Yeon Woo Jin and Lee Moo Saeng Offered Male Lead Roles in Upcoming Female Friendship K-drama Thirty Nine with Son Ye Jin, Jeon Mi Do, and Ahn So Hee

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• I complained about the noona romance that has been the trend in the last post, so this is such welcome news. Did they really cast three actresses born in 1982 (39 yrs old) as the leads of a drama called Thirty Nine because that is awesome. The trend of musical theater actors coming over to TV and film continues which is great.

  And the male leads are 38 and 41, totally age appropriate for once. The theme of the drama speaks to me.

  • This article doesn't mention the third FL which is Kim Ji Hyun, a musical theater actress who has worked with Jeon Mido in the past. I believe Ahn So Hee plays a supporting role.

  • @flowerpot - Son Ye Jin and Jeon Mi Do are 1982-born but Ahn So Hee is a full 10 years younger (b.1992). As you said, her role is probably a supporting one though. And I agree it's great to see actresses being cast at the exact age the drama characters are (though if it's Korean 39, that means they should be 1983-born...still in the right age range though!)

• I'm happy with the PD's credentials, Age of Youth is one of the great friendship dramas. The writer though....good movies but Encounter and Entertainer are not dramas I recommend.

  But the cast is really awesome so far, I love that they're casting age-appropriate actors in their 30s.

  • Yes I have the same hesitation with the writer but this also looks to be an adaptation of a popular and well received cdrama so I think that alleviates my worry about the script a bit. And its only 12 episodes so that should help keep the plot tight and not drag on.

    • Honestly I would welcome more short kdramas, all the 12-episode ones I've seen have been superior in quality to most 16-episoders. Probably because there's less room to drag things on.

      Less episodes also seems to allow for more novelty in storytelling format, I really liked Producers, Age of Youth and Just Dance.

    • Yes totally agree. American shows have followed this trend is recent years too. Gone are the days of 24 episode dramas or sitcoms. Most are now 8-12 epsiodes a season. I'll take quality over quantity ANY day.

    • @flowerpot - my guess is the rise of Netflix is what leads to this shortening of shows, many of the popular ones like Stranger Things are only 8-9 eps a season do its easy to binge in one weekend.

      But like you said, quality >>>>>>>> quantity, always! (Very few dramas need 20 eps a season anyway).

• Off-topic (apologies), but has anyone else heard the divorce rumor about JJH? Damn.

  • Debunked, her husband even made a joke about it.

• I'm sorry but both Entertainer and Encounter were terrible dramas. Perhaps the script writer hasn't acclimated to drama scripts yet.

  • I hope this time's the charm and the writer gets it together, this cast is too good to be wasted on anything at the level of Encounter/Entertainer..

  • I'm one of the biggest fan of Encounter so to contradict what @kitai and @royalwe said - Encounter is a great drama; a masterpiece for those who have supported it during its run. Soompi forum of this drama was so fun then. Everything about the drama there had been talked about. It was really a fun time
    So I'm very much grateful to the screenwriter to be able to make such a strong script for a melodrama and to the PD, the main and supporting cast to be able to give life to the words of the scripts.

• I'm not a fan of Ah Soo Hee, but love the rest of the casting! I hate Lee Moo Saeng in One Spring Night but loved him in Designated Survivor: 60 Days. Yeon Woo-Jin always is good!

  I liked Entertainer. The issue was Hyeri, she wasn't good and pairing with Ji Sung was super weird, with Mkinhyuk it could have worked. But the story of these boys making a band was pretty nice.

• Finally Yeon Woo Jin is back. Looking forward to this!

• I've been rewatching Marriage, Not Dating and was wondering about Yeon Woo Jin. I haven't seen in take a lead role in a drama in a while. I heard he cameoed in Undercover recently.

  BTW to those who haven't watched Marriage, Not Dating it's a gem in the rom-com genre. Despite it haven't aired in 2014, it's surprisingly aged well.

  • Thanks for the recommendation. I was actually looking for some older K-dramas to watch and heard about this one.

    • I discovered Yeon Woo Jin in My Shy Boss and I like him there. I'm going to tune in to Marriage, Not Dating too. Heard lots of positive comments about it. I'm in need of a decent rom-com. Been in a major slump lately.

• Love Yeon Woo Jin so much. After so many bad drama, He is finally starring in a good drama again through undercover. Love the drama so much and his performances with his leading lady.

  • I particularly love him in Queen of Seven Days and Divorce Lawyer in Love. He's one of the underrated actor that needs to shine more.

    • He had a guest role in Search last year and was really good in that too! He and Jang Dong Yoon as father and son were quite believable, they even have enough resemblance for it even if irl YWJ is hyung-age and not dad-age ?