Hard work and perseverance pay dividends for K-drama favourite
Actress Kim Hye-yoon, nicknamed the “nation’s little sister” by South Korean media following her appearance in the K-drama hit, SKY Castle, is back on screens this month in Lovely Runner.
She co-stars with Byeon Woo-seok in the fantasy romance, a genre in which she has made quite an impact on big and small screens.
Although only 27, the hard-working Kim is becoming one of the industry’s most recognisable faces, capable of tackling a variety of roles.
Why we love her
Not unlike the lead character portrayed by Jun Jung-seo in the recent drama Wedding Impossible, Kim is an extremely hard-working actress.
In just over a decade, she has appeared in 50 different roles, the first in the KBS series Samsaengi in 2013 when she was completing her film studies degree at Konkuk University, for which she had received a scholarship.
She appeared in dozens of shorts, many of them projects made by fellow students at Konkuk, and lots of dramas as an extra, before landing the role that would bring her to the country’s attention.
She also wrote and directed her own short as her graduation project.
Kim had a bit part in the 2015 Hong Kong action thriller Helios, in which she played the younger sister of the character portrayed by Choi Si-won of the K-pop band Super Junior.
She gained industry attention for her small roles in major productions, such as the drama The Bad Guys – which she reprised in the big-screen follow-up The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos – and the theatrical serial killer thriller Memoirs of a Murderer.
Star-making roles
After completing university, Kim auditioned for bigger parts, and landed a role in the spectacularly successful series SKY Castle.
In the series, she plays Kang Ye-seo, the eldest daughter of Yum Jung-ah’s lead character. Ambitious and aloof, Ye-seo works hard to achieve her dream of entering Seoul National University, and following in her family’s footsteps by becoming a doctor.
The part won her a best new actress prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards and put her on the road to stardom.
Kim’s first lead role followed soon after in the high-school fantasy series Extraordinary You, alongside Rowoon, formerly of the K-pop group SF9, and Lee Jae-wook.
Based on the webtoon July Found by Chance, the series features Kim as a student who discovers she is the main character in a comic book, and finds out that the world she lives in is drawn from its pages.
Next for Kim was Secret Royal Inspector & Joy, in which she acted with K-pop group 2PM member Ok Taec-yeon. In this frothy period drama, she portrays Kim Joy, a divorcee who teams up with a royal inspector to tackle cases in the Joseon kingdom era.
Iconic parts
Filmed before Secret Royal Inspector & Joy, her next drama was the worldwide hit Snowdrop, the first Korean drama series carried by Disney+.
As Gye Bun-ok, the sly phone operator at the Hosu Women’s University, Kim gave one of the most memorable and entertaining performances in a show that received a mixed response.
Kim got her first leading role in a feature film in the well-received indie drama The Girl on a Bulldozer, which debuted at the Busan International Film Festival in 2021.
She earned many plaudits for her performance as a tough 19-year-old who has to stand up and take care of her brother when her troublesome father’s actions threaten to tear their family apart.
The role landed her best new actress awards at the Grand Bell Awards, the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Wildflower Film Awards, as well as the rising star Asia award at the New York Asian Film Festival.
Although she is better known for her work on the small screen, Kim has played key roles in several wellregarded big-screen features, including horror film Midnight and the fantasy romance Ditto.
Midnight features Kim as a young woman who is saved by the deaf protagonist, played by Jin Ki-joo, while being abducted by Wi Ha-joon’s terrifying serial killer; she is caught in a tense game of cat and mouse.
In Ditto, a remake of the classic 2000 time-slip film of the same name, Kim plays the sweet college student Seo Han-sol, the first love of the lead character portrayed by Yeo Jin-goo.