From Lee Min Ho’s Gu Jun Pyo In Boys Over Flowers To Song Kang As Park Jae Eon In Nevertheless: These 5 Toxic K-Drama Male Leads We Didn’t Realize Were Such Big Red Flags!
We love our oppas but they do tend to cross boundaries sometimes, coming across as extremely rude and cold. Take a look at five such K-drama male leads.
Lee Min Ho In Boys Over Flowers To Song Kang In Nevertheless, 5 Male Leads With Extremely Toxic Traits!(Photo Credit –Imdb)
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Have you ever come across a male lead who you thought was extremely rude but was rather portrayed as charming with every other girl in the neighbourhood, office, or just in general swooning over him? No, we love our oppas! We really do. But every once in a while, Korean dramas generalize bullying, cross boundaries, and overdo the simping part just in the name of being charming.
When Lee Jun Ho (Goo-Won) asked YoonA (Sa-rang) for her permission in King The Land before kissing her, it was a refreshing sight to see. Despite the obvious tension between the male and female leads, Goo said, “Please allow me” and what followed was one of the most romantic and passionate scenes in K-drama history. That’s the beauty of consent!
It took many of us to come to terms with the fact that Boys Over Flowers was exactly not a romantic comedy, and The Uncontrollably Fond’s male lead’s behaviour towards the female lead could not have been justified in the initial first episodes, and yes we know he was terminally-ill.
Today, we are sharing our top 5 male leads from popular K-dramas who were red flags, but we fans went color-blind for them.
1. Lee Min Ho As Gu Jun Pyo (Boys Over Flowers)
Lee Min Ho As Gu Jun Pyo (Boys Over Flowers)(Photo Credit –Imdb)
Yes, we had to begin with this cult classicK-drama. BOF transported all of us to our lucid high school dreams as we could not help but wish to be a part of F4 only to get close to Gu Jun Pyo (Lee Min Ho). Now, we are all a sucker for an enemies-to-lover trope, but what we did not understand was his constant bickering and bullying against Geum Jan Di (Koo Hye Sun). Also, it was nothing short of cringeworthy every time he visited Jan Di’s house uninvited and showered them with his riches.
2. Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young Do (The Heirs)
Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young Do (The Heirs)(Photo Credit –Imdb)
The Heirs was a love triangle with an undefined tension between the female lead Cha Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye) and the Second Male Lead Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin). If not for Lee Min Ho’s Kim Tan, Eun Sang could have ended up falling for Choi thanks to her bittersweet memories with him, but we will never get over how he bullied her to the point it felt like mental harassment in the initial few episodes of the K-drama.
3. Kim Hyun Jung As Baek Seung Jo (Playful Kiss)
Kim Hyun Jung As Baek Seung Jo (Playful Kiss)(Photo Credit –Imdb)
Curated to come across as an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers plot, Playful Kiss saw the cold and intelligent Baek Sung Jo (Kim Hyun Jung )publicly embarrassing and insulting Oh Ha Ni (Jung So Min) after she declared her feelings to him in a heartfelt letter. While Sung Jo does end up falling for Ha-ni later in the K-drama, it also concerns us how she let her own career destroy to be with him.
4. Song Kang as Park Jae Eon (Nevertheless)
Song Kang as Park Jae Eon (Nevertheless)(Photo Credit –Imdb)
Making out with multiple people while finding your way back to one person sounds a stretch even for a modern K-drama. Par Jae Eon (Song Kang) was extremely charming and we will give him for that, but his commitment issues were not highlighted enough throughout the drama. Also, Yu Na Bi (Han So Hee) chose to just be a butterfly when she could have been the Queen Bee.
5. Lee Min Ho as Kim Tan (The Heirs)
Lee Min Ho as Kim Tan (The Heirs)(Photo Credit –Imdb)
We know Lee Min Ho‘s charm is unavoidable, but his Kim Tan in The Heirs was far from being charming. He sometimes came across as a stubborn child who would go to any lengths to get a toy (Eun Sang in this case). He was obsessive, narcissistic, and outright rude.
Who do you think is the most toxic K-drama lead ever? Let us know.
