6 K-Dramas With Big Age Gaps Between The Romantic Leads

Recently, actor Go Soo was announced to star in a K-Drama with OH MY GIRL‘s Arin, and the news drew quite some frowns as people realized the two actors have an age gap of 21 years! Though neither the plot nor the genre of the show is known to the public yet, people showed concern assuming that these two actors might play love interests of each other.

Even the recent Netflix global hit, The Glory, also received negative attention from quite a lot of netizens who were sour about the 14-year age difference between the leads, Song Hye Kyo and Lee Do Hyun. Similarly, Eve‘s lead casting was also criticized for the 12-year age gap between Seo Ye Ji and Park Byung Eun.

Lee Do Hyun and Song Hye Kyo Seo Ye Ji and Park Byung Eun.

However, casting leads with big age gaps is not a new or rare practice in K-Dramas. Here are six romantic dramas where the lead cast had over ten years’ worth of age difference!

1. A Witch’s Love

This 2014 tvN drama starred Uhm Jung Hwa and Park Seo Joon in the leading roles of Ban Ji Yeon and  Yoon Dong Ha, respectively. The plot revolves around the protagonists finding love as they learn to find common ground between them, despite their age difference. In the show, Ji Yeon was a 39-year-old reporter, and Dong Ha is a 25-year-old store owner. In reality, when the drama was airing, Park Seo Joon was 26 years old, and Uhm Jung Hwa was 45 years old, making their off-screen age gap a whopping 19 years!

2. Marriage Contract

The drama revolves around Kang Hye Soo (played by Uee) single mother who enters a contract marriage with a chaebol named Han Ji Hoon (played by Lee Seo Jin). When Hye Soo finds out that she is terminally ill, she agrees to marry Ji Hoon and donate her liver to his mother in exchange for enough money that can secure her child’s future. The drama aired in 2016 when Seo Jin was 45, and Uee was 28. So, the lead actors had an age gap of 17 years.

3. My Secret Terrius

| IMDb

Starring So Ji Seob and Jung In Sun, this drama tells the story of a widow discovering the conspiracy behind her husband’s death with the help of her neighbor, who is also a former NIS agent. While So Ji Sub is a ’77 liner, In Sun was born in 1991, making their age difference 14 years. When the drama was airing in 2018, Seo was 45 years old, while In Sun was 31.

4. I Can Hear Your Voice

This 2013 drama series tells the story of a sharp female lawyer with no filter who teams up with a public defender and a high-school student with special gifts to bring down a killer with a personal vendetta. Lee Bo Young plays the role of the lawyer Jang Hye Sung, while Lee Jong Suk is the high school senior Park Soo Ha with supernatural abilities. The two leads share an age difference of ten years, with Lee Jong Suk being an ’89-liner while Bo Young is a ’79-liner. During the show’s airing, they were 24 and 34 years old, respectively.

5. My Lovely Girl

| SBS

Starring Rain and Krystal, this 2014 drama revolves around the story of finding love again. Hyun Wook (Rain) is the president of an entertainment company, a composer, and a producer. After losing his girlfriend in an accident, he comes across her younger sister Se Na (Krystal), and the two eventually fall in love. In real life, the two actors are 12 years apart in age, with Rain being an ’82-liner and Krystal a ’94-liner.

6. Guardian: The Lonely and Great God

| IMDb

There is hardly a K-Drama fan who doesn’t know about this iconic K-Drama. The story is about Kim Shin (Gong Yoo), an immortal goblin who is on a search to find a human bride who can remove an invisible sword from his chest and end his life. His search ends when a school student Ji Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun), confesses to him that she is the chosen one. This is probably the only drama where the on-screen age difference between the leads was much more in the talks than the off-screen one. Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun share an age gap of 12 years, the former being 43 and the latter being 31 this year. But in the show, Kim Shin and Ji Eun Tak had an age difference of 920 years!