Good news: Yoo Yeon-seok (Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim) is coming back in a new drama, and it’s hit writer Kim Eun-sook’s upcoming blockbuster period drama Mr. Sunshine. Bad news: He’s been cast to play a tragic character who falls in love with the heroine. Nooooooooo. How could anyone cast Yoo Yeon-seok as a second lead after what we all went through with Chilbongie? I CANNOT DO THAT AGAIN. Why would you make me do that again?!
Mr. Sunshine is the latest project from writer Kim Eun-sook and PD Lee Eung-bok of The Lonely Shining Goblin and Descended From the Sun, and it’s a historical drama set in the early 1900s about the “righteous army” that sprang up to defend the country as Japan exerted more and more dominance over Korea. Lee Byung-heon (Master, Inside Men) has signed on to headline as a character who gets taken to the U.S. as a young boy following the 1871 Shinmiyangyo armed conflict, and years later returns to Joseon, the country that abandoned him. While stationed in Joseon as a U.S. soldier, he meets a young aristocratic lady. Rising film actress Kim Tae-ri (The Handmaiden) has been cast to play the young lady who is the last of the noble Go family bloodline, one of the pillars of the nation.
Yoo Yeon-seok is confirmed to co-star as the son of a lowly butcher who flees his homeland and goes to Japan in search of a new life. He’s described as a tragic character who falls in love with Kim Tae-ri’s aristocratic young lady, and will risk everything for his love.
Even though I dread the heartache ahead of me, I do see why he was cast. It sounds like a complex character who’s meant to be villainous but tragically sympathetic, which makes me think of Park Ki-woong’s role in Gaksital. Yoo Yeon-seok actually has more experience with this darker, double-edged character type that he often plays in films (Love Lies, Perfect Proposal, The Royal Tailor, A Werewolf Boy, Introduction to Architecture), rather than the nice guy he’s been playing in dramaland, so I expect a gut-wrenching performance that will make me hate him, and love him, and hate that I love him.
So… what are the odds that he’ll secretly become a patriot and a double agent for the Japanese, and get a loveline with Kim Tae-ri’s maid? It could happen, right? *grasps at optimism straws*
Mr. Sunshine is in the works for an early 2018 premiere.