[Photo&] Yoon Kyung-ho Cries at 23% Ratings Breakthrough for ‘Kim Bujang’… a Netflix No. 1 Upset

Yoon Kyung-ho (46), a “top-tier star” who has swallowed both Korea’s home entertainment market and global OTT at the same time, finally poured out hot tears. With SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Kim Bujang’ ending on an astonishing “23% ratings”, he also did not forget the pain of being unknown for 20 years—even in the face of an unprecedented feat of ‘Netflix’ ranking No. 1 for three consecutive weeks in the non-English category. His attitude, in which he calls the current syndrome a “lottery win,” carries a weighty humility.

A Global No. 1 Run and the Miracle of 23%, Built on Thorough Self-Assessment

When Yoon Kyung-ho met reporters at Cheongdam-dong in Seoul on the 27th, he did not lose his composure even under an onslaught of spotlights. ‘Kim Bujang’, which finished airing on the 25th, held the top spot for three weeks in the non-English show category on ‘Netflix Tudum’’s official site — the first broadcast-network simultaneous airing work to do so. Playing ‘Park Jin-cheol’, a traffic marshal volunteer with a past as a deployed soldier, he dominated the drama’s catharsis: he transformed the untamed nature he had kept hidden, after being tightly controlled by the wife of a Marine Corps major general (played by Kim Ji-young), and through the daughter kidnapping case involving his close friend ‘Kim Bujang’ (played by So Ji-sub).

Bare-Handed Action No Stand-In Allowed, an Overwhelming Ensemble Forged by Three Dads

Behind the ‘bare-knuckle action’ that feels alive with impact sits brutal sweat. After dusting off the boxing skills he honed for four years on the stage of theater, Yoon Kyung-ho shared a behind-the-scenes story that he couldn’t even use a stand-in due to a huge difference in physique. The payoff, delivered mostly with his own hands by choice and necessity, overwhelmed the TV screen. And beyond that, the tight unity of ‘So Ji-sub’ and ‘Choi Dae-hoon’, formed as ‘Three Dads’, served as the work’s biggest driving force for box-office appeal. After a chase that put lives on the line, the smiles of the three men walking out onto the street came from genuine breathing among real ‘true buddies’, not from carefully calculated acting.

A Tunnel of 20 Years as an Unknown, From a Variety Breakout to a Go-To Actor

The ‘big-league’ title of today is by no means a coincidence. Ever since he debuted in 1999 with the theater production ‘Maengjin-sa-dae Gyeongsa’, the 20 years he endured by bouncing around odd jobs have served as the foundation behind it. A string of hit runs—his ‘Yurim-pping’ in the ‘Severe Trauma Center’ series on ‘Netflix’, the film ‘Zombie Daughter’, and the TVING drama ‘Becoming a Legend of the Cook Sergeant’—shows that his acting chops are solid. At a crisis moment when he tried to give up acting for his family, the human charm he unleashed through the web variety program ‘Pinggyego’ and tvN ‘Somehow, Family’ disarmed the public’s hearts. Even a hint of worry about becoming fixed in a variety-image stereotype vanished instantly after a single heartfelt letter from a fan: “If there hadn’t been acting, the variety side wouldn’t have been loved either.”

“I’m an actor like stocks”—Never-Stopping Evolution Toward Season 2

Yoon Kyung-ho’s acting philosophy is firm: he likens himself to ‘stocks’, where ups and downs exist. Unaffected by glamorous spotlights, his vow to “want to act for a long time, like noodles” points to the road of a real entertainer who breathes with the audience. Even about the ‘Kim Bujang Season 2’ that is currently being discussed positively, he delivered his signature upbeat statement: “I’ll make my body so I can get through the sunroof of a car.” Leaving yesterday’s glory behind and walking quietly toward the unknown stage of tomorrow, Yoon Kyung-ho is all the more reason to look forward to what he does next.