They’re really bringing out the big guns for Mr. Sunshine, aren’t they? After casting a major film star (Lee Byung-heon, Inside Men) to headline, the current film industry It Girl as his love interest (Kim Tae-ri, The Handmaiden), and rising leading man Yoo Yeon-seok (Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim) to play a tragic second lead, the production has confirmed adding Byun Yo-han (Six Flying Dragons) to join the period drama set in the early 1900s around the righteous army that rises up against Japanese oppression. Just in case any of us were still on the fence and needed this extra push to tune in.
The drama stars Lee Byung-heon as a man who was taken away as a young boy to the United States following an armed conflict between America and Korea in 1871, who returns to his homeland years later when stationed there as a U.S. soldier. Writer Kim Eun-sook explained that she wanted a lead who was a strong actor and good at speaking English, which makes Lee a perfect fit. Kim Tae-ri plays an aristocrat’s daughter with whom both the hero and the second lead (Yoo Yeon-seok) fall in love.
Byun Yo-han will play a character who is described simply as “appearing like an immature playboy, but has a warm heart.” That’s not much of a description, but it’s one I can at least readily picture Byun Yo-han portraying, since he does charming, playful, and warm-hearted so well.
Mr. Sunshine will be the third collaboration between writer Kim Eun-sook and director Lee Eung-bok, following massively successful Descended From the Sun and The Lonely Shining Goblin, so naturally there are high expectations for this drama to be similarly successful. It’s a tall order, but it seems this team has cracked the code on worldwide popularity, so if anyone could threepeat, it would be them.
Mr. Sunshine is being planned for a premiere in the first half of 2018.