tvN ‘Undercover Miss Hong’
Actor Kim Young-woong is delivering deep resonance to the small screen.
The tvN weekend drama ‘Undercover Miss Hong’ is a retro office comedy full of mishaps that unfolds as Hong Geum-bo (played by Park Shin-hye), an elite securities inspector in her thirties, goes undercover as a 20-year-old entry-level hire with only a high school diploma to trace suspicious money flows. While maintaining momentum with cheerful laughs and a tense storyline, Kim Young-woong is drawing attention by playing ‘Hong Chun-seop’, the father of Hong Geum-bo, delivering a warmly human performance that showcases a new signature character.
In the series, Kim Young-woong is giving a compelling turn as ‘Hong Chun-seop’, father to the dependable elder daughter ‘Hong Geum-bo’ and the cherished youngest daughter ‘Hong Jang-mi’ (played by Yuna), and a devoted husband who cares wholeheartedly for his wife ‘Kim Sun-jeong’ (played by Lee Su-mi). In particular, his struggle to protect his family amid the upheaval of the 1997 foreign exchange crisis reflected what people went through at the time and elicited deep empathy.
Hong Chun-seop fell into a series of ordeals: he purchased an investment product from Hanmin Securities only to discover it was in fact a faulty fund, and sales at the fried-chicken shop he runs plunged, leaving him behind on the rent and pushing him to the brink. With restrained emotion, Kim Young-woong delicately portrayed the futility felt by Hong Chun-seop and his sense of responsibility as head of the household, moving viewers to tears.
Even amid such crisis, Hong Chun-seop and his wife Kim Sun-jeong showed they would not lose warmth toward those around them. They carefully looked after Bomi, the daughter of their Room 301 roommate Kim Mi-suk (played by Kang Chae-young), joined the national ‘Gold-collecting Campaign’, and chose to volunteer at a nursing home on the birthday of their elder daughter, Hong Geum-bo, fully revealing their warm nature.
The Hong Chun-seop brought to life by Kim Young-woong stands as a portrait of fathers who endured the IMF era and as a humanistic character that warms viewers. Given Kim Young-woong’s proven ability to inhabit any role in any project, anticipation for his next steps continues to build.
Meanwhile, Episode 15 of the tvN weekend drama ‘Undercover Miss Hong’, ahead of its final episode, will air at 10 p.m. on Saturday the 7th, and the finale will air at 9:10 p.m. on Sunday the 8th.
