2NE1 (투애니원) Lyrics: 내가 제일 잘 나가 (I Am The Best) -Printer-Friendly Version-박수쳐 (Clap Your Hands) -Printer-Friendly Version- Hate You -Printer-Friendly Version- I Love You -Printer-Friendly Version-
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Bom (봄) __________ -Lead Vocalist- Real Name: Park Bom (박봄) DoB: March 24th, 1984 Height/
Whoa, things are about to get real in Who Are You! These last four episodes covered a lot of major plot twists. This show is getting so good, you guys! Get on the Who Are You ship right away if you haven’t. For the first four episodes, I gave the show a 4 out 5 on the Kdrama Feels-O-Meter, but after these last four episodes, I have bumped it up to 5 out of 5! So many more than the average American show. Head over to my post with the DramaFever Drama club to take a look at all the FEELS!!!
So who is watching Who Are You? Does it make you as emotional as me? Comment below.
Google tells me that ten years ago today was the first day of freshman orientation at my university. This means that Coco and I met for the first time exactly ten years ago as awkward 18-year-olds who were both terrified that no one would want to be our friends.
Happy friendiversary, Coco!
In honor of our very own “Tinfinity,” here is my kdrama tribute to Coco:
·I have thought about this long and hard, and I think that Coco’s kdrama alter-ego would be Sam Soon from My Lovely Sam Soon. Coco is pretty upbeat and outgoing, and she isn’t afraid to sass you if you get on her bad side. She also gets really cranky when she’s hungry, so I sometimes wish she were a pastry chef in real life. That way, she could have a stash of homemade goodies when the food rage sets in!
·Even though Coco loves Lee Min Ho, I actually think that her ideal kdrama love match would be Kim San from Pasta. I don’t think she would put up with a first male lead’s bad attitude long enough to fall in love, but many second male leads are so nice that they’re kind of boring. Kim San is a classic, thoughtful second male lead, but he also seems fun and outgoing. If he married Coco, we wouldn’t all be bored out of our minds at group gatherings.
·If Coco could choose to be best friends with any character from any kdrama, I think she would choose Han Yoo Joo from Coffee Prince. I have heard her say on more than one occasion (because this comes up a lot in real conversation) that she thinks they would be friends in real life. Apparently, Coco’s dream friends are poised artists who hang out at classy events like gallery openings. Considering that my artistic ability never evolved past stick figures, I don’t know how we even get along.
·If Coco’s life really turned into a kdrama, I think that the central plot conflict would probably be a fake relationship. She’s far too busty to pretend to be a boy. She looks exactlylike the rest of her family, so finding out that she’s secretly a princess or the love child to some family fortune is out, as well. I’m pretty sure that if she met a time traveler, she would have him committed to a mental institution, and she doesn’t really seem like the amnesia type. I do, however, think that she would be great at shocking a rich family by pretending to marry their son. She looks really sweet, but sometimes she likes to swear just to surprise people. I see that working in her favor here.
·If the two of us were Yeorim and Geol Oh (the kdrama version of Bert and Ernie), she would be Yeorim for sure. I can sometimes be sarcastic and surly, but I’m definitelybetter at climbing trees. She’s great at schmoozing, and she’s much more fashionable than I am.
Thanks for being there for ten years, Coco! There’s no one I would rather have as my blogging bestie!
It’s time for another round of K-drama texts to a bestie! Sometimes we wish we were best friends with heroines from the Korean dramas we watch on Viki. Maybe their lives are a little ridiculous, but at least we would never have boring text conversations.
We all know that characters in Kdramas have some pretty crazy lives. If you had a choice to actually pick which awful Korean drama situation to be in, what would you choose? I headed over to the NY Kpop Festival, put on by the Korean Cultural Service, a couple of nights ago to play a little game called, "Kdrama Would You Rather" with some Korean drama fans. Let's see how they responded.
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How would you have responded to these questions? Can you name all these dramas? Comment below.
My soundtrack for writing this review tonight is this song:
It felt strangely appropriate. You'll find out why in a minute.
Anyway, I've been trying to step out of my kdrama comfort zone lately. I am normally a solid rom com kind of girl, and revenge melodramas aren't really my cup of tea. Dying and crying? Blech. Give me lovesick hijinks any day.
After Sungkyunkwan Scandal, however,I really wanted to watch more from the best bromance in the world. After accidentally (completely on purpose) reading a spoiler for Yoo Ah In's Fashion King and realizing that I would really, really hate it, I was left no choice but to go with Song Joong Ki's Nice Guy (also known as Innocent Man). Unfortunately, Song Joong Ki is just leaving for military service, which means no more shows from him for a while. Why now? Just when I've developed a mild obsession!
The basic plot is this: In a case of seriously flawed logic, a guy goes to jail for a murder he doesn't commit. Once he gets out, he becomes a gigolo (whaaaaaaat?) and then revengey stuff happens. And love stuff happens. And revengey-love stuff happens. Ridiculous.
This is from the intro credits. He's shedding a single tear! And he dropped his watch! Because--time! And feelings!
Bottom line? I loved every single absurd, glorious, melodramatic second of it. I'm not even embarrassed. Here's the breakdown:
The Plot
When a murder happens in the first 20 minutes of episode 1, you know you're in for a wild kdrama ride, and this show's plot was crazy with a capital CRAZY. I mean, at one point in the show, one of the characters starts to recover from amnesia, and the shock of her recovery--wait for it--gives her more amnesia. Because according to kdrama logic, what's better than amnesia? DOUBLE AMNESIA! What's better than a head injury? DOUBLE HEAD INJURY! What's better than blackmailing? DOUBLE BLACKMAILING! You get the picture.
The Characters
To be honest, the plot wasn't what really won me over because it wasn't that great. If you want to know why I temporarily stopped sleeping or showering and had some intense marathons with this show, here's the answer:
He's disappointed you even had to ask.
In my experience, most kdramas tend to be external. What I mean by that is that exterior events incite change in the characters, and that change is manifested in outward action. For example, a girl gets slightly cold and then--in a crazy twist of fate--faints. We then know that the man has developed feelings for her because he carries her home and watches over her all night long.
As I just said, Nice Guy has a lot of external stuff happening, but at its core, it's actually an intensely internal show. Even when Kang Ma Roo makes the outward gestures typical in drama romances, we can never be sure if it's sincere or not--because he doesn't even know if he's beingsincere. His character goes beyond the usual "I love you, but I'm also conflicted because I'm angry/guilty" conflict into something more complex, and Song Joong Ki does an incredible job portraying the character. Half of the time, I wasn't sure if I should be swooning or swearing at the computer because Joong Ki's Ma Roo is so flawed and messy and confused. That internal tension is what made this drama so engaging.
Tormented sad Quasimodo face! Who wouldn't be intrigued?
For the first five episodes or so, Moon Chae Won also holds her own as Seo Eun Gi. Sure, she's a little bit abrasive, but she's also sassy and powerful. We all know how much I love that in a female lead! Unfortunately, Moon Chae Won doesn't get much to do for the second half of the series once her character gets turned into an amnesiac plot device. The show is really all about Kang Ma Roo, but I saw just enough of Moon Chae Won's abilities as an actress to make me wish they had used her a little bit better here.
I wish we got more of this "stop messing with me, or I will eat your internal organs raw" face.
And then we come to the character who made me angrier than any other kdrama villain has ever made me in my entire life: Han Jae Hee (Park Si Yeon). I think what made her so upsetting was that she wasn't just horrible for the sake of being a terrible person. She was an exaggerated version of someone you could meet in real life. She was manipulative and selfish, but not out of some unreasonable desire to ruin other people's lives. Instead, she's a Daisy Buchanan: beautiful and alluring, but completely self-absorbed. She wants everything, but she doesn't want to sacrifice anything. (And now you know why that Great Gatsby song got stuck in my head. Any excuse for a nerdy lit reference!) She's so self-absorbed, in fact, that every time she talks about Kang Ma Roo, she says something to the effect of "that man who I loved more than my own life" without realizing that he's exactly the opposite. She didn't love him more than her own life; she didn't even love him more than her own job! Really? You need to commit suicide if you can't be a journalist? There are no other careers out there that you could do so that your boyfriend doesn't have to go to prison and become a gigolo?
Wearing glittery blazers is also a pretty surefire way to make me hate you as a character.
I want to talk about ALL of the characters because that's how engrossing this show was, but I'll stop here.
Other Things about This Show
Is it just me, or were the music choices for this show a little off sometimes? I almost stopped halfway through episode 1 because, while I can handle dramatic murders and cover-ups, the over-the-top soap opera tango music was just too much. You shouldn't be busting out the murder accordions (murdercordions?) until at least episode four! I also recall one scene where two people were blackmailing each other at a cafe (I can't remember who it was because basically everyone blackmailed everyone else during the course of the show), and Jason Mraz was playing. How are you supposed to drive fear into your opponent's heart with "I Won't Give Up"--possibly the most mellow song on the entire planet--playing in the background?
(Spoilers) Can we have a little heart-to heart about episode 20 for a second? I know that a lot of people just hated it outright, but I'm kind of torn. Sure, it was tonally inconsistent with the rest of the show. It was also kind of confusing and didn't mention anything about what happened to Tae San. I mean, I didn't really care for most of the office politics throughout the show, but after 20 episodes of shouting OMO WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO TAE SAN???????, the writers should have included something about it!
The one thing that saved that ending for me was the relationship between Ma Roo and Eun Gi. Throughout the show, Kang Ma Roo's obsession was his need to save the women in his life. His love for Jae Hee, Choco, and Eun Gi all grows out of his ability to protect them when they are vulnerable or helpless. Because Eun Gi is a helpless amnesiac for over half of the show (Can you tell I'm a little miffed about this?), I wasn't ever entirely sure if Ma Roo could love her once she no longer relied on him. Even at the end of episode 19, he gets stabbed, and his primary concern is sending her off before she can notice. (Wait, how did she not notice that gigantic blood stain on his stomach?)
Episode 20 resolved that issue for me. Even if it was inconsistent with the rest of the show, I needed to see that he could love her without always having to save her. They built a relationship on friendship and respect, not on an attraction that grew out of pity or guilt.
Am I suddenly converted to revenge melos? Probably not. Could I even handle watching this one all the way through again? Probably not. But it's still definitely worth a watch.
The Twitter Version of this Review
Song Joong Ki is awesome. Watch this show immediately. Don't let the murdercordions deter you. #...something clever. Aw, forget it. I don't understand how to use hashtags. Just watch this show.
For my fourth post with the DramaFever Drama Club about Who Are You episodes 1-4, we decided to do an analysis of the way ghosts are used to represent certain themes in Korean Dramas.
One of my professors once told me that all good horror devices actually represent broken human relationships or broken societies. For example, haunted houses represent abuse within a family. Along this line, it seems that the ghosts in Who Are You represent a broken justice system. Like the psychic tells Shi Oh, ghosts appear because they want relief from resentment.
I’ve noticed in several Korean dramas, I Hear Your Voice being the most recent example, that the Korean justice system is often portrayed as unevenly on the side of guilty defendants. People too often get away with crimes, leaving it up to those who are wronged to take matters into their own hands. We see a prime example of this in the scene below.
Shi Oh must avenge the death of the girl, who cannot do it herself, because Shi Oh knows that the culprit will most likely be found not guilty according to Korea’s due process. Once the murderer is caught, the girl’s ghost now smiles and disappears. It seems that in the setting of a detective story, ghosts represent those seeking justice.
On a side note, why you gotta be so creepy ghosts? It’s clear that you can be pleasant and nasty-wound-free after you’ve received help, so what’s with the sneaking around, grabbing people’s arms and making them fake bleed, making people cold, and creepily playing the piano? Not necessary!
I have to admit that I find the ghosts in The Master's Sun much creepier, but the Who Are Ghosts are a little more realistic looking (if there is such a thing as a realistic ghost). To see my and Vivi's horrified reactions to the ghosts in The Master's Sun, check out Vivi's YouTube review of episodes 1-4.
So, what do you think ghosts in Kdramas represent? What Kdrama has the scariest ghosts? Comment below.
And then Coco tried to convince me: "But someone has to review The Master's Sun and you're already doing it!" "I can't do it by myself!" "C'mon! It won't be that bad!"
And then I caved and taped a review. And then I gave Coco one of my kidneys. Because she might just be the most convincing person on the planet.
Yep, that's...a lot of my face. And a gigantic cat tower in the background. Don't judge.
If you don't love awkward things, a better option might be to head over to DramaFever to check out my Drama Club reviews of the series. I'm working with Rosie and Drama Debussie in this Drama Club, and so far, we're just having a grand ole time! There was a hubbub over on DramaFever's facebook page when they featured the one negative quotation from my first article, but I promise I'm actually enjoying the show! (Pats angry fangirls on the head soothingly.)
Who else is watching The Master's Sun? It's my first time watching an ongoing series, and I don't know how I feel about this whole two-episodes-a-week thing. Wait, I do know. It's killing me!
And, for those of you who caught the Monty Python reference in the title:
You know how the characters in Korean dramas are always entering ridiculous contests in hopes of winning a cell phone or something? Think Boys over Flowers, where we not only had Jan Di and Jun Pyo's piggyback ride contest, but we also got Jan Di and Ji Hoo's wedding dress photo contest. In other words, Jan Di was a contest-winning two-timer.
Well, if you've always been jealous of Jan Di and want to enter a contest of your own, look no further! The guys over at Green Tea Graffiti are hosting an Answer Me 1997 contest!
Sadly, this contest doesn't involve any wedding dresses or handsome second male leads (maybe next time, guys?), but it IS a chance to have fun with other kdrama fans and win some pretty excellent prizes.
For a little bit of fun, Vivi and I are joining some other cool bloggers to do reviews of two currently airing horror/mystery shows for DramaFever's Drama Club. I'll be reviewing Who Are You, and Vivi will be reviewing The Master's Sun. Here's my written review of Who Are You episodes 1-4 on DramaFever.
Isn't Si Ohn the best?
To also try something new and completely uncomfortable, we'll be doing YouTube video reviews of these shows as well. I know my first attempt was a little awkward, but a girl's got to start somewhere, right? Hopefully Vivi will be better. We're going to share our memes and YouTube videos of the reviews here on our blog, and link to our posts with DramaFever for you to go check them out there.
So who's watching Who Are You right now? It looks like there's been some controversy over whether Si Ohn is in fact a strong Kdrama female lead on DramaFever's facebook post of this meme. What do you think?
KCON is in a week, and I'm getting really stoked to go and meet a bunch of fellow Kdrama/Kpop fans! If you haven't heard of KCON 2013, it’s an all-things-Hallyu convention organized by the Korean network, Mnet, that will takes place next weekend in Los Angeles. The convention features concerts from top Kpop artists, workshops and panels on Korean pop culture, fun contests, and artist engagements. I'll be walking around filming footage for some YouTube videos and taking pictures of all the beautiful K-fans for a KCON slideshow.
I don't know about you, but the thought of being around my favorite K-stars makes the inner fangirl in me go a little crazy. Now, I don't want anyone to get too out of control when the time comes, so in order to be ready for KCON this year, let’s review some good ideas and bad ideas about how to fangirl/fanboy. 1. Good Idea: Fangirl/Fanboy so hard that your favorite band feels the love. Bad Idea: Fangirl/Fanboy so hard that you faint from too many feels.
2. Good Idea: Create a poster that says, “I love you Oppa!” for your favorite bias. Bad Idea: Create a poster that says, “I just. I can’t. Can’t even. This. jklasdfhdfa” because the feels are preventing you from forming coherent sentences.
3. Good Idea: Cosplay (dress up) as your favorite Kpop or Kdrama Star to show them your love. Bad Idea: Cosplay (dress up) as your favorite One Direction or Twilight star.
4. Good Idea: Go to KCON to meet your favorite artists and get their autographs. Bad Idea: Go to to your favorite artist’s house and make forcible entry to meet them and get their autograph.
5. Good Idea: Be in Kdrama Fighting's YouTube videos and photos from KCON. Bad Idea: Be in police surveillance videos and photos from trying to sneak backstage at KCON.
I'm really excited to see you all there! KCON 2013, here we come! Have you ever had an extreme fangirl/fanboy moment? Tell us about it in the comments.
So, I'm trying the unthinkable. I made a YouTube video of my reaction to the first 4 episodes of Who Are You. Being in front of the camera is awkward. Trying not to sound or look stupid on film is awkward. This whole thing was awkward, but it did give me an appreciation for Kdrama actors and actresses. All I had to do was sit there and talk. I wasn't even trying to pretend to be someone else or having to kiss a total stranger. Wait...how do I get in on the kissing a total Korean stranger thing?
Anyway, hopefully watching this is at least somewhat enjoyable. If not, then I promise never to do it again. If so, then hopefully I'll become better at it with time.
(There is just no selecting a cute face freeze frame for the YouTube thumbnail)
Are you watching Who Are You? What do you think so far? Should I do more video reviews?Comment below.
Dating Agency: Cyrano just finished its run in July of this year. Looking for something light and fluffy to watch in what feels like billion-degree weather, I started watching it pretty soon after it ended.
Doesn't this poster just scream "SUMMER!" to you? Source
The posters didn't lie. This drama was like a little creamiscle: a light snack for the summer, but so light that it won't stay with you for long.
Your Typical Flower Boys
This show is actually part of tvN's larger Oh!Boy series (which also includes Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, and Flower Boys Next Door). In line with the other shows, this one was originally called Flower Boy Dating Agency before they settled on Dating Agency: Cyrano. This change might have been a way to connect it to the 2010 film on which it was based (Cyrano Agency). Either that, or the producers realized that a title containing the term flower "boys" was a little misleading since both of the male leads are in their 30s (and Flower Boys Plus a Couple of Flower Ahjussis Dating Agency doesn't have quite the same ring to it).
Some Flower Boys is better than none!
Even though there aren't flower boys in the title, this series still captures the same spirit that fills the other Oh! Boy shows. It's a breezy comedy bursting at the seams with quirky side characters and cute romance. In fact, fans of Jo Yoon Woo's "Angel Boy" in FBRS will be thrilled to see the same actor play Do Arang, who is basically the exact same character--nerdy sweaters and all.
This series amps up the fun factor with a million different cameos from other kdrama stars. Since the series revolves around a dating agency, each new "case" features a new set of actors as the agency's romantic targets. I didn't recognize all of the cameos, but the ones I picked up were pretty enjoyable. My personal favorite had to be Gong Yoo because, well, it's Gong Yoo. 'Nuff said.
Boom. Doesn't this basically make the whole series worthwhile?
The Leads
I was pleasantly surprised by Sooyoung's portrayal of Gong Min Young. She has a smile that absolutely lights up the room, and Gong Min Young was delightfully confident and pleasant and normal--almost unheard-of in a kdrama female lead! She was comfortable in her own skin from episode 1 and didn't feel the need to apologize for her personality. Even though I would probably be initially intimidated by her snazzy style and outgoing personality, she's definitely someone I would want as a friend in real life.
Wait, she knows basic personal hygiene? What kind of kdrama lead does she think she is?
I also appreciate the way she initially handled the relationship. Yes, she confessed her feelings first, but instead of staring into space and crying after Byung Hoon ignored her, she told him to just man up and be more mature about the whole thing. In fact, every time he used a trick that would make most kdrama females freeze up (firing her, asking if she likes him, etc.), she turned the tables on him.
As great as Sooyoung was, I had a hard time with the chemistry in this show. Part of this is my own fault. Yes, the drama recognizes the age gap between Min Young and Seo Byung Hoon (15 years between the actual actors, in case you're wondering), but they don't ever spell out the difference, and they try to balance the characters in terms of emotional maturity. For me, though, the age gap was a little distracting. It wasn't the actual age so much as the difference in life experience. She is a bubbly youngster just out of college, and he is a jaded middle-aged man with an increasingly ridiculous bowl cut. It didn't help that the last time I watched Lee Jong Hyuk was in A Gentleman's Dignity, where he played a cheating 40-something-year old (who, if I remember correctly, checks out Sooyoung's legs at some point in the show). Even in the final scenes of the show, it just felt more like a teacher-student relationship than a sizzling partnership of people on equal levels. They had some cute moments (like the play fighting below), but most of the chemistry just didn't fall into place for me.
Out of curiosity, I asked Coco what she thought about the pairing after watching the first episode. She had never seen A Gentleman's Dignity, and she didn't really register the age difference, so I really might be the only one who felt this way. I can't help it!
I'm also starting to realize that I will probably never get through a Flower Boy series without a serious case of Second Male Lead Syndrome. I don't know what it is about these shows, but it happens every time (except for maybe FBRS, where the second lead was nice, but the random narcolepsy threw me off). How can I possibly appreciate Seo Byung Hoon when Master is around?
I think he should win just on the basis of all that delicious food he made.
Short answer? I can't.
The Plot
As I said before, the basic premise of this drama means that we get a new love story (with new star cameos) every 2-3 episodes. These side stories were adorable, and they helped keep the show moving at a decent pace. I didn't notice the time dragging in the middle like I sometimes do because I was excited to see what each new case would bring.
The big exception here is the last few episodes, where the show's writers made a beeline straight for Crazyville and didn't stop until it was time to wrap up the series. If you're writing a fun, lighthearted series about the hijinks in a dating agency, WHY would you think that tossing in a kidnapping with two episodes to go is a good way to wrap things up? I can understand using kidnapping as a last-ditch plot device if you have to fill 50 episodes, but this series only has 16 episodes, and they're only 45 minutes long. Now that's just lazy!
I sometimes wonder if kdrama writers have a giant wheel of plot twists sitting in their office, and every time someone gets writer's block, they just gather around and spin the wheel, a-la Wheel of Fortune. "Come onnnnnnnnnnn, amnesia! Awwwww, man! Not another illegitimate child!"
I also felt like the underlying conflict was a little underdeveloped for the amount of drama it caused in the show. Seo Byung Hoon kept agonizing over things, and then Yi Seol would just be like, "Yeah, I knew that 15 years ago. NBD."
Random Observations
It's hard to choose a favorite side character in a drama filled with side characters, but I have to give a shout out to Master's bumbling henchmen and their attempts at matchmaking.
What's with Seo Byung Hoon's trench coats? Everyone else is wearing shorts and t-shirts, and he's decked out like Inspector Gadget.
Is this supposed to help him blend in? Because it's definitely not working.
(Spoiler) Can we please talk about that scene with the bomb? Master is BLEEDING ON THE FLOOR, and everyone else is just going all starry-eyed in love? SOMEBODY CALL KOREAN 911! But nooooooo, they go ahead and stab him in the heart right after he's been stabbed in the stomach.
Wait,remind me why she chose the other guy again? Because I forgot.
Another entry into the "things I shouted repeatedly at my computer" column: "NO! DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON HAWAIIAN SHIRT GUY!" If somebody is cray-cray and straps a bomb to the love of your life and then tries to hit you in the head with a board, how about you don't turn your back on him unless he's tied up somehow? For being a gangsta, Master was an idiot with that one.
I want someone to let me deejay a high school prom so that I can play this song. Something about it just screams awkwardly shuffling teenagers.
If you love the Flower Boy shows, Dating Agency: Cyrano is a good choice! It might not suck you in quite as much as other shows do, but it's some bright summertime fun.
Well, folks, it's been about a million years since we had one of these fashion face-offs. Our face-off of rich ladies went to Joo Won's mom in a landslide. I heartily agree with that decision!
For this week's face-off, I have decided to break from the norm. We usually cover trends that appear frequently in kdramas, but this time, I wanted to look at the lone wolves fighting against the pack. And that's why I've chosen facial hair.
It wasn't until fairly recently that I noticed the consistent lack of facial hair on most kdrama leads. Even in historical dramas (which I have excluded here for consistency), half of the men look like someone glued a few strands of fur to their chins and called it good. I don't know if Korean men just tend to grow patchy facial hair or what, but I wanted to let those few guys who weren't clean-shaven have their moment in the spotlight. I couldn't find any good full-on beards, so it's just goatees and shadow-staches for now!
Sorry, Yoochun. You're not fooling anyone.
Now, I know that facial hair isn't everyone's cup of tea. Personally, I can appreciate a decent amount of scruff. In fact, I once based an entire Halloween costume--including sewing myself some neon green pleather pants--around my husband's innate talent for growing Wolverine-like sideburns. I also tend to let mustaches slide because my husband thinks they are hilarious. Exhibit A: His face in its currently mustachioed glory:
I know what you're all thinking. How can so much awesome happen on one face?
In addition to spicing up boring family Christmas cards and making small children cry, facial hair can also make for some excellent jokes:
Ok, ok, I'll stop now. If I have one weakness, it's mustache-related puns. Maybe it's because I share a birthday with Chuck Norris?
Let's meet our proud contenders!
Contender 1: Jo Guk (City Hall)
Cha Seung Won as Jo Guk was the one who reminded me that kdrama men can actually grow hair on their faces. Maybe the drama writers only let it slide because of his status as a smarmy politician, but whatever the reason, he works that goatee for a full 20 episodes.
Contender 2: Tae Woong (The Snow Queen)
I haven't actually seen this drama, but I stumbled on a poster for it and decided it belonged in this battle. I was genuinely surprised at how a little bit of stubble can transform ole baby-face Hyun Bin.
Contender 3: Han Yi Soo (Shark)
Shark pictures have been popping up all over Pinterest since the show started, and I swear that the characters are either crying or gazing into space in every. single. one. Keeping in character, Kim Nam Gil rocks what I like to call the "sad stache."
Contender 4: Kim Hyun Jun (Iris)
Don't let the faintness of the facial hair fool you--a little bit can go a long way! Lee Byung Hun actually has one of those faces that looks like it needs a mustache. Even when he's clean shaven, I can see the ghosts of mustaches past dancing on his upper lip. Besides, we all know that mustaches, when combined with a sweet pair of shades, have been scientifically proven to help you shoot people better.
So out of the few kdrama leads who actually grew their own scruff, who pulled it off the best? Are there any of them who look better when they aren't clean-shaven? Vote below!
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