Every Korean Drama lover would have known this ‘Goblin Star’! Gong Yoo is one of the most popular Actors in Asia.
Starting his acting career before over 2 decades, Gong Yoo received international fame through the drama ‘Coffee Prince’. Immediately after Coffee prince, he was enlisted for military service and made his comeback after 2 Years. He started concentrating more on Movies instead of television roles. He made his comeback to Television only after 5 Years (since coffee Prince) through the drama, “BIG” with Lee Min-Jung which received only modest ratings and also faced criticism. Later comes the unconquerable pride, Goblin!
In all over his career, Gong Yoo has acted only in 5 dramas with two critically acclaimed roles!
Gong Yoo’s Best Dramas:
Coffee Prince is a Breakout role in Gong Yoo’s career that made him a Hallyu star! Ever since he is one of the top actors in South Korea.
Coffee Prince (2007):
Coffee Prince tells the unlikely romance between Choi Han-gyul ,a Young Food magnate and a tomboyish girl, Go Eun-chan, who cross-dress herself in order to get a job at Han-gyul’s Coffee Shop!
Choi Han-gyul (Gong Yoo ) is a never-care guy who never interested in getting a job! Just to prove his capability to his, he takes over an old and almost zero-profit coffee shop and wanted to turn it into a profitable one with the help of attractive employees! To attract the customers, he always hires only good-looking male workers, and Go Eun-chan (Yoon Eun-hye), who is always mistaken as a boy, managed to get a job by pretending as male! Without knowing her original identity, Han-gyul loves her, and eun-chan who loves him wholeheartedly pretends as a man as she doesn’t want to lose him! Han-gyul is drawn into severe confusion as he falls for a man but later becomes firm and confident in his decision!
Meanwhile, Choi Han-gyul’s dreams with his first love, Han Yoo-joo (Chae Jung-an) shattered when she rejected it as she only considers him as a friend, and perhaps, she is in a relationship with Choi Han-sung (Lee Sun-kyun), Han-gyul’s cousin. Things become hard when Han-sung develops feelings for Eun-chan knowing her identity even before Han-gyul.
Apart from the Main Lead’s relationship, you will definitely love all the sub-stories of each employee’s love affair! Especially Choi Han-gyul’s own relationship with his first love Han Yoo-joo!
With Average of 24.2% Audience Share, this 2007 drama is a massive hit in South Korea!
Coffee Prince won Best Drama award at 20th Korea PD Awards.
Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye won Excellence Award, Actor and Top Excellence Award, Actress at MBC Drama Awards.
In 2011, the coffee shop was featured in the documentary Seoul’s Got Soul, a National Geographic Channel’s documentary on the Korean Wave. This shows even after 4 Years of the release, it’s still in people’s hearts!
Goblin(2016):
The story depicts the life of Kim Shin, a Goblin (Gong Yoo) who was a military general from the Goryeo Dynasty. Being framed for treason and killed by the Young King! As to protect his country, he had already killed thousands of warriors and thus he is cursed to stay immortal to mourn his loved ones’ death for Years. Thus, he becomes an immortal goblin with a sword pierced in his chest at all times!
In 2016, He lives with a Super Cool Grim Reaper (Lee Dong-wook) , his nephew Yoo Deok-Hwa (Yook Sung-jae). Meanwhile, to become mortal, the goblin’s bride must take over his sword pierced in his chest and he is in search of her. Finally, Ji Eun-Tak (Kim Go-eun) appears!!
On the other end, Sunny (Yoo In-na), a young lady who runs a chicken shop meets Grim Reaper (Lee Dong-wook) and these four people come into a single picture when Goblin wanted Eun-tak to work as a part-timer at Sunny’s Chicken Shop which most of the times runs without customers. Gradually, they came to know their connections in their previous life.
Goblin is considered as a treasure to Hallyu! Goblin has created a global phenomenon across Asia and is one of the highest-rated Korean Drama in cable Television History. The Lanvin coat worn by Gong Yoo saw an increase in Sales.
Gong Yoo won Best Actor award at 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards and 5th Annual DramaFever Awards! He also won Actor of the Year award at Brand of the Year Awards!
Gong Yoo & Kim Go-eun won Best Couple award at 5th Annual DramaFever Awards.
Few Facts About Gong Yoo:
The real name of Gong Yoo is Gong Ji-cheol .His stage name is the combination of his father’s last name “Gong” and of his mother’s last name “Yoo”.
Gong Yoo Hosted a Music program named Music Camp in the Year 2004.
In 2013, Gong Yoo was appointed as a special representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Korea.
In 2014, Along With ha Ji-won, Gong Yoo was named as an ambassador for the National Tax Service (NTS).
2016 is an Excellent Year for Gong Yoo ! He had acted in 2 Blockbuster Movies, Train to Busan and The Age of Shadows and the massive hit fantasy Korean drama, Goblin!
Gong Yoo Movies:
His Movie, Train to Busan, is a massive hit that surpassed 10 million Audiences in theatres during its run.
His Another Box Office Blockbuster, The Age of Shadows, recorded 6 millions Audiences in just 2 weeks.
His movie “Silenced(Dogani)” which is inspired by the novel The Crucible sparked a public outrage that eventually leads to reforms in legislative laws against sexual abuse in minors.”Dogani Law”(Korean name of the movie title) was passed to take strict actions against under- 13 sexual abuse (especially physically challenged children).
Gong Yoo Upcoming Dramas/Movies (2020)
Gong Yoo’s upcoming Movie is titled Wonderland. Though his character to be played is yet to be announced, it is confirmed that he will be acting alongside Tang Wei, the Chinese actress. The movie is expected to be released in 2021.
His upcoming drama “The Silent Sea”, is a scientific thriller! The main cast includes Bae Doo Na and Lee Joon and set to be premiered from December 2020!