The popular Korean drama "Penthouse 2" came to an end on the evening of April 2, with the highest rating of the finale reaching 26.5%, and the 13 episodes of the whole drama always occupied the first place in the ratings of all channel mini-series on weekdays, becoming the dark horse of Korean dramas at the beginning of the year. The show's first episode took the lead with a rating of 20%, and the last time it was achieved was eight years ago in "You from the Stars". Tonight, Penthouse 2 will air a special episode about the production behind the scenes, "Unfinished Story", or will propose ideas for the third season.
Since its inception, the show has been controversial, with some viewers being conquered by the "unfolding of God" and the thrill they get from it, while others expressed concern about the over-stimulating and unethical plot. However, judging from the Douban score of the second season (7.7 points) that is much higher than that of the first season (6.5 points), this extreme "cool drama" has allowed many viewers to obtain an outlet for emotional catharsis. Among them, a group of powerful actors have worked hard to compete in their acting skills.
Stills from "The Penthouse"
Among the actors who cry, laugh, scold, and scream in the extremely dramatic conflict, and exude unlimited energy, Kim So-yeon, the actor of Qian Ruizhen, presents the most jaw-dropping performance. But what is amazing is not only the setting of the role, but also the enthusiasm and energy of this actress who has been debuting for 28 years for performance.
The one she most wants to play is Queen Cersei in "Game of Thrones"
On October 26, 2020, the SBS monthly fire drama "Penthouse" was launched, and Qian Ruizhen, played by Kim So-yeon, set multiple identities in one, and is the most powerful woman in the apartment building. As the plot progresses, Kim So-yeon shows creepy acting skills and takes the lead in booking the position of the year-end grand prize. This is also after "The Temptation of Eve (Falling in Love with a Female Anchor)", Kim So-yeon has played the role of an evil woman for the second time in twenty years, but it is completely different from the situation at that time. This time, the performance has made Kim So-yeon praised countless times - "a bad woman who can't be hated", and kim so-yeon has played deeply into the hearts of the people.
In "The Penthouse", Kim So-yeon plays Qian Ruizhen.
In the 15th episode of the first season, the scene of playing the piano with a bloody finger was named the famous acting scene of the year. Not surprisingly, Kim So-yeon was predicted as a strong contender for the awards along with Han Seok-gyu and Nam-min at the 2020 SBS Acting Awards. Although she only won the Excellence Award in the end, her performance has been widely recognized by the audience.
At the production conference of the second season of "Penthouse" in February 2021, Kim So-yeon said that she would "return with a stronger villain role". As she said, as the plot of the second season progresses, we see Qian Ruizhen desperately struggling to protect her daughter Enxing and her own position, gradually approaching madness. Not long ago, Kim So-yeon's hot search term of "performing bad acting skills" once caused a hot discussion. When explaining the situation to the police officers who arrested Chu Dan-tae, Kim So-yeon's deliberately exaggerated performance was praised by the audience. Although she plays a villain role, Kim So-yeon has received countless "cute" evaluations, and she is not unprepared for this.
When it comes to character interpretation, Kim So-yeon revealed that she borrowed angelina Jolie's performance in "Sleeping Curse" in the first season of "Penthouse", while the second season referenced the role of Amy Adams in "Nocturnal Animals", which are also characters that people can't hate. It is not difficult to see that for performance, Kim So-yeon, who has entered the age of 40, is still full of ambition. The fire of the "Penthouse" series has allowed people to see more possibilities of Korean dramas, and "evil girls" can also have rich interpretations. And for actresses, in addition to the typical female figures of young and kind, they can also exude frightening magic.
In an interview with Esquire magazine three years ago, Kim so-yeon confessed that "watching Game of Thrones during the break, her heart was boiling like a fire", when she said that the role she most wanted to play was "Queen Cersei". Just like if you like variety shows and are fully engaged, what Kim So-yeon wants to do will definitely put it into action, so "Qian Ruizhen" was born, as the beginning of another heyday of Kim So-yeon.
"Precocious" time
In those years as a child star, the roles he played were all bigger than himself
Born in 1980, Kim So-yeon has had a dream of being an actress since she was a child, and in order to participate in free acting training in junior high school, she signed up for a beauty contest and won the second prize, thus embarking on the road of acting. After two weeks of classes in the training class, Kim So-yeon received an invitation to perform, but her years as a "child star" were lonely and difficult. She carries a makeup case every day, takes a bus to and from the Set of Yeouido alone, wears makeup while performing and self-taught, and the costumes are also left over from her sister.d'.
14-year-old Kim So-yeon, starred in "Mr. Dinosaur".
She starred in the screen debut of the SBS TV series "Mr. Dinosaur" starring Lee Jung-jae and Kim Hee-sun, playing a role with a heavy role and winning the Child Star Acting Award. Over the next two years, she played a variety of different roles in many works, but all had one thing in common – the characters were all much older than her actual age. Like the problem girl in her twenties wearing a wig in the short drama "Homecoming", and the character in "Daughter's House" is 10 years older than her... Because of her superior appearance and mature temperament, Kim So-yeon was once called Natalie Portman of South Korea by the Korean media.
Before 2010, Kim so-yeon had never played a role her age. Recalling this "precocious" performance time, Kim So-yeon feels that it may be because she wants to become close to her two sisters at home, and she will intentionally make herself mature. Because of her precocious appearance, there have been many interesting things happening around Kim So-yeon. There have been older friends who confide in her, and even college boys who have come to pursue her as a junior high school student, and the most exaggerated thing is that because peers can't go in and out of KTV at will, she can also disguise herself as a guardian.
In 1997, Kim So-yeon starred in her first film work "Campus Transformation", playing the daredevil heroine who was accidentally possessed by the soul of a high school boy, and this performance made people really pay attention to Kim So-yeon's acting skills. The film gained great popularity among teenagers, and Kim So-yeon was nominated for Best Female Newcomer at the 18th Blue Dragon Awards for the film, along with actors such as Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Hee-sun and Choi Ji-woo. It is also from this movie that Kim So-yeon has the confidence to be an actress.
A trip to China
There was no response to the high price entry, and "Seven Swords" ended regretfully
In addition to acting, as a popular youth idol, Kim So-yeon has been the host of popular songs and ballads at MBC since 1997, and at the same time began to act in a large number of TV dramas and variety shows. Because of her similar age, she frequently cooperated with top Korean idol groups such as H.O.T, and once rumors with member Jang Yoo Hyuk, which triggered the dissatisfaction of H.O.T fans, and the voice of insults followed, which once caused a live broadcast accident in the show. At the end of the show, Kim So-yeon ran to the bathroom and cried for two hours, when she was only 17 years old.
The face-to-face malice left a trauma in the heart of the young girl Kim So-yeon, prematurely giving her a deep understanding of the two sides of the body as a female star. It also affected her focus on acting. Although in 1998, Kim So-yeon starred in "Shunfeng Obstetrics and Gynecology" and "Love in the Heart", which received praise for her acting skills, but when it comes to this acting experience, Kim So-yeon always lacks self-confidence. She believes that at that time, she was enclosed in the role she created, and her acting skills could not be talked about, but only "blindly pretended".
Kim So-yeon (left) collaborates with Choi Lin on "The Seduction of Eve (Falling in Love with a Female Anchor)".
In 1999, Kim So-yeon was admitted to the drama major of Dongguk University in South Korea, and the campus life may allow her to forget the various troubles of the show business, but bad things are always overwhelming. In 2000, Kim So-yeon starred in the TV series "The Temptation of Eve (Falling in Love with a Female Anchor)", which may be her earliest work known to Chinese audiences, and she clearly interpreted the evil daughter "Xu Yingmei" who was always trying to make things difficult for the heroine Cai Lin. Although her acting skills were well received, because some audiences could not distinguish between reality and performance, Kim So-yeon was personally attacked again.
Because of her studies and because she wanted to stay away from the distractions of the show business circle, Kim So-yeon reduced her working hours. After starring in the TV series "Twin Brothers and Sisters", "Sunshine Lover's Dream" and "Three Musketeers", he announced his entry into the Chinese market and became one of the first K-pop stars. According to news reports of the year, Kim So-yeon took over the Chinese-Korean co-production TV series "Like a Beautiful Butterfly Flying" for a record-breaking 10 billion won, in which she played the Role of Kim Ji-so, a South Korean costume designer who traveled thousands of miles to China to find her father. The following year, she starred in the costume business war drama "Great Qing Emblem Merchant", transforming into a Qing Dynasty woman. Unfortunately, neither work made much of a splash. The 2005 film "Seven Swords" directed by Xu Ke pushed Kim So-yeon's trip to China to a climax, but it also came to an end.
Kim So-yeon starred in the domestic TV series "Great Qing Emblem Merchant".
Stills from the movie "Seven Swords"
In 2012, Kim So-yeon, who returned to the big screen in South Korea after 15 years with the movie "Coffee", said bluntly in an interview that entering China was her most regrettable thing. She reflected on herself: "Korean audiences can't accept it, so how can it be accepted by Chinese audiences?" After the 2010 TV series "Prosecutor Princess" aired, Kim so-yeon again received an invitation from China, but at that time she decided that her future self would be closer to South Korean audiences.
Step into 40+ and be a little woman who releases her nature
The TV series "Diners" broadcast in 2008 and "IRIS" in 2009 opened another heyday for Kim So-yeon, and although both works were supporting roles, Kim So-yeon's performance was remarkable. The former is handsome and her acting skills are steady; the image of the beaten woman in the latter is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, showing a hard-hitting side that has never been shown before. The silence of nearly a decade before this has also made Kim So-yeon's non-good image in the hearts of the public gradually forgotten, replaced by the purity and efforts of an actor.
Stills from "IRIS"
In the early days, because of the "strong", "sharp" and "vicious" of the role, Kim So-yeon has been "misunderstood". In fact, in the works has always been shown as a tall royal sister, the real height is only 1.64 meters, in the eyes of colleagues and friends, Jin Suyan has always been an "angel" and "fairy", known for gentleness and humility. In 2010, with the role of "Ma Huili" in the TV series "Prosecutor Princess", she began to seek transformation and break prejudice. A more authentic Kim So-yeon, she began to be accepted and loved by the public. In the TV series "Need romance 3" and "Caught in Pure Love" and other works, Kim So-yeon also showed her original face of a delicate Yi person. In the variety show "We Are Married" broadcast in 2015, the "eye-raising couple" composed of shy Kim So-yeon and attacking Guo Shiyang was also quite popular in Chinese.
However, in addition to the "little woman" side, Kim So-yeon, who began to appear frequently on variety shows, broke out into a more surprising reversal charm. From KBS's "Happy Together" to "Victory Drive", "The Masked Singer King", "SNL Korea", and even "Funny Concert", Kim So-yeon's big grin and true temperament have left a figure. Kim So-yeon admitted that starring in variety shows has had a great impact on herself, and she hopes to face everyone with a more realistic face in the future. Because of her love for variety shows, Kim So-yeon will not hesitate to introduce herself when she sees interesting programs. Unlike other celebrities who participate in variety shows during the promotional period, she relies on her passion.
In the show, the statement that "even if you are tired to death, the other party must respond positively when you speak" became her perfect footnote. In 2012, Kim So-yeon took the stage of "Funny Concert" during the non-promotional period, participating in the "Folding Airway" session ( which aims to make people laugh ) , which is difficult for professional comedians. Before filming, Kim So-yeon actively participated in brainstorming, put forward her own ideas, and did not hesitate to self-destruct her image on the stage, creating "laughing fruit", which once triggered a topic. Everyone is lamenting that even ordinary people are difficult to let go, but as an actress, they can do so well.
Kim So-yeon, who let go of her hands and feet to ride the wind and waves in the variety show, has gradually entered a better state in her performance. Works such as "Need for Romance 3", "Caught in Pure Love", and "Home and Everything" have made her one of the most trusted actresses by the audience. In 2016, Kim So-yeon became acquainted with rival actor Lee Sang-woo in "Home and Everything", and in the same year, she openly fell in love on the stage of "The Masked Singer".
Kim So-yeon
In addition to harvesting love, "Home and Everything" also allowed Kim So-yeon to win the first grand trophy in her life. Kim So-yeon, who delivered her acceptance speech on the stage of the 2016 Korean Drama Awards, burst into tears and cried for a long time backstage. The decade after coming out of the trough has made Kim So-yeon harvest a lot, but for an actress who is moving towards the age of forty, everything is just the beginning.
Written by/sona
Beijing News Editor Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin