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Why do kdramas keep casting actors with huge age gaps?


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I mean, lately it’s been quite a trend to cast an older actress with a rookie/young actor. Lee Dohyun and Im Soojung, Song Kang and Park Minyoung, Song Hyekyo and Jang Kiyong and recently Kim Heesun and Rowoon (they have a bloody 19 years age gap). Also Lee Byunghun with Kim Taeri or Song Seungheon with Shin Sekyung, Rain with Krystal. That sounds awkward, I haven’t watched any of these dramas. Is there a shortage of drama plots with “normal” age gap? Or did the close age actors boycott it?

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These are just my thoughts on why I think that happens...

1. Sometimes, it's because of drama trends. Noona romances were popular once, so there was a boom of those dramas at one point. The older guy-way younger woman seems to plague every entertainment industry, so maybe casting directors just believe that is what people want or just feel that's how it has always been, and they don't care to change it. 

2. Sometimes, it's to garner interest but also in a profitable way. I've noticed even in C-dramas, they like to cast an established actor and a rising/up and coming actor as the leads. That's probably because a top star will garner attention for a drama as a recognizable name (expensive acting fees though) and rising actors (cheaper acting fees) will also create trending topics since they've been gaining momentum and interest. This means there is most likely going to be an age gap because rising actors tend to be young while established actors are obviously older and have been in the industry much longer. This also ties in with investors interfering with casting choices of who they believe will return a profit for them.

3. It could also be that the leading actors also have a say in who they want as co-stars, and they choose younger people for whatever reason as we aren't usually privy to that information.

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1. As far as I've read, the plot of the dramas you mentioned don't even revolve around their age gap.
2. Seems good to me, could help with Korea's ageist problem.
3. This is like listening to mainstream crap and saying all music is crap. There's a plethora of other dramas out and coming out.

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I think it's all about salaries and the noona trend.

A lot of women of +30s are a big public of kdramas.

Top actresses sometimes don't want to work with top actors of same generation because top actor of same generation will win more salary than her. And actors prefer to work with younger actresses too. 

For that reason maybe top actresses prefer to work with rising young actors because the actress will have the highest salary. 

Edited by Drama Drama Drama
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On 2/5/2022 at 9:14 AM, Drama Drama Drama said:

I think it's all about salaries and the noona trend.

A lot of women of +30s are a big public of kdramas.

Top actresses sometimes don't want to work with top actors of same generation because top actor of same generation will win more salary than her. And actors prefer to work with younger actresses too. 

For that reason maybe top actresses prefer to work with rising young actors because the actress will have the highest salary. 

Possibly. But it also maybe because a lot of producers seem to think Kdrama actresses "look" younger than they are even when viewers clearly can see (AND know) they are not. I'm thinking of the  ageless vampire Jang Nara who is pushing 40 and seems to be always paired with a younger guy or Park Minyoung who on the other hand is clearly in her mid-30s (yet producers think she can still play herself as a high schooler like in "When the Weather is Fine") and paired with guys clearly younger than her and the show pretends the opposite (in "When the Weather is Fine" she's paired with Seo Kang-Joon who is 7 years younger and yet the shows wants us to believe they were childhood schoolmates).

On the flip side we have the male-female age difference, which admittedly Hollywood also does with impunity. In Kdrama we have the added addition of many well-known child actors making the transition to adult roles and being paired with actors who are clearly not age appropriate. The age difference between Kim Yoojung (still only 19 at the time- and now far from playing teen High School roles) and Yook Kyun-sang (12 years older and in his 30s!) in the mostly romcom "Clean with Passion for Now" was pretty off-putting to me. I cringed when they had love scenes. We also have have Lee Byung-hun (and almost all his recent leading ladies) and Gong Yoo in "Goblin" with Kim Go-Eun (and the show even made a point of her being so much younger). Kim Eun-sook, the writer, of both Goblin and Mr. Sunshine seems to love this trope. 

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9 minutes ago, Simpatico said:

Possibly. But it also maybe because a lot of producers seem to think Kdrama actresses "look" younger than they are even when viewers clearly can see (AND know) they are not. I'm thinking of the  ageless vampire Jang Nara who is pushing 40 and seems to be always paired with a younger guy or Park Minyoung who on the other hand is clearly in her mid-30s (yet producers think she can still play herself as a high schooler like in "When the Weather is Fine") and paired with guys clearly younger than her and the show pretends the opposite (in "When the Weather is Fine" she's paired with Seo Kang-Joon who is 7 years younger and yet the shows wants us to believe they were childhood schoolmates).

Also when they paired Im Soohyang with Cha Eunwoo and expected us to believe both of them were high schoolers, if the intent is too make the actresses look young it does the opposite. I feel like if you are going to cast a grown women you should the story of a grown woman but producers want the experience and youthful charm at the same time but it usually doesn't work.

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