Lee Jong Seok Seduces All the Ladies From the Pages of Instyle Korea

I’m sure longtime Lee Jong Seok fans must find it amusing that I’ve grown fond of him through arguably his crappiest drama Dr. Stranger. I don’t know why but perhaps crap is the leave to make his charisma flower shine? Hahahaha, that’s a terrible analogy so I’ll just zip it and enjoy liking him now and worry zilch about why I didn’t like him before. His face still looks weird so I am totally there with folks who find watching him just off-putting, but for me he’s now settled comfortably into my visual rolodex so his oddness no longer bugs me. I actually really want him to accept Pinocchio, he’s so young still with a career that is clearly capable of weathering projects that turn out to be turkeys. That means he needs to keep on acting rather than go all Lee Min Ho on us and take forever to do dramas.

An actor learns by acting and being too selective means letting the craft lay dormant while raking in money through CFs and other ventures that may whet his fans appetites but does nothing for steadily getting better. I’m iffy on Park Shin Hye as a romantic interest like many out there, she’s got more misses than hits in that front, but as a leading lady she’s pretty darn solid in bringing a character to life. I’ve also heard great feedback about I Hear Your Voice and the production team behind that drama is the same one that’s prepping Pinocchio. I’m not going to be covering Lee Jong Seok news all the time, or maybe I’ll turn around in a year and look back and realize I ended up doing just that, but for now I’m quite enamored of his latest pictorial for InStyle Korea. Not sure why he’s overdoing the come hither eye stare in all the pictures but I do love his natural comfort as a model posing. There’s both dramatic intensity that comes from the acting side as well as ease in front of the lens from his modeling roots.


Comments

Lee Jong Seok Seduces All the Ladies From the Pages of Instyle Korea — 21 Comments

    • Maybe that means he learned something from the DrStranger debacle: Don’t sign a blank check even with an old partner (SBS) & negotiate all the terms (stupid extrafilming for Chinese market), have guarantees about your female costar commitment etc…
      That said, yes I’m impatient too.I want him to leave 2014 with a good memory. 😉

    • From what it appears, he is more of less confirmed for Pinocchio.
      His company has said that “they are settling the stance” regarding this and is likely due to the damage that iHQ caused when they previously released untrue rumours about Woobin being considered for the role. They’re probably trying to fix that. urgh.

      And rumours are that script reading will begin this week/early next week so confirmations should be out soon. Seeing how there are no rumours for other actors who are considering this role, i guess chances are he’ll be doing it.

      • what damage? If Woobin wasn’t actually being considered for the role, SBS put out a statement weeks ago that was very clear that it wasn’t thinking of him for the role.

        Let’s not be overdramatic and act as if a drama is ruined just because of a casting rumour/some media play, it’s not unheard of for an actor to drop a drama or bow out (look at Heirs with the Jung Yonghwa/FNC situation), so some silly rumour is not the BIG DEAL y’all make it out to be.

  1. I do always smile when I read your posts on him now, but in the best of yay-she’s-a-convert ways don’t worry. I’ve found lots of actors middling/annoying only to turn into rabid fangirl after one performance that hits my sweet spot.

  2. Weird looking? HA. For someone who like Kim Woobin, I would say Lee Jongsuk is more normal looking.
    The current batch of models turn actors are all weird looking, IMO, but in hot ways (Hong Junghyun, Lee Jongsuk, Sung Joon, Lee Soohyuk and Kim Woobin) and thankfully they are better actors than the idols 🙂

    • i still find it difficult to watch leesoohyuk and hongjonghyun.
      but jongsuk, sungjoon and youngkwang are pretty pleasing to my eyes. XD i love woobin too, but there was this period of time (when he was filming technicians) and his hairstyle just annoyed the heck out of me.

    • Lee Jong Suk was really a cute boy before his nose job, that PS was so unnecessary. I curse the person who told him it was a good idea…

      I think some of the model turned actor crowd are better than others but none of them are bad. I wish the model girls could also break out into acting too.

  3. I loved him in School 2013 but got a little tired of him in IHYV (mostly because I thought that show and the OTP was overhyped and overrated) If he’s gonna do another noona romance I hope he gets paired up with Song Ji-hyo because they were so cute in one RM episode though he was so awkward and shy.

  4. I have to give credit where credit is due, LJS did a lot of heavy lifting for Dr. Stranger, to a point of overacting. And my opinion about him doesn’t change for that, he still overacts (though to an extent I can emphatize that he had to stretch it, and do pretty much anything, just to keep Dr. Stranger afloat) and is still overrated. And just like the poster above, I do think that the noona-pairing was overrated though IHYV itself was a good drama. That or perhaps I just cannot still wrap around my head of a fully-grown adult career woman romancing a barely out of high school boy–still gives me the creeps. But he’s got plenty of upside on him and unlike other halyu stars who have pretty much rode the popularity wave more than actually showing depth in their performance *cough*LMH*cough*. So LJS’s future is pretty much set despite how some of his fans wept about Dr. Stranger–he will not always have a ratings hit all the time–not even other more talented and equally popular stars are exempt from that. There will always be that one show. Besides, Dr. Stranger was far from a dud all things considering (11%+ ratings).

    Appearance-wise, I cannot really say much ‘cos I’m a guy, but he’s not “weird-looking” to me, but is in fact generic in my opinion. Though most East-Asians male stars have leaned on being pretty looking than masculine, and LJS is definitely of the former, so they all look “unique” when compared to their other contemporaries. Nothing extraordinary about him (in face value) as far as I’m concerned.

  5. I don’t dislike Park Shin Hye but I wonder how they will match, and hope they match well. I liked him a lot with Lee Bo Young, they had a cute and adorable emotional chemistry that even made me a fan of the couple. And I normally don’t like noona romances at all!

    Though with noona romances there seems to be one advantage, which is that they can cast competent older actresses instead of wooden young ones/idols. Dr Stranger was painful at least partly because it was so hard to watch LJS throwing everything he had at his blank wall female costar. A lot like watching Kim Soo Hyun/Han Ga In in The Moon That Embraces The Sun – they may have the highest rating in their time slot (though is 11 percent even anything to boast about) but the drama and main romance were so unconvincing.

  6. I haven’t been interested in seeing any of the dramas they have been on, but this time I might check out how they both do in this drama.

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