K-dramas tend to prefer certain stereotyped leads with an emphasis to the extremes, rich ones are always chaebols and the poor ones extremely poor and under privileged. And when the rich meets the poor the drama produces the white knight or daddy long legs to come rescue the damsel, but in the case of the upcoming KBS drama Black Knight the savior gets a darker color change to match the fantastical genre. I wrote about Black Knight earlier this year as a drama spanning centuries of a love story between the leads, with a man willing live a dangerous fate for the woman he loves. We now have the stirrings of a cast with offers out to Kim Rae Won and Shin Se Kyung to play the romantic leads, with Seo Ji Hye in talks as the second female lead. The drama is slated to take over KBS Wed-Thurs time slot after Mad Dog come this December, with Mad Dog airing this week now that Manhole has wrapped up.
Black Knight comes from the screenwriter of The Equator Man, Unkind Women, and The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, with the PD of Tomorrow’s Cantabile and The Equator Man. It will be Kim Rae Won’s first drama in 2017 after his successful Doctors last year, with Shin Se Kyung continuing her nonstop drama acting with Bride of the Water God this past summer and last year’s long running sageuk Six Flying Dragons. If Seo Ji Hye accepts then she will be reuniting with Kim Rae Won after working on thriller Punch together.
Oh man,I loved ‘Equator man’and ‘WWSWTM’ and I quite like Kim Tae Won but i’m not watching another Shin Se Kyung drama anytime soon.Had finally forgotten about ‘Fashion King’ and ‘The Girl who sees smell’and then ‘Bride of Haebak’ happened.It’s like she sucks the soul out of her characters and manages to give the most damp performance. :/
coudn’t agree more!
Ugh save yourself Kim Rae Won. Even if I’m the rare ones who were rather intrigued with When a Man Loves, this writer is shitty and I bet that writer is again going to use the same tropes. And SSK.. she may have shown some good acting in Tree With Deep Roots but she’s so underwhelming. I can’t see them having a bit of chemistry. At least KRW is a great actor unlike that crap actor Nam Joo Hyuk who had zero chemistry with SSK in BOTWG
Seo Hye Ji is beautiful and good actress but couldn’t land a leading role.
Sigh…playing second lead again while SSK is Kim Rae Won leading lady?!
This year is filled with bad writing and bad casting choices. Sigh.
It’s getting absolutely ridiculous and it’s like the industry has given up.
Totally agree… And they wonder why the hallyu wave is dying… How do these mediocre actresses keep getting roles? Is there something that Korean viewers see in these actresses that I don’t? I was really looking forward to KRW next drama, but not I’d SSK is cast.
It’ll be interesting to see Seo Ji-hye as the lead instead since she was in Punch with Kim Rae-won. Then again, she’s probably missed her chance already and it may be too late for her to return to leading roles.
Shin Se Kyung is a MEH actress. She has no charisma on-screen. The only reasons I could go through Deep Rooted Trees and Six Flying Dragons are because those are of ensemble casting. I can’t watch anything headlined by her. It amazed me why she continues getting offers.
seriously? SSK? “a man willing to live a dangerous fate for the women he loves”? oh no… this drama is doomed for failure if they sign SSK on… SSK is terrible!! Really really bad… I won’t be watching if she is in it, I had to give up on BOTWG partly bcoz of her, cannot blame her completely, but she was not helping…
It looks like everyone has written this off already. If I do watch this drama, the sole reason will be KRW. SSK was a child actress, she should be able to improve. I am hoping with KRW leading her she can finally improve her underwhelming acting.
shin se kyung can’t act..i had a hard time watching bride of the water God. the only reason i finished cos of Nam Joo Hyuk…her acting was terrible in every drama shes in it…..
He likes them young?
But didn’t SSK just finish her drama?
He liked them older in the beginning of his career hahaha
Bride of the Water God was pre-produced.
Regardless of what international fans think, SSK is apparently quite popular in Korea.
She is loved for her sageuk roles. She is quite frankly good at period dramas. Even Koreans acknowledge that. She is being criticized because it’s very hard to feel anything for the characters she portrays and she has slight problems at showing chemistry with her male lead. But honestly, I don’t understand why i-netz parrot each other and straight out bash her even without seeing Tree with Deep Roots or Six flying Dragons
Interesting. I didn’t know she was loved for her saeguk roles. I thought she was simply loved because she was a child actress. But frankly speaking she’s really quite bad in the romance department.
@Rach, she has difficulties in romance department that’s true and I can’t shield her to much for that. She didn’t actually make that much of an impact as a child actress, she hit it big with her role in High Kick actually. She is better at portraying cold and distant characters though. And her speech and tone are great actually. Many Korean netizens have expressed that she should stick to sageuks because she is best at them. Also, usually i-netz deem an actress terrible if they don’t see chemistry or if kiss scenes don’t go according to their standards.
@Gilgit Actually I hated her most in High kick!!
I love SSK since TWDR. She’s not a great actress like her good friend MGY, but she’s got charisma. Which is rare.
I already finished many bad dramas(Fashion King, When a man loves, Blade man, The bride of Habaek) just because of her.
BTW, has anyone seen her in Tazza? Give it a go! 🙂
Oh no, not SSK! She’s soulless. Don’t understand why she gets cast in so many dramas. Her acting is emotionless and didn’t improve despite so many dramas. And she tends to drag down her male costar
Kim Rae won is my favorite but pls not with SSK
I’ve been reading all these comments and they really distress me… you all are do mean! Shin Se Krung is a fine actress and gets better all the time. It really feels like everyone just jumped on the bandwagon and is parroting each other! I don’t even like to read comments anymore! I guess if you don’t like her … just stop watching my beloved Korean dramas! Don’t just pick on those hard working actresses!