“Reborn Rich” is receiving attention as it was filmed at a building built as a presidential villa in the 1980s.
The former Busan Mayor’s office has become a house of a conglomerate. The JTBC drama “Reborn Rich” is drawing attention with high ratings as it features an impressive house.
According to the Busan Metropolitan Government and the Busan Ilbo on Dec 22nd, the drama “Reborn Rich” was filmed in June at an official residence in Namcheon-dong, Suyeong-gu, Busan (currently an open filming and event venue). The exterior of the official residence and the gate, garden, and pond appears in the background of “Jeongsimjae,” where Sun Yang Group Chairman Jin Yang Chul (Lee Sung Min) lives.
A representative scene of this house is when Chairman Jin meets his son-in-law Choi Chang Je (Kim Do Hyun) while feeding the fish in front of the pond, while his youngest grandson, Jin Do Joon (Song Joong Ki), reads a book in the garden.
The official residence was chosen as the filming location as it was said to perfectly suit the image of a conglomerate’s house in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kim Sun Ki, location manager of the Busan Film Commission, told the Busan Ilbo, “I know that the production team has traveled around the country looking for a suitable place to be Jeongsimjae,” adding, “The director who came to Busan saw it and decided to choose it as the filming location. I heard that even the space from the gate to the entrance of the official residence was consistent with how the director described Jungshimjae. The building appears almost exactly the same in the drama except for CG tiles on the roof.”
The official residence was built as a presidential villa during the Fifth Republic of Korea. It was completed in 1985 under the direction of former President Chun Doo Hwan. The late architect Kim Joong Up reportedly spent 4.157 billion won at the time. The exterior of the building is luxurious, but the scale is also wide with 18,015㎡ of land and 2,437㎡ of total building area. The property has more than 23,000 trees alone.
Passing through the heavy iron gate and driving up the road through the forest, you will find the official building. The official residence has been empty since former Mayor Oh Keo Don resigned in 2020. Mayor Park Hyung Joon has announced that he would not move into the building and will open it as a public space for lectures, exhibitions, and performances in January 2024 when the remodeling of the building is completed at the end of next year.
Analysts say that the reason why the official residence was chosen as the filming location is that there are no residents at the venue which is suitable for a drama taking place in the past.
According to the Busan Film Commission, there are four movies and dramas that had filmed at the Busan Mayor’s office from 2021 to 2022. From 2007 to 2020, there were only seven films, but the number is increasing. Two works are scheduled to be filmed there next year.
Source: Wikitree
