Netizens Annoyed that Rookie Actress Hong Ye Ji Gets Female Lead in Back-to-Back Sageuk Dramas and Fails to Impress in Either
I remember wondering where Hong Ye Ji popped out from to get the female lead role in the KBS sageuk drama Love Song for Illusion with Park Ji Hoon which aired earlier this year. Reportedly the drama was a hot mess so I skipped it but heard the general consensus was that she was really not cut out to be a female lead. Now she’s in yet another sageuk two months later, the just premiered MBN sageuk Missing Crown Prince with Suho and the initial feedback is yet again she’s just bad. A charisma-free presence onscreen and not very attractive either, it’s that worst combo of not being pretty enough to warrant a free pass at bad acting. There are tons of talented, pretty, and hard toiling K-actresses playing supporting of second female leads over the years who are talented and pretty enough to be a female lead and yet Hong Ye Ji gets handed these roles, so frustrating the see. I’m just glad she’s not in any drama I’ve the urge to watch and hope she either improves magically or never ever does a drama opposite any of my faves lol.
Not seen either drama but she looks like a cute girl, maybe not fitting the very narrow beauty standard but cute, coming for her looks is uncalled for.
The bigger problem is if her acting is poor – no amount of good looks can cover up bad acting, whether male or female. Like the lead girl from Impossible Heir, she’s so pretty but so bad at acting she’s now a punchline, the same way others have been over the years.
I agree her acting is not that great but to say she doesn’t look pretty is farfetched. She’s not overly pretty like y’all expect but she does have a cute face and she’s not bad to look at. They’re wrong for coming for her face.
And if she’s getting opportunities, good for her as long she’s not stopping others from getting one.
@Salmos – honestly, that’s my problem with bad actors, and especially bad rookie actors – given the calibre of talent in Korean acting, there is a 110 percent certainty someone who’s now stuck in supporting or 2nd lead roles could or would have done a better job and was denied the opportunity or even a shot at the role to make way for this. Can’t even make the old chestnut argument of “but she’s popular and might bring a fanbase” because she hasn’t got one.
Time for someone to go back to supporting roles and practice her acting for a bit, I guess.
I think noone says she’s not pretty, they say she’s not pretty enough to get a pass for her acting shortcomings like other actresses in the past.
@Nena exactly, not one person here called her ugly so I don’t know why everyone’s being so sensitive lol. It’s like you can’t even say someone isn’t pretty objectively nowadays without someone yapping about how EvErYoNe Is BeAuTiFuL iN ThEiR oWn WaY, which we all know deep down is BS anyway. Even babies who haven’t been brainwashed by societal beauty standards can recognize an objectively good-looking face (if y’all are interested, look up the studies done on this, babies stare at more symmetrical faces longer).
The point is, it’s confusing why this actress keeps getting cast when she has none of the things that make someone a leading lady or a star: Either top-notch acting skills, great beauty, or charisma/It factor. Literally none of those. That’s the point of the comment on her looks, not that she’s ugly, but that she’s not beautiful enough to get lead roles without talent. Because let’s be honest, actors will get cast either because of great acting skills or extreme beauty that will cover up for the bad acting, and she has neither. That’s why people are confused.
Y’all, it’s not the end of the world to admit that someone is not that beautiful. Not everyone is beautiful and that’s okay because beauty is not the most important thing in the world 🤷🏻♀️
I agree with Royal We – the remarks on her beauty is uncalled for. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me she does have charisma and I would call her looks wholesome, sweet and cute. Not like the anorexic, starved and plastic looks that most k-actresses are going for these days. I watched the very first drama she starred in, she appeared quite green, but she wasn’t too bad. It would have been better for her to work her way up with smaller roles so she doesn’t shoulder the entire burden of the production. But since she has been cast, I hope she can continue to improve.
No need to body-shame other women to uplift her 🙄
Also, she looks skinny to me, just as skinny as the women you’re putting down. She just has a chubby face, which makes you think she’s not as skinny as the others when she totally is
to be fair to Koala, she’s not dissing her look, but the sad fact pretty privilege is real. it’s more prevalent in C-dramas (e.g. Angelababy), but also in K-dramas. In the past, “Nation’s (something)” like Suzy, Song Hye Gyo, a gamut of idol actors, and more recently Go Youn Jung, got away with passable/ mediocre acting because they are considered very pretty, while someone like Jisoo, who everyone considers pretty but not quite god level pretty, will still get criticism for Snowdrop. It’s not about whether they are pretty or not – it’s about whether their prettiness make people don’t care about their acting, and some actors do get away with it.
Isn’t Jisoo considered gorgeous in Korea though? I heard that she is considered the most beautiful in her group.
I do see where people are going w/ her look, because she is on the low end of acting abilities w/out much backing (her look itself doesn’t stand out either but should not be label as not pretty).
Because the examples you gave: Suzy is Korean standard beauty and got a huge following from her idols age (she is if not worse than this actress at the start of her acting career); SongHyeGyo got one of the biggest hit (despite many negativities towards her acting); Jisoo (same status as Suzy but w/ little better acting); GoYounJung (also extremely beautiful for Korean standard, alreay w/ a huge following on IG but her acting one can’t say she isn’t good either & the better actress of all listed here for their starting roles).
So I understand the commotion w/ her getting 2back2 back projects.
@dewed, Suzy, SHG, and GYJ perhaps caught some flak for their acting. But these three all have certain auras of their own to have strong on-screen presence. It’s charisma and therefore they have had fans from the get-go of their acting career even others might not approve of their acting that much.
I do think GYJ did pretty good jobs in both Moving and Alchemy of Souls II. I don’t consider her acting in AoS II bad as many fans of AoS I claimed. At least, I was impressed by how she emoted and her stares as a badass assassin, not by her visuals. Some fans of AoS dinged GYJ mainly cos they liked Jung So-min so much they were disappointed JSM was replaced by GYJ in the sequel and these fans were pretty loud. Since I watched AoS I&II back to back without a gap, I could compare the acting of two FLs right away and more fairly. I wasn’t familiar with either actress before. I couldn’t even recognize GYJ was the girl with healing power in Moving. To that point, GYJ did a successful job playing different roles. She can act.
I haven’t yet seen her acting so can’t judge but she is a pretty girl ngl.
How old is Koala? Just asking?
Old enough to have watched 1990s dramas
Her look should not be an issue because she clearly offers a diverse beauty to the gene pool of cosmetic work (which nothing is wrong w/) but the acting leads to people throwing shade to everything they get their hands on.
She’s definitely not an expressive actress (or charismatic) and attributed to her inexperience as leading. How did she and Hong SuZu(Impossible Heir) get leads w/ no experience. How did they get pass the audition process? Korean as of present has far more better young actress than in the past who also has the looks to back them up too.
On the upside, i do see potential. If IU and Suzy can improve, the changes are there.
Is her wiki correct, she’s only been in 2 dramas and for both she is the main female lead? Granted that the productions she’s in are not as well known, but for a relative newbie to be female lead immediately…..I’ve only seen that with idols and for movie scripts with established directors (i.e. Kim Goeun’s debut).
If this is the case, maybe she has heavy hitting “contacts” in the industry?
koala, are you watching lovely runner? it’s so so so good. a breath of fresh air with how awesome the first four episodes have been. it’s good to have a new drama to buffer the wait for queen of tears.
Just from those pics she’s not ugly but she doesn’t have that FL pretty or innocent look that they usually go for.
Sorry, my comment was not meant for you.
The last picture in white dress did her dirty but she is pretty girl ,and lets stop pretending that good acting that get you lead roles , that’s a myth
She looks okay to me. Cute and sweet. Reminds me of IU….
I watched A Song for Illusion and this drama was really bad, the writing was so confusing. Park Ji-Hoon wasn’t good at playing 2 different roles, I never could discern between his 2 characters. I didn’t think she was bad as an actress but her character was written as a killer and she spent her time to heal people…
Now, Missing Crown Prince looks like a big mess too. The differences of genre in the different posters and promotion material made me think they had no idea what kind of story they’re telling.
Suho is not a good actor neither, he’s not charismatic enough to be a lead. So I’m surprised they came to the actress only.
Yeah, that was a cheap shot. Do better.
These Kpop idols including this gal and Suho who can’t act got these leading roles as if K-ent were running out of acting talent. LOL.
Love Song for Illusion was so BAD that I thought I was watching a C drama. LMAO. These rookies are gonna ruin Sageuk genre.
To be fair, it’s not like those lead roles were in productions that a lot of people want to see and the male leads are also of “the getting into acting” group. It’s a situation where her or her agency would rather she be the lead in a subpar production that is aimed at young adults than be a supporting character in a better production that would have better directors and actors to help her grow and help her develop a fanbase. She’s only 22.
She’s not super pretty, but she’s not going to stick out like some ugly duckling among the sea of leading/second-leading actresses either.
It looks like her period drama is set in Goryeo or Three Kingdoms period. Why do Goryeo/Three Kingdoms dramas never have any luck😭 That’s my favourite Korean historical period over boring overdone Joseon but Goryeo dramas rarely seem to have much success. I think the last BIG hit drama set in that period was Empress Ki or Queen SeonDeok.
Who are her agency? Is she an idol? Strange she suddenly received two lead roles out of nowhere. Even the talentless FL in Lee Jae Wook’s drama ‘The Impossible Heir’was at least already a very popular influencer and model before she got handed undeserved lead roles.
I see where the not pretty enough to get a pass is coming from. I don’t agree with it but I get the logic behind the statement. Technically, Suzy, Yoona, Shin Se Kyung, Han Ga In, Kim Tae Hee, Krystal and a lot of other actresses got back to back to back lead roles basically because they are beautiful and/or is an idol instead of being good actors. If these women weren’t so pretty, maybe they wouldn’t get a 2nd, 3rd, 10th chance. (Most of them are really good now and have obviously worked their way to being reputable actresses, but it took them lots of projects to get there)
Personally, idgaf how an actress looks as much as I care how good/bad they are. If I am cringing or flinching, I’m out. Anyway, I’ve not see her act before but maybe she should not be in sageuks. Some of the most established actresses haven’t even done a sageuk yet. It’s not for everyone. In a perfect world, she’d work her way with small roles but if her agency insists on leads, maybe she should stick to modern for now.
I too understand where the comment is coming from. But I dont agree with the practise. I always feel lead roles should be given to skilled actors. Unskilled ones can start with supporting roles to build their experience. I too may not find this actress particularly beautiful but that is just based on my aesthetic. But to cast lead roles to someone who is not even a idol or a talented actress, there must be reasons behind it. I doubt we will ever know the reasons.
But what is the practice you talk about in this case? The point being made here is that she does not have the visuals to practically obscure her non existent acting abilities. That may or may not be a correct statement as beauty is subjective, but the point still stands. It’s not saying she shouldn’t get roles because she is not pretty. It’s just saying she shouldn’t get roles because she can’t act on top of not having the face to save said bad acting. Personally I don’t think any beautiful face has ever successfully covered crap acting but again, many actresses have been pulling this for years.
As for the “reasons” – it could be a powerful agency, someone she knows in the industry, or any of the mirage of reasons. Personally, I don’t care why frankly. That’s irrelevant. I just think she should stick to side characters until she learns to act.
The practise of giving lead roles to artiste who cannot act but look good. This practise is not one I agree too but as you said..it is common in SK..
In my Country, UK, lead roles are given to skilled artistes… thus our lead stars may not look as good as some supporting artistes…but their acting skills surpass them and shines. Of course, we are not as visual driven thus less pressure on going under the knife. Our top artistes looks natural….
Maybe she’s a nepo baby or under good agency who’s the one who get her jobs
A few mentioned the Impossible Heir. I cried for zero acting skills of the FL. She ruined the drama where my LJW just barely saved it. LOL. I don’t get all these days why those newbies who are neither stunning beauties nor could they act have gotten leading roles even with very good MLs.
I feel the same way. I have loved LJW since his Extraordinary You days despite him playing somewhat of a jerk. I just thought he had extraordinary acting talent. I don’t know how HSZ landed the lead role after appearing just in a few guest roles. She totally ruined a lot of the climactic and emotional scenes for me.
LJW and Lee Jun-young had stronger chemistry than with the FL. LMAO. That’s cos LJY was good in that drama too.
She can’t act to save her life. And that is what started the beauty comments, that she isn’t pretty enough to disregard the atrocious lack of acting skills.
Love song for illusion was a mess i had to drop after trying hard , I was hoping for Missing Crown Prince but 2 episodes left me sad . Acting sucks, and for me it’s not because of the visuals, i like a lot of actresses and actors who aren’t considered as good looking but their acting is good . Still don’t understand some casting directors ! It’s a mystery for me . Next !
Hong Yeji was sooo good in the movie 2037 (I bawled my eyes out), but I can’t even defend her. Girl should stop acting in historical dramas because her inexperience in acting is highlighted even more and her beauty is much more prevalent in modern clothing.
What a load of shit. The world is not fair. Tons of beautiful women never get their break, and some not-the-prettiest girls become stars. Utterly retarded comment, essentially you’re saying that she has no talent… but it would be OK if she had no talent if she passed YOUR criteria for being attractive enough. So in other words you’re saying that you’re a shallow judgemental prick