There’s been more shuffling in The Village this week beyond the out-of-left-field casting of relative newbie idol-actor Yook Sung Jae as seasoned actress Moon Geun Young‘s male lead in the drama. I was all ready to just go with that pairing flow since Kim Jae Wook is also going to be in this drama, and I’ve been waiting for him to do another project with Moon Geun Young since Mary Stayed Out All Night. Sadly that’s not happening now as Kim Jae Wook’s agency has confirmed that he ultimately passed on the role offered to him in The Village and won’t be doing this drama.
In his place the role has gone to Park Eun Seok, who has been a supporting actor in a few dramas such as Noble, My Love and Take Care of the Captain. Apparently the role has undergone some revisions and will now have a love line with an older woman in the drama. I’m not sure what’s going on because reportedly Jang Hee Jin has also declined The Village, and she’s in the same agency as Kim Jae Wook. Maybe it was a two-fer deal, to which I think The Village got shafted because the two-fer of Kim Jae Wook and Jang Hee Jin is an awesome get for any drama. Now back to more waiting for Kim Jae Wook’s drama land comeback.
In addition to Park Eun Seok joining the drama, Oh Joo Won has also signed on to live in the village. This makes Moon Geun Young’s bevy of male actors in this drama complete with Yook Sung Jae, Oh Joo Won, and Park Eun Seok, while the female actresses include Shin Eun Kyung, Lee Yeol Eum, and Jang So Yeon. The Village comes from the screenwriter of Que Sera Sera and Will Love Become Money, and will be directed by the PD of The Great Seer.
No reason to watch this drama now. not enough with sungjae getting the main lead and now kjw out too? I miss mgy but the male lead is a big no for me
What a mess! I hope for MGY the drama is worth it. I’m sad KJW declined the role. Hopefully we will see him in a drama or movie soon. 🙂
And I’m out. I was going to watch for Kim Jae-wook since it’s been so long but now, absolutely no reason to watch.
I’m watching this for the story…so I’ll be still watching it.
I’m super excited to see MGY again on TV…
But saying Kim Jae Wook & Moon Geun Young will finally act together after the sparks in MMM and then just no. IDK is just straight cruel. X(((
Guess I have no reason to watch it now.
KJW is smart to let go of this role. He deserves to be a male lead …
I wish they give mgy decend male lead…….wish the best to mgy
I wish they give mgy decend male lead…….wish the best for mgy
I don’t know that I want to watch it without Kim Jae Wook. Pretty pissed at this production company now – for bringing this green fellow in, and getting rid of Kim Jae Wook. I do not want to support them.
May I ask the source of this news? I haven’t seen anything about his decline nor any agency statement in korean news
I’m actually glad KJW passed on this, as much as I love him and MGY in Mary stayed out all night….. KJW playing 2nd male lead to Sungjae just doesn’t work for me!
Oh no..I am all excited and this happened. Are they betting all their cards on MGY alone to carry the whole drama? Cause I never heard much of the rest of the actors. My excitement has been cut in half and now I have started worrying. I hope I will never ever get to say poor MGY because I really want this drama to be a success in terms of quality and rating wise.
Whatever, as long as my idol, MGY is there, ok for me, she’s a good actress, i know she can carry it! Good luck, MGY, miss you so much! Fighting!
too bad he declined but it was smart decision. i’ll probably watch it anyway since i love MGY and YSJ but i start to worry this will become meh..
Wow, from someone who refused Moon that Embraces Sun (the last 40 percent weekday drama) because she wasn’t happy that her leading man was not in the same level as her, MGY sure has come far. She’s now ready to have Yook Sungjae as her leading man and Park Eunseok as a potential love interest. Lets see how the drama does.
I think passing on Moon Embraces the Sun is one of the crowning achievements of her career. That drama had one of the most putrid scripts in recent memory, even 80% ratings couldn’t cover up the stench.
Totally agree. People are always talking about what a shame it was that she passed up that role, but the writing, as you mentioned, is just awful and i don’t blame MGY at all for rejecting it.
It’s so sad that I do agree with you. Because MGY has no legitimate “Crowning achievements” in the past years since Cinderella’s sister LOL. And I don’t know if I’d call that a “crowning success” either. Maybe I just have a different view on what is called super successful. I for one, and thankful she passed on that drama. HGI isn’t good but I have no liking for MGY either. Now she’s choosing dramas with actors much lower of her so-called-level so we’ll see if this finalllly works out in her favor and she does a somewhat decent drama.
just to correct something dear, Moon Geun Young never reject TMETS just beacuase Kim Soohyun is not at her level~ just a LOL! Kim Soohyun already at her that time tho, only KSH’s popularity changed (^_-) and wishing for this drama to be a successful one~ 🙂
Level*
If I remember right, it was her company that declined TMETS for that reason, not MGY. Also TMETS may have done extraordinarily well and shot KSH to new heights, but the drama itself was horrendously written that even KSH who usually comes off really nuanced in his acting came off as a try hard because the writing was so bad (I watched the whole drama I might add).
preach!
Maybe. And I’d agree if she chose better dramas. Except she didn’t. Her choices have been quadruple level worse than what she declined like Goddess of Fire, Mary etc. MTES might not be to everyone’s linking but at least it had a lot of people who enjoyed it, was a huge huge hit and extremely popular to boot. GOF wasn’t anything and MGY was awfully terrible in it too because of how bad her character was written. So I’m not sure where her win is.
@Nickki. AFAIK, it’s not a one-to-one scenario. Like, nobody asked her, would you rather star in The Moon Embraces the Sun or Goddess of Fire? Anyway Goddess of Fire wins by default. At least it didn’t crystalize ten years of the genre’s regression into the most monumentally repulsive shoujo “sageuk” of all time.
I don’t get why you have an axe to grind here, anyway.
@mugwump
Maybe my axe to grind is the fact that you’re quite foolishly trying to insist (and failing horrendously) that MGY was better off doing Goddess of Fire over Moon Embraces the Sun if ever it were a simultaneous choice. LOL, who are you kidding exactly? Yourself?
I ain’t gloatin’ over her crappy career (boohoo). I am rolling my eyes over how she’s ready to get paired with these actors when she once refused a drama because she was being paired with a nobody that is Kim Soo Hyun. Right. Also, its YOUR opinion that she is apparently amongst the best actress of her generation. I don’t think so, and I can go on to elaborate why but that’s too subjective for me to bother with. What is not, is that she is a genuinely terrible drama picker. So despite having fans like you who can’t actually accept that, I genuinely wish her luck for Village. She’ll need it, and I need to get out of this fight because you wont stop insisting I’m “gross” and I can’t stop shaking my head at that stuupid assumption.
@Nickki. No one is saying she’s great at picking dramas. But no one is relishing that fact, either, except you. You’re also the only one who is celebrating the fact that someone who takes her profession so seriously has to work with someone who doesn’t.
Yes, it’s my opinion. I don’t plan on getting into it with someone who can see no difference between Moon Geun-young and Han Ga-in.
And yeah…if I have to choose between your run-of-the-mill crap pile, and a crap pile that represented all of the industry’s worst tendencies–as well as the decline of a beautiful genre–and got rewarded for it…oh, why am I bothering.
@Nicki. Thought I’d better add: I didn’t mean to call you gross, I meant to call your attitude gross. It wasn’t the best choice of words, I’ll admit. I apologize. That wasn’t cool of me.
I’d call having talent and not selling out success, but that’s just me. Anyway, it’s kind of gross that you’re here to gloat over the rocky career she’s had, considering she’s one of the best actresses of her generation. Do you care about this industry at all? Your attitude is everything wrong with Kdrama.
Sorry, this is a response to Nickki’s reply to me. As you might be able to tell, I am computer illiterate lol.
No just no, i was looking forward to this what is with her decisions or her company whats with the production are you for real, like seriously have they lost it, i have lost excitement for it i am out
Yook Sung Jae being MGY’s leading man is just beyond ridiculous. He’s a really cute kid who has shown some potential, but he also looks too young and has no experience. Kim Jae Wook is constantly screwed over. I’d decline too if a 20 year old idol was the lead over me. Probably not while he declined but… Honestly, nothing against Sungjae, but his casting is all that’s wrong with kdramas sometimes. Good actors get passed over for the trend of the moment. I don’t care if he does a passable or even good job either, it’s just so wrong.
I agree. I wanted Kim Jae Wook to be the lead. Cube probably hopes that YSJ starring in The Village with Moon Geun Young will push him become a star like Lee Jong Suk who starred in I Can Hear Your Voice with Lee Bo Young following School 2013. But YSJ would be better off following in the footsteps of Lee Joon and Im Si Wan who both polished their skills in several projects for years before taking on lead roles. YSJ was good as GTK, but that role closely resembled him IRL and the writing placed GTK in a position where most of the audience would sympathize with him the most so I don’t know if he can be a versatile actor and his previous roles didn’t stand out. I’d rather see him in either of the upcoming KBS school dramas because he’s still young. I don’t think he’s ready to take on a lead role on primetime public broadcast over Kim Jae Wook or On Joo Wan.
Complains are no use anyway! the casting was already done 🙂 glad that Sungjae release statement about his casting being the male lead (mybe he see those not so good feedback) and I can see his determination to do well in this drama and not ruined MGY’s image (he said it anyway) so I hope ppol will stop and support this drama, well if you want to if not its okay! :*
PS: Hoping to see KJW as a male lead. ASAP! ^^
+1
I’m sad with this news. I wanted to see him in a drama. However, those who miss him, he will star with Ham Eunjung in a web drama that will be shown sometime this month or early Oct. The web drama stars the T-ara members and Kim Jae Wook will be with Eunjung in an episode. Please see the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftbkHniREW0
ok, at least have this good news, happy enough at least get to see him again. 🙂
well, let’s just hope for the best for MGY and the rest of The Village. the dice has been roll anyway.
I’m also disappointed that KJW declined the drama, was really hoping for his reunion with MGY. That being said, I am still rooting for this drama for MGY and the rest of the cast. Hope the Village do well. Goodluck!
lols at sungjae got the leading man. well.. i like him.. seriously like him in school2015. but i felt kinda disappointed with him joining WGM, such a meh. and now hearing him as the main lead to MGY is just.. double meh. cant the producer find a ‘real’ actor huh? if i were MGY, i want taking this.. hehe.. i hope the storyline will be good.. this is her comeback after some ‘not great’ dramas, sooo.. goodluck girl! i really adore her!
I’m glad, he deserves better #JusticetoKimJaeWook
I now wished that Moon Geun Young declined this role. I wished to see her in a better role but who knows, maybe this will be a surprised. No clue who this guy is though nor do he peaks my interest. (sigh) Looks like another drama that will go unnoticed for me… 🙁 Maybe I’ll stick it out for Moon Geun Young!
I wouldn’t give up just yet. The premise still has legs, and the writer has at least one good drama to her name and has proven she can do a lot more than your average trendy romance. I guess she’s also our last line of defense–let’s hope she has enough class not to make MGY jump through OTP hoops with this kid.
I am hoping for the same news too. I hope this won’t flop. I won’t be watching anyways since the lead reminds me so much of school 2015. Kids….
The male lead,I mean
I thought he confirmed.. oh well, at least the other guys are good!
I really love Kim Jae Wook but please…….just say no to skinny jeans. NO.
I will give it a chance only because of MGY. I am very disappoint that KJW passed on this project. I need him to find a drama. I am almost at the point of saying “any drama” because I selfishly want to see him in something.