Park Seo Joon’s Sky High Popularity in Japan Evidenced by Amazon Japan K-drama DVD Sales Where His Dramas Top the List

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• Media play or not. He was popular and most on demand actor right now a long with hyun bin and gong yoo.

• he is very popular in my coubtry as well. by the way, i watched all his drama except his drama with Kim Ji Won. I DONT KNOW, BUT I Really cant watch her. theres something about her that annoys me.

• japanese still buy a lot of physical dvd

• Japan is a weird place.. Just above North Korea where their favourite still remains stairway to heaven

• lol and some commenters here were popping veins because they said he's not popular enough to top that list of most in-demand actors. difference between your highest paid oppa who never makes any domestic lists is that seojoon is popular both in AND out of korea. your man is only popular outside....

  • When it comes to popularity... My oppa is the hallyu king himself , the most popular Korean actor globally from Africa to South America, Middle East, Europe to the South Pole , more popular than all the Korean actors and actresses put together. The only korean actor outsiders knows his full name and can spell it... I can bet you that if psJ goes outside East Asia and say he is a Korean actor, alot of people will call him Lee min Ho like they do to other actors that have tried it.

    You should worry more about your flower vase suzy bcos once jisso debuts, it is over for her. It is an insult to us LMH fans to be dragging popularity with fans of other Korean actors...we are above Korean media PR.. We should be dragging popularity with the likes of Asian actors like Shah rukh khan, jet li and Jackie chan not all this Korean actors that look the same outside Korea.

    • "Above Korean media PR"

      Says the person popping veins in a post about another actor being popular and in response to a comment that doesn't mention your oppa at all ???

    • I legit dont know anyone that can name LMH outside of kdrama fans. Same can be said for most Korean actors unfortunately. So slow your roll.

    • @Lily

      I don't stan Suzy lol. She can't act just like your man. I stan actors and actresses who can ACT, and Park Seo Joon is one of them. You can keep your showpiece oppa who relies on his face for popularity. He will never be in the same league as his rivals Seojoon, Kim Soohyun, Gong Yoo, Hyun Bin, Song Joongki because unlike him, they have actual skills to back up their popularity. Minho can't even get a Baeksang Best Actor nomination, you expect he will get an Emmy? I'm cackling. And by the way, you over-estimate his global fame. No one knows him in the West outside of those who have watched K-dramas. The only actual global Koreans are BTS and BlackPink along with some athletes.

• If this is his moment, so be it. People need to accept & respect that. Just as he overtook others to top that list, so will he be overtaken by someone else sooner or later. That's just how the industry works.

• So much for "he's not a Hallyu star, he has no international popularity" ???????

  It isn't 2013 anymore, some people need to get with the times ?

  • Guys - does PSJ qualify as a Hallyu star? So confused about the qualifications for a Hallyu star nowadays. I always thought you needed a mega romcom Hallyu hit to be considered a Hallyu star but I guess not?

    • Psj need one hit drama like mlfts,dots,goblin and cloy. I thought he can hit bigger with gyeongseong creature, since the writer and director have rating hit drama.But the female lead aka han so hee just weak and lack of charisma. I hope i am wrong.

    • Hallyu = Korean Wave (globally), WWWSK and Itaewon Class are popular dramas internationally so he is a hallyu star

  • Who says he does not have a hit drama? Itaewon class is really popular,overseas

    • @Lai Pai Yee - that's what I am confused by. Does Itaewon Class qualify as a Hallyu hit? I always thought those were rom-coms with >30/40% ratings.

      Maybe we are in a different era now so new standards.

    • Hallyu is overseas popularity, why some of you trying to create out of it something new and “exclusive”. Not only Itaewon Class, but WWWSK is also a Hallyu hit. Both dramas had a noticeable recognition and following from international audience and media. So, yes, Park Seo Jun is a Hallyu star. He has 18.6 million followers on IG. In top 5 most followed k-actors. That number is not generated just by koreans(eye roll). And casually mentioned by other countries celebrities. Have Asian CFs.

    • @Ophelia Not even in the past it was the case. Winter Sonata was a melodrama and one of the biggest Hallyu hits.
      As for ratings. Itaewon Class is a cable drama and performed exceptionally well. If we go by (very flawed) conception that whatever on cable is double on public channel, then 16% of IC (x2) is 32% on public channel basically.

    • @Lai Pei Yee - oh, some people were super salty about PSJ when that Japan popularity list came out, I just found it funny.

      And yes, Itaewon Class, WWWSK, even Fight My Way drew a lot of buzz from overseas fans. As @sdrgdy pointed out, we're in an era with new standards of how to measure popularity - his dramas do well on Netflix (IC ended before they started doing the Top 10 but it was quite popular, I used to see it mentioned on international kpop twitter a lot and they rarely mention dramas), also you're right those 18.5 million ig followers aren't all Korean...

    • Yeah 'Itaewon Class' was popular enough for him to get snapped up to be in the sequel to 'Captain Marvel', which is huge. Who knows how significant his role will be, but considering Ma Dong Seok of the very popular 'Train to Busan' (among other projects) is a major cast member of the upcoming Marvel movie 'Eternals', who knows how many other Marvel films Park Seo Joon might wind up attached to if Marvel takes the Avengers route. Plus he's got a cameo in the history making 'Parasite' on his resume. Parasite was the first foreign language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture as well as the first Korean film to win the honor. It also won Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film all after starting it's winning streak at the Cannes Film Festival being the first Korean film to win the Palme D'Or. If Park Seo Joon decides to go the Hollywood route, he'll have two major sit up and take notice films in his filmography.

  • These days, audiences are not only watching romantic comedy these days, as oversea audiences gravitate to other genres too..like dark comedy, comedy action and slice of life. Why just confine hallyu to rom-com?

    • yeah romcoms/romance dramas are the easiest to market (pretty people, easy to watch) but not the only kind of drama that gets popular overseas. Look at Vincenzo, it's no romcom but still popular despite its dark tone.

    • Vincenzo wasn't so dark, though. Especially compared to the tone of Devil Judge or Taxi Driver, it's sunshine-bright. Its overseas popularity has a lot to do with SJK's pretty face + charisma and the badass titular character. Plus, there might not have been much romance but they had a 'will they or won't they' thing going on which the Hallyu audience goes gaga for. Shipping culture is powerful. Looking at all the elements, I'd have been shocked if the drama wasn't an international hit.

    • @? - last 4 episodes of Vincenzo were darkkk, especially the last episode.

      Yeah, okay, looks like we are in a new era and PSJ is indeed a Hallyu star. Makes sense.

    • ? - Vincenzo was far from an obvious candidate for international popularity though - yes, it has SJK but it's still darker than most of the non-Netflix dramas that get popular overseas (Devil Judge or Taxi Driver are not my benchmark), and Park Jae Bum's previous dramas Chief Kim and The Fiery Priest were popular in Korea but not abroad. Hindsight is 20/20 but at the time, no one expected it to do as well as it did. Crime shows are not exactly known for being Hallyu breakouts.

    • @RoyalWe

      Correct. Jeon Yeo Been even said she didn't expect it to do that well bc it was "dark". But it was a smash hit, and given the dramas that have done well in 2021, looks like we are in the middle of a taste shift for kdramas.

• Oh good for him! He can act, has charisma and likable with strong drama hits under his belt. Well like someone above said, he's respected and popular both nationally and internationally. I think this is only the beginning tho, we have yet to see his best work

• There is no comparison when you campare Lee min ho popularity to park seo Joon Lee min ho has 24.8 million follower on Instagram 26 follower on Facebook 29 follower how can you disrespect a person who has that fandom u are jealousy of his and he is going as lead to a critical acramaid novel he will win Emmy award wait Lee will rule Korean industry for longtime haters will always cry for his success drama like pachinko will give him big opportunity in Hollywood not that role of psj of getting Asian market I swear nothing much psj will do in marvel is the same role as Soo hyun in avengers age of Ultron I see Lee min ho has many haters in South Korea bcse their oppa cannot compete with Lee min ho in worlds stage Lee min ho has attained superstar status believe it not he is most beloved Korean actor will always be you ignorant haters

  • Since when lee min ho will winning ewwmmy award?lolol.He even never win daesang and best actor in baeksang award.

  • Many haters in South Korea? Weird... he is free to act, no one is banning him to do anything? And yes, many of his dramas are in Korean, not English or some foreign language. Don't forget that Panchinko is not even out, so how can it even win an emmy?

  • Grow up and stop acting like threatened little babies in an unrelated post just because another actor had the audacity to get popular.

    If he does well in Pachinko, then good. But no one owes some celeb "respect" of the kind you mean, which is "don't dare to mention that another actor has the potential to get as popular as my oppa" while you throw tantrums in a post about that actor. You blind celeb worshipper types really sound like you need psychiatric help. That or you're just sad, in which case I feel sorry for you.

  • Could you first go learn more english? It's not good skipping classes just to defend some stranger who doesn't even know you nor need your defense.

• I get his popularity, he has it and seems like a cool dude. But man are Wwwsk and itaewon class really average,really struggle to see the hype with these shows. Fight for way was his only show I could finish.

  • Same here. I dropped IC and WWWSK so hard they shattered to pieces. But I liked FFMW.

  • @Kailey B - same, I dropped both those dramas but loved FFMW. I don't love those dramas, but I acknowledge that they were major successes

  • I am not a fan when it comes to his dramas, but i will not condemn him, just because of my taste. He has worked his way up, from being the 2nd male/cameos to being a main male lead.