Actors from the group Empire: Park Hyung-sik, Kim Dong-jun, and Im Si-wan are continuing their dazzling performances.They are expanding their filmography by receiving recognition for their acting skills and box office success through their respective leading roles.

Park Hyung-sik received rave reviews for “writing a new life character” for his role as Seo Dong-joo, the protagonist who risks everything to seek revenge to destroy the absolute evil that destroyed him and the world behind it in SBS Friday-Saturday drama “Treasure Island,” which ended on the 12th.

He expressed the character’s extreme emotions, such as being betrayed by a lover he loved, being shot, drowning in the sea, being tortured by water, and even losing his sister, with great immersion.In particular, in the last episode, he caught the eye by delicately portraying the complex character’s inner feelings of emptiness rather than relief after successfully taking revenge on the source of evil, Yeom Jeong-seon(Heo Jun-ho), with a cold and meticulous design that did not show emotion.

Thanks to favorable reviews for Park Hyung-sik, the drama started with a viewership rating of 6.1%, and showed an upward curve with each episode, surpassing 10% in just 4 episodes, and the final episode recorded 15.4%, breaking not only the highest viewership rating of its predecessor, ‘My Perfect Secretary’, but also its own highest viewership rating.

Kim Dong-jun, who received attention last year for his solid acting in the role of King Hyeonjong, the 8th king of Goryeo, in the classic historical drama ‘Goryeo-Khitan War’, successfully transformed into a lighter version of himself in the new Genie TV· ENA Monday-Tuesday drama ‘New Soldiers 3’, which began airing on the 7th.

‘New Soldier’ is a seasonal reality comedy drama set in the military.In this season, he joins the ‘New Soldier’ world for the first time and plays the role of Seok-gye, a global star who started out as a child actor and enlists in the military.As soon as he appeared, he caught the attention of his seniors as well as the viewers with his outstanding looks and athletic ability.From the first episode, he even dared to act naked in the shower room and confront another private.

Immediately after its first broadcast, ‘New Soldiers’ ranked first on Kinolights, an integrated OTT content search platform, and also recorded the highest viewership rate of all time among Genie TV originals based on its first release.As soon as it began broadcasting, the previous seasons 1 and 2 also went up the charts.

Im Si-wan, who has established himself as a ‘trustworthy actor’ rather than just an ‘acting idol’, is expected to properly target the global market this year with the mega hit ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 and the Netflix movie ‘Mantis’.In Season 2, he appeared as a coin(cryptocurrency)YouTuber Myeong-gi who lost all his fortune due to a bad coin investment.Attention is focused on what kind of performance he will have in Season 3 after killing rapper Thanos(Choi Seung-hyun), who was the de facto villain of Season 2.

The spin-off film ‘Samagwi’ of ‘Gil Bok-soon’, which was released in 2023 and was a global box office hit, will also be released.He will play the role of Samagwi, a top-class killer who returns to the contract killing industry where all rules have collapsed after a long vacation, and will display intense action scenes.



Reporter Seungmi smlee@donga.com

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