One of the more entertaining movies I watched in 2022 was TW horror-comedy Marry My Dead Body, which I checked out for Greg Hsu (Hsu Guang Han) and the premise but left with a new appreciation for second male lead Austin Lin (Lim Bo Hong). It was a brilliant casting of the two very similar looking actors in straight/gay and alive/dead conundrum and also a decent script to stitch it all together. Greg Hsu has been popular in Korean since his drama Someday or One Day and has ventured over there for activities in the last few years but now Austin is following suit. He’s been cast in the K-movie Sad Tropics with Kim Myung Kim, Park Sung Hoon, and Lee Shin Young, and is not the same movie that later became The Childe when it had the first title. The movie has already started filming with an expected late 2025 premiere date.
I’m not familiar with Taiwanese films. It seems some Taiwanese movies are doing quite well on Netflix. Does it? I’ve read some news about it.
Actually the classic Taiwanese romance films are pretty popular in Korea—the film “Your Wedding” with Kim Young-Gwang and Park Boyoung was an homage to the latter genre—and Koreans fans who have become fans of Greg Hsu through “One Day, Someday” have been avidly tuning into his next projects and they have been received well.
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Yeah it’s best for Taiwanese stars to venture into K-ent instead of C-ent. Lesser risks.
🤣 lesser risk definitely..
@Lilith – What about the language barrier? Would they be required to speak or learn Korean? With Mainland China, entering is easier as there’s fewer language barriers – same language just different accents. Is that correct?
Language barrier is a much smaller hurdle to overcome than political stance. I personally think they should learn Korean if they want to enter K-ent, it’s the same thing for the rest of us if we want to work overseas.
There is less money to make but considering he is from taiwan, it’s good choices to go for korea
This is great news! I think he’s a gifted actor. Loved him in Marry My Dead body and in the series, At The Moment ( he was in the episode titled The Color of You).
I’m looking forward to more collaborations and crossovers like these.
PS: I don’t think he’s the second to venture into K-ent. I remember seeing a movie with Bolin Chen and Ha Ji Won a few years ago. The pairing was quite popular as there was some speculation that the 2 were linked romantically in real life (both sides denied this).
Actors like Greg Hsu and Jasper Liu have a pretty avid following in Korea. I hope the same for Austin Lin, I adored him as Mao Mao. I mean, he’s already tried Mainland years back on the drama with Ariel Lin to little success. I also think Korea’s film scene is a valid choice although it may not be as lucrative as entering c-ent. It’s less restricting for them than to have to lie low in Mainland hoping to not to get caught in any political crossfires. It’s better to just have works which are local to Taiwan/Korea that become so successful and popular that they make their way to Mainland naturally (a la Someday or One Day)
I have such a soft spot for these Taiwanese film actors, they just seem too wholesome for the mess that is C-entertainment.