Kim Woo-bin will be back on tvN’s weekend drama “Our Blues” on April 9th.
Well-known as the one who directed “Han Gong-ju”, Director Lee Soo-jin‘s latest film “Idol” was released in 2019. As director Lee Soo-jin‘s latest work, who made a deep impression in the film industry by winning the Blue Dragon Film Festival‘s “Rookie Director Award” and the Notre Dame Film Festival‘s “Tiger Award” for “Han Gong-ju,” “Idol” production cost is a whopping 9.8 billion won. In addition to Chun Woo-hee, the heroine of “Han Gong-ju,” Han Seok-kyu and Seol Kyung-gu, who dominated Korean films from the mid to late 1990s to the early and mid-2000s, were cast together, raising high expectations.
However, “Idol” with such a brilliant cast attracted only 180,000 viewers nationwide, falling behind the Korean movie “Money” starring Ryu Jun-yeol and Yoo Ji-tae and the Marvel Hero movie “Captain Marvel.” Eventually, “Idol” was pushed to the IPTV market less than a month after its release. The final box office performance of “Idol” was less than that of “Han Gong-ju” (220,000), and “Idol” became a representative example of showing that extravagant casting does not necessarily guarantee success.
On April 9th, tvN’s new weekend drama, “Our Blues”, will premiere. “Our Blues” boasts absurdly colorful casts with big names such as Lee Byung-hun, Kim Hye-ja, Ko Doo-sim, Shin Min-ah, Cha Seung-won, Lee Jung-eun, Han Ji-min, and Um Jung-hwa. Among the outstanding cast members, there is a person who attracts the attention of viewers. Overcoming a long hiatus after the 2016 movie “Master” and the drama “Uncontrollably Fond“, actor Kim Woo Bin is making a comeback after a long time.
Hot stars in the mid-2010s, when movies and dramas were rampant
Kim Woo-bin, who boasts a tall height of 188 centimeters, has been in the spotlight since 2008 as a model. Then, he began his acting career in 2011 by appearing in KBS drama special “White Christmas” and at the end of the same year, he appeared in MBN sitcom “Vampire Idol” with his modeling colleagues such as Lee Soo-hyuk and Hong Jong-hyun (however, “Vampire Idol” ended poorly with zero ratings throughout the show).
Kim Woo-bin then appeared as a model in the 2012 film “Runaway Cop”, and began to make his name known in earnest in Kim Eun-sook‘s “Dignity of a Gentleman” by playing the rebellious student Dong-hyeop who secretly loves Seo Yi-soo (Kim Ha-neul). In 2013, he rose straight to stardom as an actor in earnest by showing the bromance chemistry with actor Lee Jong-seok, who also began to receive attention at the same time in “School 2013”.
Kim Woo-bin made his silver screen debut through Kwak Kyung-taek‘s “Friend 2” by playing the role of Sung-hoon, the son of Dong-soo (played by Jang Dong-gun), and worked with great seniors such as Yoo Oh-sung and Joo Jin-mo. In the same year, he played Choi Young-do in Kim Eun-sook‘s “The Heirs,” who has a crush on the female lead Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye), gaining support from many female fans. “The Heirs” was a big success with a viewer rating of more than 25%, giving Kim Woo-bin the Top 10 Stars award at the SBS Drama Awards at the end of that year.
Kim Woo-bin attracted 2.5 million viewers in 2014 when he appeared in Kim Hong-sun‘s “The Con Artists.” He then appeared in the commercial film debut “Twenty” by director Lee Byung-hun who has attracted 16 million viewers with his movie “Extreme Job.” Featuring Kim Woo-bin, as well as many young new actors such as Kang Ha-neul, Lee Joon-ho, Jung So-min, Lee Yoo-bi, Min Hyo-rin, and Ahn Jae-hong, the movie was praised as a new comedy film that reversed the formula of existing comedy films, surpassing 3 million viewers nationwide.
Kim Woo-bin‘s first drama comeback in three years since “The Heirs,” ended with a single-digit audience rating due to its giant competition “Don’t Dare To Dream.” It was Kim Woo-bin‘s first obstacle as an actor, who had been on a roll without knowing any failure in every drama he appeared in. However, Kim Woo-bin then attracted 7 million viewers nationwide through director Cho Eui-seok‘s crime action film “Master,” which was released in December 2016.
Overcoming nasopharyngeal cancer and returning through “Our Blues”
Kim Woo-bin was scheduled to join the military after filming one more movie, but he suddenly delivered another news that was not about his next work, surprising the audience, in May 2017. He was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer during the review of his next work. Kim Woo-bin was exempted from military service for chemotherapy. He rarely told the media about his return even after battling three chemotherapy and 35 radiation treatments. Kim Woo-bin‘s first return activity in about three years was his appearance as a presenter at the 2019 Blue Dragon Film Festival.
Kim Woo-bin then participated as the narrator of MBC’s founding special documentary “Human” in January 2020 before finished filming director Choi Dong-hoon‘s new film “Alien” from 2020 to 2021. In addition, he is appearing as a part-timer in the entertainment program “Boss By Chance 2” starring his close seniors Cha Tae-hyun and Cho In-sung, meeting viewers for the first time in a long while. Kim Woo-bin, who is working hard with other part-timers (Lim Joo-hwan and Lee Kwang-soo) in “Boss By Chance 2,” implicitly reported on his appearance in a new drama.
Kim Woo-bin‘s return to the drama scene was tvN’s weekend drama “Our Blues,” which will premiere on April 9th. It is a new work by Noh Hee-kyung, who wrote “The Reason I Live,” “Lie,” “That Winter, The Wind Blows,” and “Live.” Kim Woo-bin plays the role of captain Park Jung-joon, who has a clear and warm nature in “Our Blues.” Kim Woo-bin is famous for being Shin Min-ah’s boyfriend, who also appears in “Our Blues,” but he will be in a love line with Han Ji-min, who will be playing Lee Young-ok, in this work.
“Our Blues” boasts an incredibly colorful cast that even overshines Kim Woo-bin‘s return and his first cable TV appearance. Actress Kim Hye-ja and actor Lee Byung-hun will appear as mother and son, while actress Han Ji-min and actress Ko Doo-sim from Jeju will appear as haenyeo (traditional female divers) colleagues. In addition, Cha Seung-won, who plays Choi Han-soo, a bank branch manager, appears as a friend of Lee Jung-eun, who plays Jeong Eun-hee, a fish shop owner. The audience is curious about what story writer Noh Hee-kyung would portray with such a cast.
Director Choi Dong-hoon‘s “Alien”, which is scheduled to be a two-part film, will be released in July. Kim Woo-bin is also waiting for another movie as well as another drama series. Kim Woo-bin, along with Song Seung-heon and Lee Som, will appear in the Netflix drama “Delivery Driver” which is based on the original webtoon of the same name, directed by Cho Eui-seok who directed the movie “Master”. Attention is focusing on whether Kim Woo-bin, who overcame nasopharyngeal cancer, will amaze the public with his activities that are promised to be as active as before.
