IU is returning as an actress. If she focused on her singing career this year, releasing a new album and holding a world tour for the first time in 17 years since her debut, she plans to focus on acting next year by releasing a series of leading roles.

IU has reached the top in both singing and acting to the point that she is considered the ‘No. 1 role model’ for other singer-turned-actors, and her approach to acting is also becoming a unique ‘pathic path’.

Starting with ‘Bokssak Cheotsuda’, which will air in the first half of next year, she will set out to conquer the small screen with ‘21st Century Grand Prince‘s Wife’. She has completely dispelled concerns about overlapping images by presenting different appearances in the two works.

Netflix’s ‘Bokssak Cheotsuda’, which began filming last year and has completed all preparations, is a historical drama that unfolds the lives of Ae-soon, a rebel born in Jeju in the 1950s, and Gwan-sik, a ‘unstoppable iron man’, who expresses himself through actions rather than words, in the four seasons of the Jeju dialect, which means ‘Thank you for your hard work’.

The drama is a collaboration between writer Im Sang-choon, who wrote ‘Fight, My Way’, ‘When the Camellia Blooms’, and director Kim Won-seok, who created ‘Misaeng’, ‘My Mister’, and has been garnering attention even before it airs.

In the drama, Ae-soon, played by IU, is a timid literature girl whose voice trembles like a goat whenever she rebels. She is so poor that she can‘t even go to school, but she is a confident and capable character. Park Bo-gum plays Gwan-sik, who is in love with Ae-soon with all his heart, and they create a fresh romantic chemistry.

MBC’s ‘21st Century Grand Prince‘s Wife’, which will begin filming in March next year, is also one of the most anticipated dramas.

It is set in a fictional Republic of Korea where a constitutional monarchy is in effect, and depicts the love between the daughter of the top conglomerate and the prince.

IU plays Sung Hee-joo, a conglomerate who has everything but is merely a commoner, while Byun Woo-seok, who has risen to the ranks of the ‘trend’, plays Prince Ian, the son of a king but who cannot have anything.

The two are also receiving attention because they are reuniting for the first time in 9 years since ‘Moon Lovers’, which starred IU in 2016. At that time, Byun Woo-seok was a rookie and played the role of IU’s cheating ex-boyfriend, Ki-dong.


Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com