It’s pretty neat watching a star’s star wax and wane. Lee Seo Jin was one of those stalwart Hallyu leading men in the early to mid-2000s as he racked up one drama after another with his combination of manly allure and boyish dimples. He played one of my favorite male characters of all time (Naeuri!!!) in one of my favorite dramas of all time (Damo), but then never quite captured my heart the same way again. He’s equally at ease in modern dramas such as Lovers and definitely a go-to guy for epic sageuks such as Yi San and Gye Baek. He’s worked with famed screenwriter Kim Eun Sook in the aforementioned Lovers, but so far he hasn’t done a Lee Kyung Hee melodrama yet. That looks about to change as Lee Seo Jin is considering returning to television in early 2014 with a Lee Kyung Hee penned drama for KBS. His popularity has shot up recently with his hilarious luggage boy and travel agent gig for four adorable and sometimes cantankerous halbaes in Grandpas Before Flowers. First he was basically waylaid to go to France with them, and either he got PTSD or he was just faking how exhausting that trip was because he signed on for a repeat experience going to Taiwan next. The entire show is just precious because its so heartwarming and hilariously real with all the anxiety that befalls Lee Seo Jin. I think he’ll be ready to jump into crazy 18-hour a day drama shoots and consider it a breeze after his GBF experience. I’m super thrilled to see Lee Kyung Hee is preparing her next drama since her last one Nice Guy (The Innocent Man) was beyond fantastic for me. I’ve actually loved most of her dramas from Sang Doo, Let’s Go to School to Thank You to I’m Sorry, I Love You. The iffy ones for me were A Love to Kill and Will It Snow for Christmas, both of those had pretty flaming second half meltdowns script-wise. What lowers my expectations for this upcoming drama is the rumored leading lady of Kim Hee Sun. I’m not even going to mince words – I can’t stand her. Her acting is OTT and screechy and her voice grates, in general she was a major reason why Faith was so unpalatable for me. However…..I am not writing her off completely since she could be co-starring with Lee Seo Jin, who has a much more manly aura than Lee Min Ho and is also older than her. That might calm her down somewhat. It’s still months away before this drama airs so the casting will likely be confirmed closer to the end of the year.
Lee Kyung Hee usually picks fantastic actors and actresses for her dramas. And she can even spot talent, Rain was a newbie when he did Sang Doo and it’s still his most raw and amazing work to date. Her drama leading ladies have all been capable, with the exception of Han Ye Seul. And here I feel like Kim Hee Sun is yet another outlier who hasn’t shown me she has the depth and intensity to do a Lee Kyung Hee drama. I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed that either she doesn’t accept or she actually turns in a game-changing performance.
Interesting, I thought Kim Hee Sun settled down nicely in Faith after the hysterics of the early episodes. The series itself should have been 16 instead of 24 anyway, but despite the pointless meandering of the last few episodes, I thought she was fairly solid. It’s going to be interesting to see how this new series stacks up against Nice Guy – I for one won’t be unhappy if it’s just a little less harrowing.
She was seriously not the worst thing about that drama. The lack of chemistry and LMH’s failtastic acting is what killed it.
maybe LMH is just not meant for saguek..
But his mane of GLORy was just glorious…
hahaha
Aww, yeeaaahhhhhh! Good for him… I’ve only ever seen him in GoF and he brings the right amount of anxiety and cranky to the show. He was just LOVE in the most recently aired episode. <3
I seriously loved him in YISAN!
Saguek is his thing, his got that Kingly aura to him…
But in GoF and 1n2d, he is seriously precious and adorkable!!!
I thought she played the character well in Faith. She can’t help the way her voice sounds. I would watch her again in another drama.
MTE. 🙂
I thought Kim Hee Sun did very well in Faith. Her voice didn’t annoy me because well… it’s not her fault that she was born with that voice lool.
Word on the street is that Lee Kyung-Hee will be teaming up again with PD Kim Jin-Won (who grounded Nice Guy with his subtle and solid direction) for this, so that’s reason enough for me to check the first few eps. at the very least, despite my own misgivings re: the cast.
Oh my gosh really!? Then it will be visually great! 😀
I’m not so thrilled about the cast so far… well okay, I like Lee Seo Jin (but I’m not super excited) but a BIG no for Kim Hee Sun. But we’re still in the early stages. Although then again at this time Nice Guy already was filming and if Lee Kyung Hee has her cast in mind we will get to know about it soon.
That would make my day if it’s true! Kim Jin Won is so understated in his directing but that guy know which shots work best and he clearly has great talent. I have nothing against Kim Hee Sun, but it takes a very good lead to make or break Lee Kyung Hee’s delicate (and flawed) script. I’m thinking she’s going to accept it, to which it’s going to dampen my enthusiasm for LKH’s new drama. Take Moon Chae Won again! Why not? She worked with GHJ twice. Or Son Ye Jin.
oh YES!! Son Ye Jin please! That would be super awesome! Nice Guy is the only Lee Kyung Hee series I’ve watched so far, and the upbeat ending seemed a little rushed, so I’m not sure if I want to risk this one, since apparently she has a deep and abiding hatred for the very concept of happy endings.
I’m so happy for LSJ since I really wanted a new drama project from him for a couple of years now. I can’t wait.
I adore Lee Seo Jin! He’s one of my fave, manly-man actor so this news excited me since it’s been awhile since he graced us with a drama.
*excite. Auto correct is so annoying. LOL
Actually, “excited” could be considered correct. If you want the present tense, then it should be “excites.”
news is actually singular.
Hope this helps.
I read a leaked synopsis – if it’s legit, LSJ’s character is a chaebol who is trying to tear down an apartment complex and needs to get married within a month or so and KSH’s character is a resident and she probably offers him some kind of ‘marriage of convenience’ deal. I’m a sucker for this kind of makjang and knowing Lee Kyung Hee, this isn’t going to be some sort of gussied up Harlequin romance.
But as much as I didn’t mind Kim Hee Sun in Faith, I’m secretly hoping that Lee Seo Jin can get someone better as a co-star. Even Han Ye Seul has more charm on-screen (IMHO) but I’m not sure if she can be trusted with one of these 50 episode dramas.
That sounds like one of those bogus, made-up “synopses” from DC. Not even the actors have seen them so highly doubt anything’s being leaked (yet) storywise.
I acknowledged that it may not be legit. Just putting it out there because I found the description intriguing.
Marriage Of Convenience…..wow…I love that theme….if the drama is having this, I’m totally watching it 🙂
“Marriage of Convenience” seems to be a recurring theme recently.
I was afraid to check out Faith b/c I had read here about her annoying voice, but I winded up liking her a lot. She did calm down a lot after the first few episodes. I only know LSJ from GOF and he’s really cute in it. It will be a refreshing change, too, to see two leads be similar in age and life experience and where it’s not a non-noona/dongsaeng OTP.
Noona-dongsaeng OTPs aren’t actually that common if you look at the majority of dramas produced – they were definitely popular for a time but I think producers are waking up to the fact that it’s outlived its welcome as a gimmick. Nowadays it’s just casting problems/capitalizing on fleeting popularity that leads to such huge age gaps (whether the man or the woman is much older).
I love all of LKHs works, well for all the dramas I watched so far that is:
1. SangDo Let’s go to school – showed the oozing rawness and talent of Rain and was the start of my GHJ-love-for-all-times.
2. I’m sorry I love you – seriously made me wanna cry because they really ruined ji Sub oppa with that hair but eveb with that serious handicap SJS was just in his element he was ubertastic.
3. A love to kill – all i can say is that: seriously rain? seriously? i love you.
4. Thank you – I seriously cried bucketful of tears for Seo Shin Ae and also made me love GHJ all over again.
5. Will it snow for christmass – i was excited for GoSoo but the child version was pretty epic: Kim Soo Hyun, Nam ji Hyun and Song Joong Ki
6. Nice Guy – The writer seems to find a way to recycle his leads, but I am not one to complain cause Song Joong Ki just brought the house down.
Overall, all her male leads are just smothering hot that borders from seriously mischievous boys to just plain Scorching hot BAD boys. Love it!
The only thing that I don’t like with her works is the noble idiotic sacrifice! Which just makes me wanna vomit. and i seriously see it coming a mile away, so i hope this does not happen in this drama cause that plot device is so overrated.
What i love about lee kyung hee’s work is she is always success to create a memorable male leads and root for them no matter how irredeemable and twist they are…
Here is hoping the leads will bring the character to justice. And hoping lee kyung hee will give side char more depth than in her previous drama nice guy.
I love PD kim jin won’s work in nice guy so much… Mostly I love he handles some scene. So I will check at least the 1st episode..
The worst thing was the lack of budget…the fight scenes towards the end was pitiful
I was introduced to him recently and I gotta say he seems like a nice guy.
I hope it does well.
As for KHS, I’ll be honest she ruined faith for me. There is something about her that takes me out of the story. I don’t know if it’s her voice or exaggerated facial expressions lol.
Sidenote: Wasn’t she cast in a movie
I’m so GLAD for Lee Seo Jin’s popularity comeback; He’s probably thanking his agency now for tricking him into doing GOF! I thought he was really hot in LOVERS and wished he had done more modern dramas.
Unfortunately, I don’t care for Kim Hee Sun. If another actress is cast in this drama, I’ll definitely check it out.
When first time, I watched “Faith”, already I fall in love with this drama twist same as “You who are from the star”. Both of the OTP are so good-looking that so far, I haven’t seen any good-looking OTP in Saguek times. I do not understand why so many netizens give bad comments about Kim Hee Sun? If you really do some deep research on her, she is a very well-known Korean actress in the 90’s and most of her dramas are rating above 50% that not any actress can do that at that times.
Complaining about her beautiful voices, are you sure that you had that kind of voice or not? When she is young, already as an announcer or emcee in most of the Korean showbiz. Please people, stop give false judgements on the stars that you do not know so well or you never do any homeworks at all.
I agreed with Monica Yee, I do not see any poor acting of Kim Hee Sun. All I seen is that she is still maintain her beauty and had a youthful looks. I start to admired her since “Tomato” and “Propose”, until now, this 2 dramas is still fun to watch it. Even, Jackie Chan admired and praised Kim Hee Sun that she is his favourite Korean actress beside her beauty and her brave and determine hard works for never easily give-up unlike others. Problems is that she is unlucky, always picks those dramas where the co-stars given a lot of problems like : “Sad Love Story” and “Faith” had to re-do agains so many times after the co-stars drop-out half way to commit their military service as they shall know beforehand that they are fit to act or not?
Seriously, nowadays, netizens shall be careful of their bad comments about Korean stars because I feel Korean is a very sensitive people. So many great actors had been committed suicide, I don’t want my beautiful idol threatened by all these anonymous netizens who sat all the times infront of the PC know how to comment the stars without any knowledges to become one?