Pick Your Favorite K-drama Male and Female Lead Height Differential When it Comes to Swoony Romance Visuals
Thanks to the expertise of K-netizens we have another fun “pick your fave” topic – height differential. K-drama casting probably doesn’t take it into account but as viewers it’s definitely something that adds or detracts from the watch experience. I don’t mind same height leads if they have great body language chemistry and sometimes a super big height difference crosses the line from swoony to cartoonish. My fave is probably that sweet spot of 23-25 cm (see above), and follow by a still nice gap of 20 cm. Check out the visual layout below ranging from no height difference (after the female lead wears heels) to slowly increasing all the up to a 30 cm height difference. The last one is so ridiculous it’s comical, the K-drama Abyss wasn’t just a terrible story it also gave us the zero chemistry and freakish height difference between Park Bo Young and Ahn Hyo Seob, a triple whammy if ever there was one.
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I don’t really care. I like when I watch a couple with a big difference of height if it doesn’t look painful like in Devilish Charm with Choi Jin-Hyuk and Song Ha-Yoon.
Extraordinary You was super cute, because of the manhwa vibe. Kim Hye-Yoon had a difference of height with everybody. In She Would Never Know, the use of the bench for the hug was pretty smart and cute.
For couple of the same height, it would depend of the actor. JJS was pretty manly in Jealousy Incarnate and it worked pretty well.
Yeah Gong Hyo Jin is quite tall, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her with a male lead with more than 4-5 inch height difference (usually less lol)
I personally like pairings where couples are closer in height (2-4 inches), them being close to eye level with each other is very sexy to me! Only if they otherwise have good chemistry though!
Personally, I don’t consider height difference as a factor in deciding if a couple is good together or not. It all comes down to chemistry. Sometimes, you have such amazing looking individuals who probably would look great on paper, yet the results are godawful (like LDW-JB, LMH-KGE, etc.). Then there are those who probably would sound godawful on paper and yet the chemistry is fire (LSG-HJW, KSH-JJH, etc). It’s all about chemistry. Height difference is irrelevant to me.
Also, I think PBY is always way shorter than her costars, but generally, she had good chemistry with them all. I loved her with KYK the best, but JJS and SJK were great too.
Aaaw Kim ji won and park seo joon, they need to reunite ASAP. Its been 4 years and i still miss them
I’ve never been into what knetz call “heart-fluttering height differences.” I agree that super big height differences look cartoonish. I wish there were more model-actresses to pair up with the influx of model-actors. Of late, my favorite height differences are Ahn Hyo-seop (187 cm) and Lee Sung-kyung (175 cm) in Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 2, and Song Joong-ki (178 cm) and Jeon Yeo-bin (166 cm) in Vincenzo.
Huge height differences like Kim Hye Yoon with any tall dude, work well if the drama has that manga feel like Extraordinary You.
And obviously it all depends on how their actual chemistry is, often you get gorgeous leads who have no chemistry at all and you just get bored and want to ffwd their scenes, height is irrelevant there.
My sweet spot visually for me is typically a 10-15cm height difference – like the one in the Jung Ryeo Won and Yoon Hyun Min screenshot. I like how how he’s taller and they can stand close-ish and look into each other’s eyes comfortably without neck strain.
I think bigger height differences are cuter for more trendy/youthful romances since that brings me back to my shoujo-manga loving days, but for more grown-up ones – I like a smaller height difference since it seems to make for more comfortable making out. JJS and GHJ don’t look swoony together in that pic above, but they looked swoony in Jealousy Incarnate, especially when their characters were making out.
When both of them are tall and commandeering, I think it’s hot, gives me power couple teas and feels like they are equally yoked in the relationship.