Gong Yoo has started his global run.

He has finished warming up his popularity by releasing Netflix dramas ‘Trunk’ and ‘Squid Game 2’ one month apart. In particular, he proves his wide acting spectrum through the completely different characters he presents in the two works.

‘Trunk’, which was released on the 29th of last month, depicts a man who enters into a one-year contract marriage because of his ex-wife and his life changes because of the marriage. In the drama, which is advertised as a mystery melodrama, he begins a secret married life with Seo Hyun-jin.

Gong Yoo received favorable reviews for his dense acting in the role of Han Jeong-won, an adult who has not grown an inch due to the trauma he experienced as a child. Unlike the romantic characters he has presented so far, he caught attention by expressing a character full of wounds and deficiencies for the first time.

After its release, it has been gaining popularity by going up and down the 1st and 2nd place on Netflix‘s ‘Today’s Top 10 Series in Korea’.

Also, foreign media outlets such as the American media outlet Time Magazine recently praised the series, saying, “It symbolically depicts the repressed memories and unresolved past of the characters, and it is a work that encompasses both emotional and narrative depth,” and “Gong Yoo presented intense yet delicate emotional acting, and Seo Hyun-jin delicately expressed her complex inner self.”

He will also show another side of himself through ‘Squid Game 2’, which will be released on the 26th. Although he does not come to the forefront and lead the story, the amount and importance are so large that it does not seem appropriate to call it a ‘special appearance’.

In particular, since the previous series was popular worldwide, curiosity about Gong Yoo is also growing.

Season 2, which returned 3 years and 3 months after the first season was released, tells the story of Sung Ki-hoon (Lee Jung-jae), who became the final winner of a life-threatening survival game and received a prize of 45.6 billion won, jumping into the game once again after 3 years.

In the drama, Gong Yoo appears as ‘Ttakjiman’, just like in Season 1. He left a short but strong impression in Season 1 as Ttakjiman, who recruits game participants.

Unlike the “A4 one-page” portion at the time, this time it has increased a bit, and Lee Jung-jae, who recently finished a preview, said “He‘s totally crazy”, so his presence is expected to be considerable.


Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com