This is weird. And squicky. Not to mention a little bit icky. Korea has a fixation with Lolita much? I love both Lee Sang Yeob and Kim Yoo Jung, but to see them in the same frame as anything other than cool uncle takes his niece out to the amusement park does not work for me. Lee Sang Yeob was born in ’83 which makes him turning 30 this year. Kim Yoo Jung was born in late ’99 which makes her 13-going-on-14. And imma not talking about Jennifer Garner pulling a 13 Going on 30 transformation, this little lady is genuinely still in junior high. Which makes this latest January 2013 edition of Sure Magazine retro photo spread with Lee Sang Yeob and Kim Yoo Jung as a Prohibition era couple random and rather inappropriate. Yes, I just said couple, because that is what the freaking magazine is calling it! A couple spread. What. The. Hell. I’ve heard complaints about how K-dramas have been mired in the noona-dongsaeng romance trope for the last few years, with lots of still sexy and beautiful thirty-something leading ladies romancing twenty-something leading men. Some work, others don’t, and it’s not a matter of morality or suitability but rather of chemistry and compatibility onscreen. I would feel the same way with the same age difference older man with younger woman. But this does not extend to being okay with pairing a nearing 30 actor with an supremely underage young actress. Kim Yoo Jung is not at the cusp of adulthood, she just finished getting rid of her baby teeth. Sang Yeob is beyond adorable for me but I just want to slice these pictures in half and separate them before he’s booked for being a pervy ahjusshi.
Why does Korea want its young child stars to go grow so fast? Lately there have been a lot of photo spreads for the red hot Kim So Hyun and a few of them really raise my eye brows with how suggestively sexy they are. And she’s also still 13! Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like it and don’t see a need for it that is positive and necessary. It’s purely for titillation value and that is not okay with me.
i just love kim yoo jung. she looks so pretty in these photos 🙂
I must admit these photos are so artistically and fantastically presented, but I am with you on the inappropriateness especially knowing full well she’s only 13.
A potential couple? Yuck. Just no way! The first pic: Daddy and his daughter. 2nd one: The Chaplin syndrome aka “let’s pray on young virgins”. 3rd one: “Do you want some candies?”.
Yes, my skin is crawling.
yeah…lol! This is pretty weird. It shouldn’t be label as a couple spread hahah.
I want to say soooo manythings that are not nice because your 200% right!!!! Their is absolutely no need for this. Or pls don’t call it “couple” :/
It is kinda creepy they called it a couple shoot but I know they most likely just got paired for this shoot because they did the dubbing for an animation movie together and are represented by the same agency. At least they aren’t touching in any way or form, could have been a lot creepier
I’m quite disturbed by the trend too. Even watching these 13-year old girls on their variety show is enough to create the discomfort.
Not sure if it’s just me but if we wish to look at the trend, I’d definitely compare it to the sort of image Moon Geun Young carried while still holding that “Nation’s Little Sister” title vs IU’s time.
I’m with you I wish they could let kids act their age to first not push them be ppl they are not, and also as an example to other kids their age or younger.
Kids always do like to copy their parents/idols but it starts becoming disturbing when they believe they have to push themselves to grow up way faster then they’re supposed to (as in faster than the pace of their brain :P) anyways this is just what i think. Enjoy and live up to your age, you’ll grow up faster than you think
1st pic I could let go cos it’s a fun taking pics w my uncle pic.
2nd is too close to handing pervy old man his dressed in white virginal entertainment for the evening
3rd could be bring your kid to work day except for the fact that her hair and makeup scream “I’m an adult ready for adult things” and this sketchy dude will decide which one of you will teach me, so yay!
4th one is all I’m a broken doll please come fix me kind sir in all the ways you deem necessawwwie.
I want to puke. My baby sister is 15 and if anyone took pics of her styled this way, someone will need to die. I’m appalled that the powers that be at that mag approved this for publishing. She’s freaking 13!!!!! For shame!!!
I think if they didn’t label it as a couple shoot, it would be fine. It doesn’t even seem like one. There’s absolutely no chemistry between the two.
Well even if they didn’t label it, the girl’sdresses & specially her makeup shows what an adult wannabe and are disturbing alone but worst when coupled with an older guy.
I wouldn’t have found it icky if they didn’t label it as a couple shoot. On their own I wasn’t really disturbed with the pictures because I knew beforehand that they did a movie dubbing together.
Kim Yoo Jung is really one talented and pretty young actress. But sometimes I wish her management and stylist would lay low in trying to dress her as if she’s a Cheongdamdong Lady. Dress her age-appropriately, in bright and flattering dress. Celebrate her youth!
I get it!!!! She’s at the awkward stage right now. Too old for some young counterpart roles and too young to be playing a >15 y/o character. Or is it just me? I’ve seen her in Lee Seung Gi’s MV wearing a school uniform and some where she’s wearing casual clothes, and she still has that cuteness factor. Kim So Hyun, on the other hand, doesn’t really look awkward playing characters way older that her actual age(young high schooler age group, >16y/o)
Lol. No military service for young women who enter the awkward phase… If she can’t have interesting parts by now, she could take all kind of lessons to enrich her acting: English, horse-riding… And she could also take the time to enjoy life.
I’ve been following news about her recently and I think she agrees with you on taking lessons to further improve as an actor and as a person. I think she’s been taking vocal and speech, dance, arts, yoga and guitar classes. I’ve also seen some pictures of her hanging out with fellow child actors (Seo Shin Ae, Jin Ji Hee, etc) and school friends.^^
I find her very talented and an engaging actress, and seems smart, so I wouldn’t really worry about her. She said it herself, she’ll grow up slowly. Hope her management doesn’t rush her.
Agree totally with you Ockoala…let the teen grow gracefully to adulthood.I guess we want to keep the young ones maintains their innocence as long as they can.I think Park Shin Hye is quite lucky to be growing up in the media and yet still have this kind of innocence that I admire and now she is embarking to adulthood gracefully to a beautiful young lady.Thanks for this ,hopefully someone out there will not exploiting teens to their corrupt agenda..
Agree with some comments, this shoot would’ve been ok and cool if it wasn’t labelled as “couple”.
Hell, it could even be adorkable as a oppa-dongsaeng shooot. And by oppa I mean the real older bro kind: “Hey annoying big bro, let’s dress up prettily and take pretty pictures of our pretty selves. No hair pulling for today, okay? Last one to change costume gets dishwashing duty for a week!”
I just love these pics, they’re awesome together…. Nothing wrong with these pics too… IMO they look superb together, the photographer should be praised for his professionalism….And nothing pervy is getting on mu mind…
Hmmmm…I read elsewhere that spread was published to promote Andrei Konchalovsky’s Nutcracker 3D for which these two actors are dubbing
That young girl is growing up too fast…She can easily past for an 18 year old.
I love the pictures. I think there is nothing wrong. However, if they are touching each other suggestively. Then, it is a problem.
So agree with you!! This isn’t working and NOT okay.
I blame her parents.
I get the problem with the labeling of the shoot, but the photos themselves seem fine to me. They’re not even touching. It doesn’t seem to me that they’re presenting this as a couple at all besides the name they gave it.
Totally totally inappropriate!!!
It reminded me to what I read last year
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/puppy-love-of-purity-or-publicity-20120929-26s3r.html
12th yr old little girl with 24th old man …….
Having 2 little girls on my own, these kind of news or “couple spread” like this promotes unhealthy perspective on how they’ll view world! It’s bad enough for press to promote anorexic body and insignificance of the inner beauty, added with changing perspective on what is unacceptable relationship, such a nughtmare !!!
I completely agreed with you Ms. Koala! Yes indeed she is too young to be pair like this. Teen suppose to be teen…young and vibrant and not with old fashion style like the photos above 😛 She is not ajumma or not even unni, yet…I am pretty sure if they replace her with Kim Sun Ah the photos above will be more suitable for us to see 🙂
This is esp creepy as Go Young Wook was just arrested for sexually assaulting minor girls — one was 13! Some fashion magazine stylists and editors really don’t get it when they come up with their concepts.
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