Actors Lee Joon-hyuk and Lee Min-ho, who set out to captivate viewers with romance, had mixed box office success. Lee Joon-hyuk stood tall as the new ‘Rom-Com King’ with SBS‘s ‘My Perfect Secretary’, but ‘Original Rom-Com King’ Lee Min-ho, who returned with tvN’s ‘Ask the Stars’, had his pride hurt by the dismal box office performance.

Lee Joon-hyuk, who had been active in genre works such as ‘The Outlaws 3’, ‘Secret Forest’, and ‘Good or Bad Dong-jae’, successfully transformed his image with the romance drama ‘My Perfect Secretary’, which he chose for the first time in six years since tvN‘s ‘To You Who Forgot Poetry’ in 2018.

He charmingly portrayed the role of Eun-ho, a caring single dad secretary who stays by the side of the CEO (Han Ji-min) of a successful female headhunter company. He received favorable reviews for realistically portraying a fantasy-like character who is good at work, childcare, and housework as well as ability and appearance, with warm eyes and stable acting.

Thanks to this, Lee Joon-hyuk not only achieved personal success, such as maintaining a high ranking on various topic index charts and brand reputation rankings throughout the show’s airing, but also led the drama‘s box office success. The drama, which started its first broadcast with a viewership rating of 5.2%, drew an upward curve in viewership ratings with each episode, and in the last episode aired on the 14th, it recorded 12%, breaking the highest viewership rating record.

On the other hand, Lee Min-ho, who was active as a ‘global rom-com king’ through ‘The King’, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’, ‘The Heirs’, ‘Boys Over Flowers’, etc., released the SF romance drama ‘Ask the Stars’ after 5 years, but it is receiving only disappointing reviews.

‘Ask the Stars’, set in a space station, is a blockbuster with a production cost of 50 billion won, and it garnered high expectations even before its broadcast, as it stars not only Lee Min-ho but also ‘representative rom-com queen’ Gong Hyo-jin, but it is receiving harsh criticism for its confusing development and the main character’s emotional line that is difficult to sympathize with.

The viewership ratings are also It fell to 1%. This is the lowest viewership rating for a tvN Saturday-Sunday drama ever, and the lowest among dramas starring Lee Min-ho. Although it is being released on Netflix, it is not gaining much traction globally.

As such, the success of his next film, ‘Omniscient Reader‘s Viewpoint’, which will be released in July, has become more important to Lee Min-ho, whose pride as a ‘Hallyu star’ has been damaged. The film, based on a web novel of the same name, is also Lee Min-ho’s first screen comeback in 10 years since ‘Gangnam 1970’.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.