Articles
Life After Marriage
TV Actresses Make Successful Return to Careers After Saying 'I Do'
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
These days, actresses who had left the television scene to get married are making successful come backs, imbuing new energy into television dramas.
Jung Hye-young, Lee Yo-won, Kim Ji-ho, Ha Hee-ra and Oh Yon-su have all made come-backs to entertainment scene with leading roles in TV mini-series and weekend dramas and their mature performances are drawing viewers.
This has also been a positive sign for TV producers and production companies who have been going through difficulties in casting actors due to increasing star power.
``As housewives and mothers, these actresses seem friendly and comfortable to many viewers. Their experience in acting also distinguishes them from younger actors,’’ said Lee Jae-kyu, a producer from SBS’ ``Fashion 70s.’’
Oh Yon-suOh Yon-su has pursued her acting career the most aggressively. In KBS’ ``Second Proposal’’ last year, she played a tough and humorous housewife named Mi-young, successfully breaking stereotypes on her actress image of being fragile and feminine. Currently, she is playing the role of Yeo-jin, a spinster career woman on the KBS weekend drama ``Goodbye Sadness.’’
Different from Mi-young, Yeo-jin is a romantic and introverted character who cannot forget her ex-boyfriend whom she couldn’t to marry due to her family’s objection. Oh has said that since the character matches her real personality, she feels much more comfortable with her acting.
Lee Yo-won
In 2003, Lee Yo-won, known for her pure and innocent image, got married and announced her sudden retirement from acting at the peak of her career. Two years have passed and at only 25-years-old, Lee’s come-back has given a fresh perspective on the actress for TV viewers. In SBS’s ``Fashion 70s’’ Lee is playing the role of a genius fashion designer and has been acclaimed for her mature performance, despite offering injuries to her feet while shooting the drama early this month.
The drama has also been recording high viewer ratings compared to other dramas in the same timeslot. The drama’s Internet bulletin boards are also filled with positive comments on her acting. ``Lee’s professional attitude and devotion are such an asset for the drama. No would could play To-mi better than Lee. If ever To-mi’s character doesn’t seem persuasive enough, it’s not because of Lee, but me,’’ said Chong Song-hee, a writer of the drama.
Jung Hye-young
Jung Hye-young, currently appearing in MBC’s mini-series ``Law & Love’’ as a secretary at a law firm is also being praised for her passion for acting. Despite being three-months pregnant, she recently shot a scene of being beaten, with her hair aggressively grabbed. As for the scene in which the character had to roll about after being beaten, the drama used a substitute actress. Jung has been reported to have regretted not having been able to perform the scene herself.
Ha Hee-ra
Ha Hee-ra, who is also known as part of an exemplary married couple with her husband and actor Choi Su-jong, has made a comeback after two years, by starring as a beautiful and talented housewife in SBS’ ``I Love You Enemy,’’ which has been airing on Fridays since July 15th. In order to cast Ha, the drama’s producer Sung Joon-ki persuaded Choi, who thought it was to early for his wife to make a comeback, for more than two months.
``It was not easy to identify with the character since it’s so different from me. Although the character could be seen as somewhat bad and egoistic, I will try my best to buy sympathy from viewers,’’ Ha said in a press conference for launching the drama.
Kim Ji-ho
Kim Ji-ho came back to TV with SBS’s ``Single Again’’ in June after three years of concentrating on child care and house chores. In 2001, Kim married Kim Ho-jin, also a TV actor. Although the drama ended recently with only a moderate viewer rating due to the enormous success of MBC’s ``My Lovely Samsoon’’ in the same timeslot, with her trademark lively character and intelligence, Kim’s acting as Kum-joo, an independent widow in her thirties, drew compliments from critics and viewers.
The Korea Times
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/20...19393211690.htm< Prince of Legend > Catches the Viewers' Eyes with its Imposing MagnificenceMBC's 45th anniversary special production drama "Prince of the Legend" has started its long 60 episode journey with great reviews. According to the rating agency, TNS Media Korea, the drama's viewer rates recorded 17.5% in the metropolitan area and 16.3 % throughout the whole country on the first day it aired, May 15th.
After the first showing netizens visited the "Prince of the Legend" website and could not hide there excitement.
A drama that will make an upward stroke in the drama business has been born...(J6353)
My heart is still beating with excitement...[PRAYER77]
Huh June-ho's powerful force....[CJY2682]
The drama is more exciting and the pictures are a lot better than I thought they would be [KFYWCG]
Especially, Hae Mo-soo and Geum-wa's grand and magnificent fighting scene set on China's great landscapes on the HD TV caught the viewers' eyes, and on the drama's website were constant reviews saying that this made it seem like the viewers were watching a martial arts movie.
Firmly the character that caught the viewers' eyes was Huh June-ho's role as Hae Mo-soo. Huh June-ho showed a deepened charisma in playing Hae Mo-soo, a hero who fought the Han Nation's army in order to free the immigrants from the Han Nations domination, which the viewers gave their highest praises to.
Also viewers praised Yu Hwa, played by
Oh Yuen-soo, who has come back to acting in a historical drama after an 11-year hiatus, and Guem-wa, played by Jun Kwang-lyul who has usually done soft and gentlemanly characters. Yu Hwa shows her tough spirit when she tells Tae-soo of the Han Nation to stop at once while watching the migrants get brutally murdered but she is pure and meek in the eyes of her father and Hae Mo-soo and the viewers thought of Yu Hwa's character as cute. In the scene that Geum Wa (Jun Kwang-lyul) showed his extravagant actions there was a kind of force that could only felt by him which caught the viewers' eyes.
In the first episode Geum Wa gets called by Tae-soo of the Han Nation and goes to the Hyun Toe Castle where he meets Yu Hwa, and the desperate and sad look he gives her offers a hint of the sad love story that is about to be revealed throughout the 60 episode series. Moreover, as Yu Hwa finds and rescues Hae Mo-soo, who has drifted down to the Hah Baek tribe's riverbanks with a wound on his shoulder, caught the viewers' eyes because it showed the start of the first generation's love-line between Hae Mo-soo, Yu Hwa, and Geum Wa.
'Prince of the Legend'has already blown up a stir with the meeting between the two writers, Choi Wahn-gyu's writer of the drama 'Huh June' that ended with record breaking viewer ratings, and writer Jung Hyung-soo who wrote a lot of famous punch lines like "If your in pain then I'm in pain", which brought "Da Mo" a huge fan base, and many other famous lines.
When Geum Wa asks Hae Mo-soo to be treated when he gets a wound from a poisoned sword, he asks "If you don't treat me right this minute I'll never be able to use my arm again", Hae Mo-soo replies "If you are not able to use your arm again than I will be your two arms for the rest of your life", in response to these analects we can expect that a lot of other analects will come from the drama in the long journey to come.
On the other hand, in the episode aired on the 16th of May Hae Mo-soo and So Seo-no meet by chance, Geum Wa risks his life to save Yu Hwa and the birth of So Seo-no, the first queen, is about to be unfolded.
* MBC's 45th anniversary special production drama "Prince of the Legend", main viewing points:
1. The deep and close friendship between Geum Wa and Hae Mo-soo.
2. The first generation's love line between Hae Mo-soo, Yu Hwa and Geum Wa.
3. The force of Jumong, Song Il-gook starting from the 3rd episode.
4. The second generation's love line between Jumong, So Seo-no and Dae So.
credits to MBC Global Media
http://content.mbc.co.kr/e_mbc/biz_news_re...ge=1&idx=65
its funny how she plays song il kook's mom but in real life, hes a few days older than her. 
