Once considered an “all-kill actress” for only getting successful projects, Kim Tae Ri may be facing the first failure of her career
The first half of 2022 has been an excellent time for Kim Tae Ri, who striked big with the K-drama “Twenty Five, Twenty One”, and was crowned the Best Leading Actress at the prestigious Baeksang Arts Awards. Unfortunately, her career on the big screen may be facing the first hurdle, as her latest movie project fell below expectations.
Kim Tae Ri made her acting debut in the hit movie “The Handmaiden”, which is directed by the legendary Park Chan Wook. With an intriguing writing and outstanding acting performances, the film stole the hearts of the public and critics alike, immediately launching Kim Tae Ri into a “monster rookie”.
And with the kick-start as grand as “The Handmaiden”, Kim Tae Ri seems to be walking on a flower road, leading an extremely smooth-sailing career.
In particular, the actress continued her winning streak with two movies “1987: When The Day Comes” and “Little Forest”, receiving numerous critical acclaim and garnering ample attention.
Kim Tae Ri also received nominations in all the “Big 3” film awards of Korea, including the Baeksang Arts Awards, the Blue Dragon Film Awards, and the Grand Bell Awards, and managed to win the title of Best Actress at the Director’s Cut Awards.
With 3 big screen successes in a row, Kim Tae Ri started to be nicknamed an “all-kill actress” of Korea, which implies that every work of Kim Tae Ri will receive great reception.
Then, the actress proves this title true with 2 hit K-dramas in a row, particularly the 2018 series “Mr. Sunshine”, and the recent drama “Twenty Five, Twenty One”. Both recorded viewership ratings in the double digits, and boast intense popularity both in and outside of Korea.
If “Mr. Sunshine” earned Kim Tae Ri a nomination for Baeksang’s Best Actress, then her appearance in “Twenty Five, Twenty One” secured her a total win, and cemented Kim Tae Ri’s “all-kill actress” title.
Unfortunately, the 2nd half of 2022 did not go as well for the actress, as her latest big screen project can’t be considered as a success.
In particular, Kim Tae Ri returned with “Alienoid”, a fantasy/sci-fi movie with a star-studded cast and a reputable production team. The film cost a whooping 33 billion won to make, and yet flunked terribly with only 1.6 million tickets sold, despite requiring at least 7.3 million tickets to break even.
Worse, the movie seems to have failed to impress both the public and critics, and various viewers have been calling it a “salad bowl” in a derogatory way. “Alienoid” tries to tackle too many elements and yet falls short in every of these, people said, leading to a rather lackluster run. As a result, “Alienoid” also shaked Kim Tae Ri’s all-kill title.
It seems that Kim Tae Ri doesn’t click well with the sci-fi genre, in general, as a previous project of her, “Space Sweepers”, also did not perform well enough. It did decently as a Netflix film, but topicality was low, and most people deemed the movie as “forgettable”.
Hopefully, with her talents, Kim Tae Ri will be able to recover her title in a future project.
