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Jang Hee-jin signs on as cursed queen in Mirror of the Witch

Will Jang Hee-jin (Village: Secret of Achiara, Scholar Who Walks the Night) ever play a character not cursed with a horrible fate? At least she does it well, and makes me sad for her tragic characters; I especially liked her last performance in Village, which made me think she was underutilized as the second lead in most of her projects. She’s due to return in JTBC’s fantasy sageuk Mirror of the Witch, where she’ll play a queen and mother to Kim Sae-ron (High School: Love On).

The supernatural drama is a fantasy retelling of the life of famed Joseon medical scholar Heo Jun, played by Yoon Shi-yoon (Prime Minister and I). It uses a few key historical figures and then injects magic, shamans, witches, and curses into the universe, making for a fairytale-esque story about a cursed royal family in Joseon.

Jang Hee-jin will play a queen who makes a deal with the devil, or in this case Yeom Jung-ah (My Neighbor’s Wife), an evil shaman. Jang has been cast as Queen Insun, wife of King Myeongjong, who was childless and desperate to have heirs. Historically they’re known to only have had one child, a prince, but in the drama the queen will have twins — a prince and his hidden sister, a princess with a curse.

Kim Sae-ron will play the princess who carries her mother’s curse and is abandoned by her family because of it. She has the frozen heart of a witch inside of her, and she’ll have a dual role as both the princess and the witch. Jang Hee-jin seems too young to play her mother, but Kim Sae-ron is playing a white-haired old witch too, so I think they’re going to do funny things with age in this drama.

Yoon Shi-yoon will play a young Heo Jun, a passionate young man who’s gifted in arts, sciences, and martial arts, but kept from achieving his dreams because of his low social status. He lives a carefree life not living up to his full potential and just helping out the people he crosses paths with, until one day he meets Kim Sae-ron and falls in love with her. I don’t know if they’ll be able to pull off a convincing romance, no matter how fantastical, but the story does intrigue me, I’ll give them that.

Kwak Shi-yang, Lee Sung-jae, Choi Sung-won, and Jo Dal-hwan will co-star. Mirror of the Witch will be a Friday-Saturday drama following Ms. Temper and Nam Jung-ki in May.

Via Xports News, Sports Chosun

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Maybe casting was on a drinking binge when they picked all these actors of the wrong ages to the characters out.
I just don't know. Hope they do not ruin it.

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Lol the only way this can work out is if it's all one big joke. There's no way I'll take this in if the show is not a satire and the production crew is taking it seriously, because if you're going to be serious, don't go for such a weird, incompatible cast

I probably won't resist watching ep 1 to see just how bad this is, but my expectations are below zero.

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So....Kim Sae Ron is really going to star in this? Are the production crew/casting crew blind?! Clueless? I have no problem with Kim Sae Ron----she's a great actress, but she is way too young to star opposite Yoon Shi Yoon. I can understand if she was over 18 and there was a 13 year difference, but she's just a baby! I will be tuning out. It's too cringeworthy to think about unless these two won't have a love line together.

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If she gonna play Sae Ron's mom then Sae Ron is not misscast. It's Shi Yoon that misscast... They should switch Shi Yoon with Sungjae, that's gonna be age appropriate for both dramas. Sungjae is too young for his drama and Shi Yoon is too old for his drama...

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+1000000

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Agreed

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@nathan i also agree with you, they should put a younger male lead instead

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seriously, is the casting director for this one drunk? What are they on?

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Feel bad for Jang Hee Jin. Although I am excited for her because after Scholars, she has been given continuous offers, but not this one.

Jang Hee Jin could play a mom for kid, not someone in teen.

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I think that since this is a sageuk, the ages of the romantic leads are pretty realistic... in that period, girls were married off even when they were children, considered full-grown women in their teenage years, wide age gaps between men and women in couples were common, as were barely-thirty year old mothers of teenagers. As long as the actors can be convincing in conveying their emotions, I don't see why it would not work. It'd be different if the story was set in the present.

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The thing is, girls were married off young, but so were boys. If there had to be huge age differences back then, it was between a woman in her 20's (because she was considered a spinster at that point) and a much older man (who was either a widower or wanted a concubine) or a slave and her master.

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Girls were married off young more often than boys because for the most part they were seen more as property than actual human beings. And they were often married off to powerful, older men than boys, though that's not to say a girl and a boy marrying didn't happen.

"Men usually got married before the age of 30, women had to be below 20.... Significant age difference between husband and wife was daily occurrence."

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But it's not the characters who have that significant age gap here, it's the actors. Who belong to the present day, where it is HIGHLY questionable decision-making to cast a 15-year-old as the love interest of a 30-year-old.

I would actually be impressed if a sageuk dared to show a couple whose characters had that age gap, but in-story, things are always sanitised to fit modern sensibilities re: age.

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Back in the day (pretty much everywhere) - there was no such thing as the "teenage" years.

Girls were seen as being suitable for marriage once they went thru puberty and if they weren't married off by their mid-late teens, the parents were seen as not doing their job.

And yes, it was quite common for a girl to be married off to an older man of wealth/power (marriage was a means of forming bonds with powerful families where one could elevate the position of one owns' family).

Jewish girls went thru their "adulthood" ceremony (Bat Mitzvah) at the age of 12.

A person in their mid-20s was "middle-aged" as the life expectancy was in the 40s.

But young girls getting married off was still fairly common even during the Victorian Age or during the movement of settlers to the American West.

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I think the story sounds interesting, but the casting is really off-putting.

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Mte

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Her dress is so pretty

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The period just gives an excuse to put an underage girl with a grown man. It normalizes what shouldn't be normalized. It's irrelevant to me that it may be a cultural thing and that some cultures are still accepting of it. At a minimum, it seems exploitive, but mostly it just seems pervy.

Then again, seeing as how SK favorite thing to do is throw some school uniform on a group of not-legal, barely-legal, and grown women and have them entertain grown-ass men, can't say I'm surprised.

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Um - there have been numerous Hollywood films which have paired a teen actress w/ an older actor, much less have films about grown men having a relationship w/ a girl still in HS.

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What a missed up cast... I hope there won't be a love lines

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Seems like Jang Hee-jin's acting career has finally taken off.

She kinda disappeared off the radar after being a regular guest on X-Man (did a film or other project here and there); while not an extrovert, she really had a great laugh (would snap her head back and laugh really hard at Haha's antics).

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She is so pretty and can act well. She is the star in the village and Scholar drama....
And seriously ehe matches well with yoon shi yoon? Why not her as the lead instead of kiddo kim sae ron?

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People keep saying that in those days,marrying with such an age diffence as this was normal as a justification and set in this time period,I agree. Hell, it still happens in some villages(even in the cities too,less common though) in my country. But,as pogo said above,the age difference is in our present times,between the actors playing the characters and not the characters themselves and puts it a whole other level. Its not like its within the drama's premise(that we know of) and we don't know if the script will acknowlege such differences(highly doubtful). I much suspect they'd like us all to ignore the giant pink elephant in the room and thats NOT OKAY! Since korea often infantalizes its women its not like they couldnt get a 20something year old actress(at the least,not a minor) to act a teenager if the script demanded such. This may be jumping to conclusion but its to be expected and with what we know so far,seems like an excuse for pervy hands(and minds) to prevail. Shikenan!!!

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