[Kim Ji-yeon's Treasure Box] From 'Asan Baekho' to Seo Hyun-jin's Younger Brother, 'Love Me' Lee Si-woo

Whether solid or cool. If you encountered Lee Si-woo through 〈Boys' Generation〉's 'Asan Baekho', he would be an actor with an incredibly cool charismatic face, and if you first met him as 'Jun-seo', the youngest member of the Seo family in 〈Love Me〉, Lee Si-woo would be an actor with the face of a very immature young man.

As if traversing between good and evil, the breadth of Lee Si-woo's acting spectrum is as wide as the various temperatures his face embodies. Born in 1999, Lee Si-woo has played numerous unusual roles for an actor of his age group. For instance, in 〈Boys' Generation〉, he tackled complex tasks such as speaking in a Chungcheong dialect, action, comedy, and playing a villain all at once, while in the ENA drama 〈Paper Moon〉, which marked the beginning of his rise to fame, he appeared as the lover of the 26-year-older actress Kim Seo-hyung, showcasing his melodramatic acting. When asked, "Is it coincidence? Is it fate?" he provocatively replied, "That's something only kids say," leaving a strong impression as a poignant and provocative younger man.

In the currently airing JTBC drama 〈Love Me〉, the role Lee Si-woo plays might be considered the most 'ordinary' role he has taken on. However, that 'ordinariness' is not a bland normalcy but rather a 'humanity' filled with deficiencies and anxieties, making it even more convincing. The JTBC 〈Love Me〉 tells the story of a father, Seo Jin-ho (Yoo Jae-myung), eldest daughter Seo Jun-kyung (Seo Hyun-jin), and younger brother Seo Jun-seo (Lee Si-woo), each with their own love stories and growth dramas, shifting focus between the family members' narratives. Among them, the unremarkable Seo Jun-seo compromises his present for love, fears being alone even when with his loved one, feels utterly pathetic and miserable about past love, and experiences impatience about the future while making escapist choices. Portraying the awkward youth that everyone has gone through, Lee Si-woo depicts the universal deficiencies and loneliness of the most ordinary character without exaggeration or understatement.

Once told at an audition that he looked like a "young master", Lee Si-woo mentioned that he has been waiting for rough roles like 'Asan Baekho' from 〈Boys' Generation〉. As a result, Lee Si-woo has become a rising actor who can blend cool laughter and bright smiles while acting alongside great seniors like Im Si-wan, Kim Seo-hyung, and Seo Hyun-jin, leaving us curious about what kind of face he will show next.

***** Starting with 'Joo Seong-cheol's Locker', which excessively attributes meaning to objects in movies, the actor's user manual 'Kim Ji-yeon's Treasure Box' expecting a rise, the movie music appreciation room 'Choo Ah-young's Music Box' that moved my heart, and the subculture merchant's purchase log 'Seong Chan-eol's Comic Books', Cineplay reporters will begin bi-weekly serialization with their own tastes and perspectives. *****