Yoona, who successfully debuted in acting last year as the main female lead Saebyuk in KBS1TV’s Monday-Friday drama “You Are My Destiny”, will once again be assuming the role of an actress acting alongside Kwon Sangwoo in MBC’s Wednesday-Thursday drama “Cinderella Man” which is set to air on April 15th.

Yoona, better known in the first quarter of this year as a member of the wildly popular girl group SNSD who had generated an unstoppable “Gee” craze nationwide, will once again present herself as an actress. Viewers’ expectations towards Yoona are high because of the immense recognition and popularity she had garnered after “You Are My Destiny” enjoyed high ratings of over 40% last year.

When Yoona was announced to have been casted as the main female lead in “You Are My Destiny” last year, many people had expressed consternation and bewilderment. Factors such as her tender age of 19 as well as her image as an idol singer in a female pop group led many to believe that Yoona would not be able to successfully take on the role of acting. However, Yoona proved their misgivings and skepticism wrong by working hard to improve her acting skills, and even clinched the Best Newcomer award at the KBS Drama Awards 2008 in December.

Yoona will yet again be acting as the female lead in “Cinderella Man”, portraying the drama character of fashion designer Seo Yujin. In the drama, Seo Yujin was originally studying fashion designing in Paris but had to interrupt her studies to attend to her father’s funeral back in Korea, thus starting an arduous new chapter of her life in the Dongdaemun (East Gate) shopping area.

Yoona even cut short her long hair for the drama as she was worried that her current image as a bright cheerful teenage girl in SNSD might not be appropriate for her drama character and might adversely impact the upcoming drama.

Kwon Sangwoo, who is acting together with Yoona in “Cinderella Man”, remarked in a recent interview, “Yoona is not just an exceptional idol singer, she’s also very suitable as an actress. I think Yoona has the potential to become a beautiful actress who is able to take on many different roles like Shim Eunha.” He followed by saying, “If it was any other main lead in their late teens I might have been very troubled, but Yoona’s acting is really commendable.”

Without a doubt, there will be difficulties for Yoona to overcome in her upcoming drama. For starters, “Cinderella Man” is a mini drama which airs only on Wednesday and Thursday as compared to “You Are My Destiny” which aired on every weekday. There will be intense competition with other shows to attract viewers and ratings with the burden of responsibility falling squarely on the cast, especially Yoona since she is the main female lead. Furthermore, Yoona will have to shed her image as a teenage girl in SNSD to reprise the role of an older female drama character Seo Yujin which is definitely no mean feat.

Yoona was recently interviewed saying, “The burden of responsibility and the pressure to act well are really overwhelming.” Yoona, who is struggling with her neverending schedule as part of SNSD, also revealed some of her worries, lamenting, “I’m most worried that the preparation time for the drama might have been too short, especially since my drama character is older than my actual age. I just kept on reminding myself to work extra hard so as to not appear unnatural on screen.”

There had been a lack of young teenage faces in the recent Korean dramas and Yoona’s timely appearance was like a much anticipated breath of fresh air looked forward to by the viewers. Together with her credentials as a member of SNSD who had changed Korean popular culture tremendously, it’s no wonder why Yoona stands out from the rest of her idol peers in terms of commercial buzz and online response generated. “Will Yoona once again score a homerun with ‘Cinderella Man’?” is definitely going to be one of the hottest questions to be debated amongst her fans.

Credits: newsen.com

Translation: 1004yoon@yoonachina and [email protected]

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This article was really long to translate X_X but it was pretty insightful in exploring Yoona’s acting career thus far. Poor Yoona… imagine all the stress she’s facing now having to juggle both SNSD and Cinderella Man. Yoona hwaiting!~ Will be anticipating your hard work in Cinderella Man. =D