By OKOALA
Im Joo Hwan is Park Kyu: he of the perpetual whiff of snobbery, nary of speck on dirt to be found on his white robes, and general loftier-than-thou-demeanor. Here is a nobleman turned undercover investigator turned man in love turned man who has found his goal in life. Im Joo Hwan nails each and every subtle emotional turn required of this character.
I cannot stress enough how much I love both Im Joo Hwan’s performance as and the character of Park Kyu. [I first saw Im Joo Hwan as the second lead in Snow Queen. He was cute but not terribly memorable. Then he went and blew my mind in Tamra]. He captured the innate nobility of a privileged and intelligent young man, and conveyed the inner struggles of a noble reassessing his perceptions of the world and his place in it.
As Park Kyu begins to fall in love with Tamra, and with Beo Jin, we see this young man’s face light up little by little, until he gives that first wide-open smile. And our collective hearts just stopped beating for a second. [Mr. Koala actually spent MINUTES talking to me about Park Kyu’s smile, what it meant, how it was so wonderful to see, blahblahblah – I was both astonished and slighty worried I may need to re-assess his sexual orientation]. Im Joo Hwan as Park Kyu has that combination of grace, charm, and boyish intensity that melts our ahjumma hearts and makes us his slaves forever.
My full-blown unabashed adoration of Park Kyu probably sounds rather like I’ve contract some sort of mental disease. I have no problems conceding when I, for inexplicable reasons, adore an actor. But the love of Park Kyu and Im Joo Hwan is not a disease which afflicts only me. Remember I mentioned Team Park Kyu? Before watching Tamra, I quizzically pondered why folks would create a team in support of one guy. After watching Tamra, I bought myself a lifetime membership. I dare you to watch Tamra and remain dispassionate about this amazing young man.
Park Kyu has some imperfections, which serves to make him human and vulnerable. Yet his weaknesses are more than made up for by all his many virtues (one of which is smiling so adorably it makes my knees go weak, the other is kissing the living daylights out of a girl). That about evens it out, and we can all agree that Park Kyu = perfection, okay?
Don’t think that my fawning over Park Kyu means that I’m knocking on Willy Boy over there. I’m not. William is really second-to-none in his decency and devotion to Beo Jin. All I can say is, Team William is awesome (Beo Jin gets to be an English lady with a man that worships her), but Team Park Kyu is awesomer (Beo Jin gets to stay on Tamra with her family, be the wife of the Chief Magistrate, with a man who loves her like no other). At the end of the day, I can only go with awesomer. Can you blame me?
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