2018 In Review – Secondary Leading Men – Best to Worst
Looking back at the secondary leading men of the series I blogged in 2018, I decided to assign an empirical score. How did they rack and stack?
| Mr. Sunshine | Goo Dong Mae (Yoo Yeon Seok) | 9 |
| Lawless Lawyer | An O Joo (Choi Min Soo) | 9 |
| Wok of Love | Doo Chil Seong (Jang Hyuk) | 8 |
| Mr. Sunshine | Kim Hee Sung (Byun Yo Han | 8 |
| Mystery Queen 2 | Hwang Jae Min (Kim Min-Sang) | 7.5 |
| Money Flower | Jang Boo Cheon (Jang Seung Jo) | 7.5 |
| Hwayugi | Woo Hwi Chul (Cha Seung Won) | 7.5 |
| Criminal Minds | Kang Ki Hyung (Son Hyun Joo) | 7.5 |
| Bad Papa | Kim Yong Dae (David Lee) | 7.5 |
| Sketch | Kim Do Jin (Lee Dong Gun) | 7 |
| Great Seducer | Lee Se Joo (Kim Min Jae) | 6 |
What did I consider salient points about each secondary leading man?
* Mr. Sunshine – Goo Dong Mae (Yoo Yeon Seok) – Favorite bad boy of 2018, crocked smile that melted my heart, wicked with a quip, I liked everything about this often brutal gang leader
* Lawless Lawyer – An O Joo (Choi Min Soo) – Hateful AND likeable, flair for drama and scene stealer, humor
* Wok of Love – Doo Chil Seong (Jang Hyuk) – Heart of gold gangster/loan-shark turned eatery owner, loyal to the leading man and lady (even when they didn’t deserve it)
* Mr. Sunshine – Kim Hee Sung (Byun Yo Han) – Initially appeared fopish, but revealed to stand tall for freedom of the press and supported the rebellion against the Japanese
* Mystery Queen 2 – Hwang Jae Min (Kim Min-Sang) – Scene stealing eccentric forensic policeman that made me smile in every time
* Money Flower – Jang Boo Cheon (Jang Seung Jo) – Spoiled rich son who saw the leading man as someone to use and discard to further his own interests, sliver of humanity
* Hwayugi – Woo Hwi Chul (Cha Seung Won) – Wanted to like this character but he was a fair-weather friend and selfish, he evolved at the end and peaked in the finale
* Criminal Minds – Kang Ki Hyung (Son Hyun Joo) – Best profiler, good team lead, fought the scars dealt by the key villain in the past and present
* Bad Papa – Kim Yong Dae (David Lee) – Fight manager that was walked on by the leading man and his daughter but he turned out to be supportive and loyal
* Sketch – Kim Do Jin (Lee Dong Gun) – Started and ended strong but emotionless terminator for the bulk of the series
* Great Seducer – Lee Se Joo (Kim Min Jae) – Little moral fiber, devoted slave to mean girl Soo Ji
Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.
amusings 
I’m not generally drawn to characters that have a streak of antagonism against the protagonist. I found myself wobbling on this point during the crop of 2018 dramas. I kept forgetting about Mr Sunshine’s Goo Dong Mae’s 🗡️ shades of gray (brutality) and rooting for him to survive. More 🎊surprising🎉 to me was being drawn to Lawless Lawyer’s extremely evil An Oh Joo 📿, hitman and all-around minion of the chief antagonist,Judge Cha 👩⚖️. Despite his evil deeds, Oh Joo had amazing charisma that took him a long way. My favorite scene was when Oh Joo 📿 came to antagonize the hospitalized Bong Sang Pil 💼👊 and ended up helping his enemy Bong Sang Pil 💼👊 escape the gang of men sent to murder Bong Sang Pil 💼👊.
There is NO DOUBT that these second leads in addition to Wok of Love’s Doo Chil Seong 🕶️💛,
Mr Sunshine’s Kim Hee Sung 🃏 and Criminal Minds’ Kang Ki Hyung made MAJOR contributions to their dramas. All of the featured second leads did make a difference (for better or worse) in their dramas.
Hwayugi’s Woo Hwi Chul 🐂 was the biggest disappointment … the late-blooming bromance 💙 was TOO LONG in the making. I wanted a Goblin-esque bromance 💙, where they could be at odds with each other, but the brotherhood would win. Did the writer try to avoid copying Goblin❓⁉️. Maybe not … pretty much ALL of the demons were written as VERY SELFISH characters.
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not generally drawn to characters that have a streak of antagonism …Oh Joo had amazing charisma that took him a long way. My favorite scene was when Oh Joo 📿 came to antagonize the hospitalized Bong Sang Pil 💼👊 and ended up helping his enemy Bong Sang Pil 💼👊 escape the gang of men sent to murder Bong Sang Pil 💼👊.
Oh Joo stole the scene many times. Your favorite scene was one of my favorites too.
There is NO DOUBT that these second leads…made MAJOR contributions to their dramas.
Agree, those in your list were impact players.
Woo Hwi Chul 🐂 was the biggest disappointment … the late-blooming bromance 💙 was TOO LONG in the making. I wanted a Goblin-esque bromance 💙
Alas, the Goblin bromance was not to be. Missed opportunity.
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I also found this article about Jang Hyuk describing how he met his wife:
https://channel-korea.com/jang-hyuk-and-his-wife-story/2/
There are 4 pages, you have to scroll down to bottom on each page and click on the page numbers in the boxes to move to the next page.
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Thank you for sharing the link! Interesting how the wedding pics on the third page, her face is artfully not fully shown. I like the story of how they met too.
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I suspect hiding her face was to protect Hyukie’s non-celebrity wife. I imagine it would be hard to be married to a celebrity; anonymity would offer a bit of a reprieve.
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