Lee Jae Wook is the Breakout Star of Hyun Bin’s Vast Entertainment
The last few episodes of Extraordinary You have been extraordinarily dull, slow moving on narrative and a lot of the same old same old interactions. It gives me time to focus on second male lead Lee Jae Wook purely from a clinical observation – he is really far and away the best actor in the entire ensemble and it shows when the writing slips and falters as it has here. Kinda like how Kim Woo Bin turned crappy Heirs into something worth watching for him alone. I was surprised this week to chance upon Lee Jae Wook’s High Cut pictorial, that’s a big land for a rookie, but also learning that he’s signed to Vast Entertainment which is Hyun Bin‘s agency. He’s basically Binnie’s protege which explains his presence in Memories of Alhambra and also how he got so many roles so quickly. K-ent is writing that Lee Jae Wook is the breakout star of Vast and a super savvy find by Binnie. Amen to that!
He has great talents. Hope to see him more in different characters. He is so versatile, charismatic and looking more handsome everytime I watch his face. And I like tall guys 🙂
He’s in MoA? Can somebody please refresh my memory?
he is Marco, the computer hacker. his hair is frizzy, face has dirty makeup… ended up dying inside the game.
Thank you. Marco is the FL’s brother’s friend, right?
yes
I think the friend of the PSH younger brother who was also killed playing the game, named Marco.
Ah! Also read somewhere during the show that Hyun Bin , PSH and him all went to the same university, Chung Ang…that’s probably one of their connections as well.
Yea, the writer recycles the plot, repeating same things over and over, lacking creativity, making the EY lose its momentum. But nonetheless, I do enjoy watching those tall, handsome guys, esp. Rowoon.
Vast is now under KakaoM maybe next time he can work with IU. He was the only good thing about EY.
Eventhough I only watched him as Marco, but I’ve watched some of his other drama clips and heard high praise for him. Wishing all the best to the young talent!
I think he looks like a younger version of Shin Sung Rok. And Baek Kyung in EY reminds me of Lee Hyuk in The Last Empress.
if u look closely. his face more like ryu jun yeol.
and baek kyung 1sided love stori like jungppal love stori too. haha
For me he resembles Yoon Hyun Min. The one from Witches court with Jung Ryeo Won. Last year it was Jang Ki Yong this year it’s Lee Jae Wook and Jang Dong Yoon. The K up n coming male acting talent is just phenomenal. True find.
The show was like a car wreck. It was a smooth ride until ep 7 or 8 and then it sputter and never recovered.
What drove me crazy on top of the repetitive drama tropes they used was that they didn’t even put any effort to explain anything. Nothing about how the world functions, they left us hanging. The ending was so vanilla, it barely attempt to close any loose ends. They have left too many unanswered questions and majority of the characters lacked development. To this day, I still know almost nothing about Haru except for that he likes Danoh.
Lee Jae Wook and Rowoon are the standouts!
Every single actor of the drama seem precious to me including Sae Mi and So Chul and Y3 and all the others. I hope they all find their footing in the industry. The wrap party was a blast and I enjoyed watching them interact. Judging by the crowd, the screaming welcome bandwagon there was outside the party hall, I think it is safe to say all 3 leads and Extras have had a massive surge in popularity and I hope they can all do many more successful projects. I loved the show till the end and would love to see the young actors reunited in future projects.
I think he is ready to take on lead roles even opposite good actress like park shin Hye ,min young
PSH is not a good actress. This is my opinion although some may disagree.
@ candycane I’m on the fence with her acting because MOA is the only drama I stayed around for long enough and even then she was second in command to Binnie and I didn’t get to see much range although that was more with the way her character was written. I hope she does well in her drama The myth alongside Jo Seung Woo. Fingers crossed.
Yes her range is limited. I enjoy her the most in You are Beautiful with JGS, after that her acting has been same and very blah… after acting for 10+ years, there’s been no improvement. Lots of newer & younger actresses have surpassed her.
PSH is a great actress, in my opinion
I just think her agency is limiting her cause she takes on similar roles but if you watch doctors,you will see that she can be versatile if given the chance.
@Jem – I think PSH agency is small so it’s mostly her decision to choose projects based on offers presented to her. So either she only receives offers with similar roles or she prefers those similar roles. Nonetheless her performance in MOA has been underwhelming. Hope her next project can show more versatility as you said. But I am not sure how many sponsors she can gather now with her dwindling popularity. Once over 30, she may be easily overtaken if she has no more buzz.
His last teenager drama was solely carried by him. It was like one actor drama with other poor actors like gong yoo can lead any movie or drama with anyone
Saw him in WWW. A very good actor. Versatile too. All the best to him.
I think I prefer him in WWW because in EY he always was angry… It’s easier to stand out by playing the bad boy. But I’m really exciting to see him in his next role. But for me, the soul of the drama was Kim Hye Yoon and the way her costars are with her show they agree. But all those rookies were good, Rowoon was really swoony in this role and his interactions with Kim Hye Yoon are so cute! I love to watch them bickering, fighting or bein emotional.
I really loved this drama, all the details they put in were so interesting like the literary or artistic references. It was not just a love story between teenagers. It asked a lot of existential questions. It’s a teenager drama that ended by quoting Heidegger “Sein und Zeit”. It’s not usual.
She was barely passable in the first half but I could barely tolerate her in the second half. Her acting was too much. She needs to tone it down. Her male costars really carry the show.
The drama went downhill because all they did was focus on love. The concept of the comic world and the idea of free will was ignored for the most part. All that came out of Danoh mouth was Haruuuu in almost every scene. It got so annoying. It wasted an interesting premise.
The idea of freedom was all along the story. All the choices they did was about that, the ones who wants to change without being afraid of the consequences, the ones who would like to change but they’re afraid and the ones who don’t want because they like their set-up. Every lessons were about the characters and their situation. The notion of Haru name is really important during all the show (there is a poem in the show that explains the start of their love). In this show, we need to be attentive to everything.
It’s your opinion about Kim Hye Yoon but I don’t agree.
Are you the drama writer’s publicist? Are you a part of the drama damage control team?
They promote the agency of free will and taking control of your life. They tease it over the characters head but they don’t really allow the characters to have it. Because barely anything progressed.
They don’t explain why characters can be self aware. Exactly they don’t take the time to explain anything. The so called happy ending is disguising the curse of them and other characters bound to repeat similar mistakes and similar sufferings like disappearance over and over again. They showcased a cruel creator(the comic writer).
None of the characters has any aspiration in life besides pursuing love. What does the importance of the name of Haru has to do with Danoh running around like a headless chicken calling out his name endlessly. Haru, Danoh, Baek Kyung sincerely had no other mission then to pursue their significant other.
It’s funny how this show was all meta and people loved it for it, including myself but then half way the show went elsewhere and the defenders would embrace it for the typical cliche korean romance. It made fun of the tropes and then embraces it. It proves that many in the audience still likes cliche Korean romances, that’s why they don’t strive to standout and be intelligent. No wonder the drama industry continues to regurgitate the status quo.
@Laura What damage control do they need? It was one of the most buzzworthy drama in SK during its run, appealed a great deal to its domestic target market that is young audience despite ratings being low, attracted cult hit status in SEA, all four leads got massive popularity boost out of it and despite your strong dislike for lead actress, they received overwhelmingly positive review for their acting, yes overwhelingly positive even for Kim Hye Yoon. They achieved their goals. You don’t like it and you are entitled to that opinion. So is everyone else. If anybody states that, it hardly means its to publicize it. Why would they publicize it here again after the show ended at that. Makes no sense. BTW, I don’t know what was your expectation going in but it was based on a webtoon which they followed till the end. It was a simple school based romance drama, it was marketed and promoted that way as well.
@gem You know that the publicist, damaged control comment is sarcasm right?
Most people never read the webtoon. The synopsis and the promos were advertised as something different, not the typical teen drama.
And I can that confidently most people after viewing the first few episodes including moi, praised it for being different. You are contradicting @sayaris comment how this show is more than an ordinary teen romance. This is too humorous.
Also it was revealed by the drama team they were going to be different from the webtoon. So the webtoon served more like inspiration than a paint by number guide. I heard there were drastic differences with characterization, background stories, and so forth.
Just because it’s a buzzy show with a cult following doesn’t make it a good show.
I’m upset at the plot holes and the bad message it’s giving out that you can’t change your fate. And romance is the only important thing in the world but people like you are saying it’s fine by wrapping it with saying oh it’s getting international buzz, oh the actors are getting praised. La di dah.
If I’m entitled to my opinion, then back off. I’m not telling @sayaris he can’t comment. I’m just strongly disagreeing with his assessment.
@Gem – ummm…. the drama is actually very different from the original webtoon. What webtoon are you referring to that “they followed til the end”?
as much as I like the first half of the drama, i wish the second half can focus more on the comic vs free will by giving more screentime to Joo-da. This second FL is actually more pleasing and natural towards the end of the drama than Dan-oh who is so draggy and clings onto Haru like an old rag doll. I can see how some cannot tolerate her ayego as it can really get to you after ep 12. I like her at the beginning but wouldn’t care less if she dies like in the webtoon or not. The writer has changed the story to please the majority but this takes away from the heart of the comic world. My favorite is still LJW and I stay til the last episode because of him but his screentime is so little which is pitiful. I basically finished the last episode within 5 minutes with my FF button. A very disappointing drama which follows the trend of Kdrama with a strong start and a weak end!
@candycane They followed it in terms of beginning and end…….yes, the elaborate mind boggling secrets involving some characters like Juda, Doe Hwa, Nam Ju were missing….yes, they did the whole stage vs shadow death twice, They did give Jin Michae’s storyline to the three leads but other than that Haru and Dan Oh dynamic remains unchanged. If you have read the webtoon, then it should come as no surprise that Dan Oh-Haru cling to each other like nothing else matter in their world.
I read the webtoon as well but they made stark differences in the drama.
Some of the changes at the top of my head:
Starting with the main character Danoh, she’s spunky, active, and bright ( at least in the first half of the show). In the webtoon she’s more reserved and melancholic. She was also literally an extra in the webtoon but in the drama she was more of a supporting character in the comic world. Danoh dies in the ending in the webtoon due to health issues.
Dohwa: his family cause the death of Joo-da’s grandmother and mother. He felt guilty for it and therefore commits suicide.
Haru: he didn’t appear in the webtoon until way later and somehow in the drama he has the ability to make changes to the story.
Baek Kyung: he had a decent relationship with Danoh, he didn’t have the violent/angry disposition that was shown in the drama. You hate his character in the drama but you love him in the webtoon.
The ending is very different. It’s explained that Danoh was originally the main character of a different comic and she had the ability to time travel. So after Secret ended, she appears in a modern comic and Haru ends up in the historical comic. Danoh still having her time travel abilities, finds and reunites with Haru in the historical drama.
There’s other changes but I’m too lazy lol
So basically the webtoon is really dark then, Hmm, not quite sure about the committed suicide part. Is that enough of committing suicide in Korea already?
And if the Danoh character, a high school student is reserved and melancholy for the entire 16 episodes, on top of all the accident ( Haru almost died to save Danoh, Dowa commuted suicide) then I would prefer reading a Hamlet tradegy broadway show or melo drama then watching a high school kids.
And in the webtoon basically they ended up in different comic, so they are still under the control of the created ( writer), as the same in the drama.
What I didn’t like about the drama is the writer ran out of ideas so she repeating her plot.
Undoubtedly Lee jae wook and Jang dong yoon are Break out star of the year.
I actually loved him in www. The romance and chemistry- even with the age difference- were so good. I mentioned age since he is actually a young rookie actor. Have actually rewatched that romance in that drama for a feel- good pick me up since then.
And kept an eye out for Extraordinary You just for him. Have absolutely no clue who all the leads are in that drama so only knew that chef guy. But I admit it got draggy. That’s why I stopped at ep 12. Need to drag myself to finish it just to see what happened.
However only commented on this drama to say he can act. And oozes charisma on screen. Will keep an eye out for his future projects since he stood out on all his projects I watched so far.
As a fan of the original webtoon, the show was extraordinarily painful to watch. I now know how it feels to be one of those book purists who get angry at drama or film adaptations lol. I think the drama was better received by those who haven’t read the webtoon, but its only draw was the romance, which I didn’t like because of how childish it was. This is going to be a controversial opinion, but I even liked Heirs more than this. At least I wasn’t angry for most of Heirs’ run and the writing didn’t pretend to be smart.
As for Lee Jaewook, he was one of the few bright spots of the drama for me. I loved most of the cast actually. But he was just the perfect Baek Kyung and I couldn’t be happier for that casting choice as someone whose favorite character in the webtoon was Baek Kyung. Like Kim Woobin, he’s not handsome to me but both are so magnetic to watch on screen.
He was a free agent during Alhambra shooting. Hyunbin’s team saw him and thought that he has a lot of potential that’s how they scouted him. He did not get the marco’s role because he’s under VAST entertainment. He got into VAST because of his role as marco