Studio Phoenix·SLL·Studio Flow
He is, quite literally, a ‘quote factory’.
Actor Koo Kyo-hwan is captivating viewers each episode with lines that strike the heart.
As episodes go by, the JTBC SaturdaySunday drama ‘Everyone Is Fighting Their Worthlessness’ (directed by Cha Young-hoon, written by Park Hae-young, produced by Studio Phoenix·SLL·Studio Flow, hereinafter ‘Everyone Is Fighting Their Worthlessness’) is becoming a hot topic as a well-made series. In it, Koo Kyo-hwan plays ‘Hwang Dong-man’, drawing empathy with realistic emotional currents and delicate acting. In particular, the lines that contain the character’s complex inner world go beyond a single scene to approach us as everyone’s story, leaving a deep afterglow. With that, we look back at the most memorable lines of ‘Hwang Dong-man’.
# “Not being anxious. I just need to not be anxious, that is all, for me”
Among successful friends, Dong-man tried to hide his worthlessness by piling on words. To his older brother Jin-man (Park Hae-joon), who asked, “What do you want? A debut? Success? What?”, his candid reply carried a modest wish to live without wavering rather than to chase success or grand dreams, delivering both pity and a heavy resonance. As Koo Kyo-hwan himself said he shed tears when reading the script, this scene, which took out the anxiety everyone carries somewhere in the heart, made the character’s unease all the more vivid.
# “At the end of my worthlessness, I will haul up the truth that shines. Look forward to my shining story. Go on, try to stop me; see if it works”
Dong-man’s confident declaration toward those who have ceaselessly looked down on him offered a thrilling catharsis. Delivering a long, almost soliloquy-like line with his own rhythm and density, Koo Kyo-hwan added outstanding diction, resolute eyes, and soon a tone filled with conviction to create a powerful moment. Above all, although the character could have come off as off-putting, this scene began to move viewers’ hearts little by little and naturally turned into support for his future.
# “I am a litmus-paper kind of man. If the other is acidic, I am acidic. If the other is alkaline, I am alkaline”
This showed that the binge eating he used to soothe the hunger lodged in a corner of his heart among the Eight, who always treated him as a nuisance, and all the sharp words he threw while pretending to be fine were in fact defenses to avoid getting hurt. He could not help but bristle in front of people who treated him carelessly, but in front of Eun-a (Go Youn-jung), who looked at him sincerely, Dong-man revealed a purer, more truthful self than anyone. That moment, intertwined with the bitter reality of having to change himself according to others’ attitudes, resonated with many.
# “If you catch a falling leaf, luck will come. I am tossing you the luck I caught”
This line best captures the lovable sensitivity of litmus-like Dong-man. There is a common saying that when you return a side-dish container, you do not send it back empty, and his romantic gesture of returning it to Eun-a with a fallen leaf inside made the character even more three-dimensional. Even while fighting worthlessness in reality, Dong-man’s wish to keep innocence and kindness by imbuing small moments with warm meaning came through intact, making viewers smile.
# “My favorite word, serenity. About a million times the feeling of reading comics under the covers in winter while peeling tangerines?”
Although it is about ‘serenity’, the word Dong-man likes most in the drama, a quiet sadness was conveyed in that it was something he imagined without ever having experienced such calm. The specific yet modest comparison, “About a million times the feeling of reading comics under the covers in winter while peeling tangerines?”,描 drew an even clearer picture of the emotion of ‘serenity’ and contained the earnestness of someone who has always lived fighting through anxiety. It was a moment that makes you hope Dong-man will finally reach his own serenity, one that lingers long in the heart.
In this way, Koo Kyo-hwan delivers even deeper emotion with line delivery that makes a solid script shine and with vivid acting. In episode 8, Dong-man’s debut was finally confirmed through Hye-jin (Kang Mal-geum), sending expectations for whether he can achieve his dream soaring to a peak for what comes next.
Meanwhile, JTBC’s ‘Everyone Is Fighting Their Worthlessness’, starring Koo Kyo-hwan, airs every Saturday at 10:40 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 p.m.
