Was Shin Ye-eun ‘sparkling’ as ‘The Glory Yeonjin’?

Is it because I acted too intensely? The ‘okay’ acting comes across as flat. This is the story of Shin Ye-eun, who played the main character in SBS' 'Flower Scholar's Love Story.' As the popularity of Netflix's 'The Glory' cooled, the popularity of Shin Ye-eun, who realistically portrayed the villainous 'Yeonjin' as a child, also waned. SBS's next work, 'Flower Scholar Lover', which was released as the next film after attracting attention with the global box office success of 'The Glory', is about to end without attracting much attention. Shin Ye-eun showed a lovely image rather than a vicious one, but she was unable to ride the upward trend following 'The Glory'.

‘Flower Scholar’s Love Story’ starring Shin Ye-eun will air its final episode on the 16th. This drama is a youth historical romance created by Yoon Dan-oh (played by Shin Ye-eun), the owner of the stereotype-breaking boarding house 'Gaekju Ewhawon', and a trio of boarder scholars with secrets. Dan-Oh Yoon, who had to repay a debt left behind by his father, searches for Lee Seol when he learns that the owner of the debt, Tae-Hwa Jang (played by Man-Seok Oh), is looking for the whereabouts of Lee Seol, a deceased descendant who has disappeared. Then, he learns that the boarder, Kang San (played by Ryeo Un), is Lee Seol.

Despite various forces threatening Lee Seol's life, the two develop feelings for each other. In the last broadcast, Jeong Yoo-ha (played by Jeong Geon-ju), another boarder, was arrested by Uigeumbu soldiers and taken to the palace due to Jang Tae-hwa, who knew him as Lee Seol. Kang San planned a noble performance to receive the ‘Seson’s enthronement notice’ at Daebijeon. Dano Yoon joined the group, saying he would disguise himself as Nine and receive teaching information.

Shin Ye-eun attracted attention by playing the school days of school violence perpetrator Park Yeon-jin in Netflix's 'The Glory'. He said, "It was attractive that all the characters were three-dimensional and alive. I also thought that Dano would be loved by many people. I started with the mindset of 'let's receive some love.'" He also expressed his confidence, saying, "Out of all the works I've done so far, I think Dano resembles me the most. Dano is so lovely that I don't even know if I want to be like him." After showing a vicious performance in 'The Glory', he tried to show another side of himself as a lovable character.

Although it succeeded in showing a lovely and lively side, it lacked any further achievements. In historical drama romances with obvious content, Shin Ye-eun did not stand out as much as in 'The Glory', and Shin Ye-eun's acting was also passable. However, the youngest daughter of Geum Geum-ok-yeop, an aristocrat, naturally expressed the courageous and independent appearance of a 'girl head of a household' who runs a boarding house on her own to pay off the debt left behind by her father.

In the 4th week of March, the first week of the airing of 'Flower Scholar's Love Story', due to the influence of 'The Glory', it ranked 3rd in topicality among drama performers and 6th in topicality among TV-OTT combined actors. However, in the 5th week of March, the popularity of drama actors fell to 10th place. After that, both the drama cast's topicality and the overall cast's topicality were pushed out of the top 10.

This drama was Shin Ye-eun's first historical drama. At the production presentation before airing, he said, "I was very hesitant about taking on the challenge of a historical drama. I thought it was right to take on the challenge once I had the skills to do so. But this work was fun and I thought there was nothing I couldn't do if there were a director and seniors who have done historical dramas. I'm good at this work. "I thought there would be a lot to gain when I put it out. I had a solid grasp of the basic skills of historical dramas. If there were any difficult parts of speaking in historical dramas, I tried changing them to modern language. I received a lot of help from my seniors on set," he said. The positive attitude was impressive, but the actual performance left something to be desired. There are still many opportunities to show off as an actor. Expectations for the next work are also growing accordingly.

Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia reporter bella@tenasia.co.kr