South Korean dramas have no shortage of talented child actors and actresses but I would say 50% (probably more) do not continue their careers into adulthood and probably only 10% who do succeed in becoming adult lead level. It’s a shame because watching K-dramas for two decades shows me that grown up child actors are a billion percent better suited to be cast as adult leads and yet so many of those roles go to idols with no experience or even worse a proven bad at acting track record and yet they persist. Park Ji Bin is one of those generational child actors who wowed everyone as the young Bidam in Queen Seondeok, the little brother Boys Before Flowers and Pick the Stars, and with memorable turns in May Queen and The Suspicious Housekeeper. He enlisted in the army on the early side and has been back for 6 years now but I haven’t seen him as active so it’s good to hear he’s signed with a new agency CUZ-9 and is prepping new roles. He’s actually 26 years old already (!!!) and is older than Yeo Jin Gu and Nam Da Reum, and his same generation peer Park Gun Tae appears to have stopped acting a few years ago. As for the next rising class of child actors, none is trending with as much buzz as Kim Kang Hoon who is still quite young.
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It is really sad for majority of these child actors and actress, especially for those who were well-known during their younger years and struggling now. By the way, if you are calling out idols taking leads even with no experience to bad track record, then you are calling out one of your fave….Suzy. She is the representative of one with enormous luck, one lead role after another despite her limited acting and minuscule acting improvement. And that basically answers it, these idols are from big agencies, can bring in sponsors and even local and international fans like you talking about their dramas….so yeah, unfair but that is how it works.
I’m glad he got military service out of the way. Already 26?! These are some great pics and they sort of make him look closer to his age. I remember him still looking really young even when he was discharged a few years ago. Like he could pass for a first year high school student. I wonder if his too-young-for-his-age looks and slight frame work against him. The industry seem to prefer any actors in their early-mid20s to be able to pass for someone in their early 30s even when they’re playing high schoolers.
I think his boyish look doesn’t help him to find a lead role. I’m sad that Park Gun Tae stop acting, I really liked him in Warrior Baek Dong Soo. He was super cute with Kim Yoo-Jung in May Queen and the MV of Lee Seung-Gi.
I ‘m always sad to see so much actors struggling . It seems to me that every week there is the It guy or girl , making the headlines for their role in popular dramas and a few weeks later they are replaced by new ones . It’s like the fast fashion, i think that long careers aren’t possible anymore . I saw a documentary stating that the last big star that Hollywood produced was L Di Caprio . Since then there are a lot of great actors but no more THE BIG Stars a la Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks,…
Missing Noh Young-hak.
Whatever you like to say about Suzy’s acting skills, almost all her dramas are really popular in Korea and overseas as well, she acted 6 dramas as female lead, got 4 times entered Gallup drama actors list, twice in top 10,of course PD would like to cast her as fl.