MANILA, Philippines – Hyun Bin, Lee Dong-wook and So Ji-sub are aging like fine wine – still able to draw in viewers and even leading hit Korean dramas to second seasons.
The three are considered among the original Hallyu heartthrobs who introduced the wonderful world of Korean dramas in the early 2000s.
Hyun Bin is no stranger to hit after hit — from the 2005 drama “My Love Kim Sam Soon” to the 2010 gender-bending romance fantasy drama “My Secret Garden” to his monster 2020 hit “Crash Landing on You,” opposite his real-life wife Son Ye-jin.
Lee Dong-wook is another popular drama maker, with his 2005 drama “My Girl” a worldwide hit. In the 2010s, he churned other cult drama favorites, most notably the 2016 drama “Goblin” and two seasons of “The Tale of the Nine-Tailed,” released in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
So Ji-sub is similarly a bankable actor in his 40s just like Hyun Bin and Lee Dong-wook, maintaining their pull on fans for 20 years since they led their first dramas.
Ji-sub took the Philippines by storm with his tragic romance 2004 K-drama opposite Ha Ji-won and Zo In-sung in “Memories of Bali” or “Something Happened in Bali.” His other hits are “I’m Sorry I Love You,” “Oh My Venus,” and “The Master’s Sun.”
Still bankable
And now, all three have certified K-drama hits in their 40s, even shows that spawned two seasons.
Dong-wook, for instance, returns as the uncle Jin-man, who runs a suspicious online shop. In the first season, he takes in his niece, Ji-an (Kim Hye-jun) after her parents died. Ji-an eventually figures out that her uncle runs an illegal online shop that sells weapons on the dark web.
The events of the first season carry over in the second one, which premiered on Disney+ last July. This time, Jin-man’s mercenary past catches up with him.
Hyun Bin has also recently returned to Disney+ with the second season of his political thriller “Made in Korea,” where he plays a corrupt intelligence officer.
His Ki-tae is a marked role that it earned him the Baeksang award this year.
It is a role that is far from his phenomenal 2020 hit “Crash Landing on You,” where he played the upright North Korean knight-in-shining armor officer opposite his wife, Son Ye-jin, a South Korean chaebol heiress who accidentally finds herself trapped in North Korea.
While Hyun Bin and Dong-wook are playing morally gray characters, Ji-sub’s most recent hit is a heroic former black ops out on a mission to save his kidnapped daughter.
Ji-sub leads the cast of the hit action-comedy “Agent Kim Reactivated,” which also features an ensemble cast that includes Choi Dae-hoon and Yoon Kyung-ho. Together, they form the former agents who team up to rescue Agent Kim’s daughter from the clutches of her kidnappers.
All three dramas have received positive feedback on their respective streaming platforms, with the sequels for “Made in Korea” and “A Shop for Killers" affirming their popularity.
These uncles or ahjussis in Korean are still proving they can bring in the numbers, even if the platform has shifted from TV in their younger days to streaming in their glorious 40s.