Actor Cha Seung-won is flying high.

He has been loved for his consistent friendliness and humor through the tvN seasonal entertainment show ‘Three Meals a Day Light’, which has been airing since the 20th of last month. He is garnering hot attention for perfectly playing the role of a petty and mean king in Netflix‘s ‘The Emperor: Owner of the Mask’, which was released on the 11th. It seems that the public’s response has reached its peak for Cha Seung-won‘s charm, which goes back and forth between entertainment and movies.

Cha Seung-won plays the role of King Seonjo, a monarch during troubled times, in the action historical drama ‘The Emperor: Owner of the Mask’, set before and after the Imjin War. When the war broke out, he abandoned his country and people and fled, and not only that, he acted out the pitiful king who was obsessed with rebuilding Gyeongbokgung Palace while ignoring the people’s wounds after the war in a realistic and annoying way.

Director Kim Sang-man of ‘The Emperor: Owner of the Mask’ praised Cha Seung-won for his “120% acting” and explained, “He displayed powerful charisma. At the same time, he expressed the character‘s complex through his speech and each look in his eyes.”.

Thanks to this, as soon as the movie was released on the 11th, it took first place on the Kinolights chart, an integrated platform for theaters and OTT (online video service), beating out the popular survival Netflix series ‘Black and White Chef: Culinary Class War’. It also entered the global OTT content ranking chart FlixPatrol at 7th place in the movie category.

Ahead of the release of ‘전,란’, he has been meeting viewers with a friendly appearance through ‘Three Meals a Day Light’, which has been airing since last month. ‘Three Meals a Day’ is tvN’s representative seasonal entertainment program that depicts solving a meal with ingredients from rural or fishing villages. Cha Seung-won returned to the program after 4 years since ‘Three Meals a Day Fishing Village 5’ in 2020.

He showed off his excellent cooking skills in the previous season and earned the nickname ‘Chaajumma’ (Cha Seung-won + ajumma), and he is drawing attention by showing off his continued skills this season as well. Every episode features delicious dishes such as stir-fried pork, cucumber soup, fermented soybean paste stew, gochujang stew, and yurin-gi, stimulating viewers‘ appetites.

In addition, the program is receiving a hot response, recording an average viewership rating of 10.2% and a peak of 11.4%, thanks to the continued great chemistry with Yoo Hae-jin, with whom it has been with for 10 years, captivating fans.



Reporter Lee Seung-mi smlee@donga.com