Kim Soo-hyun is South Korea's Highest Paid Actor & Deserves Every Penny
DREAM HIGH | IT'S OKAY TO NOT BE OKAY | MOON EMBRACING THE SUN | MY LOVE FROM ANOTHER STAR | ONE ORDINARY DAY | THE PRODUCERS | SECRETLY, GREATLY | THE THIEVES
There are few actors who pick projects as well as Kim Soo-hyun does. I know that either you’re nodding your head along with me or you’re wondering, “Who is this man of which you speak?!”
Kim, 36, is South Korea’s highest-paid actor … and with good reason. He has an emotional range that can break your heart, while also making you laugh out loud shortly thereafter. The actor is so popular that even when he makes a cameo appearance in films (“Miss Granny”) and K-dramas (“Crash Landing on You,” “Hotel del Luna”), it becomes news.
His latest series is “Queen of Tears,” which just ended this previous weekend. I am currently working on a review of this superior show — which is easily the strongest K-drama of 2024 to date — but I need to rewatch a few scenes before I share my thoughts. [ETA: I just added a link to this review here.]
So far now, I’m leaving you with my reviews of some of Kim Soo-hyun’s dramas and films that are worth checking out.
Please click on the anchor links below to access specific reviews. For your convenience, each review is also linked in my K-drama Index.
° “Dream High” (드림하이) ☆☆½
° “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” (사이코지만 괜찮아) ☆☆☆½
° “The Moon Embracing the Sun” (해를 품은 달) ☆☆☆☆
° “My Love From Another Star (별에서 온 그대) ☆☆☆☆
° “One Ordinary Day” (어느 날) ☆☆☆½
° “The Producers” (프로듀사) ☆☆☆
° “Queen of Tears” (눈물의 여왕) ☆☆☆½
° 📽️ “Secretly, Greatly (은밀하게 위대하게) ☆☆☆
° 📽️ “The Thieves” (도둑들) ☆☆
As always, my reviews are based on a ☆☆☆☆ system.
“Dream High”
드림하이
☆☆½
Song Sam-Dong (played by Kim Soo-Hyun)
Go Hye-Mi (played by Bae Suzy)
Jin-Guk (played by Ok Taec-Yeon)
“Dream High” is one of those series that starts off with a ridiculous premise. But, if you stick with it, you’ll be amused, angered and (at times) deeply touched. Yes, this is a glossy high school musical with a love triangle. But it also deals with child abandonment, sexual assault and the abuse of children by the system set in place to manufacture “idols.”
This isn’t just a Korean thing. Think about all the American boy band members who have revealed how they were abused by their predatory management.
Throughout the series, we’re left wondering which student will become an international superstar who will perform — and most likely win an award — at the 2018 Grammys. We’re also not sure which boy — shy Sam-Dong or rebel with a cause Jin-Guk — Hye-Mi will pick.
The drama revolves around Hye-Mi, a precocious singer who hopes to be admitted to Julliard. Though still in high school, she has already sung on stage with opera star Jo Sumi. Pampered and headstrong, she has high expectations for her future.
Raised in a wealthy household, Hye-Mi doesn’t realize until too late that her father has rung up insurmountable debts that he can’t pay back to the local mob boss. Afraid for his life, he flees to America, leaving Hye-Mi and her younger sister behind.
He tells her to take her sister and go live with his frenemy, Mr. Kang. A teacher at Kirin — a local arts academy (think of the school in “Fame”) — Mr. Kang apparently had an affair with Hye-Mi’s mother, which broke up the Go nuclear family.
I know we’re meant to view Mr. Kang as the bad guy, but even if he’s an adulterer, he’s not as bad as her father. Kang isn’t the one who abandoned his underage daughters.
When the mob boss can’t find the dad, he finds Hye-Mi and tells her that she will have to pay off her father’s debts in whatever way possible — including with her body. He has makeup put on her face to make her look grownup and drags her onstage to see if she could pass as a singer.
Though they don’t dwell on the latter too much, the concept is all kinds of ewwww. The father had to have known that this would be one of the consequences of his actions.
Before I go any further, I’d like to refer you to this reference (via PopSeoul) that may help you keep track of all the characters:
Baek-Hee is Hye-Mi’s mouse of a friend. Actually, friend is probably too strong of a word. Baek-Hee idolizes Hye-Mi, who merely tolerates her. But, when she sees other girls bully Baek-Hee, she stands up for her.
Hye-Mi decides that her only chance to pay off her father’s debts is to become a famous and rich K-pop star. Even though she views Kirin as beneath her, she knows that it has produced many stars. So she auditions. Baek-Hee decides to try out, too. For what seems like an arbitrary reason, Jung Ha-Myung (the superstar head of the school) decides that he will only admit one of them.
Baek-Hee says she won’t attend without Hye-Mi. But the latter disses her friend and says that she should be picked, because she is first rate while Baek-Hee is merely third rate. Granted, we could give her a bit of leeway since we know that she is desperate to become a star and pay off her father’s debts, but she could have been less cruel in her assessment.
Shocked and feeling betrayed, Baek-Hee turns into an uber bitch who revels in her former idol’s downfall. When Hye-Mi is admitted to the school after all, a fierce rivalry begins. Especially when Baek-Hee develops a crush on Jin-Guk, who likes Hye-Mi.
Also vying for her affections is country boy Song Sam-Dong, who doesn’t have the charisma or stature of Jin-Guk, but remains persistent nonetheless.
During the first few episodes, the only characters I liked were Sam Dong and Pil-Sook (portrayed by the pop star IU), a chubby girl with an angelic voice. The adults were ineffectual, bumbling idiots or guilty of child endangerment. And the students, well, they were jerks who would stab each other in the back so that it’d be easier to climb over each other.
The level of condoned bullying was disturbing. Classmates poured water over Hye-Mi’s head when she was in the toilet stall, threw eggs at her and scrawled obscene graffiti about her on school walls. And the administration not only left the graffiti up, they didn’t even try to find the culprits. When a fellow student threw a potted plant at her from the roof, there was no investigation to see who might have tried to kill Hye-Mi, because they were afraid it might ruin the school’s reputation.
It is a testament to Lee Yoon-Ji’s acting abilities that I despised her portrayal of instructor Shi Kyung-Jin almost as much as I hated her resting bitch face.
Standout scenes: Episode 8 (51 minutes in): Hye-Mi is about to tell Sam-Dong that she has feelings for Jin-Guk. Sam-Dong knows this, but tearfully begs her not to say it. As he tells her why he thinks she’s crying, you can see the pain in both his and her eyes. The scene is heartbreaking and shows some fine acting from Kim Soo-Hyun and Suzy.
Kim, who is the only non-idol of the group, actually has a lovely voice and sang his own songs. I can understand why the producers hired an actor (rather than a singer) for the part he played. Sam-Dong is a complex role to play. He is a country bumpkin, lost soul and scared boy. He isn’t always likable, but he makes the viewers care about what will happen to him.
You may recognize: 2PM’s Ok Taec-Yeon and Jang Woo-Young play Jin-Guk and Jason, respectively. Their bandmates Nichkhun and Chansung also make cameo appearances. Chansung gets to act in one of the series’ more comical scenes. Mr. Kang’s older sister is a bit of a cougar who lusts after Sam-Dong and Jin-Guk. After a night of drinking, she meets a young man (played by Chansung) who showers her with attention. They share a kiss and only then does she sober up and realize that she kissed the mob boss rather than the handsome young thang.
Um Ki-Joon plays the kind-hearted teacher, Mr. Kang, here. He played the bloodthirsty murderer in “Ghost.”
Choi Il-Hwa often plays the cold, emotionally-distant father role. Here, he played Jin-Guk’s dad. He had a similar role in “Oh My Venus.” He was less austere as the dad in “Coffee Prince.”
George Takei wasn’t in this series, but every time Lee Byung-Joon (as the smarmy school principal) spoke, I halfway expected him to say, “Oh, my!” Both actors share a similar deep, rich voice.
And, not for nothing, but recognize anything below in the screen cap? As if any reporter would be named “Jae-Ha Kim.” As. If!?
Adoption element: As children, Jin-Guk and Hye-Mi met on the streets. She was waiting for her parents. He was hiding from his mother, who wanted to send him to an child welfare center. His father was a married man who wouldn’t acknowledge him as his son, because it would’ve ruined his marriage and caused a scandal in his career.
To this day, unwed mothers have an incredibly difficult time finding work in real-life Korea and are often forced to put their children up for adoption because of poverty. The series doesn’t touch on this, making it seem like his mother just didn’t want him anymore.
Meta moment: Almost three years after the cast completed shooting “Dream High,” Bae Su-Ji would make a cameo appearance in Kim Soo Hyun’s “My Love From Another Star.” In Episode 17 of that series, she played a college coed, who had a crush on Kim Soo Hyun’s character. She tells him that he looks like her ex-boyfriend, Sam-Dong. She tells him that she flunked her first class with him so that she could retake it the following year, earning the wrath of her family.
Airdate: Premiering on KBS on Jan 3, 2011, the 16-episode series ran through Feb. 28, 2011. There was a concert featuring the cast members that aired on March 1 of that same year.
Spoiler alert: The final episode shows that Hye-Mi has been in love with Sam-Dong for a while, but didn’t want to hurt Jin-Guk’s feelings.
We knew early on that Sam-Dong suffered from tinnitus and feared he was going deaf. We learned in the final episode that he is the one who becomes the international star.
Some fans were unhappy with the ending, because the showrunners ended the series with Hye-Mi and Sam-Dong on separate continents. I saw it a different way. She was a successful singer performing in Korea. He was now a superstar. Even if he wasn’t based in Korea anymore (and that wasn’t determined in the finale), they both would have the means to travel to be with each other.
I really liked that she didn’t give up her career to cater to his. And that when he had the opportunity to leave Korea as a teenager to jumpstart his career, he didn’t want to leave — but Hye-Mi made him get on the plane. If he hadn’t, his life would’ve been filled with what ifs.
Hye-Mi also learned that her teacher was as good a man as she knew him to be. Mr. Kang never had an affair with her mother. When the latter was dying of a terminal illness, she didn’t want to watch her family grieve over her death. Instead of telling her husband and daughters that she was sick, she told them that she was leaving them to be with Mr. Kang. Not wanting to hurt the family, Mr. Kang lived with that secret, even though it tarnished his reputation.
Baek-Hee is raped by the president of her agency. But instead of helping her press charges, her friends and advisers tried to dissuade her. They warned her that if word gets out, she is the one who will be vilified and shamed, even though she is the victim. People will say that she seduced him.
I kept wondering about all the students who were already under contract with that same entertainment agency. Did no one fear for what would happen to the other kids? Later, she went to the police to report the crime. The netizens blamed her and her fellow students spread rumors about her. But Baek-Hee got some peace of mind knowing that she had done the right thing.
“The Producers”
프로듀사
☆☆☆
Baek Seung-Chan (played by Kim Soo-Hyun)
Tak Ye-Jin (played by Gong Hyo-Jin)
Cindy (played by IU aka Lee Ji-Eun)
Ra Joon-Mo (played by Cha Tae-Hyun)
A light, romantic comedy set in the world of television, “The Producers” stars Kim Soo-Hyun as a graduate of Korea’s most prestigious law school. But instead of concentrating on a legal career, he follows a college crush to KBS’ entertainment division.
Sounds kind of romantic, right? Except the crush has no clue that he even likes her. She doesn’t know his name and barely recognizes him. When a colleague asks him later why he likes her, all he can come up with is, “She’s really pretty.” While Seung-Chan is academically gifted and clearly very handsome, he is socially stunted.
In “My Love From Another Star,” Kim played a debonair character who was confident and forthright. Here, he plays a timid, awkward rookie trying to get through each workday without getting fired.
Sporting a quasi “Dumb & Dumber” haircut, Seung-Chan is absolutely adorable, especially when he receives a compliment. His laugh shows his embarrassment at the overture, but it’s also clear that he’s immensely pleased by any accolade. On the surface, he appears innocent and guileless. But when he is pushed, he shows that he can be petty and manipulative, too.
When he learns that the girl he was infatuated with is in a relationship with his boss, Joon-Mo, Seung-Chan breaks down crying. It’s not long, though, before he focuses his attention on a new crush: Ye-Jin, another KBS producer who’s also Joon-Mo’s childhood friend. She is almost as oblivious about Seung-Chan’s feelings for her as she is to about her own feelings for Joon-Mo.
As for Joon-Mo, he knows in his heart that he loves Ye-Jin, but he refuses to acknowledge it because of all the “what ifs”? What if they date and break up? What if a romantic relationship destroys their 25-year friendship? Joon-Moo could’ve come across as a one dimensional character, but Cha Tae-Hyun does a wonderful job of injecting boyish charm into his role.
When Ye-Jin turns to a younger colleague for advice, she is told, “Let go of the one you most feel sorry for. If you feel sorry for him, you won’t be able to date him.”
Also drawn into this triangle is pop star Cindy (played by Kim’s “Dream High” co-star, IU). Though I enjoy staring at Kim Soo-Hyun as much as the next person, the most compelling character was Cindy. Discovered by Byun Mi-Sook — who was intent on turning her into an idol — Cindy lived apart from her parents as a young teenager. After her parents died in a car crash, Cindy was encouraged to refer to Byun as her new “mother.”
But Byun is a ruthless momager, who has little patience for clients who don’t follow every single one of her orders. Nah Young-Hee does such a great job of playing characters that viewers love to hate. (In “My Love From Another Star,” she played the annoying, money-spending mom of the female lead.)
In “Dream High,” IU played a pitch-perfect singer who was shy and humble. Her Cindy is an in-demand diva who does what she wants and doesn’t care if people’s feelings get hurt in the process. An idol who’s the perfect girl in the minds of her fans, she is lonely and begins to have feelings for the clueless Seung-Chan. Though she is at the pinnacle of her career, she knows that there is a time limit to her fame and that she will have to reinvent herself eventually. Instead of setting her sights on acting or some other “glamorous” field, the neat-as-a-pin star says — half jokingly — that she could launch a home-organizing business.
The ending is revealed in the spoilers below, so I won’t reveal whether or not that happens. But, I will say that if they were to make a season two of this series, I think that a Cindy-centric storyline would be very interesting to watch.
Meta moment: Joon-Mo is the producer of the reality series “2 Days & 1 Night.” Cha Tae-Hyun — the actor who plays him — was a cast member of that show.
You might recognize: Park Hee-Bon, who played Gong Hyo-Jin’s older sister in “The Master’s Sun” plays Kim Soo-Hyun’s older sister in this series.
Nah Young-Hee does such a great job of playing characters that viewers love to hate. In “My Love From Another Star,” she played the annoying, money-spending mom of the female lead. Here, she plays Byun, Cindy’s ruthless momager, who has little patience for clients when their fame fade.
Go Ara, who was so good in “Reply 1994,” makes a cameo appearance as one of Cindy’s frenemies.
Airdate: The 12-episode series aired on KBS2 from May 15 through June 20, 2015. There was also a behind-the-scenes special that ran after the series finale. Honestly, though, it’s not much of a bonus. Aside from the last 10 minutes of bloopers, it’s over 90 minutes of filler material.
Spoiler alert: In the final episode, Byun is depicted as having a bit of humanity. When she releases Cindy from her contract and sees that Cindy is about to sign it without looking it over, she gently reaches out and tells Cindy to never sign a contract without knowing what’s in it. She, of all people, knows exactly how unscrupulous people can be.
There is also a quasi “I see dead people” theme running throughout the series. Seung-Chan’s only ally at work for much of the series is a floor producer, who advises him on how to make him indispensable at work, like anticipating when his bosses will be hungry so that he gets their lunch before their stomachs start growling. We later learn that there is no such floor producer and that he was either a figment of Seung-Chan’s imagination or a ghost. It has already been established that he is deathly afraid of ghosts and even campfire-style ghost stories. If I were to read into this, I would say that his interaction with this entity has helped him overcome his fears, ghosts and all.
Joon-Mo finally tells Ye-Jin how much he loves her. He also reveals that he followed her to college and then to KBS (which is pretty much the same thing Seung-Chan did). Though it doesn’t end with Seung-Chan returning Cindy’s love, the finale implies that the two are friends.
A primary element that leads to Cindy’s downfall is when Byun tricks Cindy into confessing that her parents are deceased and not wealthy expats living in the United States. Though she was the one who had concocted this facade, she lets Cindy take the fall. The netizens are quick to demonize Cindy for lying. This plot element may sound ridiculous to Americans, because no one would care if that came out about a celebrity. In fact, it would probably endear them to the public even more, because there’re are few things we love more than a rise-from-nothing success story.
But in Korea, netizens are serious about celebrities being transparent about their upbringing. Rapper Tablo (aka Daniel Lee) had his life almost destroyed because of a malicious rumor. The rumor wasn’t that he had gotten a woman pregnant or that he had a DUI. Rather, some “fans” were convinced that he had lied about graduating from Stanford University. Though he offered proof — and Stanford issued an official statement — there was such an uproar about him possibly having lied about his education that the police investigated. Tablo’s reputation was sullied and he spent years clearing his name … All this, because of a rumor that he hadn’t graduated from a prestigious university.
I was going to say that something like this would never happen in America. But then, it already did. How are the members of the birther movement any different than the frenzied netizens? No matter how many legal documents President Barack Obama released to the public, there are still people who claim that he’s not a U.S. citizen.
“Secretly, Greatly
은밀하게 위대하게
☆☆☆
Lieutenant Won Ryu-Hwan / Bang Dong-Gu (played by Kim Soo-Hyun)
Rhee Hae-Rang (played by Park Ki-Woong)
Rhee Hae-Jin (played by Lee Hyun-Woo)
“Secretly, Greatly” starts off as a comedy and veers off into a drama with a graphic, violent ending. Had the film stuck to one genre, the result would’ve been more cohesive and effective. Still, it’s a worthwhile film that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
Lieutenant Won Ryu-Hwan is an elite North Korean agent sent on an undercover mission to South Korea. It’s not clear why his handlers in Pyongyang have dropped him into the remote countryside to gather intelligence, but he has spent two years there waiting to be sent on a covert mission that would bring glory to his homeland.
From here on out, I’m going to refer to Lieutenant Won as Dong-Gu — the name he was given for his mission.
During the day, he deftly passes himself off as the dim-witted simpleton who works at Soon-Im’s corner store. He spends his day sweeping and running errands for her. When the day is over, he heads to her house, which she shares with her grown son, Doo-Seok. At dinner time, he cackles to himself as he sneaks extra meat into his rice bowl. This would’ve been a punishable offense in North Korea. But even if Soon-Im had caught him in the act, she wouldn’t have cared. She is always encouraging him to eat more.
Following orders from Pyongyang, he falls down the stairs regularly, urinates in the streets every two weeks and defecates in public at least twice a year. He is ordered to do this when he has an audience, so that people will believe his cover.
After all, who would think that a bumbling fool like him looked like this underneath his fugly green tracksuit? (By the way, you’re welcome!)
Watching the neighborhood children throw rocks at Dong-Gu and verbally abuse him was actually more troubling to me than seeing him later in combat. No one seemed to think it was wrong for people to treat the (supposedly) mentally handicapped man so cruelly.
Doo-Seok was the exception. Not realizing that his mother’s employee is a highly trained spy, he tries to teach Dong-Gu marital arts and boxing. Later, after he has been beaten up by some bad men who want his mother to use their grocery supplier, Doo-Seok brags to Dong-Gu about his prowess, not realizing that Dong-Gu was responsible for saving his life. As the two talk, Doo-Seok tells him that even after Soon-Im dies, Dong-Gu will never have to worry about being alone. They are family, he says, he and will take care of Dong-Gu.
Eventually, North Korea sends two more young agents to his village. The illegitimate son of a general, Hae-Rang had trained with Ryu-Hwan in North Korea and requested this assignment where his cover will be to portray an aspiring musician. Hae-Jin had once been Dong-Gu’s underling and still idolizes him. He was sent over to infiltrate the local high school.
Though Hae-Jin views Dong-Gu’s growing concern for his neighbors as a sign of weakness, he also is Dong-Gu’s biggest champion. (When Dong-Gu sets out to wash blankets, Hae-Jin literally steps in, saying that he will do it, since doing laundry is a chore that a highly-decorated hero shouldn’t be bothered with).
The two share a funny covert mission of their own after Dong-Gu sees a woman he likes being sexually harassed by her boss. The boss tells her that he will fire her if she resists. Since killing him would only draw attention to them, Dong-Gu comes up with another plan. They hunt him down and force him to shoot a video wearing women’s under garments. If he fires her, they will release the video.
Hae-Jin, who has seen Dong-Gu at his most fierce, says, “I didn’t realize you were this scary.”
From here, the movie turns dark fast.
Since childhood, each of the them had been indoctrinated to never question authority. So when they learn that the North Korean government is dismantling their elite unit and wants them to kill each other and then die by suicide, they accept their fate.
Dong-Gu says that he is proud to do his duty and die for his country. But … it’s conditional. He will do so as long as they continue to take care of his mother. When he discovers that his country wasn’t nearly as loyal to him as he thought, it’s the first time that he considers his options.
The ending isn’t one that I had wished for. But given the direction the film had taken during the second half, it wasn’t surprising.
Directed by Jang Cheol-Soo, the film is based on a webtoon series by Hun. Many of the fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed and Kim Soo-Hyun shows impressive range in his dual portrayal.
You may recognize: Fans of the “Reply 1994” and “Reply 1988” will recognize Kim Sung-Kyun, who plays the police leader who is trying to help the trio of spies from being executed. A wonderfully expressive actor, Kim played a college student in the former and the father of a high school student in the latter.
Release date: June 5, 2013.
Running time: 123 minutes.
Spoiler alert: On what he believes will be his last day in South Korea, Dong-Gu gets a sharp haircut, puts on the black suit he arrived in and stops speaking like the village idiot. At this point, Kim Soo-Hyun (the actor who plays him) looks a lot like he does in “My Love From Another Star.” Though he clearly doesn’t act or sound subservient anymore, none of his neighbors wonder why.
For instance, he gives all the money he had saved up to Jeom-Ran. Seven years ago, when she was 18, she gave birth to a boy. Against her wishes, her parents sent the baby to an adoption agency, where he was adopted by an American couple. Dong-Gu found the address of the child and tells her to go to America and be reunited with her son.
When Dong-Gu learns that his superiors have not taken care of his mother and are, in fact, responsible for her death, all bets are off. He knows that he will die, but he doesn’t give them the satisfaction of killing himself.
As he lays bleeding and dying, he clutches the bank book that Soon-Im had given him. He hadn’t known it, but she had been saving money for his future ever since he started working for her. She had earmarked some of it for his future wedding. Losing the money meant nothing to him. However, losing the only mother figure who was left was heartbreaking.
“The Thieves”
도둑들
☆☆
Yenicall (played by Jun Ji-Hyun)
Popie (played by Lee Jung-Jae)
Zampano (played by Kim Soo-Hyun)
I really wanted to like this film. But aside from some fantastic chase scenes, it was much ado about nothing.
A blockbuster hit in Korea when it was released in the summer of 2012, the movie features an all-star cast that includes Jun Ji-Hyun and Lee Jung-Jae (“Squid Game”). (The duo shared the big screen in “Il Mare” — the 2000 film that was later remade as “The Lake House” with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.)
They play Yenicall and Popie, respectively. Popie plans the heists and Yenicall uses ariel artistry to break into buildings from the outside. Popie is intent on getting even with his former partner, Macao Park, who ran off with a boatload of gold from their last heist. He thinks he’ll get that chance when his team is hired to steal a $20 million diamond necklace.
Zampano (played by Jun’s future “My Love from Another Star” co-star Kim Soo-Hyun) serves as Popie’s righthand man. And, like most men, he has a huge crush on Yennicall. The two set out to a casino, where Yennicall plans to seduce a man so Zampano can “borrow” his keycard. Though she brings her A-game, the mark makes it clear that he’s much more interested in Zampano.
With one or two exceptions, there is no honor among these thieves. Their double-crosses are filled with double-crosses.
Shot on location in Hong Kong, Macau, Seoul and Busan, the movie is both scenic and frenetic. Near the end of the film, there is a chase scene along the exterior walls that reminds me of the airborne fight choreography in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
But, scenes like that were all too rare. Frankly, I found the movie trailer to be more interesting than the actual film.
Spoiler alert: Kim Soo-Hyun fans shouldn’t go into this film expecting to see too much of him. His role is secondary and he disappears fairly quickly. While trying to escape from the police after the casino heist, he is almost out the door when he sees that Yenicall is about to be nabbed. He sacrifices himself so that she can get away. I have no idea why he would do this. Nothing in the plot showed that the two loved each other or that he felt responsible for her. The smile that he had on his face led me to believe that he had a way out. But nope. He didn’t.
Release date: July 25, 2012.
Running time: 136 minutes.
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Thank you. This is now my watch list. I'll have to start with "The Moon Embracing the Sun" I loved him in "It's Okay to Not Be Okay". So many new ones to catch up on.
"Queen of Tears" was fabulous. It helps when the the actress acting with him is also a great actor.
I was so curious about the cameo of the green track suit guy everyone was talking about in my first K-drama I had to look up Kim Soo-Hyun. I still need to watch Secretly Greatly. But I loved My Love From Another Star (and Jun Ji-Hyun). I also loved IOTNBO—the first time I watched it, but bailed on it (ep. 10) the second time while watching with my daughter because neither of us could take the toxic abusive behavior of Ko Moon-Young. Taylor says she loses respect for the guy when they like someone like that. But as far as character portrayal KSH nailed it!
As you pointed out—one thing you can't miss when watching KSH is the emotion he is able to portray. I think he may be the best crier when it comes to acting. It's hard not to sob along when you're watching. I'm not sure if I realized before Queen of Tears how funny he can be. That whole cute thing (that I believe was ad-libbed) was hilarious!