K-pop stars rush to screens

Lee Seung-gi, right, and Suzy, left, star in the drama “Gu Family Book” that airs Mondays and Tuesdays.

Fans love it, but

critics remain

By Kim Ji-soo

Yoon Eun-hye, a successful K-pop star-turned-actress

Lee Seung-gi, who stars in the new TV drama “Gu Family Book,” wears so many hats that it’s hard to immediately decide what his real job is.

A decade after his debut, Lee is more known as a multi-tasking entertainer than a singer he is.

Following in Lee’s footsteps are hordes of K-pop “idol” group members. Former K-pop star has successfully transformed into acting including Yoon Yun-hye, formerly of Baby V.O.X. Yoon has branched out into directing as well. Another isPark Yu-chun of JYJ who now has a considerable filmography under his belt including the “Sungkyunkwan Scandal” (2010) and “Missing You” (2012).

The latest most prominent is Suzy of Miss A, who stars opposite Lee in the new drama. Last year she became the nation’s sweetheart with a role in the popular film “Architecture 101.” Her popularity continued, allowing the 18-year-old to grab the leading drama role. She remains more visible as an actress while the other group members — Fei, Jia and Min carry out their own solo activities.

The popularity of Lee andSuzy may well helped in the exports of the “Gu Family Book” to the Philippines, Hong Kong and Cambodia.And the popularity of these stars are the reasons that creators of dramas are tapping into the K-pop star pool.

Clicking onto weekend prime time dramas, people are likely to see a major K-pop star in the lead role.

K-pop star Park Yu-chun, second from left, in a poster for “Sungkyunkwan Scandal” / Korea Times file

On the KBS weekend drama “You’re the Best, Yi Sun-sin,” K-pop darling IU stars in the lead role of a young woman surprisingly finding her talent for acting after unsuccessful attempts to land a job. U Know of TVXQ recently starred in the drama “Queen of Ambition” that aired on the network SBS. JoKwon of 2AM is currently starring in “God of Office.”

So for fans of K-pop stars, Korean dramas are the latest playing ground of their dreams. Previously, it seemed that Korean musicals were the venue to get another up-close look at the stars, but TV dramas are now the dominant trend.

Acting is a hard job to break into, and the recent prevalence of K-pop stars going into acting compounds the problem further. About 520 actors are registered with the Korea Film Actors Association (KFAA), of which actors had to be a member up until the 1980s to appear in a film.

“Admittedly, the K-pop stars to a certain extent contribute to ticket sales, but the problem is they did not go through proper acting training,” said Pyon Won-hyug, director general of the KFAA. And because the size of the pie is limited, the more roles that K-pop stars take translate into small pool for the actors, he added.

Veteran Korean director Kang Woo-suk whose films include “Silmido” and “Hanbando” spoke critically against non-trained K-pop stars advancing into film and television dramas while appearing on a talk show Monday.

The report cards for a large majority of these dramas do explain why more broadcasters and television drama producers opt for the K-pop stars. U Know’s “Queen of Ambition,” recently closed with a rating of 25.8 percent.

The rating for “Sungkyunkwan Scandal” surpassed slightly over 10 percent but it had manic watchers that called themselves the “Seongpye.” The film “Architecture 101” recorded around 4 million in tickets sales, driven largely by the popularity of Suzy, fellow actors Ha Ga-in and Uhm Tae-woong said.The “Gu Family Book” is currently topping in ratings for the Monday/Tuesday slot.