Yup he has a lot of fans, and I think they keep on accepting those boring roles for him, because his fans loves to ship him with the actresses he's been paired with, that's why they're riding on that hype, and demand. You know, his fans don't care about his acting skills, as they always been saying that no matter how dull and bad actor he is, they're still going to watch his dramas because of his face. For the idol background, I feel bad for his teammates, but I know he loves them (their group), yet they're not active as a group anymore, he's the only one who has fan concert/meeting. But I hope his fans hype his dramas in action genre too, or any genres that doesn't include romance, you need to make him get out of his comfort zone (but I think romance is not his comfort zone tho), just don't box him in that genre, support him where he can explore and enhance his acting skills.

Possibly. After the shock his band suffered last year, I am not surprised. But I wish they chose projects that didn't pit him with actors who would make his lack of acting talent stand out like a sore thumb. In the hindsight, he was a great fit for Rookie Historian because his costar was also a wet noodle and they fit each other perfectly.

His most recent project was Wonderful World, which was very much an exercise in dealing with his own grief over losing his best friend/bandmate.

Generally speaking, yes, I'm sure his agency (which is his original idol one) prefers when he does the romcoms they knows are gonna be worldwide hits. But there's nothing to indicate he's "clearly not enjoying much" aside from you not liking him in them. He always speaks highly of his characters, costars, and the underlying message of girls loving themselves regardless of what others say about their looks.

@minniegupta1 they're training him the most Spartan way then - he'll either drown around his far stronger costars or maybe learn something from them... Time will tell.

@kangminjae promoting his works properly is the first thing idols are taught, so sorry, but him "always speaking high of his costars and dramas in promo interviews" doesn't mean ANYTHING. Celebs who couldn't even do this much on cue even in their sleep don't last in the industry long. And I've personally seen him in enough romance and non-romance projects to form an opinion that he enjoys acting in the latter significantly more. Not to say that he hates his romcoms costars or anything - this is kind of misogynistic delusion I'd leave to rabid teen stan twitter crowd, they're good at it - but the difference between passionate and default acting seems pretty obvious to me.

Let's make a bet, shall we? Once he fulfills his contract with his current management and is free to do whatever HE wants finally, we'll see what kind of roles he's gonna take then - if he still will be acting, ofc. Then we'll talk about my faulty analytical skills again^^

Webtoon in particular also has an interesting art style which is best described as "old school childish and colorful" - ML, in particular, heavily reminds me of that little pest Malfoy from HP franchise... in his mid-teens version.

Yeah, he's nothing special, really - neither positively nor negatively. Idk what made people to have allegedly STRONG opinions on guy - something tells me they're new to this type of media people who are about to get the shock of their lives once they try something from good old unhinged days^^

BOF ML was more like an extra bad case of raging tsundere - aka "tough/cold/rude on the outside yet soft and loving inside". Yandere means a character unhealthily obsessed with their love interest - like HEAVILY. The "I'll kill everyone, maybe even YOU and then myself so we can be together" kind of spectrum. Dumped Duke gets a mostly honorary label there for being a stubborn stalker with a preference for "marry me or else" threats.

@gikata oh my god! A yandere sounds horrifying. I have actually seen/read some manhwas like that but I don't typically get far in them. At most I might skim or skip around haha.

Haha teenage Draco haha

Sometimes when I read webtoons, I wonder if it would make a good adaptation. For example, there was a webtoon called No Outtakes about a fan & an actor getting sucked into the world of a drama. That featured getting sucked into a Joseon world.

@britney yandere stuff is an acquired taste - even seen-it-all me is very so-so on this archetype.

Interestingly, kdramas are yet to properly catch up to this everywhere in novels and webtoons isekai into fictional world trend, idk why. Even cdramas with all their censorship restrictions are far ahead in that regard. Why do I have a feeling that this project won't do much to popularize the genre either?

Most of the titles I read is 200% unadaptable - either because of setting, premise, length, adult rating etc. APOTHECARY DIARIES would've make an amazing cdrama if not for episodes cap, harem genre banned and certain fake identity issue (tho I'm already cringing imagining fanwars over casting of "gorgeous like a goddess" ML).

Perhaps some milder ones CAN work - it's not like Korean writers are all that historically accurate when it comes to European monarchies lol, even famous hits are often downright egregious - but surely this is not that case.

@gikata Serious question: does the Korean TV industry have the wherewithal and experience to produce a live-action series with a faux 18th/19th century European fantasy setting, like the webtoon's? Has it ever tried something similar?

Conflating historical European and Joseon cultures and social, legal, and economic systems just does not work in ways Korean drama writers seem profoundly to not understand. Corsets and wing collars aren't just an interchangeable form of historical drag.

@elinor Especially because a lot of these pseudo-European worlds have their own countries, governments, laws, and political dynamics that factor heavily into the story. Remarried Empress is an example (it got announced for a Kdrama adaptation a while back). Even setting it in the real world at all is gonna be tricky, let alone a real country with an entirely different cultural background.

@elinor I've never heard about anything like that, I'm afraid. The closest k-media ever got to European setting is their musicals, which are often remakes of already famous western productions done in collaboration with original makers. Meaning costumes etc get "inherited" by k-versions since the start, they don't have to do their own deep research for that. Ngl, seeing Koreans in rococo dresses and wigs is quite the sight)))

@vienibenmio REMARRIED EMPRESS is as purely European as I am laconic^^ Seriously - swap characters eye/hair colors and dress them in hanboks and plot won't even notice the difference. Not sure if this production actually ever succeed - I can predicts a lot of hurdles, starting from premise and ending with casting fans will NEVER be pleased with no matter whom producers hire - but this is certainly gonna be a wild trainwreck)))

@vienibenmio @gikata @elinor I haven't read, or at least I don't remember, reading many webtoons or manhwas that had the pseudo European settings but why can't a setting swap work in your opinion? I think the main aspect of those stories are usually the class divides and etiquette. Or am I wrong cause as I said, I don't typically read those kinds of stories.
I mean I get that it's different but I also get the similarities

I don't know what the Korean equivalent to knights are and that is the only thing that's coming to mind that would be hard to adapt.

@vienibenmio the remarried empress is supposed to be a kdrama?! Huh

I would think that is a bit scandalous for korean audiences then again maybe it's not. Folks who watch sageuks have seen many a monarch have his concubines. The new take would be the woman instantly getting a new man haha

Wow, as soon as I wrote that line, I remembered how big of a deal is made of people "moving on too quickly"

@britney because Joseon was too weird and specific in just about everything for other culture's daily and palace life mix well with it. Not just class system and etiquette - law, philosophy, people's mindset... EVERYTHING. Luckily for any potential drama adaptation producer, as I've said above, most k-writers doesn't know a thing about real Europe and thus write faux-Joseon stories simply dressed as faux-European. So I don't think it's THAT hard to adapt many of them as long as makers go about it the smart way... but when did they?)))

Bringing in a concubine was like the least of FL's ex sins in REMARRIED EMPRESS - that alone viewers could've probably if not forgive but at least understand given the comatose status of their marriage atm and him desperately needing a heir, but everything he's done - and allowed to be done by others - afterwards was simply not it. Been a while since I've seen a walking definition of idiot ball trope of this monstrous caliber, same goes for a concubine. Honestly, I was bored to tears with how primitively black-and-white written that story is - even kindergarten-aged me would've probably find it insulting to my intelligence...

@britney Yup, Remarried Empress was announced for a drama adaptation a while back and I remember reading it was going to be changed to a Joseon setting.

@gikata It's not so much the cultural thing for Remarried Empress as the political dynamics between the eastern and western kingdoms - you either need it to be a alternate history version of a real country or make up an entire new country entirely. Not to mention the magic stuff...

I agree with you about the comic being ridiculously black and white and boring. I dropped it a long time ago.

@vienibenmio you think they won't cut magic stuff? I'm struggling to imagine it working in a show tbh - even THE LEGEND OF SHEN LI with FL's temporarily chicken phoenix form was quite pushing it, despite VERY nice (likely expensive af) CGI and ML's actor utmost efforts to sell "nothing weird here, just me and my shapeshifting babe" trope. When was the last time kdrama even tried to go there? DOG DAY show probably, and even that had a mostly real puppy who was 100% easier to train than what would be required in this case.

@gikata Don't know about everything else, but the CGI in Legend of Shen Li was clunky, not expensive. Certainly not expensive in China where they have animation factories. With a proper budget could do much better. (That's not just me, its a semi-professional opinion from my husband)

I can't imagine it as a kdrama at all, or any other type of adaptation, tbh. If they really thought they had to it, then animation would be the best option, imo.
I seriously can't imagine someone reading this and thinking Taek and Seo would be perfect for it.

@gikata

because Joseon was too weird and specific in just about everything for other culture's daily and palace life mix well with it. Not just class system and etiquette - law, philosophy, people's mindset... EVERYTHING.

Modern audiences and media often project contemporary values and romanticized notions onto historical settings, leading to discrepancies between historical reality and fictional portrayals. I think the current audience has projected much of their reflection on how the Joseon people lived, which has dictated how dramas are written. If you deep dive, there are a of discrepancies that show up. The hierarchical control meant unsavoury stories remained buried. A Joseon Scholar/Prince/Soldier/Captain having a wild night of sex was not as much of an aberration as people would want one to believe, just as affairs, corruption, and debauchery existed but were often kept out of official records unless they were committed by people in power and upset the equilibrium of those that were even higher than them. The annals seem highly selective of what was reported vs what was not. For example, the number of reported rape cases in 600 years of Joseon history is pitiful, it is understood that in any society where women hold little power, cases of abuse are often rampant, with the culprits frequently being close relatives.

One reason I liked My Dearest was that it traversed paths not trodden by many. For example, they showed Jang Hyeon's character corrupting young women of the villages he visited, though they shopped short of revealing his rakish acts - the drama probably would have been shut down if they actually showed what a rake actually does - and it's not holding hands sitting in a garden under a tree singing love songs 😂.

Whether such a drama will be widely accepted by the audience remains to be seen.

@mazarin that's interesting to hear, because I've seen quite a few examples of TRULY BAD CGI in cdramas ("fond" memories of LOVE 020 still give me shivers), and in comparison that chicken/phoenix was rather cute, even with those horrible fake eyelashes. I do doubt that even something like that would work in a story with no other fantasy elements whatsoever unlike in gods vs demons vs monsters high fantasy xianxia though. I recall animation bits in YUMI'S CELLS didn't exactly leave people very awed, for example...

@minniegupta1

A Joseon Scholar/Prince/Soldier/Captain having a wild night of sex was not as much of an aberration as people would want one to believe

But it would be hardly believable for a noble Joseon maiden, right? Yangban dude could've sleep with a gisaeng, commoner, his own slave girl etc and no one would've bat an eye, but him and yangban girl ending up in a bed together AND her refusing his passionate marriage proposal the morning after sounds absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention that Joseon didn't exactly held co-ed banquets for their youngsters to party nights away unsupervised so the situation this premise is built around could even happen in the first place.

@gikata Bad CGI abounds...but a lot of it was done in the past as well. Shen Li was a recent production, so its crappy CGI. If it was something filmed 10 years ago it would be (relatively) a lot better. Even then though, if you were willing to spend a lot of money and time you could end up with something that integrated a lot more seamlessly. Go look at 1994 The Shadow for some clever animation that flows nicely into the film.

Not sure about Silla dynasty in particular, because didn't they ONLY marry within their own royal family? That would make imperial harem far less in numbers etc, while conflicts between many royal in-laws were a big thing in the AD (even bigger in the novel).

Yes - that True bone nonsense. But maybe they could turn her into some kind of adopted but thrown away true bone something. 😂

I don't even mean FL - let's start with ML's hugely spoilery heritage which would never be a source of constant threat and problems in Silla just because of who his bio-mom is (low-born initially super low rank concubine). Or those THOUSANDS of women in Emperor's harem...

P.S. I kind of dropped the novel for variety of reasons, including it going on for WAY too long without much of plot progression I'd personally find interesting, but I don't think this is ever gonna end in this century with royal marriage kind of HE. 100% not the vibe I'm getting from leads or plot, nope. It also feels like writer grew to badly dislike ML as a character due to readers shipping him with FL en masse - his presence in the story has been getting less and less with time, two of them barely even interact anymore. All while FL is given a new male sidekick-slash-admirer who is written to be so bland, mid and baggage-free that no one would seriously care about him or ship them instead...

Thanks for the tip. ZOMBIE FOR SALE is available free on Amazon Prime. I just queued it up. My list of summer flicks is growing.