Korean heartthrob Lee Je Hoon was recently in town to promote his latest drama ‘Tomorrow With You’, where he takes on the role of the male lead, Yoo So Joon. While being more known for his extensive list of roles to his name on big screen, he has been building up his television drama repertoire – most notably, his character Park Hae Young from critically-acclaimed drama, ‘Signal’.
‘Tomorrow With You’ follows Yoo So Joon, who possess the ability to time travel to the future via the subway – where he meets the female lead, Song Ma Rin, played by Shin Min Ah. With his ability to foresee the future, he then falls in love and marries Ma Rin in order to change his fate. But while one can possibly alter his fate, no one can cheat time or death, and we will leave you to catch the rest of the show for yourself!
On the same line of thought, if Lee Je Hoon could know of his future, what would he choose to know? His answer was surprisingly, not to know of his future at all and live each day to its fullest. He explained that while it is good see his future, he will know when he dies and the bad things that may happen in his lifetime – which he may try to avoid.
‘Tomorrow With You’ is about seeing the future, so what if Lee Je Hoon could teleport back to the past? He chose to teleport back to middle school, claiming to be one of those strange kids who enjoyed going to school so much so that he hated the weekends. He spends his weekend looking forward to meeting his friends and great teachers again, whom he thinks had a good impression of him as a student. He also recalls himself as being playful and mischievous in a positive way that adds life to the class – where teachers and friends enjoyed his company.
Lee Je Hoon also mentioned that he last took the subway 5 or 6 years ago, and sadly after he started acting, he could no longer took public transport. While he could, he usually sleeps or read film magazine, proving his dedication to perfecting his art. An interesting incident that he could still remember clearly was a lady striking up a conversation with him. He thought she wanted money from him, but she surprised him and asked, “Do you believe in God?”. He was so frightened, he ran away!
Lee Je Hoon teased that there are plenty of romantic and sweet scenes between him and Shin Min Ah. Despite being the same age, he looked up to Shin Min Ah as a big fan, whom the latter asked to speak informally (banmal), and cracked many jokes with him – eventually getting much closer. Lee Je Hoon also spoke highly of his co-star, expressing that she is someone with a kind and great heart. When asked who is the next actress he would like to work his, he said that Shin Min Ah is the only actress, so far, on his mind.
All the romantic moves of Yoo So Joon made him wonder if he would match up to his role in real life, but as the filming progressed, he realised that he was actually more romantic than he thought he was.
When probed on the most romantic thing he had done for someone, he revealed casually that he bought and packaged 100 packets of coffee milk as he knew his crush really liked coffee milk and confessed to her. It was a cute story that ended with success, and all the more made sweeter against the backdrop as a university freshman when he was 20 years old, when love was simple, innocent and kind.
However, Lee Je Hoon still finds a woman’s heart hardest to understand, but perhaps, could take a tip or two from his character to charm more women that may come his way.
On the topic of future opportunities, Lee Je Hoon has set his sights on a variety of roles that he would like to take – from a boxer to a doctor and even a lawyer. He mentioned that he would also like to try out the role of a psychopath or sociopath as villain if possible, which we think seems more exciting!
Comparing his role between ‘Signal’ and ‘Tomorrow With You’, he found his character in ‘Signal’, more difficult to portray as he had to empathise with the victims while the lovey dovey scenes appeared to be more manageable in ‘Tomorrow With You’. However, we believe he could definitely pull off the role of a villain well, as he diligently read up on comments of his works online. Sadly, we are sorry to report that it does not seem like we will be seeing him on social media platforms soon because he thinks he will be bad at managing them.
So perhaps leave a comment or two online if you want to see him on social media, because for all you know, he may see your comment and decide to start his social media journey!
As Tomorrow With You airs, the plot thickens and suffice to say, we are hooked to the drama ourselves to get our fix of Lee Je Hoon even long after he has left Singapore. He is thankful and happy to hear that many people outside of Korea are enjoying the show as well, so be sure to tune in at Starhub’s Channel 855, every Sunday at 10PM, or stream it on the go on Starhub Go application, where you can stream it anytime, anywhere with no data!