In many Korean dramas, the main character is built after the motif of an arrogant, unlikeable person gradually being ‘humanized’ by others.
Besides the perfect, gentle and warm male/female leads, the type of character with beautiful looks, superior intelligence, extreme wealth but is a pain in the ass is also very popular in Korean movies. As the main characters who are “protected” by the scriptwriter, these big heads still manage to make the audience fall in love. Of course, that only happens on screen, if a person behaves like this in real life, they must have been beaten to a pulp!
1. Go Moon Young (It’s Okay to Not Be Okay)
Despite being beautiful, talented, and a beloved writer, Moon Young (Seo Ye Ji) is extremely mean. However, her behaviors such as threatening a child, bragging with her old friends, taking (or stealing) everything that she likes, touching, “groping” the male lead, even casually assaulting others, … make the audience fall in love, thinking that she is so cool. Of course, it’s just a double standard, in real life, even if Moon Young has a psychological problem, people won’t accept such actions.
2. Jo Yi Seo (Itaewon Class)
Before Moon Young, there was Jo Yi Seo (Kim Da Mi) of “Itaewon Class”, who was granted the nickname “crazy woman”. Smarter than others, Yi Seo doesn’t seem to care about anyone. She even dares to hit an adult who is at her mother’s age. To explain the actions of this character, the scriptwriter labeled Yi Seo as having a personality disorder with constant anti-social thoughts and used to need the help of psychotherapy. Of course, Yi Seo also caused a lot of controversy for her attitude and her brash actions, but most of all, she still made the majority of the audience fall in love with her for being such a badass.
3. Han Se Joo (Chicago Typewriter)
Han Se Joo (Yoo Ah In) of “Chicago Typewriter”, another writer with an eccentric lifestyle, is quite similar to Go Moon Young of “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay”. He pleaded being bullied by a close friend 10 years ago to his wariness of the whole world. The reason sounds pitiful, but his actions towards the female lead are still hard to understand. Se Joo gives himself the right to judge others and hurts the female lead many times. Even though Jeon Seol saved his life, he expressed no gratitude. If it weren’t for the bond from her previous life, Se Joo’s idol image in Jeon Seol‘s eyes would have completely collapsed and she certainly wouldn’t have fallen in love with this writer.
4. Kim Joo Won (Secret Garden)
Back in the past, in “Secret Garden” which aired 11 years ago, there was also a “senior” in the “big head association”. “There are two types of women, one is for a man to marry, another is for him to joke around and break up. But you are in between the two types” – this is the legendary words of Kim Joo Won (Hyun Bin) to the poor girl Gil Ra Im (Ha Ji Won). With the way he thinks about women and his arrogant, self-righteous attitude at the beginning of the series, if Joo Won was a person in real life, he wouldn’t be able to live peacefully.
