Kim Young Dae is the Wild Card of the Male Lead Cast in Extraordinary You
I feel like the heavily male skewed main cast of MBC drama Extraordinary You got a lot of attention for Ro Woon and especially Lee Jae Wook but I’m also intrigued by Kim Young Dae. He looks like a younger version of movie star Kang Dong Won but never got to flex in EY because he was the least interesting of the male leads in terms of his story line. He was the manhwa male lead who never gained agency or awareness but in playing his role within a role he delivered the tsundere Domyouji knockoff wonderfully. We like Oh Nam Joo because he’s written like the male lead that has a good heart needing the right woman to rescue him from himself. It’s a role that requires charisma more than anything and he delivered that and then some, a quiet confidence I really like. I think he is the wild card because I haven’t gotten to see him flex and wonder how he’ll do when actually given more. Oh, and he’s got the looks, unique and flexible to play both good and baddies equally.
He was studying but decided to act. He had 2 years to convince his parents that it was a good choice of career and it works thanks to Extraordinary You! I’m happy for him. I liked Nam Joo and KYD said very well all his very cringey dialogue. He’s very cute and shy in the BTS.
I would like to see Kang Dong Won and Kim Young Dae work in the same movie, playing the same character in different timeline. It would be much more convincing since they look really similar ?
I really wish they didn’t change the story of Secret in the drama. The parody was fun at first, but I would have liked to see more depth in the Secret characters especially Namjoo. It would have been nice to see the drama explore Namjoo’s secret of having a disability and his relationship with Juda which was deeper in the webtoon. It would have given Kim Youngdae more to work with and he would have been able to show his dramatic chops instead of being just a comedic character.
On another note, I find it interesting that Lee Jaewook and Rowoon originally auditioned for Haru and Baek Kyung respectively but got the other role instead. I can’t imagine how it would have been lol.
His character never gained self awareness and it limited his development but that was an overall problem with EY. It had no character development overall. I didn’t see enough of KYD to judge his acting but he has potential.