Lee Jong Won Follows Breakout in Knight Flower with Male Lead in Rom-com In the Name of Alcohol Opposite Kim Se Jung
Oooooh I love this pairing and this drama set up! K-ent is reporting that Lee Jong Won and Kim Se Jung are the leads for an upcoming rom-com drama titled In the Name of Alcohol. She’s an executive for a spirits distribution company and he’s a craft beer brewer, and of course she’s going to be all business and he’s all for the love of the craft and they are going to get along like oil and water before falling in love. Kim Se Jung is so amazing in rom-coms and Lee Jong Won has impressed me in two consecutive dramas and earned his cred to step into K-romance leading man territory. Also, with the height difference they are gonna be so adorable onscreen together.
Haha! I love how we already know the plot I bet your description is pretty accurate:-D
Where did this guy come from that he got a lead role with a top senior actress like Honey Lee and now lead role with a top young rom-com actress?
There are so many young actors that have been around for years and didn’t get these opportunities.
Google is a good friend.
This guy started working officially six years ago and have 18 aired dramas and 2 released movies in his CV. He was born in 1994. He started as an actor at a very old age (24) and he already served the mandatory 2 years of military service when he was much younger.
@Jiao: you took my comment too literally. I have googled his filmography and from what I can see he had stand out roles or significant participation in an acclaimed or successful drama or film or awards which is the usual route for actors that break out like this. That’s why I’m puzzled by how he jumped suddenly to leading dramas with two top actresses
*he had NO stand out roles or significant participation in an acclaimed or successful drama or film
(Left out an important word in my previous post lol)
In my mind right now I can only remember The award he got for The Golden Spoon from MBC Drama Awards. This drama got very good results for everyone.
I went to check and its really his only award. Its not really a problem. He is going to be 30 years old in 2024. His agency did not put that much investment on him yet. Too Many actors only Win awards in their 30’s after years of work and with good investment from their agencies.
For Knight Flower, even though he had the lead male role as the love interest, that role played second fiddle. My guess is that maybe it’s just a confluence of circumstances that whittled the list of possible actors down: 1. actors who wouldn’t like being second fiddle because they’re so big now 2. character is someone younger (late 20s/early 30s) but drama doesn’t want someone so young and hot and popular that would cause issues for Honey Lee (early on, people already freaked out over her age) 3. someone who doesn’t cost as much since you’ve got a top star to pay and some well-known supporting actors 4. have to be available during the time Honey Lee is available. Kdrama actors typically delay their military service until their late 20s/early 30s, so a bunch of these guys weren’t available. Also, the kdrama industry filmed waaay too many dramas last year that some of them are airing this year and many are still waiting in the wings. Other possible contenders could be leading one of the gazillion dramas that were filmed in 2023. You take the best of whom you can get for the price you want to pay.
I love Kim Se-jeong, but I wouldn’t say she’s a top young rom-com actress. Her roles are quite varied and Business Proposal was her one hit rom-com
I’m excited for this pairing. I think they will look good together!
Yes would say the same Kim Sejong definitely isn’t top young anything yet. She’s had only one proper hit drama but overall she has more mediocre dramas in her kitty. They are both rising stars so this pair actually makes sense. The plot however is as generic as generic gets but this director made Business Proposal so maybe he can make this work too.
The current gen of idol actresses are terrible compared to the previous gen (Suzy, IU, Jung Eun Ji, Yoona, Seohyun, Hyeri, etc). Kim Se Jung is probably the only one who’s actually broken out and really made a mark. She’s decent, has great screen presence and very good chemistry with her costars. She also knows how to pick hood scripts. This drama sounds like a fun rom com. I don’t know much about the actor as I haven’t seen Knight Flower but hope they have good chemistry!
@Butterfly – ??? it’s the opposite, do you not remember how bad at acting those girls – barring MAYBE IU, who was the best of the lot but still got criticised – were for the 2010s, and how much they were criticised for being bad at acting? Kim Sejeong, her IOI group mate Jung Chaeyeon, that girl Bona from Pyramid Game, even the girl from My Lovely Boxer who turned out to be a school bully, are all current female idols and much better at acting but there seem to be less younger female idols grabbing lead roles now which is a good thing because the ones who get those roles actually have to be good at acting.
I mean, look at the situation on the male idol side right now, they can’t act their way out of a paper bag and that lack of skill contaminates an entire drama if they score a lead role. It was bad enough when young actresses were being screwed out of their chances at becoming leads in any major projects ten years ago because drama producers only kept hiring idols no matter how much they sucked and how their projects flopped. I don’t want a repeat of that on the female leads’ side.
Suzy was godawful when she was a teenager but improved by her mid 20s. IU was already recognized when she was in her early 20s. Jung Eun Ji was always lauded right from the start, Hyeri broke out as a 22yo in Reply1988, Sooyoung was always good. Compared to that, we have idol actresses who are from the new gen and are just plain terrible despite being in their late 20s.
It could be lack of roles they take on – a good thing – or just a lack of interest in acting. Or it could be the idols themselves are breaking out at an older age and has less time to improve on their acting. Whatever the case, as of right now, the crop of idol actresses are a lot worse than the ones we had in the past decade at least to me. It’s the exact same on the male side. We’ve had some really good male idols in the past, and right now, I see zero.
@Butterfly – the Reply girls were criticised for their acting in subsequent projects though (Eunji was good from her early 20s onwards but to this day, every time Hyeri gets cast in an acting role there’s – unsurprisingly – criticism of her acting, vocalisation etc), Yoona was awkward and not good at emoting anything other than ‘bright and cute’ in her early days, Suzy continued to be awkward all the way into her late 20s despite never having to do an audition in her life and having roles specially written for her by big screenwriters, Sooyoung was good but never managed a breakout, IU really proved herself with Producers but it took My Ajusshi to make people see how good she actually was. I’d say the consistently good ones were only Sooyoung, Jung Eunji (barring That Winter The Wind Blows) and Nana (The Good Wife), and maybe IU.
The actual female idols who were good at acting were much older than that, 1st gen idols like Seo Hyun Jin, Hwang Jung Eum, and most famously, Yoon Eun Hye – who at least left their idol careers behind before starting an acting career.
{personally, male or female I don’t want another round of Suzys and Rowoons using entire dramas as ‘practice’ for their bad acting, you are right there seem to be no male idols who are good at acting now when the ones from 10 years ago were so good but that was because they had to be, look at how competitive the field for 20s male actors was back then, they weren’t handing lead roles in big-name dramas to any male idol, not when the competition was like….Kim Soo Hyun or even Lee Jong Seok. And even then, not all of them were good, they got acting roles anyway but people like L or Taecyeon couldn’t keep getting lead roles. Female idols had a much easier time scoring roles because actresses in that age group were really getting screwed over because producers were casting based on ‘is she famous’ vs ‘can she act’ even when the answer to the second question was repeatedly a no.). Honestly I think we would lose nothing if idols – male or female – just stopped trying to be actors, especially with how many of them are bad at acting or have bad cosmetic work done these days which makes them awkward to watch onscreen.
In comparison to the previous generation, the 3rd gen kpop idols haven’t generated as much buzzy actresses – good or terrible or otherwise. In general, there are so many shows and platforms now that we’re getting to the point where there is rarely one thing that everyone is watching at the same time and household names are becoming more of a thing of the past. The lack of buzzyness also mean the 3rd gen aren’t given as many chances to improve and less productions think of them as a strong investment in getting viewers.
Also, older actresses are sticking around and not slowing down, so there is less room to break in.
@Royal We
Realistically speaking, forget idol actors, none of the “regular” actors in their 20s are exactly what I’d call great actors either. Everyone’s just good, mediocre or plain terrible. So it’s not like the casting team has a large pool to choose from here. It’s likely also why we have a lot more female centric dramas that don’t depend on the male star power. The highest rated dramas in the past 2-3 years were either led by an actress (Dr Cha, Glory, GMBM, Revenant) or led by actors in their 30s or over like Jung Kyung Ho, Song Joong Ki, Nam Goong Min, Kim Soo Hyun etc.
But rounding back the actresses conversation, what I’ve realized is, there just aren’t too many idol actresses these days. For example there are a LOT more we haven’t even mentioned (Yuri, Seolhyun, Uee, Naeun, Krystal, Dasom, etc.) and they’ve all taken on lead roles in multiple dramas on top of all the ones we already talked about. These days, there just isn’t enough dramas being produced and there isn’t a lot of appetite for rom coms the way there used to be (which is always their entry point).
It’s great that they aren’t using dramas as practice grounds anymore but I do think the pool of good actors/actresses (whether idol or not) is diminishing in general. I don’t mind just watching the previous decade of celebs continue onwards tbh, but the industry is lacking star power in the younger generation. And I don’t mean Kim Soo Hyun level when he was in his 20s because that’s an impossibly high bar. I mean even just Yoochun or JW, LSG, MGY, MCW level of star power – we don’t even have that right now.
@prettyautumn – I agree with everything you say minus that there are more dramas now. There are more platforms now, but the number of dramas haven’t increased at all. The terrestrial channels mostly don’t have weekday dramas anymore. Most of the cables are on the verge of giving up as well. Lots of dramas are on the back burner still waiting for be released and some actors are finding it hard to even get roles. Particularly for idol actresses however, I think the main reason for their lack of presence is the decrease in the number of rom com kdramas nowadays. Those usually are produced by TV. OTT tends to stick to what the wider international audience wants to see (unfortunately imo)
Acting of the prior gen wasn’t all applauded when they were younger. Suzy was dinged a lot for her awkward acting a few years ago. Similar to Yoona and Seohyun. IU was better but not praised as much as now. None of these idol actresses are born acting talent like Park Eun Bin. They honed their acting skills through years of experience working on interesting projects with good production teams. Without interesting projects to work with, even gifted actors can’t do much, let alone those who in the ordinary league. Kdrama industry has a great pool of talents in writing, directing, BGM, and editing that help actors to grow.
Agreed on the lack of opportunities and dramas compared to how it was in the past. There are a lot of very good idol actresses right from the start a decade ago, but many also went from godawful to decent by using dramas as their practicing ground. Not the best process but it was an available option whereas now it’s no longer the case.
@Butterfly
But if this drama and Golden Boy or the new Suzy-Kim Woobin drama comes out at the same ish time we all know which one we would be watching! 😉
I like the pairing. I’m more scared by the story and the excess of drunken scenes. I’m tired by the excissive use of alcohol in KDrama, Dr Slump was so bad because of it.
Yup! DS’ drunken scenes were overdone. Tt’s not only in DS. Like school bullying, that leads me to think drinking is prevailing in S. Korea,
It’s not only in DS. But in DS we got 2 very good doctors who had mental health issues, they were seeing a psy for that, they were taking meds for that but they spent their time to drink and to be drunk… And it was a healing drama…
Agree. I haven’t seen Dr slump but it’s not good how much they normalise drinking getting fall down drunk in dramas.
Dr Slump ‘s use of alcohol was a big no ,everyone who took medecine for depression knows that you can’t drink . It’s aberrant that doctors drank so much while taking medecine . I never saw someone recover from depression so fast either
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KSJ impressed me a lot in Business Proposal that was the first Kdrama I picked up after years of hiatus. I had no idea she was a Kpop idol cause her acting and comedic timing totally didn’t look like. LJW’s puppy eyes were so charming in Knight Flower LOL. I’m excited about this one.
Sejeong’s last project was such a let-down and a ratings disaster on free tv. Hopefully she can finally capitalize on her Business Proposal success with this one because she is one of the few actresses her age who is a natural at rom-com and even pure comedy.
In all fairness, she probably didnt get a lot of work in other genres outside of action after uncanny counters 1. She actually accepted Todays Webtoon before ABP which she was a fill after Jo Bo-ah passed on it. I dont think anyone anticipated the show to be that massive of a hit. Though shes gotten alot more scripts after APB, its probably too late for her not to go through with Todays Webtoon. The show was a dud and she was still charming in it.
Rating, cost and competition are too costly to gamble and simply cast an idol for a drama. Yes, you may encounter a rare successful drama like King The Land with idols, but there are also another dramas like Snowdrop.
KSJ is really natural on romcoms and good comedic timing. Her previous drama wasnt really my cup of tea. The sypnosis for this one sounds right up my alley. Ive not seen any of the ML’s work though. Hope this is a good pick me up drama.
What sets kim sejeong apart from her contemporaries is really her uncanny ability to work the men around her. Even in her variety showings, she manages to bring chemistry to whoever that pairs with her… just go to youtube and theres this series called Sejeong and her boys. Its amazing how she brings out the best of them old, young, handsome, gag men. I think shes fearless and hence does not hold back on skinship. Always entertaining to the hilt, though I have never seen this actor in any productions yet, I trust that she too will make him bring his A game to a romcom. Exçited for this!!!
she just seems to have chemistry with costars in general, I’ve only seen her in School 2017, Uncanny Counter and A Business Proposal but if ABP had set itself up as a girls’ love story I would have bought it too, she and Seol Innah had the spark to sell it. Same with her and Jang Dongyoon in School 2017 though they didn’t go there in the end.
Yes. She just is a chemistry queen. She has dollops of chemistry with Kim Jong Kook and Lee Seojin as well in Talents for Sale. Both are 20+ years older than her. I would love for the day she gets paired with Kim Nam Gil. They had a lot of chemistry for that few seconds they interacted at the SBS drams awards that Ahn Hyo Seop and her co-hosted. Maybe Sageuk?
I love her, she has both acting skills and charisma plus good chemistry with her costars.
I have no clue who the guy is.
But I will try for her sake.