Byun Yo Han and Kim Sa Rang Join Kim Eun Sook’s Period Romance Mr. Sunshine in Supporting Roles

I normally would tag any Kim Eun Sook drama a ratings sure thing, she’s never had a flop unlike many of her successful peers who toggle success and failure equally. Especially with her last two dramas Goblin and Descendants of the Sun runaway hits and still in the news constantly, it would seem her next drama Mr. Sunshine slated for spring 2018 has all the earmarks of another win. With that said, she’s cast A-list movie star Lee Byung Hun as the male lead in his first K-drama since the hit thriller IRIS in 2009 but his star is less than stellar in recent years due to personal negative publicity. But a drama takes more than one star to succeed or fail so Kim Eun Sook’s remaining casting selections have been quite promising with female lead Kim Tae Ri and second male lead Yoo Yeon Seok. This week Byun Yo Han joins the production followed today by news of Kim Sa Rang being cast as well.

This cast are all Kim Eun Sook newbies except Kim Sa Rang, who memorably had a fantastic character to play in a star making turn in Secret Garden as a second female lead who is beautiful, rich, and bitchy, except also easy to root for her in her own romance with second male lead Yoon Sang Hyun. It’s also worth remembering that Mr. Sunshine is a period drama set in the early 1900’s and that may go a long way to immersing all the actors and actresses in character and letting the narrative win audiences around.


Comments

Byun Yo Han and Kim Sa Rang Join Kim Eun Sook’s Period Romance Mr. Sunshine in Supporting Roles — 28 Comments

  1. So excited when i heard that kim will produce new drama but after knew the male lead i lost my excitement.sorry guys

  2. Except that this time we don’t even have a secondary couple to root for like Kim Jiwon/Jin Goo and Lee Dongwook/Yoo In-na. Sigh.

    • unless KES is pariring Kim Sarang with Yoon Yeon Seok (which feels a bit weird) or Byun Yo Han (which also feels a bit weird). But then again, it’s still less weird than the Lee Byung Han-Kim Tae Ri pair lol.

      • I feel the same. Lol. Are we evil??? Especially with the cast. I only feel bad for YYS and BYH. They are already in leading roles but willing to take on secondary ones for KES…..I was initially excited about it until I realised who the otp is. Lee Seo Jin would have been a better fit for this drama.

  3. I don’t really understand how people can say that KES is a bad writter. She never follows trends but only her imagination. It’s true it’s always more about the male lead centred but the female lead are interesting too. Goblin was really more than a love story but to understand that you need to focus a little bit…

    • Exactly about she didnt follow the trend but make a trend, yet people still think of her as a ‘bad’ writer. I dont get it. I like most of her dramas. Well, not everyone likes romantic – cheesy storyline but it what makes kdramas popular since the very first time. Names like full house, endless love, winter sonata, those first generation of kdramas hallyu were romantic stories. Even iris was also romantic haha. I dont like the male lead, i wish for some twist like kimtaeri is lbh’s daughter and end up with either yys nor byh lols

    • Probably because the male lead’s reputation so far is sick and disgusting, coming from a female perspective anyway. Well, this is the first time for the writer to have a male lead that is supposedly happily married. Most of his previous leading men are single so let’s see if the melodrama audience will watch it because of her apparently excellent writing skills and not swooning over the male lead who doesn’t really have a very good reputation with women.

    • You need to chill. Of course it’s bad for the production team and the regular workers but it ain’t that deep. How is it disgusting to hope better writing from KES? She will continue to write stupid lines if she never flops once.
      I’d feel bad for Yoo Yeon Seok but other than that, I could care less of the other actors. KES and all the actors will do fine even if Mr Sunshine wouldn’t exceed expectations ratings-wise.

  4. wow I’m going to have to check this one out. This will be a bigger producton than goblin and dots. Just imagine the outfits and setting for the 1900s. I like this casting more than KES previous drama.

  5. I likes Kim Sa Rang in “My Love Eundong”, I wish she would be the lead. But again, I can’t imagine her with Lee Byung Hun too. Hmm… lets wait, we will see. 🙂

    • I can’t imagine any woman with the male lead. I don’t like to say this but I find him creepy. he apparently got the job because he can speak english. I admit his accent is pretty good but he is definitely not a fluent speaker as he boast about. I happen to see two of his latest interviews in America and he barely said anything. I supposed you only really need a good English accent and the rest is just memorising your line.

  6. is the female lead the girl from that movie where she had a kissing scene with the actress who had an affair with the director? I can’t remember the title. I think it’s something like Handmaid.

  7. I agree with Lourdes and Ana. We dislike the drama even before its production is becos of 1 person -LBH

    I like KES drama but there’s 2 things I don’t understand:-
    1) her drama is always appealing. So why cast creepy LBH?
    2) her storyline is about love and romance. LBH is so jaded and perverted. It’s a mockery to romance if LBH takes on this romancing act
    Conclusion: I have decided not to watch this drama because I still want to believe in love and romance and I don’t want to be filled with disgust with this mocking act of LBH

    • 1) LBH is an actor, it’s his job to act his character with the best of his ability. Just like any other actor.
      2) LBH private life mess just came into light, do you think other actors acting all romantic are really perfect k-drama male leads in real life? It’s all just a fantasy. And fangirls buy so happily a carefully crafted image. At the end of the day, actors are just doing their jobs.

      In the end LBH is an actor who maybe wants to clean his image, and KES is a writer who wants to try her limits.

      • Look, be realistic there are some actors korean or not who treats women with respect and to be honest LBH is not the only who probably thinks women are second class citizen especially in Korea. These men thinks they can flaunt their money and used young girls. In fact a few Korean actors have been caught lately in scandals involving girls. Some of them is not as influential as LB as they were not able to make a comeback. I doubt Yoo Chun will be able to comeback like LB.

        Your right actors are doing their job but as public figures they should be a role model. LB have made so many movies over the years but how many CF has he done? Why do you think he hardly have any commercials? Who will believe a known womaniser?

      • @Dognail I agree, kdramas are meant to be family entertainment or for people who have worked long day and want to chill and watch a drama. Not everyone wants to tolerate a yucky old man romancing a girl in her twenties. Filmfans may be able to overlook LBH’s private life and very few really care whether he has CFs or if he is a role model. LBH’s main income is his blockbusters anyway. But it seems KES wants to test her own skills with casting LBH. Besides, his scandal was all rumors and the girls got jail time for blackmailing him. Whatever is the truth, if you can’t stomach looking at him playing a KES drama male lead, then that’s that.

  8. LB is already known as a good actor and probably got nothing to prove when it comes to his craft except he wants to salvage his image. Why??? to get a couple of CF so he can flaunt his fame and money even more. Why again? Money and fame attracts more young women. The more the merrier.
    I think the writer is testing how far she can got with her writing skills in terms of fandom. If this works, she will be knows as the writer of all writers. Imagine salvaging a man who has been trying for years to clean his name. Let’s wait and see!!

    • I believe kdramas wants to expand further into Western societies so they have chosen LBH as their representative. It is like Jackie Chan, he had a scandal but it hasn’t affected his Hollywood standing. With Kdramas banned in China and now by coincidence alienating Muslim people they want to desperately please the Western people.

      • Not gonna work. American advancement never works. K-drama/k-pop fandom is a sub-culture for a reason, only a selected audience will ever be interested in k-dramas 🙂

      • Well, if they can get one kdrama to become a hit like PSY’s ‘Gangnam style’, they will have succeeded and most western foreigners are more familiar with LBH.

  9. GDragon got a fan base in some Western society because they sell music. Main reason why Gangnam was a hit because it’s music. Drama is different, the audience are different. Can’t u see the difference between American drama and korean drama?. Watch Bold and beautiful. Same woman married the Dad divorce him then marry most two of sons and she got kids with most of them. American soap opera is full of affairs and they love it. That show has been going for over 25 years with the same story lines so do you actually believe that a romance on the Josean era with a faithful romanticism will be accepted in america or even other western world. I very much doubt it. Here in Australia, Korean drama fans are usually from Asian origins, I assumed same as America. Bold and beautiful has lots of followers here too so I don’t think westerners will start watching a korean drama because someone can speak English and based on a boy that grew up in america.

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