With the arrival of Lee Kwang Soo in Hong Kong, he said they might be tempted to feast on Hong Kong dishes which could derail his diet.
His co-stars in “Battleship Island” are Hwang Jung Min as Lee Kang Wook and So Ji Sub as Choi Chil-Sung. They held a first script reading on June 2, the first time that the cast and staff of the new film sat down and go through the script at a secret location in Seoul.
The unknown aspects of Hashima Island’s history is expected to be the focus of “Battleship Island” where Koreans became forced laborers for the undersea coal mines during World War II. But with the help of the Korean Independence group, the draftees eventually escaped from the 6.3-hectare island.