Yeo Jin Gu Headlines Upcoming Drama Can We Love with Rumored Leading Lady Lee Bo Young
Korea has so many legit child actors that the anticipation of watching them mature and step into leading roles increases with each successive project. But having the acting chops doesn’t mean there are that many suitable transition roles for them. Yoo Seung Ho is in the military now but his acting career in the last 3 years is best described as a hodge podge of roles that acknowledge his teen age or pretend he’s a mature man. He can sell it acting-wise but he still looks like a fresh-faced boy most of the time. Yeo Jin Goo is probably the most high profile child actor of the last 3 years, and really broke into the national consciousness with The Moon that Embraces the Sun and Missing You. He was easily one of the best things in those dramas, but by MY I thought he was pushing it playing a teenager since his size and presence screamed young adult to me. In real life he’s just 17 years old and this Summer he’s getting a headlining role in the SBS drama Can We Love. Checking him out in these new W Korea pictures, I can buy that he’s on the cusp of manhood But the drama set up is rather head-scratching for me – he plays a delinquent high school student living on his own, Kim So Hyun plays another high school student with an unrequited crush on him, but then the entire story is about him falling for an older woman. That character is the leading lady of this drama and is rumored to be Lee Bo Young. If she turns out to be a teacher I’m flipping tables. This is no laughing matter, the concept of student-teacher romances, and I only accepted it in Big because teenage Kang Kyung Joon returned to Korea, met his teacher Gil Da Ran, and the next day swapped souls with his long-lost twin brother. Ergo, she was only his teacher for a day and they didn’t fall in love in the context of hanging out in the classroom. Yoon Sang Hyun also joins this drama as the second male lead and might be vying with Yeo Jin Goo for the leading lady’s affection. I…..am speechless. I would love Yeo Jin Goo in a school drama proper but this sounds so potentially icky to me. Can We Love premieres in June after All About My Romance.
The cast is getting kind of exciting…I adore Yoon Sang Hyun and these two kiddos are super cute together, now only if the whole Lee Bo Young thing weren’t true….Teacher- student romances are my biggest pet peeves in dramaland…I can take dramas that are about younger male leads falling for older women if done right…but if there are minors involved, ughhhhhhhhhh
I don’t see what was so odd about him playing a teenager in IMY – he was the same age as his character! (or one year older, if we’re going by Korean age). And I agree he does give off a more mature aura, but it’s more ‘teenage boy growing out of looking like a child’ as opposed to ‘teenager now become a fully grown adult’.
I’m not super thrilled about the premise of this drama, though. He’s going to be a true noona-killer some day in the near future, but I’d much rather not see it happening when he’s only sixteen, even if getting to play a character through the entire arc of a drama instead of just 4-6 episodes is something I look forward to seeing him do.
Maybe if we are lucky it’s just that he will have a serious crush on his teacher that causes complications but it never pans out. We can hope, right? By non-Korean figuring YJG is only 15, so although he does look uber sexy and manly already, 15 is just icky! If he were 18 I’d let it slide.
Even if he were 18, you wouldn’t find it icky?
that depends on the maturity of each person (or in that case the type of character). I just feel its sooo wrong that a teacher and a student have a relationship. First of all, that is so unfair because you’ll be giving more attention to 1 student other the others (no matter how that teacher would try not to), Second being with an older person when you’re in your twenties is different than when you’re 16. At 16 you go through so many phases and changes, and any experience can have a long term effect on you, you’re still building your confidence, even your personality can change drastically. Its too unfair cuz the other person will want you to settle down when you’re not ready yet. As a teacher, you’re supposed to guide them whenever they need guidance and LET THEM GO, because they have more exploring and growing to do at that stage. Having a relationship means holding them back. I “kinda” accepted it in Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, and thats only bcuz she quit being a teacher. But still think that if we peak at the characters 10 years later, the chances they’re still together are slim. All this is just my opinion, but if its a student-teacher romance show, I’m out 😛
But…but… I wanted Kim So Hyun to be his leading lady! (T_T)
i thought kim so hyun would be his leading lady too T-T
Yeah!I thought Kim So Hyun and Yeo Jin Goo is the couple there!!!! 🙁
Cast not bad but storyline umm…
Koala, I think you meant Yeo Jin Goo in the title. 🙂
About the news…
Yeo Jin Goo = YES!!
Hong So Hyun = YES!!
Lee Bo Young = No, please, no!
I only say this: 17 and 34… that’s a BIG no!!
Sorry of course I meant KIM So Hyun. 😀
So I guess the drama´s name is to be understood as “Are we legally allowed to love?” Urgh no. Teacher/student romances are always squicky for me but the male lead being only 17 years old makes this one extra bad in my eyes. How old ist the female lead by the way?
This news is especially dubious to me as in my country (Germany) only today a former teacher was sentenced to pay a fine for having molested his fifteen year old student. Prior to this he had been acquitted of sexually abusing (no idea if this the legally right term in this case..) another minor student. He had been having an sexual “relationship” with a fourteen year old girl, hooking up with her in broom closets in school (!) and so on. He was acquitted of the crime because he had only been a substitute teacher of hers and not her homeroom teacher – so the judges didn´t see an abuse of power here, I guess.. The legal age of consent is 13, I believe, though I would have thought the law still would forbid sexual relations between an adult and a minor..
I feel like showering even just typing all this!
Lee Bo Young is 34. The female character’s age is supposed to be 27.
So these sickos actually went for someone substantially older than the actual age of the female character…
Hope they find another actress who is her early 20ies to play this role.
She’s not going to be a teacher.
That doesn’t make this any less disgusting though. They should call this drama “Can I Go To Jail?”, Lee Bo Young edition.
The thought of any minor being put into romantic situations with someone that much older makes me SICK TO MY STOMACH.
Ok, he’s a minor in real life so I think Teacher-student will be weird for this (usually it doesn’t quite bother me as much). But here, he’s not just playing a highschooler, he IS!
And Lee Bo Young is too old for him.. there real age gap is huge (10+?).
*meant to say it doesn’t quite bother me as much on tv.. I don’t think it’s possible in real life.
Yeo Jin Goo – born in 1997 (16 in Western age, 17 in Korean age).
Lee Bo Young – born in 1979 (34 in Western age, 35 in Korean age).
Real life age difference – 18 years. EWWWWWWWW. SO SO SO WRONG.
Drama age difference – he is 17, she is 27, 10 years. Nowhere as bad as their real life age difference that is made all the worse because he is legally a minor in pretty much any jurisdiction in the world.
She’s old enough to be his mother if she had him as a teenager.
yup. 18 years — I was doing the math in my head as I was reading the initial post and got a sudden visual of the movie *Harold & Maude* (which was an awesome, crazy story) …. but this storyline (?) not so much.
Age gaps don’t really bother me all that much — EXCEPT when the actor/actress is still, without exaggeration, a child. And that’s how I feel about Jin Goo. Placing him next to a 34 year old woman as a love interest is something I find ‘squicky’….and I’m quite liberal on this issue.
Wondering to self why Kdramas don’t often (if ever) show the story of two actual teens falling in love and having a happy ending?
Answers to self: “Because the networks are making shows for adult women.”
Which then causes me to ask, “Are there really that many adult Korean women fantasizing about teen romance? Why is that such a recurrent theme?”
I really hope there’s some sort of light-hearted, one-sided crush element that renders this love-line moot before it even begins. Otherwise….SQUICK.
I sincerely hope that he just has a crush on her and she helps him learn things and grow as a person or something. Otherwise just EW. Even their ages in the context of the story is bad imo. She’s lived 10 years longer than him. That’s more than half his entire life-span. And he’s STILL a minor. A 10 year age gap means a lot at that stage in life. Ew, ew, ew. Until they expand on what’s happening in this show it’s a definite pass.
oh just heard it got dumped. GOOD!
Ah… Am I the only one that thinks teacher-student crushes/relationships are cute? I’m a big sucker for it, and no pun intended. I’ll be weirded out if they slept together, but if he’s just a dude coming-of-age, pure and innocent I don’t think there’s anything to be iffy about. I bet my two cents on it that they don’t get married and have babies at the end.
No!Why!No!Just why? I was so looking forward to this one! I was so happy that Yeo Jin Goo and Kim So Hyun got the leads in a full drama together!And I was looking forward to a sweet high school romance. And now this?Why! There are so many drama with that theme already! Why do it again? I mean I was already annoyed when they paired up Joo Won and Choi Kang Hee. But this age difference is just ridiculous! And then they even went for and actress that is even older than the drama character? Was the writing AND the casting crew on drugs or what?
Shout out to fellow German Julia! I read that as well! It´s just so disgusting!Teachers should be people that children can trust.
The drama has been canceled so there you go! It will be replaced with Can You Hear my Voice?!
lol Are you serious?
OMG, Yeon Jin Goo is 18 years 7 months younger than Lee Bo Young.
This is so wrong. He’s 15, will turn 16 on August.
In the real life, the teacher could go to jail.
SO DISGUSTING. I don’t want to watch them as a couple even if it’s only drama.
I’m so sick of lee bo young. she’s not even a good actress & she is waaaay too old for this and she looks her age (34). They should have gotten an actress who was in her mid to late 20s.
AND the drama fell through. I guess they also had problems with the script (anything that would remind people of Big would be disaster in the making, almost everyone hated that drama)
i thought that this drama will not be aired and will be replaced by can u hear my voice by kim jae won? not true?
Lee Bo Young? Pass. I don’t care how cute YJG is, I won’t watch him with that horrible actress. BLECH.
Yay! for your comment. I’ve seen enough Lee Bo Young roles to have made the same determination. There’s something …um…*frigid/prickly* about her. And I say that about her live interviews, not just her ‘acting’.
She’s one of those folks that causes you to wonder why they keep getting cast (?)
They dropped that drama anyways – so thank god no gross child/adult relationship… They probably freaked out too by this questionable plot.
Just read on AllKpop or Dramabeans that this drama will not happen after all.
What the heck.. did yeo jin go choose this one?? He can’t be serious right??!
oh I never remembered him being so “handsome” I find it disturbing how he could change this much, he was cute in his own way before but now he looks manufactured to look like all the other kactors. In majo no jouken, teacher student love story, matsushima nanako and takizawa hideaki were respectively 26 and 17, the same age as their characters, the drama was actually good, it all depends on how they tackle the issue but they need to change their mind for the female lead. If they look in shojo manga land they will find so many great stories that would be marvellous for these young talented actors
Lol, I must be one of the few who don’t feel icky… maybe it’s cause I started out as a manga/jdrama fan so I’ve been exposed to worse stuff than this huge age gap.
i want Yeo Jin Goo spent his whole career with Kim So Hyun.
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