I love a controversial take, it makes for good back and forth discussion. A news article this week in K-ent has a reporter doing a review of post military discharge Park Bo Gum and deemed him a disappointment. The ensemble movie Wonderland got bad reviews and low box office, and now his variety show My Name is Gabriel is also struggling with low ratings. The reporter says Park Bo Gum’s side must be anxious now as the results do not comport with how popular he is. K-netizens strongly disagree, noting that Wonderland has been criticized mostly for the weak characterizations and glossing over of all the storylines but the acting has been praised including for Park Bo Gum. The variety show is on the PD as it’s structured, filmed, and edited by the team and it can’t be expected that Park Bo Gum alone to bring in viewers from his fanbase. Both sides agree that this is all just appetizer talk and he has two big K-dramas coming out soon with When Life Gives You Tangerines opposite IU and Good Boy with Kim So Hyun and those will be more indicative of what he can or cannot deliver.
Somehow would it not be the director and writers fault. Lately some of my favorite actors have been picking up some dud like dramas to play in. That buzz factor just is not there and a good actor can only bring a spark with his or her character but not for the whole production. That is a bit unfair but whatever floats everyone’s boat over there. Also couple chemistry is fine and all but if the story has flat ending and no
Sense to the story it can be a bit of a drag. Lately many dramas have been trying to thrive on a couples chemistry too much and forget that a story must finish off with finesse and not like a stale fart. Dramas in general have been that way for some time now.
Park Bogum has been picking up meh projects even before his military service though, his picker has been broken for some time it’s just that now that’s reflected in commercial failure.
it’s a credit to him that he managed to carry Record of Youth and Encounter to decent ratings but those dramas are a complete snooze, successful yes but boring to watch despite the hype.
Yes I did not bother with record of youth because celebrity or idol dramas turn me off. Dream High was my last drama with said tropes. I tried encounter but the first episode was just too corny and felt like a Disney music moment. And Park Bo Gum looked odd with his longer hair. After Reply 1988 and the one historical drama he did I just can’t seem to watch what he does. It just does not catch my interest. Though he is a great actor.
I pity those actors that’s good at acting but keep choosing bad projects. As a viewer I have encountered many drama that looks good in paper but not executed well at all. Well that sentiment maybe because my fav actor is also like that, always praised when it comes to acting but his work either flopped or did mediocre…
I’m not sure why Wonderland didn’t do well when it was a decent watch. I watched it last week on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it. We shouldn’t always pay attention to the negative reviews and give some shows and movies a try. But yes, Bo Gum’s acting was really good. He’s one of those actors where all his characters look and feel different from one another.
Second! We shouldn’t always give too much weight to negative reviews and just watch ourselves to decide. Everyone has different preference and takes about drama. I myself am not a fan of well received Reply 1988 thanks to FL and the 2nd ML whom I don’t like.
I only watched two of PBG’s dramas in the past, Love in the Moonlight and Encounter. I enjoyed both cos the dramas have different stories than others that I’ve seen so many repetitive tropes and predictable. Good for me to know those dramas others criticized in the comments. I’m gonna check it out myself. LOL.
Last drama that I remember so many criticized but ended up to my liking was Lee Joon Gi’s Arthdal Chronicle II. Who knows I won’t like Record of Youth?
@Somebody I agree but I also found Love in the Moonlight too tropey. I mean I still enjoyed it but…
“Spunky female lead who disguised as a guy in a youth sageuk” trope – check
“Righteous prince/king male lead who’s surrounded by corrupt officials and want to make a change” trope – check
“Brooding loyal bodyguard to the male lead” trope – check
“Second male lead who’s more carefree than the male lead and who also falls in love with the female lead and ultimately sacrificed his own life for her” trope – check
And I could think of many more lol. Again, I still found the drama fun to watch but it’s not very unique, story-wise and had lots of typical sageuk tropes lol. As for Encounter, I kinda found boring but yeah it’s at least a bit different than other dramas. I think that proves that tropey isn’t always bad, tropey dramas can be fun too. And also unique ≠ good
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An unsuccessful project is not any one specific person’s fault, whether it be writer, actor or PD. Regardless however, it follows everyone and stays in their resumes. Now on PBG, tbh he’s has hardly been active since coming back from Military. Even Wonderland, as boring and messy as it was, was shot before he enlisted. So really, we’ll only know how much of a disappointment his choices are after his next two dramas release. Theres buzz particularly for Good Boy in Korea so if it flops in ratings, that’ll really amp up discussion.
My Name is Gabrielle is a snooze fest lol. Concept, cast members, location, everything. The ratings continues to hover in the 1% range (or lower) and it tells a pretty accurate story.
To be honest I had a wild take. A bit racist idea but it would be funny if they replaced those people life but tell the people around them that they’re the same person, just got plastic surgery. Since they’re actor, they would need to mimic habit and mannerism of the person, so it would show off their skills, I think it would be fun but might get criticized lol
Instead of a disappointment, I actually have become more impressed with Park Bo Gum and Suzy, in their acting/talent and choice of projects. Their projects are not that popular (and clearly wont be given the concepts) but clearly good for improving & displaying their skill&versatility. I believe they choose those projects to explore more versatile roles and oppotunities & expand their career.
I am so impressed with Park Bo Gum’s personality, capability and English speaking skills in My Name is Gabriel! I watch all his scenes and mostly fast-forward the rests because only his ones are interesting. The rest are pretty boring.
I’m a huge Gong Yoo fan but Wonderland was terrible. But it sucks that PBG is getting most of the criticisms because he was so active promoting it. There are a lot of other leads in the movie.
Off topic but Koala, did you hear about KES adding Ahn Gilho as a PD for Everything will come true? Thats a far more interesting story to speculate on hehe.
I came across some leaked pictures and aesthetic wise it looks really bad especially KWB look as a genie.
The original director and KES have totally different vibes. I was surprised they decided to work together.
100% correct. I was honestly so surprised when I heard he was the PD working with her. He hardly has a successful drama trackrecord so it was already surprising, but his style does not match KES’s whatsoever. I think everyone questioned that choice very early on and was proven with this change. AGH also has a bullying situation happening, and yet he was brought on board. I suppose most PDs would not want to join in the tail end of a drama so there’s that…
consider the flip side – if the project was successful, he would probably be getting more of the credit for it too, and the resulting increase in buzz/deals.
re: PD change on KES drama, sometimes that can save the project especially if it results in a change/improvement in aesthetics like in the case of Lovely Runner PD Yoon Jong-ho (who reshot entire scenes and saved certain pivotal ones from being cringe vs the earlier PD who had Kim Hyeyoon styled like it was the 1980s and not 2008). Even Queen of Tears started off with a different PD signed on before filming, Kim Jiwon was cast only after they changed the PDs to Jang Young-woo/Kim Hee-won.
Queen of Tears and EWCT have two wildly different situations. The former did not start filming with Lee Eungbok and took a while to take off after IU decided not to go ahead with it. EWCT had already filmed 75% of the drama before AGH was brought in. Even the location shoot in Dubai was done months ago. This is a very unusual situation that even the media and knetz have called out. Not just a regular bring-in-new-PD for aesthetics type situation. And knowing how meticulous and particular KES is, and also how Lee Byunghun is not exactly the most successful PD, the speculations are that she did not like his work. Anyway, my point is that this is not as simple as you are making it sound.
I wasn’t saying the PD switch was like Queen of Tears, I literally said QOT did their PD switch BEFORE beginning filming.
Lovely Runner was the drama I mentioned above that reshot episodes/major early scenes with a new PD and that worked well for them. Back in the day, Producers (2015) also switched PDs after the drama had started airing because they got poor feedback about early episodes being too much like a variety show, finally they had to get a drama PD who fixed it and got them to 17 percent ratings by the end. But doing that definitely adds to the budget. As for Lee Byung Hun, he’s very successful as a film director but less tested for a series, I liked Be Melodramatic and he even directed Kim Woobin before, if it was 75 percent done and about to be redone that’s going to cost the production/push the budget even higher.
Here’s the thing, QOT and Producers are not actually comparable situations. QOT for reasons you already stated so I am not sure why we are talking about it at all. Producers because that was a Live shoot. As in they had the audience reactions, took that into consideration, then changed the PD based on the feedback which was quite negative on the mockumentary style of EP1-2. LR – as much as I loved – did not follow the bts so no comments on that. However, it is a low budget drama with no known names beforehand.
Now back to EWCT, the talk is not about the budget, as much as it is about KES’s supposed disastisfaction with the current shape of the drama. The rumor is that she and PD LBH do not see eye to eye with how the drama was to be produced. It is one of the most highly anticipated dramas of the year and has a lot of eyes on it. It is fully pre-produced, is an OTT exclusive and includes a month long overseas shoot. And it has completed 75% of more. So this is a lot bigger than LR re-shooting some scenes in a drama with zero expectations, Producer where changing a PD did not equate to actually reshooting anything, or QOT. Whether the hope now is for things to be re-shot in EWCT (budget will come into play big time if so) or whether they just plan to just complete the drama with the new PD and edit what they can; thats unclear. The news said they formed a “B-team” so the impression is that it is not a replacement of PD but rather an addition.
And PD LBH’s drama trackrecord is abysmal imo and I personally consider dramas and movies two different industries particularly for writers and PDs. PD LBH was always a choice questioned by many particularly in SK but adding PD AGH who is controversial for a completely different reason altogether is also a questionable decision. We’ll see but this drama is sounding a bit like a hot mess, but I hope not as I love both leads and think they have proven fantastic chemistry.
Just want to clarify that I like LBH works I have watched – loved Be Melodramatic and Extreme Job was fun. I just think his quirky style does not mesh with KES cheesy style.
I also read that this was almost 80% done when the new director was brought in. Anyways, I think it will be a mess. KWB and Suzy are not actors who can elevate a mediocre script or direction.
I actually thought this project was promising based on him being the PD, like he could bring a new spin to KES’ style of presenting a story
and yeah, Be Melodramatic is a good drama with decent ratings for cable based on its stars (no big names) and concept, that’s hardly an ‘abysmal’ track record in tv directing.
@Han – I’m somewhat indifferent to the PD but thought the pair up with KES was seriously questionable. She usually needs a PD who can ground her drama and personally I found her work with Lee Eungbok the best. But yep, already sounding like a hot mess. Hoping its better than King at the very least.
@Royal We – since the ‘abysmal’ was targeted towards my comment, I’ll just say if you think Be Melodramatic (with less than 2% ratings in 2019 and stars Chun Woo-hee, a pretty known award winning movie actress), Chicken Nugget, and some unknown other drama called Alice is a drama PD track record thats better than ‘Abysmal’, you’ve got a very different standard than I do. Particularly glaring when that PD is then paired up with KES – the best drama writer in terms of records and awards in SKorea. Anyway we can agree to disagree on what is considered Abysmal.
I watch My name is Gabriel and I really enjoy it alot. But I really do not like the hosts. Them talking over as the artiste living new lives in the videos annoys me alot. But to be honest, this program have lots of issues it still needs to work on to make it much better.
I really don’t like this format in korean variety shows where hosts talk too much and we have to keep going back to the studio for them to make silly comments and weak jokes.
I don’t think that’s fair at all. Both those projects are ensemble projects and have director and script issues so why blame PBG for their failure. PBG and Suzy really went hard promoting ‘Wonderland’ even though they are in only a fraction of the film from my understanding and the reviews for their roles were good. What little money the film did manage to make was probably mainly thanks to them.
The real test will come when his dramas are finally released as he hasn’t led a drama in 4 years because its true his immense popularity doesn’t really correlate with his output. I feel like PBG is considered a celebrity more than an actor now. He’s known more for his endorsements, visuals, hosting, variety than his acting. Of course this could change if his next projects are well-received.
I mentioned it before but I read a comment a few months ago that said Lee Do Hyun has the career PBG could have had if he didn’t take such long acting breaks. I don’t necessarily agree as they have very different images but I thought it was an interesting point
they are totaly different capability as an actor. though I rate LEE Doo Hyun more in terms of acting.
In terms of acting, LDH was pretty lame in The Glory that brought him to fame? At least PBG has proven able to carry dramas himself. What about LDH whose popular dramas were always led by seasoned veterans? Yet to see him able to carry a drama to commercial success at least.
@somebody : I’ve never seen Park Bo Gum carried a drama with his great acting, Maybe you mean popularity ? His acting in encounter is so bad.
his best definitely repply series. but even so it’s an ensemble cast drama. and the rest of his performances is forgetable.
It’s my opinion though. maybe we have different preference.
@somebody lee do hyun carried may of youth and 18 again imo (tho the veterans in that drama were good too). even in a second lead role (hotel del luna) and supporting roles (sweet home), he still steals the scenes lol, he’s that good. you can’t really blame lee do hyun if he’s underwhelming in the glory, it’s just that his character was literally just a plot device to help the female lead get her revenge and he almost had nothing to do but follow around song hye kyo’s character and dote on her. it’s basically like yeo jin goo’s role in hotel del luna, and we all know yeo jin goo is a great actor, but even great actors would look meh if the character they’re playing is meh. they can only do so much with such a meh-written character like that. not lee do hyun’s fault, and even then, he still did great with what he had to work with (he was fantastic in his emotional scenes with the killer of his character’s father, in my opinion)
I agree. LDH is the most promising of the 90s line – he has a good range and can play diverse array of characters. I think his transition to Chungmu-ro will also be smooth.
PBG is kinda trapped in this good boy image and his drama selection is lacking. He also does not have chemistry with female leads in romance roles. He needs to do more genre roles. I think he is a decent actor but he needs to stop with these vanilla roles.
Yeah pbg took too much time between his works. With his popularity, so many script must have came to him. I don’t know if he is as versatile as lee dohyun. But he did well as psychopath in hello monster and also good in several romantic roles he has
i think he knew it well he took long hiatus because it’s navy military for over 2 years / after he finished MS he was transfered to new agency so he didn’t sign any project during that time / When Life give tangerines took over a year to finish and he started shooting Goodboy right after and he didn’t have any rest. Even when he was away from public he took Musical to improve himself in another acting field although it’s limited to small group of audience and it was well received. That variety show he took only 3 days. it never was his main work tbh he was just 1 of the cast.
Wonderland PD cut off too many bogum-suzy scenes and their narrative became confusing but bogum still promote as best as he can although he and suzy have very busy shooting schedule. i believe work ethics and positivity he has for his work will prove he’ll be a great actor in the long run in the industry.He has reputaion of being good to the team even he-suzy had 30 mins screentime while some actors of wonderland didn’t even care to promote a bit lol
His cumulative work after MS will be soon released at the end of 2025.
What he needs is a GOOD SCRIPT and a solid leading ladyyyyyy! Is that too much to ask foooorrrr!?!! Lol 😂🙏
The answer is yes 😅💀 K-ent is struggling right now
With Good Boy and When Life Gives You Tangerines he can have both thankfully. It’s weird that the same news agency published hit pieces on both the male and female leads immediately after the full cast line up for Good Boy was confirmed. Sounds some weird reverse marketing or the news agency has a a bone to pick with the drama. Whatever no such thing as bad publicity I guess. The anticipation for any PBG drama will always be high.
Two leading ladies I have confidence in! Just hope the story isn’t lacking 🥺🙏
dont forget he is also taking master in the last 2-3 years. he takes his sweet time to improve himself. when he acts, i can feel his emotions and warmth. bo gum is my sweet spot
his next project with IU will be a hit, i think. but it will be 2025 drama
Wonderland fell flat. I was excited to watch it after seeing PBG and Suzy promoting it. I don’t think it has anything to do with PBG’s acting but more of how the storyline didn’t develop beyond showing Wonderland’s capabilities. I was asking myself the question,” And then what?” The characters made pivotal choices that were worth exploring further but the writer ended it there. Lots of wasted potential for the movie. Wonderland and My Name is Gabriel is an ensemble cast, PBG is not the only carrying these shows. I’m still looking forward to PBG’s upcoming dramas where we’ll see more of what he is capable of. I used to see him as a baby boy that’s easy to watch pre-military service but after seeing promotional stuff for Wonderland, he looks more manly now. I love how he has a warm and soothing voice when he sings. I’m sure these are just a few duds in his career but he can bounce back up.
the failure of those projects cannot be attributed to him but his problem is that he needs to develop better script sense. he’s very talented but his projects don’t match his acting calibre. even after his breakout he doesn’t have a lot of memorable or mentionable roles that displayed his acting prowess even if they were profitable at the box office or were ratings successes. its a shame and waste of his talent really, and if he wants to be known as a good celeb he could just keep doing these boring roles but if he wants to be known as a good actors he seriously needs to consider roles that challenge him
@cheese – exactly, he’s talented and versatile but after Moonlight not a single one of his projects has lived up to the promise he showed so early in his career.
As I pointed out above, even Record of Youth and Encounter were meh projects, it’s just that no project of his flopped until just now, his project picking eye post-moonlight and pre-military (Wonderland was delayed by four years) was just not good and that’s almost as much a skill as acting talent.
I agree. His choices have been poor after Moonlight/Reply and those were his breakout dramas. Since then he seems to have chosen the same romance/vanilla type roles which earned him criticism from the general public. Both Encounter and Record of Youth did not do his career much as they were not huge huge hits, nor critically acclaimed, nor challenging. No idea what his characters are like in his new dramas but if its another vanilla-like male lead, he really would get typecasted which is not ideal for someone young and talented.
good script doesn’t always translate high rating. How many bad drama is getting high rating? Do you means entertaining ? It’s really hard to predict either the drama will be a hits or not. It’s not on his hand. But usually the more popular he gets casted with, the higher his change to make a buzz.
You either want to be a real actor, or you choose popularity. you can also do both, though it’s abit harder.
he’s literally an A lister, i think at his level he doesn’t need more buzz or popularity unless all he cares about is the money from cfs, brand ambassadorship etc. he’s been able to maintain his popularity for quite some time without a proper hit and hiatus due to enlistment so i think he’ll be fine.
i agree that the success of a project cannot be predicted and even good scripts can turn out bad in execution but at the very least he needs to challenge himself in the roles he picks. as @angrybirds said, he keeps playing these vanilla male leads and eventually audiences are going to tire of it. i’m just interested in what he wants out of his career because if he plans on just coasting by then i don’t have any reason to be interested in him as an actor or follow his work
To be honest it’s all comes down to luck. So many drama looks good on paper but the execution is so bad. Likt this year impossible heir, it looked promising for me but the script was sh*t, the two male leads acting is good but the female lead is just this emoji 👁👁
I can never forgive how I took up time to watch it because I liked the two male laeds friendship…
I’m not the biggest fan of Park Bo Gum but it’s rather the projects that he choose weren’t interesting for me . The more an A + actor play in unsuccessful projets the less he gets commercials, ads, …no need to mention all the actors who can replace them with a hit drama ( Lovely runner, or Kim Ji Won thanks QOT even if she is a great actress and owns it) Ha Ji Won or Kim Ha Neul used to be at the same level as Son Ye Jin in their early days , but with CLOY Son Ye Jin is at an another level now ! Celebrity, popularity is a double-edged weapon .
An appropriate reaction from netizens. Wonderland’s criticism was always about its plot. The fact that Bogum and Suzy still managed to impress with their chemistry and acting in a weak script is a testament to their skills and compatibility as actors. Critics have nothing but praise for these two and everyone unanimously agrees that they deserve a second chance with a solid writer + director, so that tells us everything we need to know about how this pairing was received. It’s only a matter of time until this wish is fulfilled and their full potential will be utilized.
I’m always fond of PBG cos he used to deliver two dramas I enjoyed, which were all I watched with him as the ML. His acting was solid and his visuals are pleasing to my eyes. LOL. Glad all the criticism in the threads pique my curiosity to check out Record of Youth and other dramas of his. LOL
I felt like Record of Youth was so meh and I really didn’t feel his chemistry with the FL there. That’s the drama that I took notice of BWS more than him too.
Record of Youth a nice drama to watch for Bogum fans as he excelled in the role, Sodam’s part didn’t feel like the lead and Wooseok was unmemorable at best.
Let me see. Ppl said negative reviews about Arthdal Chronicle II. I went ahead watch it and ended up liking it very much. LOL.
I think some actors/actresses, who have hits dramas/movies behind their back, popularity (that means they made money on cfs and doesn’t need to care about income) and critical acclaim, they can let themselves to pick a meh projects or dramas with low ratings, and public won’t turn their back on them, they will wait for their good work.
For examples:
actress Jeon Do Yeon, who often mentioned here, had drama Lost with 1% ratings, and Crush course on romance with 17% ratings after. I think she can afford to herself to have another drama with low ratings, and no one will question her status as S-list actress.
Actress Kim You Jung had mid projects for almost 8 years, and people still anticipate to her casting news and were excited about her filming in Dear X.
Actress Jun Ji Hyun has criticised projects with mid ratings for 8 years, but her future drama with Kang Do Won highly anticipated.
And Kim Woo Bin, he didn’t have any hit drama with him as a main lead for 8 years (I don’t know if Our blues can be considered as one or not, since this was assembly cast), but his drama with Suzy one of the most anticipated future dramas.
I think the same with Park Bo Gum. He can afford to himself to film in meh dramas as long as he wants, and people will be excited about any good casting news with him.
I agree. Same with Kim Soo Hyun (every casting news about him gets talked about a LOT by both Koreans and international fans alike even after his flop with that Real movie), Kim So Hyun (her casting news get people excited too, even with her past dramas’ underwhelming ratings), Song Hye Kyo (people were excited about The Glory even after Now We’re Breaking Up and Encounter underperformed), and I bet people will still be super excited if the likes of Lee Young Ae, Won Bin, Bae Yong Joon, etc. return to the screen. Some actors and actresses just have that kind of hold on people, even if they have some flops
I think Kim Woo Bin’s case is exceptional, the man was forced to take a hiatus from (at the time) a very successful film career because he had cancer. Jun Jihyun also does what, one drama every 4-5 years?
People anticipate the dramas of most of the actors named above because the flops are mostly one-offs or the minority of projects in otherwise long and successful careers before that.
In PBG’s case he’s also the youngest actor born in the 90s to have both the acting skills and star power to carry a drama, he’s already 31 but there’s no one younger than him who’s shown evidence of both, there’s something of a crisis in the 20s kdrama male talent pool now compared to what it was 10 years ago.
I don’t think any of their case exceptional, my point is that every one of them didn’t carried hit dramas for many years, has flop dramas at their background, and still any good casting news with them highly anticipated.
Park Bo Gum’s case even better, he doesn’t have flop dramas, only flop movie and show.
What about a crisis with 20s actors, tbh I don’t believe in it, since I watched dramas with 20-30s actors, their acting was good and dramas was good. I think any good actor can film in a good drama, carry his character and success in it, and Korea has a lot of good actors and actresses. As example, in Park Bo Gum’s future drama Good boy, one of the main leads actor Lee Sang Yi. He has enough acting skills to carry his character at the same level as Park Bo Gum.
While I have my favorite actors, I tend to follow writers. Even then it can be hit or miss. Blaming any actor for crap writing, directing etc is silly. I think we are almost over the days when a hallyu actor could bring in the ratings. It seems like that has been over for a while. I mean some of the dramas that have been hits and resonated with audiences, I don’t think anyone would have expected.
i tend to follow writers too.. but sometimes, their choice of director or actor is not to my liking, So i end up not bother to watching them. also, Writers can also face a writer block as good as they are.
Also, good project depend on three aspect. That’s why good drama is hard to make, because you need to hits all those 3 aspect from writing, acting, directing.
Blame woozie though as her fans were screaming how she is face of wonderland and first choice. Now it’s flop..she is being left blame free. Otherwise she would’ve been credited for its success.