news: Lee Seung Gi and Ha Ji Won to star in "The King"

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source: soompi.com

Well, here's more news to pique my interest. Lee Seung Gi and Ha Ji Won will be appearing in a new romantic comedy, soon to air, about a fictional contemporary Korea where monarchy still exists. This will be fun! When I was thinking of the title, "The King", I was wondering how Lee Seung Gi would look in historical attire... but since this is a fictional contemporary Korea, then he won't have to look historical. He just needs to look his utmost "royalty", which he already gives off a somewhat regal image with his nice boy vibes, although I'm pretty sure that (since this is K-drama) he'll be an arrogant prince just like 90% of all the main male leads in K-dramaland.

The challenge: not repeating his rich boy, second-generation chaebol 'tude from Brilliant Legacy.

Lee Seung Gi may be charming and full of noble charisma, but his acting skills are still fairly raw. He was fairly cute in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, and he pulled off the asshole to learned brat in Brilliant Legacy pretty well. But I still can't overlook the fact that it DID take quite some time for him to settle into his character, and there were always a lot of stiff moments. His comedic timing has only ever been good when he's hosting Strong Heart, so I hope that he can manage in another rom-com.

Of course, since I love Lee Seung Gi like the adorable puppy that he is, I'm willing to overlook a bit of awkward acting just for The Cute. Yes, I'm shallow like that, because he is truly every noona's dream younger boyfriend we would love to dote and love on.

As for Ha Ji Won, I have yet to watch anything with her in in save for the two episodes of Damo and one episode of Secret Garden. I know she's good from what little I've seen, so even if Lee Seung Gi is a bit stiff, I'm sure Ha Ji Won can bring it right back. This will be an interesting pairing, though, and if all goes well, in a few weeks I will be happily enjoying lots of new Cuteness.

Of course, for the sake of Ha Ji Won, I really wish they wouldn't typecast her so much. Despite having never really seen anything else she's in, I'm under the impression that she's stuck with pretty much ALL "action-like" character roles. I mean, "North Korean Special Forces female operative"?

Although the premise of the series DOES sound interesting even if I'm getting some Spy Myung Wol vibes (and no, I haven't seen that one, but isn't that what the premise turned into anyway?). I just hope that this series turns out better than what netizens ended up critiquing about Spy Myung Wol.

Here's also a link to the same story at Dramabeans wherein it seems that the game of musical casting has us wondering whether or not this pairing will actually be confirmed. Apparently there have been multiple actors rumored to be up for the main male role in "The King" and Ha Ji Won's participation isn't really confirmed. I'm actually quite interested, so I hope that we're done with the rumored cast and that this will be it.