Top 5 K-Drama Girls to Love

Top 5 

K-Drama Girls to Love

Seeing as I did a valentine special to celebrate some of the best Oppas K-Drama has to offer, I thought I’d do a similar follow up for White Day. Since it was Oppas last time let's have a look at the special girls (Unnies? Noonas?) that populate K-Dramaland. Similarly to the previous post, the actresses will have to be pretty well liked, star in good projects, and be generally more active in dramas rather than movies. Again, as I’m the compiler of this list, my preference will have some (a lot of) sway. 

5: Chae Soo Bin

Chae Soo Bin is a newer actress, with her earliest credit being around 2015. However, her awesome acting talent has propelled her to the forefront of Korean Drama, and she’s quickly making a name for herself as one of viewers’ favourite girls in K-Drama. It doesn’t hurt that there seems to be a lack of decent actresses in their early 20s- but if that means Chae Soo Bin gets more roles, I’m not complaining! She first grabbed attention as the stunningly beautiful second female lead in ‘Moonlight Drawn By Clouds’. I haven’t actually seen her next two dramas ‘Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People’ or ‘Strongest Deliveryman’ but I’ve heard raving reports of Chae Soo Bin’s performance in both. I watched and adored her in her latest drama ‘I’m Not a Robot’ where she was a delightful, adorable lead that filled her character with charm and warmth. If you want something shorter you can also catch her in last year’s KBS Special ‘If We Were a Season’.

4: Kim So Hyun

This wonderful girl was able to transition splendidly from child roles to teen roles and has now even delivered some dynamic performances as adult characters. From the moment I saw her in ‘Moon That Embraces the Sun’ I knew she was going to be an actress to watch out for. She has a whole list of credits earlier than ‘Moon’ and a whole heap after- the girl keeps busy. Not only is she gorgeous, but she’s an incredible actress that is able to play a variety of characters from villainous to petty to delightful, and has a way of wringing emotion out of an audience. Some of her biggest recent hits include ‘School 2015: Who Are You?’, delightful short series ‘Page Turner’, ‘Let’s Fight, Ghost’, ‘Ruler: Master of the Mask’ (admittedly this one is a total dud and I warn you against watching it), and you can currently catch her with Yoon Doo Joon in ‘Radio Romance’.

3: Park Shin Hye

Park Shin Hye is one of the bigger names in K-Drama, as she has a knack of signing onto projects that become huge hits. In fact, after a while I think part of the reason her dramas became huge hits is that people were watching due to her being in them. While she tends to play pretty similar characters, she does add a certain charm to them, and rather than seeming boring it’s more like comfort food- simple, and sweetly familiar. I haven’t caught many of her earlier works, first seeing her as the whacky, yet fun, crossdressing nun in ‘You’re Beautiful’. She went on to film ‘Heartstrings’, ‘Flower Boys Next Door’ (my particular favourite), ‘The Heirs’, ‘Pinocchio’, and ‘Doctors’. Her most recent drama was mid 2016 so hopefully that means we’ll be able to catch Park Shin Hye in a new production sometime soon.

2: Park Min Young

Park Min Young is definitely one of my favourite actresses in K-Dramaland. While she might not have been in as many productions as some other actresses, her characters tend to have a bit of backbone and personality (unusual for K-Drama heroines), which makes Park Min Young really stand out. She stole hearts as the leading lady in the widely popular and wildly loved ‘Sungkyunkwan Scandal’ and followed that up with the big hit ‘City Hunter’. ‘Dr Jin’ was next, and I honestly can’t remember whether this was good or bad (I haven’t seen it myself). But I have seen, and fondly remember her latest three dramas, in which she delivered strong, dynamic performances in all- ‘Healer’, ‘Remember- Son’s War’, and ‘7 Day Queen’.

1: Gong Hyo Jin

When you think rom-com, you think Gong Hyo Jin. Admittedly, she’s been in far more movies than dramas, but she’s still been in an enormous amount of dramas- most of which are insanely addictive and extremely fun. I first saw Gong Hyo Jin in the weirdly successful ‘Hello My Teacher’ which was hilarious and delightful. Since then I’ve seen all her works (bar ‘Pasta’) and mostly loved them. Gong Hyo Jin always brings a certain quirkiness to her characters and has an abundance of chemistry with her male leads- she’s said in the past that she actually falls a little in love with each of her co-stars, which definitely helps make the on-screen romance adorably believable. Her big hits (which is basically all her dramas) are ‘The Greatest Love’, ‘Master’s Sun’, ‘It’s Okay, That’s Love’, ‘The Producers’, and ‘Jealousy Incarnate’. I actually did a Top 5 list all for Gong Hyo Jin which you can check out here.

Happy White Day!