I was a little hesitant around the casting of Healer when it was first announced with Ji Chang Wook as the titular character. I wondered what the drama was going to do having Yoo Ji Tae around as well. Thankfully the drama turned out eminently watchable and Ji Chang Wook is fantastic as Jung Hoo/Healer, the first time I genuinely like his role, but the flip side is my reservation has also come true which is Yoo Ji Tae is totally wasted in this particular outing. Moon Ho is important to the story but not worth casting a movie star leading man like Yoo Ji Tae, which gets me to the crux of a trend that’s been ongoing for two years now and shows no sign of stopping.
K-dramas have basically been doubling down on casting leading men by pairing an older establish actor with a younger star from the next generation, which has almost always resulted in wasting the older actor’s talent in a role that ends up being shunted to the side. The idiom that “one mountain cannot have two tigers” has never been more true, and it’s a trend I want stopped only because there should be ways of spreading the love without wasting the all that older leading man charisma on a thankless babysitting role. Healer is actually one of the least annoying examples of this trend, a look back reveals some dramas in the last two years which nearly gave me an apoplexy with the way the older lead’s story line inevitably got crapped all over.
Recent examples of K-dramas where smexy older leading men are wasted in a story line focused on the the flower boy young hottie
Joo Jin Mo‘s Goryeo King Wang Yoo in Empress Ki to Ji Chang Wook Yuan Emperor Ta Hwan. This was one of the most egregious examples and a big reason why I couldn’t stand Ji Chang Wook until Healer came along. Audience analysis of the drama devolved into discussion of how hot Ta Hwan was despite the fact that his character was a whiny useless obsessed piece of shit. How could his sniveling loser of a character be shipped with the heroine is beyond me regardless of good onscreen chemistry. Even worse was Joo Jin Mo playing the most virtuous and decent male lead ever, and he also had great chemistry with Ha Ji Won, but his presence in the drama dropped to a few minutes an episode by the end to make way for both the drama’s fantastical historical makjang take on the Empress Ki origin story as well as to beef up the fan-pressed love story. What a colossal waste of Joo Jin Mo.
Lee Bum Soo in Triangle to Jaejoong. This particular casting didn’t annoy me at all despite Lee Bum Soo’s character being really uninteresting. It worked because he ended up babysitting the two younger leading men as both their hyung in the story line and their hyung on the set.
Joo Sang Wook in Good Doctor to Joo Won. This one was cast according to the needs of the characters in the drama.
Yoon Sang Hyun in I Hear Your Voice to Lee Jong Seok. A reverse of the importance of their roles in Secret Garden but the casting was needed for the story line and both delivered.
Cha Seung Won in You’re All Surrounded to Lee Seung Gi. This was a disappointing drama all-around for every member of the cast, but felt even more wasted because it was clearly a star vehicle intended to double the star appeal by casting the two leading men together. Lee Seung Gi’s role was the focal point and he nailed it, but Cha Seung Won really had so little to do it would have been better to cast a supporting character actor in the role.
Lee Dong Gun going from leading man to no-longer-the-leading man in Marry Him If You Dare to Jung Yong Hwa. I cannot speak of the travesty of this drama’s narrative trajectory caused by fandom shipping without literally quaking with anger. Suffice to say this ignominy will be hard to top. I actually wanted all the characters to die by the end of the story, that was how pissed off I was with the way Lee Dong Gun’s character was treated.
Ji Jin Hee playing second fiddle to Ahn Jae Hyun in Blood. The jury is still out on this one as the drama hasn’t aired yet.
The point of this post is really to highlight how hard it is to cast two leading men in the same drama and not end up with one shafted. Normally it would be the younger actor who plays the more supporting role but lately with the trend shifting the other way, likely due to the rise of the twenty-something actors group with their large fan bases as well as the viewers loving the flower boy visuals, it has ended up with so many big name older actors returning to dramas in roles that never use their full potential.
That alone annoys me and makes me feel like K-dramas know their stories usually suck so rather than try to write better stories, instead it’ll just double down on casting big name actors together in the same drama and use their star appeal to bring in viewers. If the drama has a story line to sustain two leading men then so be it, otherwise I vote for this trend to end soon. Give the older and younger actors dramas to headline alone and spread the wealth more.
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I don't tink its bad tho
The think is that mostly the veterans do not have the fame or popularity overseas and tbh they want some of that money that comes with being famous.
You will see many vets coming into dramaland cuz its there an actor makes himself A name worldwide. The Korean drama world is open to the world. example many have moved onto the chinese cinema from dramaland. and there is more moeny in china. at the end of the day its bussiness
If the older guy originally signed on for a supporting role, that's ok by me. Seems the case for most of the dramas you mentioned. However in the cases of Lee Dong Gun and Joo Jin Mo, leading roles were clearly downgraded because of rabid fanbase love for the second leads. Very disappointing.
I still think it's a waste - why send a Bentley to do Uber runs when any old car will do.
That is the one of the most disgracefully written and produced drama of all time.
VERY surprised to read that HJW/JCW had a devout fan base in Empress Ki. I assumed Healer was JCW's most buzz-worthy drama (at least internationally).
The rating of Healer is not good, though. It ranked the last at the point.
I think Healer is one of the most notable works till date. The ratings might suck, but outside Korea, a rabid fanbase is growing. JCW is doing a really, really good job here and so does YJT. True, YJT might be kinda not the focal point, but atleast he's not the second lead. His story is the reason Healer met with the heroine. He was a indirect matchmaker. The chemistry between all three leads are off-charts really.
I might be a fan of the HJW/JCW fanbase, but I have to say that I liked HJW and JJM individually due to their prior projects. I have to admit I am a huge fan of assholey first leads that at the first glimpse of EK, I was sad that I'm actually liking the second lead, a.k.a JCW. I didn't even know JCW at that time and I can guarantee that my first impression wasn't his handsome face. Hell, JJM is also handsome! But his acting chops and chemistry with the cast.
I dunno about the other projects, but I can recommend these two. I don't wanna fight, mind you. Just voicing my opinion.
agree, i don't mind about joo jin mo didn't get the girl but what make me dissappointed is his screen time is reduce, but his charracter n acting still shine brightly , we can see he get big scale musical after that n i believe he get many offer after empress ki
For good doctor the casting is right n joo sang wook doesn't get wasted in it, for healer i still in ep 6, but yoo ji tae role attract me more
Lee dong gun*
I think it's sad if they don't appreciate the great older actors at all. In movies this hasn't luckily been occurring that much. In some cases it can work if the part is meaty and good but otherwise. In some points the more established actor outshines the younger lead.
Another point is often the older actor is much more to my taste (rawr) then the baby faced younger idol.
Yeah, movies are the opposite. No one is loosening the Hwang Jung Min/Jung Woo Sung/Lee Jung Jae/et al stranglehold on them anytime soon. But looking out at the vast sea of mental disorders, snotty chaebols and the Candys who love them, and kooky noona/dongsaeng fantasies (looking @ you tVN, Secret Love >>>>>), no wonder those guys said F it, I'm staying in Chungmuro.
The Joo Jin Mo/Lee Dong Gun debacle will surely cause me to pop a blood vessel. But otherwise, I think the rest of these guys knew what they were getting into and the stories were pretty youth-oriented from the start.
But seriously, the sexiest time for men is mid 30s and beyond (yes, before you ask, I am one of the olds). I don't know how or why flower 'boys' became a thing.
Agree 100%
Well, the 30s is definitely the case with Ji Sung! (Though he's got nothing to do with this post.)
Obsession with youth and ageism is present EVERYWHERE. And honestly, if you think of "beautiful/pretty" which is THE korean obsession, and I don't mean in a sexual but purely aesthetically pleasing way, youthful faces will always win since they possess a certain freshness, softer lines and no wrinkles.
Which age range you find attractive, as you've mentioned, depends on your own age (though me being 32, in terms of looks only, I think guys are sexiest between 27 and 34, late 20s being by far the best, afterwards they decline :P). For women at least, since as a rule men like early 20s regardless of their age. And a bad/shallow/heartless as it may sound, since Koreans are so intent on actresses being too old in their late 20s, god forbid over 30, a part of me thinks it's only fair. It's a loss, but it goes both ways.
Having said that, as not to be mistaken, I don't give a sh*t about how an actor/actress looks, and how old they are, I only care about how skillful they are. A skillful actor/actress will make the ugliest looks sexy since they'll be oozing sexy with their body language, eyes, pitch and loudness of voice and so on. It's a pity that drama makers tend to forget that.
It's Lee Dong Gun, not Lee Dong Wook in Marry Him If You Dare. How can you forget him Koala? ;)
See? I told you just the mere mention of MHIYD shorts my brain.
lol miss K
I can somewhat share your opinion. But in the case of Healer, I don't agree that Yoo Ji Tae is wasted as Kim Moon Ho. The character is very intriguing, I can't think of any other actor playing Kim Moon Ho. Healer is daebak as a result of the trio of Park Min Young, Ji Chang Wook and Yoo Ji Tae!
I TOTALLY AGREE!!! In fact, I was going to make a comment saying the same exact thing, but you beat me to it. This is a perfect example of it not being 'babysitting' because Ji Chang Wook can hold his own (and thank God he took a role that showcases how awesome he is because ohmygod why did he take that role in Empress Ki??) but Yoo Ji Tae just makes a great drama even better. They are like two halves of a whole, and I think that when a pair comes along like that, it's something that should definitely continue. However, it most assuredly does not always work and so those pairs should be forgotten entirely as they are an insult to everyone involved.
Completely agree on the stupid Ta Hwan character! Yes he was hot but SOOO annoying I was pissed that Joo Jin Mo Was downgraded! You're the only one I know that actually disliked Ta Hwan... Thankfully!
Yeah... Don't like this trend either in general. Esp with 'Youre All Surrounded.' However, I'm okay with it in 'Healer' because I think Yoo Ji Tae's role is quite meaty... And he really shines despite the dazzling Ji Chang Wook. 'Healer' has introduced me to 2 really great actors YJT and JCW.
Agree! I didn't know either of them before Healer, but now I'm interested in both. I do normally tend to like the older generation more, but in Healer I think JCW nails it, however the more episodes I watched the more YJT grew on me, so now I like them both (Bongsoo still wins though:))
OT, but Miss Koala, did you hear about the Loveletter drama remake? How is there enough material from that movie to sustain even a 16 episode drama? If it gets made at all, that is, but still. Sounds like a very bad idea to me - either the drama ends up boring or makjangified.
I did but it's so random there is nothing to write about OTOH until I see a casting or synopsis. LOL, LL is a sweet oldie but even back then in the early 90's this movie didn't have enough plot for 2 hours, much less 16!
I still think the plan to do Comrades, a Love Story into a K-drama could work but of course no one is touching that idea with a ten foot pole after Park Yong Ha's passing.