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| Actress Son Ye-jin, starring JTBC's romantic drama "Something in the Rain," poses during a press conference to promote the show at Amoris Hall in Seoul, March 28. / Yonhap |
By Park Jin-hai
For years, blockbusters starring male actors have dominated the Korean film industry. Female-centered melodramatic films were few and far between and actresses in their late 30s and 40s had a hard time finding roles befitting their status.
Yet, Son Ye-jin, a 36-year-old actress dubbed the "queen of melodrama," is having exceptional success on both the big and small screens.
Son's new film "Be With You," where she plays a mother of a little boy, has seen robust ticket sales since its March 14 release. The romance reached over 2.5 million as of Monday, surpassing the breakeven point of 2 million, and it still ranks as the fifth most viewed film at the box office, signaling its ticketing power may last longer.
On the small screen, Son's drama "Something in the Rain," her comeback after five years, is seeing a continuing rise in the ratings. In it she takes on the role of a woman who falls in love with her best friend's younger brother. The fourth episode aired Saturday on JTBC posted 4.8 percent, outrunning JTBC's most successful drama "The Lady in Dignity" whose fourth episode posted 3.3 percent and finished with 12.1 percent. Hopes run high Son's new drama may go further than "The Lady in Dignity."
The actress, best known for her role in the 2003 film "The Classic" and 2004's "A Moment to Remember," debuted in 2000 with the film "Secret Tears" in a supporting role. Since then her stellar acting career has been studded with commercial successes.
Out of all 17 films Son has starred in as leading actress, only four films didn't meet the breakeven point in the local market _ including "Into the White Night" and "The Truth Beneath."
On the small screen, she continues her winning streak, with the viewership ratings of all her past dramas easily posting over 10 percent.
"Among the actresses who started their careers nearly concurrently, Son and Jun Ji-hyun are the few who made it through to grow into big-name actresses with long-running popularity," culture critic Lee Moon-won said. He says Son's enduring popularity stems from her successful transition from a young actress appealing to male fans to one with largely female fans. "Her fandom started with the explosive support of male fans, but it moved toward women with more stable ticketing power."
In her early acting career, she mostly featured as weak female characters that men protected, creating many male fans and female anti-fans. But by challenging various roles, she continued to expand her acting horizons and earned support from all.
