The protagonist of almost every good K-drama is a sympathetic person. They’re often overworked, underpaid, not appreciated or from a poor family whose lack of social status puts them at the bottom of society’s hierarchy.
But let’s face it. Some of the best characters are the ones who cause trouble, show no remorse and have zero regrets about all the chaos they’ve caused. And frankly, they’re the ones we love to hate as we scream at our screens.
SPOILER ALERT:
All the series I’ll be talking about have had their finales already. I will be giving away some mild spoilers. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
“Kairos”
We rooted for Ahn Bo Hyun in “Her Private Life” and haaaaaaaaaattttttted him in “Itaewon Class.” In “Kairos,” the early episodes seemed to indicate that he was going to be a sympathetic character, who worked diligently with Shin Sung Rok. But as the series progressed, we learned that he’s not what he seems and that his complicated background and greed for everything that Shin’s character has — wealth, prestige and the perfect family — will be his downfall. Ahn Bo Hyun is such a good actor that when his character got what he deserved, many fans felt a pang of guilt for rooting against him.
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Season 2 is coming February 19. But let’s talk about the evil characters in the blockbuster first season. It’s a series where even many of the so-called good characters are morally bankrupt. But if you have to pick two deliciously smarmy and evil people, we have to go with Seo-Jin (played by Kim So Yeon) and the unctuous Dan-Tae (portrayed by Um Ki-Joon). The former didn’t help when she saw a family member dying, because it benefitted her more if they didn’t survive. And the latter was evil personified. He beat his children (IN A TORTURE CHAMBER!!) and killed off those he professed to love. Here’s the thing though: They were so over-the-top evil that you couldn’t take your eyes off of them!
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Lee Sang Yeob is such a delightful actor. He is a frequent guest on “Running Man” and is fondly referred to by the cast members as part of their family. So it was a surprise to see him play such an evil guy opposite Suzy and Lee Jong Suk. Here, he portrayed a very successful prosecutor who viewed himself as a mentor to the younger staff members in his office. Tall, handsome and charming, he was used to getting his way and had no qualms doing deeds outside of the legal realm if he was paid enough to look the other way.
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Before he became a superstar with K-dramas like “Healer,” Ji Chang Wook co-starred opposite Ju Ji Hoon (“Kingdom“) in this over-the-top makjang series about two pianist brothers who have a love-hate — ummmm, mostly hate — relationship with each other. I absolutely adore Ji Chang Wook, but the younger sibling he played here was repulsive. His character was manipulative, cruel and an overall mess. His goal in life was to take down his older brother. Though his looks remained as handsome as ever, his character got more and more ugly with each episode. (Did I mention? There are 30 episodes!)
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What do you think? Do you love to hate them as much as I do? Who are some of your favorite evil K-drama characters?
2 Comments
Generally, I just fast forward through characters I dislike. If they’re going to be mean or bad, I have no time to watch them. They won’t win (or they’d better not…that would be a whole other reason to hate a drama), so I just ignore them. About the only antagonists I actually watch are the ones that are quite mild or are literally unknown characters. I do enjoy a mystery villain. Other than that though, I try to watch just enough to understand their issue with the lead and then I use the FF button liberally.
right, I agree. They are somewhat very necessary in order to understand the whole story