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A generation shift is taking place for young Korean stars. From former child actors to idol stars, recording artists, models and stage musical actors, a variety of talents coming from diverse backgrounds are gaining commercial value all around Asia. These rising stars who’ve won the hearts of a wide variety of fans with their unique characteristics and acting skills are emerging as the new driving forces of Korean cinema. Here we introduce ten of the hottest stars in Korea at the moment.

 

 

   

Reminiscent of a young JANG Dong-gun with his tall frame and well-defined features, LEE stands as the archetypal ‘good-looking’ actor. TV drama Boys Before Flowers , which boosted him to stardom, also exploited his good looks to the fullest. In romantic high school drama The Heirs , he enjoyed great popularity as a rich high schooler. Likewise, his TV characters are mostly well-dressed fashionable young men with rich fathers. However, his screen personas are the total opposite. In director KANG Woo-suk’s Public Enemy Returns (2008), he played a short-lived young gangster who never disappears from the screen without leaving a striking impression with his piercing gaze. His recent film Gangnam Blues can be considered his true coming-of-age as a film actor, as he sheds his smart suits to join the gritty lowlife of a man’s world. He refused to shirk from physical challenges, with director YOO Ha offering his praise “He seems to be a natural born athlete” for playing realistic action scenes in the film. The romanticist LEE Min-ho, who could shed tears for love, has now opened a new chapter in his career with Gangnam Blues.

 

 

 

KIM Soo-hyun

KIM has been enjoying explosive popularity in the Great China region since his 2013 TV drama My Love from the Star. With endorsements alone, his earnings have reached an astronomical number. He first attracted attention as JUN Ji-hyun’s male opposite in My Love from the Star , but with the rising popularity of the TV drama, his previous works were also thrust in the spotlight. Not only with his role as an alien who falls in love with an earthling in My Love from the Star, but with each role including his high schooler aspiring to be a star in Dream High or his romanticist king in The Moon that Embraces the Sun , he’s been causing a sensation. Already proven to be an extremely bankable star, KIM Soo-hyun successfully made his screen debut as the youngest thief of the five-member team in caper film The Thieves (2012). KIM Soohyun’s strength lies in his ability to freely cross between boy and man. Furthermore, he is known for pulling off emotional scenes effectively, as seen in film Secretly Greatly , where he plays a North Korean spy in disguise. He is currently on a career break after My Love from the Star , and many are eagerly awaiting his next project.

 

  

 

KIM Woo-bin, who began with a career in modeling, is not your typical ‘good-looking’ guy as one can see in his very first acting role as the dyed orange haired high schooler with a mischievously wicked smile in TV drama White Christmas. However, he succeeded to win the hearts of Asian fans with his unique character rather than good looks. He might not be an actor of outstanding method acting skills, but with the long limbs that ruled the runway, he’s created a style of his own. Particularly, the TV drama The Heirs fully banked on KIM Woo-bin’s unpolished appeal as he played LEE Min-ho’s nemesis. And his role as a mischievously loyal, caringly macho high schooler placed him in the circle of next generation Hallyu (Korean Wave) stars. Meanwhile, around the same time, the film Friend: The Great Legacy (2013), in which he plays a young gangster, enabled him to continue his streak of success. Since he played a safecracker of composed and warm character in crime action film The Con Artists, KIM Woo-bin is slowly stepping away from his sharp image. His next project is a comedy titled Twenty , in which he tackles his first comic role as a hot-blooded playboy.

 

  

 

 

  

Before he became an actor, he was rapper T.O.P of idol group ‘Big Bang’. The charisma and unique rapping vocals he displayed on stage worked to his benefit when he made the transition to acting. As the chilling assassin in TV drama Iris , the young soldier in 71-Into The Fire (2010), and the spy dispatched to South Korea in Commitment (2013), his strong, hard-edged roles may be accountable for his powerful image, but his boldness, the low-pitched tone of his voice and his animal instinct are among the striking merits uniquely associated with CHOI Seung-hyun. He projects qualities that are more emotional than rational, artistic than artisanal. The young student soldier who evokes sympathy in 71-Into The Fire is never overshadowed by the powerful presence of well-known veteran actors such as CHA Seung-won and KWON Sang-woo. He continued his coming-of-age youthful image in Commitment but it was not until Tazza: The Hidden Card that he finally displayed his diverse range as a character who evolves from a rookie gambler to a highrolling crook, shifting from naivety to merciless determination, and delicacy to harshness. Through this film, CHOI Seung-hyun earned a reputation as an ‘actor with telling eyes’. It can only get better for this actor.

 

 

 

She might be better known as a member of pop idol girl group f(x), but in fact Sulli began her career with acting. After her debut in 2005 through a child beauty pageant, she started acting with her role as the younger Princess Sunhwa in TV costume drama The Ballad of Seodong . Her child actress days can be witnessed through roles such as the rebellious young girl in film Punch Lady (2007) or the younger version of HA Ji-won who plays the female lead in film Ba:Bo (2008). Likewise, her early acting experience on top of her acting and music training received at her company SM Entertainment naturally kept her close to acting. Her cute and lovely image on stage continued in TV drama To the Beautiful You , where she plays a woman posing as a handsome man who falls into a sweet and daring romance. She then repeated her cute and boyish image as leading lady SON Ye-jin’s follower in film The Pirates . She shifted gears to a different image in her latest work Fashion King , where she emits an easy-going appeal as a homely honor student. Here she fills the screen with her passion and hard work as an actress.