Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s Korean suspense thriller, ‘The Frog,’ innocent lives are upended by the arrival of dangerous serial killers. The story follows two paths, which eventually merge in the end, bringing the whole thing full circle. One of those paths follows the story of Sang-ju, the owner of a motel in a small South Korean town. Called the Lakeview Motel, the place is of great importance for Sang-ju. But all of his hopes about it fall apart when a serial killer arrives as a guest and leaves a dead body in his wake. The events following this unfold realistically enough to give the audience a pause. For those wondering whether it is a real place, the answer is not very exciting. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Fictional Lakeview Motel Remains an Important Presence in The Frog
‘The Frog’ presents a fictional story with every character and place fabricated to suit the plot. The writing is very taut, and to bring it alive on the screen with as much accuracy as possible, the crew of ‘The Frog’ decided to do most of their shooting in exterior locations. This was easier to do with Yeong-ha’s place, an impressive substitute for which was found at a property in the Onbit Natural Recreation Forest, whose forests were used for several other scenes in the show, things were a bit trickier with Sang-ju’s motel.
The exteriors of the motel were filmed at a local property in Nonsan in South Chungcheong Province, where most of the filming takes place. Because the location is such an important part of the story, the crew needed to morph it in a way that would also suit the timeline, which jumps a few decades. The dilapidation of the motel needed to factor into its appearance, and this change could only be brought about if the show’s creators constructed a place of their own. Reportedly, the crew constructed a makeshift place that would allow the changes in the external appearance to be more easily seen. Because the story is split into two timelines, this change was necessary to showcase the place’s downfall. For the interior scenes, the crew used soundstages and other sets built purposely to suit the plot of the story.
With the murder that happens there, the motel quickly becomes the talk of the town, and instead of attracting guests, it attracts mischievous elements. Sang-ju and his wife are continuously haunted by people who try to get into the place and take a look into the room where the murder took place. The infamy of the case seeps into their lives, rendering the motel unable to function and throwing it and its owners into squalor, permanently ruining their lives.
Read More: Netflix’s The Frog Ending, Explained: What Happens to Seong-a?
