Popcxqueen

No one is saying they're "masculine" if they're not feminine in a stereotypical way. There is A LOT of room between feminine and masculine - those aren't the only choices out there.
And your statement about female characters in rom-coms not being "unfeminine" is very problematic for me if you mean that these characters are only acceptable if they're steeped in overdone tropes - like being overly naïve or stupid, clumsy, docile, etc.

Females don't need to be "feminine", by the way.

I liked your articles! LOL. I would add Han Groo's character from Marriage, Not Dating here because she is willing to throw a HUGE scene if and when it was needed, and to not be docile or sweet or appropriate. And her character development over the course of the drama was really nice too,.

I liked your articles! LOL. I would add Han Groo's character from Marriage, Not Dating here because she is willing to throw a HUGE scene if and when it was needed, and to not be docile or sweet or appropriate. And her character development over the course of the drama was really nice too,.

I also loved her in Wok of Love.

My favorite YWJ drama is My Shy Boss, but it was from 2017, and I'm not sure it's quite old enough yet to be on this list... :-)

And while I'm on a roll, here are two other actors that I will gladly watch older dramas for: Yeon Woo Jin and Lee Joon Gi (they are both so swoon-worthy.)

1) Tale of Arang (YWJ *AND* LJG together!)
Tale of Arang continued the 2012-was-an-epic-year-for-dramas. YWJ was nominated for an award for his role, LJG won an award for his role, and LJG and Shin Min Ah won Best Couple.
YWJ:
2) Marriage, Not Dating (2014)
This drama is just dripping with sweetness and fiery chemistry between the two leads. I've watched it more times than I can count.
3) Divorce Lawyer in Love (2015)
Not quite as good as the Marriage drama, but still lovely.

Let me know what you think!

LMH was awesome in The King: Eternal Monarch and so I strenuously disagree with your statement that he can't act. I think the military break was good for him in this regard. Also his acting has really improved from 2012 (Faith) to 2020 - there are a lot of K-actors who are better now than they were eight years ago as well, as one could imagine.
And yes, LMH is serious eye candy but he's not only that....which is why he's famous.

I wouldn't even mind if they were Canadians - plenty of great actors from the north are professionals here in the US. :-) And I honestly don't mind Europeans acting like they're American, they just need to mask their accents (which they're actually really good at already). Or else just be European. Not all international characters need to be American, for crying out loud. Just don't suck. That's the bare minimum I ask for in an actor - just don't suck. LOL.

It does....a bit, anyway. It's not the main focus of the story, but thankfully there is some. I could have always used more, but I can always use more romance in everything. Hahaha.

YES - see my comment above yours. Goodness, that was bad. I loved the rest of the story, thankfully.

The ending was great - romantic and sweet. And the talking was necessary to move the storyline forward.

I loved King2Hearts a lot, (like a lot), but it had the MOST ATROCIOUS "American" "actors" I had ever seen....then and still now. I don't know where they found those people, but they weren't American, for sure. However, what was even worse was that they were such bad actors it was embarrassing, and it made their scenes unwatchable. The villains were so bad it became cartoonish (and not cartoonish like anime or something cool.)

So this drama ended up having two things: some of the most heartfelt and well-written scenes in dramaland: between the King and his beloved, between the previous King and the new King, between the King and his friend, between Hang Ah and her father, etc, etc, and 2) some of the poorest execution of a portrayal of international folks out there.

And I want to go on record here disagreeing with anyone who is being negative about the FL's character - either her accent or her voice or how she looks. Ha Ji Won could turn her character from cutesy and sweet into a badass in seconds - that's acting skill, folks.

Agreed!! It ripped my heart watching it the first time, and it never got any better with subsequent watchings.

YES!

And speaking of Lee Seung Gi, I loved King2Hearts a lot, (like a lot), but it had the MOST ATROCIOUS "American" "actors" I had ever seen....then and still now. I don't know where they found those people, but they weren't American, for sure. However, what was even worse
was that they were such bad actors it was embarrassing, and it made their scenes unwatchable. The villains were so bad it became cartoonish (and not cartoonish like anime or something cool.)
So this drama ended up having two things: some of the most heartfelt and well-written scenes in dramaland: between the King and his beloved, between the previous King and the new King, between the King and his friend, between Hang Ah and her father, etc, etc, and 2) some of the poorest execution of a portrayal of international folks out there.

I watched You're All Surrounded because of CSW but I ended the drama a bit obsessed with Lee Seung Gi.... LOL

For some of the best older dramas, watch for anything with Cha Seung Won in them.
1) City Hall (2009) with Kim Sun Ah
2) The Greatest Love (2011) with Gong Hyo Jin
3) You're All Surrounded (2014) with Lee Seung Gi and Go Ah Ra

Yes, this drives me NUTS