Jo Seung-Woo? Glad Everyone Saw the Brilliance I Already Knew!

It was funny for me to watch the tweets go by as people were raving left and right about Jo Seung-Woo (Cho Seung Woo) as he played brilliantly the character of Ki Dong Chan in God’s Gift-14 Days. I remember many, many times just chuckling as I read because I couldn’t believe that no one knew about him. I was utterly amazed!

I remember the first time that I ever saw Seung-Woo was in a film called “H” from 2002. In that role, he played a serial killer along with Ji Jin-hee. He was simply amazing! Amazing! And at the time, only 21 years old. As I had watched the movie specifically for Ji Jin-hee, I became totally fascinated with Seung-Woo but alas, I saw that he didn’t do dramas at time.

The next movie, The Classic, I was able to see had been on my watch list forever but once I read the review on koreandramareviews.com, I simply had to see it. As most of you know, I am not a big fan of the romances; however, this simple, 2002 movie blew me away. The romance was simple and sweet and the story; while somewhat complicated at times, was a wonderful and heartfelt experience that I truly remember well.

And then I simply forgot about my Seung-Woo. I still had several of his movies to watch but just hadn’t gotten around to them. But it took the announcement of him starring in his first ever drama with none other than Lee Yo Won in Horse Doctor (Horse Healer) in 2012 to have me running back towards him.

Horse Doctor wasn’t the best of the best but it wasn’t because of the acting! I felt the acting was stellar but the story suffered a little because of repetitiveness but then that happens a lot in historical dramas by-the-by. But one thing Horse Doctor reminded me was what a great actor Seung-Woo was and so I returned to watching his movies once again.

During Sports theme month last year, I watched and reviewed Marathon which featured Seung-Woo playing an autistic man who goes onto running several long distance marathons with the encouragement from his mother.

Love Phobia, a nice little 2006 romance which also starred Kang Hye-jeong as the love interest. Again, it was a cute and quirky story about two people that fall in love but the girl keeps disappearing on him.

While watching Go Go 70s, I learned that not only he can sing but also Shin Min Ah who also starred in the same period movie that takes places during the 70s in S. Korea when even long hair and short skirts were jailing offenses. Good movie, hard to find though. So I wasn’t at all surprised when he sung and played the guitar in God’s Gift as I seen him do it before!

The funny thing about The Sword With No Name, this movie had been on my Netflix AND Hulu queues for a very long time and I never watched them. Once I finally saw the movie that also starred Soo Ae, I couldn’t understand why I never watched it before. This man was made for historical movies/dramas! I wish he does more of them in the future.

So admittedly, I was one of the last people to watch God’s Gift-14 Days. With this being only Seung-Woo’s second drama, I had made a conscious decision to wait until it ended. This was one drama I really didn’t want to watch week to week. And as I read the tweets and with everyone’s anticipation for the next episodes, I’m glad I did. As I watched, I kept thinking that the drama reminded me of movies I’d seen before. I finally was reminded by others of Premonition (with Sandra Bullock) and The Butterfly Effect (with Ashton Kucher). I swear there is a third movie in there but I haven’t thought of it yet. It will come to my mind when I least expect it. Even though others didn’t care for the ending, my biggest beef was with its abruptness. One minute they are looking over the lake and then BAM it is over! I’ve been told to watch the special episode for the alternate ending. As of yet, I still haven’t watched that episode 17. But regardless of what others might say, I still contend that it was a pretty decent drama! As long as you get past some of the happenings, and a few other things I won’t name, it is damn good entertainment!

Most recently, because I was missing Seung-Woo so much after God’s Gift, I finally watched his first movie ever, Chunhyang. This movie took me by surprise for two reasons:
1. Seung-Woo was 19 years old when this was filmed.
2. The story was surprisingly good once you forgot about the nudity. As I stated in my review (see Movie Sunday), the nudity wasn’t just for the sake of nudity, it was a part of the story. Again, a decent performance by a very young and new actor Jo Seung-Woo.

So what’s next for my Jo Seung-Woo? He is currently starring in a musical called ‘Hedwig’. The show will be held at the Baekam Art Hall which started on May 13th. With God’s Gift recently ending, my man barely took a break. Here’s hoping he rests up well and again return to drama again!! The man is a consummate actor and can well act in ANYTHING!!

Here are some of his movies I’ve yet to see (or find):
2012 The Peach Tree
2011 Perfect Game
2006 Tazza: The High Rollers
2004 Low Life
2002 Who Are You?
2001 Wanee and Junah
2001 Ahmijimong