Chaebol heir Kang Ji-hwan in Lie To Me

by javabeans

This doesn’t give us much new news, just a few more stills of Lie To Me, wherein leading man Kang Ji-hwan plays a chaebol and hotel CEO.

I suppose “chaebol” is just one of those roles all actors have to go through to be a proper leading man — alongside the benevolent Prince Charming, the uptight Mr. Darcy, the overlooked best friend, the tragic hero. In K-dramaland, we like our heroes to fit squarely within the established boxes, apparently.

Kang’s already starting to attract the inevitable comparisons to the industry’s most recent version of that type, which would be Hyun Bin’s Joo-won character from Secret Garden. (Not that he’s the quintessential chaebol; just the most recent one. Two years ago, we’d have been maxing out on the Lee Min-ho/Gu Jun-pyo comparisons.)

Kang’s an actor who I think is plenty capable of taking on meaty, complicated characters so I’m sort of wary of him being stuffed into a boring little box for this role, knowing he can do much more. These kinds of stories tend to be great vehicles for the heroine, who gets to be bubbly and quirky and interesting, or at least really cute, but less imaginative with the men (examples: Kim Tae-hee versus Song Seung-heon in My Princess, Chae Rim versus Lee Min-ki in Dal Ja’s Spring). And it would be a shame to waste him.

Hopefully there’s something about his character to set him apart from the dozens (hundreds?) of chaebol heroes who came before him; if anything, we can hope for great chemistry with Yoon Eun-hye, who’s been reliably solid in the chemistry department (Joo Ji-hoon, Gong Yoo, to a lesser extent Yoon Sang-hyun). Now’s not the time to break the pattern!

Lie To Me premieres on May 9, following Midas.

Via No Cut News

RELATED POSTS

• Kang Ji-hwan stills from Lie To Me
• Supporting cast added to Lie To Me
• Yoon Eun-hye and Kang Ji-hwan to headline new drama
• Rumors of another Yoon Eun-hye drama
• Kang Ji-hwan doesn’t want to lose Faith
• Yoon Eun-hye officially says goodbye to Love Song