Jung Il-woo is just so cute. I’d thought he’d lost all traces of his youthful baby face when he took on the more adult role in Return of Iljimae, but it looks like he’s still got it. “It” being his trademark boyish smile, that is.
Return of Iljimae ended with middling ratings in Korea, but has had (reportedly) fairly good response among Hallyu-lovers in Japan, paving the way for his very first Japanese fanmeeting. (His previous series, the family sitcom Unstoppable High Kick, also did well.) The fanmeeting was held on June 20 (pics are just being released now) to an audience of approximately 1,000 fans.
The camera sharpens just a moment after this to focus on the couple in the background, but I like the imagery of leaving them blurred. It’s a rather effective way to create the illusion of intimacy in an understated way.
After Return of Iljimae actor Jung Il-woo wrapped his series in early April, he headed to Europe for a solo vacation. He started off in England, where he shot some photos for Elle Magazine (pics below), then set off through the Continent, some photos of which he posted on his mini-homepage (also below).
Now the actor is back at home, has shorn his Iljimae hair short, and is planning his next official activity in the form of Japanese fanmeeting. I wouldn’t think Jung has a very high profile in Japan — his previous projects weren’t really export pieces, like the family sitcom Unstoppable High Kick — but Return of Iljimae is currently broadcasting in Japan, where it was pre-sold even before its Korean premiere.
Ha, can I just say how odd it is to have a conversation with my mother about how adorable Jung Il-woo is? She knows him mostly from High Kick, although I told her he is so very much improved here. Case in point: there are a few key scenes in this episode where he is particularly good.
This drama is also one of those where I don’t see the actors so much as the characters, which is to everyone’s credit for doing such a nice job integrating themselves not only into their characters, but with each other’s characters and the overall narrative.
SONG OF THE DAY
Jang Yoon-ju – “오늘, 고마운 하루” (Today, a thankful day) [ Download ]
After such a beautiful, refined depiction of Iljimae’s maturation, it’s interesting to see him — and the series — take a darker turn. While I wouldn’t say that the series itself is “realistic” — in that it’s based on a hero comic — the characterizations are absolutely realistic, and that’s quite compelling. I love that this is almost a reversal of what I’ve seen in other heroic tales, where you have a nondescript young man changed into a righteous defender of innocents. That change is usually mono-directional, traveling in a straight path from “ordinary” to “hero.”
What’s different here is that Iljimae grows up a very decent young man, and has a pure sort of early upbringing. Even after he makes the transition into a noble thief and crusader against corrupt noblemen, he struggles and makes errors in judgment, and comes up against some complex moral dilemmas. It’s not a straight line to becoming a hero, and I appreciate that this drama shows us his ups and downs — not just in terms of external antagonists, but within Iljimae himself. It’s almost like becoming a hero has introduced darkness into his life of sweet and light, rather than helping clear it away. That’s kinda profound, isn’t it?
SONG OF THE DAY
Park Sae-byul – “우린 날 수 있어요” (We Can Fly) [ Download ]
