2019 In Review – Leading Men – Best to Worst
Looking back at the leading men of the series I blogged in 2019, I decided to assign an empirical score. How did they rack and stack?
| Touch Your Heart | Kwon Jung Rok (Lee Dong Wook) | 9.0 |
| Haechi | Prince/King Yeoninggun Lee Geum (Jung Il Woo) | 8.5 |
| My Country: The New Age | Seo Hwi (Yang Se Jong) | 8.0 |
| Welcome 2 Life | Lee Jae Sang (Rain) | 8.0 |
| Romance is a Bonus Book | Cha Eun Ho (Lee Jong Suk) | 8.0 |
| Melting Me Softly | Ma Dong Chan (Ji Chang Wook) | 7.5 |
| Smile Has Left Your Eyes | Seo Poong (Lee Joon Ho) | 7.0 |
| Arthdal Chronicles | Tagon (Jang Dong Gun) | 7.0 |
| Kill It | Kim Soo Hyun (Chang Ki Yong) | 7.0 |
| Level Up | An Dan Te (Sung Hoon) | 7.0 |
What did I consider salient points about each leading man?
* Touch Your Heart – Kwon Jung Rok (Lee Dong Wook) – Protective, kind, quiet, smart, learned that his preconceptions were wrong
* Haechi – Prince/King Yeoninggun Lee Geum (Jung Il Woo) – Smart, strategic, darling crooked smile, ethical
* My Country: The New Age – Seo Hwi (Yang Se Jong) – Forgiving, loyal, found his destiny through skill, strategy, gumption, and help from his friends
* Welcome 2 Life – Lee Jae Sang (Rain) – Bold, evolved, leveraged his past experiences, learned what mattered
* Romance is a Bonus Book – Cha Eun Ho (Lee Jong Suk) – Smart, caring, patient, understood each person’s right to pursue happiness
* Melting Me Softly – Ma Dong Chan (Ji Chang Wook) – Determined, protective, good kisser, in touch with emotions
* Smile Has Left Your Eyes – Kim Moo Young (Seo In Guk) – Causal and intense appeal, turned away from his manipulative ways
* Arthdal Chronicles – Tagon (Jang Dong Gun) – Intense, bold, strategic, compelling leader with a vision, selfish, can be cruel
* Kill It – Kim Soo Hyun (Chang Ki Yong) – Protective, badass, kept a distance from emotions
* Level Up – An Dan Te (Sung Hoon) – Smart, emotionally distant, forthright, high business acumen, low emotional intelligence
Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.
amusings 
A very fun list! Some really great characters here, each with their own appeal 🙂
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Funny how watching a series you feel like you get to know the essence of these leading men.
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Yay! Seo Hwi made it!
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Absolutely!
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Song Joong ki didn’t even make the list!?
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I put him in the secondary men. In hindsight I should have listed him on this list.
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I saw him there and went “ohhhh”. In terms of hotness for this particular show, I’d say you got it right.😉
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It made sense to me at the time. Technically all four actors are called leads. But when I did the division, I put the Tagon and Tanya characters as the leads and Taelha and Eunseom characters as supporting because that’s how I saw the division of air time and impact.
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KJT you have plead your case well … your anecdotal evidence supports your empirical scores❣
My hormones would have me switching Seo Hwi with Kwon Jung Rok.
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Oh man, JT, I had to google Kwon Jung Rok. Seeing Lee Dong wook’s picture come up reminded me of who the character was. It also reminded me to ask if you (or kjt or The Crew) have been watching LDW’s new talk show? It’s called “Because Lee Dong Wook wants to talk”. His first guest for the first two episodes is Gong Yoo. Annnnnd LDW looks so incredibly handsome as he has normal hair! (Y’all know his overly bouffant bangs have always kept him off my hot list in the past.)
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I had not heard of this talk show …
It sounds interesting … especially with Gong Yoo. I’m ALWAYS up for eye candy 👁👁🍭.
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I watched LDW/GY on Kocowa but I also watched Ji Chang wook on Jae Seok’s (Running Man host) variety show called Laborhood on Hire. I watched that on the DC (the go-to site that should not be named). It’s not really a variety show because the majority of the time you’re just watching them work with a but of talk interaction. But now I know how they get my sea salt out of the ocean. 🙂
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My hormones would have me switching Seo Hwi with Kwon Jung Rok.
Seo Hwi’s physical attributes (long wavy hair, body, etc.) are more impressive.
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