By Jae-Ha Kim
Kocowa.com
October 17, 2019
It’s never easy for child actors to transition into leading men and women roles.For every Jodie Foster who grows up to win an Academy Award as an adult, you have a slew of performers like Macaulay Culkin, who were beloved as children, but didn’t fare as well in their 20s and 30s.
So it is with great pleasure to see that some of our favorite K-Drama child actors are doing well in their more mature years (mature being a relative term, since they’re all still quite young).
Age: 20
Kim co-starred in “The Moon Embracing the Sun” (2011-2012), playing the pawn of a powerful family that wanted her to become the queen to secure their own place in Joseon’s royal court. Her nuanced performance as a tween earned her critical accolades in the media. She was dubbed the Queen of Child Actors and Nation’s Little Sister. She also slam dunked duel roles in “Who Are You: School 2015” and as a pianist who loses her eyesight in “Page Turner.” Since then, she has worked steadily, often playing characters much older than her biological age. She was 18 when she filmed the series, “Radio Romance,” where she played an assistant writer of a radio program with five years of experience. Her youthful appearance aside, Kim is skilled enough to pull off just about any role. More recently, she starred in “Love Alarm” and the new K-Drama “The Tale of Nokdu,” where she plays a gisaeng trainee.
Age: 17
For many years, Nam has been the go-to actor when it came to portraying younger versions of some of K-Drama’s most handsome men. Like who? He played the younger version of Lee Jong-Suk in “Pinocchio” and “While You Were Sleeping.” Nam got a perm to portray Lee Min-Ho‘s character as a kindergartener in “Boys Over Flowers.” And he played the tortured middle school version of Jang Ki-Yong in “Come and Hug Me.” The teenage actor also has been in the cable hit series “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God,” where he played an abused adoptee. Most recently, he played an otherworldly water fairy in the hit K-Drama “Hotel del Luna.”
Age: 26
Yoo starred in the 2002 feature film “The Way Home,” portraying a bratty Seoul boy forced to spend his summer in the country with his deaf-mute grandmother. The touching film tugged at heartstrings as his character learned to love and appreciate all that his grandma did for him with the little resources that she had. And his role won him the title of Nation’s Little Brother. For the next five years, he played the younger versions of many popular actors. He opted not to attend college and got his mandatory military duty out of the way. He has spent his 20s buildling a repertory of strong roles that show off his diversity as an actor. In “My Strange Hero,” he played a man intent on righting the wrongs of a school’s hierarchy. In “I Am Not a Robot,” he played a young man who is literally allergic to other human beings. And he more than held his own as Ji Chang-Wook‘s frenemy in “Warrior Baek Dong Soo.”
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