Kim So Hyun and Choo Young Woo Confirmed for 2026 ENA Cable Network K-drama Love Doctor
This is an interesting set up and backdrop for a K-drama healing romance. Cable network ENA has confirmed the 2026 K-drama Love Doctor with leads Kim So Hyun and Choo Young Woo and since it’s so late in the year my guess is the drama will arrive spring or summer of next year. The leads were in discussion last month and now it’s confirmed, with a similar age pairing and the two will be playing graduate school students at Seoul National University as students in the mechanical engineering department. He’s a former competitive swimmer who loses his leg to cancer and finds new purpose in life studying robotics and engineering while she’s a former fashion design major who encounters an obstacle and also has to career shift. The drama is from PD Ahn Pan Seok of One Spring Day and Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food so expect a slow burn romance and lots of contemplative life nuances.
Not similar but same age born just a day apart. This is an exciting pairing and glad for KSH to finally have a same age male lead. Looking forward to a slow burn healing drama but please use more lighting this time please PDnim. His last few drama were too dark in many scenes.
She needs to take a more challenging role. She seems to be stuck on the same genre these past years. She’s a great actress. I really enjoyed her past villainous roles. Her protagonist ones seems so flat.
But i have a soft spot for her. Will give it a try once it releases.
She doesn’t seem committed to try different roles but while this did irritate me before I think now if she’s happy doing this then it’s fine. Everyone moves at different speeds and not everyone has to be critically acclaimed or award winning actors. Some are happy just being having projects to do and less challenging roles means less mental strain for them so be it. I know fans have cribbed about her agency not doing enough for her but she’s been in 4 agencies in the last 7-8 years. Culture Depot to Ieum to Peachy are basically the same agency it’s true but she’s had multiple chances to leave them and chosen not to means she prefers the quieter agencies. Plus she still gets to do some fashion events and magazine appearances from time to time so it’s not a loss. She’s clearly very happy with where she is in life currently so I don’t care anymore even if she has willingly typecast herself. This is who she is and that’s fine but I understand fans not always liking her choices. I don’t think she has a bad eye for scripts or bad luck with projects. This is who she is and this is the legacy she wants to leave behind so it’s fine. I’ve made peace with her choices and lack of ambition.
I guess I am in the minority here but I just can’t bring myself to like KSH. Couldn’t even finish the Tale of Nokdu because of her. So a project with her is sadly a pass for me.
KSH was a brilliant child actress, that being said, the problem with her romantic roles as a leading lady is a glaring lack of chemistry with her male leads, which is at best tepid and at worst, non-existent. She does other genres much better than romance. For me, her most impressive role to date was when she played twins in School 2015. I think it’s a shame cause I really like Choo Young Woo and he is the rare Korean actor who can make me watch his roles after I have majorly panned all K-dramas going forward. I will give this a try but I won’t hold onto any expectations.
I would say she had excellent chemistry with YSJ and YJG back when she was a teen and even with Taecyeon surprisingly. However something broke in her after doing RMOTM and her acting and chemistry with co stars has suffered since then. In TTON her and JDY had excellent bickering rapport but not fiery chemistry. She’s pigeonholed herself into romance for some unknown reason when she should have done more dramas like Nightmare Teacher instead. It’s truly a shame that she chose to sabotage herself.
Exactly. When she was a teen actress up until she was in her very early 20s, the general consensus was that she’s an excellent young actress who is a “chemistry queen”, because she can have chemistry with anyone. Whenever her dramas didn’t get high ratings, I remember KNEtz would defend her and say that it’s not her fault, the drama just didn’t have good writing. She was known as someone who could carry a bad drama. But yeah, her chemistry with her co-stars and her acting in general have gone downhill since. I’m NOT saying she’s a bad actress now, but watch her fiery performance as Go Eun Byul in School 2015 and compare that to her acting in recent projects, and you can definitely see the drop in quality. Also, her charisma. If you watch her in School 2015, Bring It on Ghost, Reset, Nightmare Teacher, Goblin, Page Turner, etc., she definitely had screen presence and star quality back then. Just a very promising rising star. I don’t know what the heck happened, but she’s just giving nothing now. It’s sad to see. I don’t even have any issue if she wants to do mostly romance dramas, but I just wish I could see a passionate performance from her again.
You mentioned RMOTM, and I wonder if the hate her character got during that time really affected her? She was still a teenager that time, so it probably was a blow to her confidence, even tho it’s absolutely not her fault that her character wasn’t written well
It’s truly frustrating to watch her “career” or what’s left of it. It doesn’t seem like KSH truly grasps just how competitive the industry is and how little presence she has in it. She might survive her 20s by doing these romance dramas over and over again and by not challenging herself but by not breaking out of her mould she’s limiting her future activities. It’s sad that she’s not more hungry and ambitious for fame and recognition. It’s her own introverted personality that goes with the flow which is hurting her. It’s stagnated her acting and reduced her opportunities. It makes sense that good scripts aren’t going to her because she’s not fighting for them in the first place. At this point I hope she finds someone successful and gets married or her 30s will be a free fall for her career wise. At least she can pretend to “semi retire” if she has a family to manage. Ever since she left Sidus nothing has worked for her and now I can understand why they pushed and controlled her as much as they did. She needs someone to make the choices for her because her own choices aren’t reliable.