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A new year and it’s time to wish the third gen of Hallyu K-drama child actors off to grown up land, and for the guys it’s military service as a rite of passage. Child actor turned teen actor turned on the cusp of adult actor Nam Da Reum is off to the army this week, enlisting for mandatory service at the age of 21. It’s in line with the majority of Korean men who enlist post-college and before entering the real world climb. Nam Da Reum’s mom posted a happy and sad SNS sending her baby boy off and it brings all the feels for me as a mom of my firstborn Koala Teen Boy who is close to college bound. Nam Da Reum is so talented and oftentimes anchors the child/teen roles so well it makes the adult version of the same character already beloved by viewers by the time the adult actor steps in, such as While You Were Sleeping and Start-up. Good luck to him during his service and come back healthy and even more mature!
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Will he be tall enough for main leads role?
I ask because be is my favourite child actor but I notice that a lot of Kdramas male leads are at least 180cm. NDR is about 170cm and I noticed that the production team just doesn’t offer roles to shorter actors. There are some fine actors around they are just not in the main roles. Which is a pity.
He is born in June 2002 so hope he still has a growth spurt. Good luck to him. Get it out of the way.
Ji Sung is 1.73m and is always a very talented actor in main roles, his height does not seem to affect his career. However, I feel that NDR may be following YSH’s example of getting MS done early in order to focus on acting afterwards. YSH is 1.75m. I am just disappointing at his career trajectory now because he does not seem to be getting many good projects. Sigh!
Hiding is older generation where he is considered tall for his time, Lee byung hoon isn’t even that tall but the op is right about height.
That also why we didn’t really see Kwak Dong Yeon or Kim Min Jae in many Kdrama despite their talent. YJG survive because he is a massive child actor, Let’s see how nam da reum after the enlistment, wish he luck
KMJ is doing well recently and has quite a few lead roles now. KDY isn’t interested in being a male lead he said so himself he considers the role more important than wether or not it’s the lead. He turned down a lead role in Hounds to be a supporting character in the new LJS drama. NDR is only established as a child actor and 18 months of military service won’t magically shed that image. That’s not how it works. YJG has spent 7 years trying to break the child actor image by playing characters in his 30s even at 22-23. He’s finally making headway on getting past his child actor image instead of running away to the military like YSH did whose career has now disappointed majorly. NDR doesn’t realise the competition thays creeping up in the 2001-03 line and TJS is just one the many rising stars who are already heading to superstardom. The whole All of Us Are Dead cast is going to breakout big time. After School War Activities is also coming soon and is full of new young actors. The 90-96 line is mostly sorted. Not many new actors coming out of that line now and the status quo has been set. But the 97-03 line is seeing a spurt of new stars especially the 99-03 line has lots of new talent. Enlisting early doesn’t guarantee shedding the child actor image.
I agree. There’s lots of competition sniping at the heels. I mean look at Solomon Park, he’s 183 and positively swoon worthy in the new zombie drama. He’s the first of the cast to catch my eye and I don’t even watch zombie dramas.
Exactly Jan only just ended but Park Solomon is easily the big break out star of the year. I expect the 2521 supporting male lead who was also in Racket Boys to break out big this year. There are many dramas we haven’t even heard of which I’m sure will become star making vehicles for the young actors in the 2000s. I also agree that child actors enlisting early is not necessarily beneficial career wise. Look at Park Solomon if he enlisted at 21 he wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the big breakout that he’s enjoying now at 22/23. Same with Yoon Chanyoung who is also an established child actor but is using the time to breakout of that image. Enlisting at 29 or 30 would not be at the career peak. It would be the right time for an image makeover which the military would help shed because at that age men are built different but boys don’t become men by going to the military for a few months I completely agree.
Kyungsoo is also 1.73 M .And i doubt that’s even his real height because idols often have it fake. Anyways if he is not having a problem getting lead roles because of his height , NDR shouldn’t too
d.o has exo massive popularity, like im siwan, they have their idol career that put then on the map
In his drama with KSR, NDR looks short for a male lead, with the current trend of ML in the 180+ cm. As I mentioned prior, he should established himself with challenging roles in films and dramas from OTT platforms that are not the standard genre. Maybe veer away from standard romance dramas. D.O. with My Annoying Brother, Im Shi Wan with Misaeng and KDY with Vicenzo and choosing Monstrous, though on the shorter side, are focusing more on the non-standard dramas/films (work that is less focus on ML and FL being together). And it somehow worked, as they got acknowledge first, and now can toggle b/w mainstream and do character roles as well. YSH, is the opposite case, post-MS most of his works are standard and was not able to branch out.
KSR is tall though she probably close to 170 cm, height won’t be problem if an actor is talented enough
Aigoo. He’s only 18 in biological age. 21 is his Korean age (one year old at birth + 1 year after every Jan 1). He’s born in June 2002 that means he hasn’t even started college/university yet. No wonder his mom is feeling her baby boy is gone too soon to the military. I would too if he’s at that age.
I mean 19* not 18.
He’s done a year in college, majoring in film. But yeah…his mom says he hasn’t been away from home longer than 3 days since he was born. She’s feeling this!
For actors, 178cm is the perfect height. Let’s be real majority of good actresses to be paired with actors stand between 160-168cm.
I think he is a good actor, he has proven it, works hard and I wish him all the best. It obviously is right time according to him so whatever may follow later, it follows. This noona is hoping you finish your enlistment in good health and can come back safe. Wishing you success and health in this Chinese new year.
He looks like he has the feet on the ground. So I think for him, it’s good to be in the army with people of his age. Maybe he needs a break to think about his future, if he wants to go to college or not, etc.
We can’t compare the situation with other actors, they’re all unique. It depends a lot of elements : agency, luck, fanbase, etc. But everybody agree on his talent.
Now, he looks young with his height and face. So he stuck with the roles of students.
My comment went missing again. Roles can certainly be limited by height. DO was overshadowed by KSH imo coz of his height. I didn’t know KSH till I saw him in 100DMP. He just grabbed my attention. Even the actor playing Hong Shim’s brother is tall and had my interest but DO visually seemed small beside taller actors. His charisma as a prince seemed less commanding visually. A lot of memorable MLs stood out like MLFTS, CLOY, SG, Heirs as they have the sufficient height to be the tall handsome heroes. It’ll be difficult to cast shorter actors opposite actresses. PDs will be forced to cast shorter actresses to accommodate them. Taller actors can get cast against shorter, average and taller actresses like JJH, Han Hyo Joo, Lee Sung Kyung, Esom.
Tony Leung Chiu Wai (1.71m) has resounding success critically and commercially. So does Tom Cruise (1.7) and Dustin Hoffman (1.67). Chow Yun Fat although taller at 1.83m has less critical acclaim than Tony in the acting stakes. NDR may become the next TL who knows? If he’s smart in growing his career, he can soar to the stars.
Smart of him to enlist early. Park seo joon did and no disruption in his career from late 20s to his 30s!
Putting height apart can we just hope he just grows up mature enough to enter the adult hood and make the whole world love him the way he grew up I am proud of this little boy hope to see him in good better and best version of him I am waiting to see you grow up into a beautiful young man not a boy
Putting height apart can we just hope he just grows up mature enough to enter the adult hood and make the whole world love him the way he grew up I am proud of this little boy hope to see him in good better and best version of him I am waiting to see you grow up into a beautiful young man not a boy
I will seriously miss seeing him (he ends up in nearly every drama I watch, lol). But he’s smart to get his military service out of the way now! When he comes back…there won’t be anything to interrupt him. He’s a really gifted actor, and I’m really looking forward to what he does when he gets back.
Google says he is just 1.63 which is too short for male lead. 😢