Lack of real-life romance not an issue for Korean belle Kim So Hyun

Would you be able to pull off on-screen kisses with conviction if you had no experience in dating?

Meet the pro who does that: South Korean sweetie-pie teen actress Kim So Hyun.

The 17-year-old rising star was in town yesterday at the invitation of streaming service Viu to promote her latest drama, the horror-romance Bring It On, Ghost.

She will be at Plaza Singapura today at 2pm for her first free public fan meet in Singapore.

She admitted that behaving all lovey-dovey with her co-star, Ok Taecyeon, 27, of K-pop boy band 2PM, did not come naturally to her.

"I really don't have much experience in romantic relationships," Kim told The New Paper via a translator.

"I've always felt that my romantic scenes (in previous dramas) could have been done better with more detail.

"This time round, before filming Bring It On, Ghost, I watched a lot of romantic films for inspiration."

Bring It On, Ghost, which is available on viu.com or the Viu mobile app for free, stars Kim as a cute, bubbly wandering spirit who joins forces with a brooding exorcist (Ok) to fight evil ghosts.

The pair locked lips about four times throughout the 16-part series.

As it turns out, kissing Ok was not "as challenging" as she had thought it would be, said Kim, who did her first on-screen kiss when she was 14.

That kiss was with actor Yeo Jin Goo, who was then 16, in the 2013 drama Missing You.

"Most of our kissing scenes were devised to move the storyline along," she said, referring to a particular scene where she and Ok tumbled down a flight of stairs and their lips accidentally touched.

"All of them were very light kisses."

Kim, who started off her showbiz career as a child star in hit dramas such as King Of Baking, Kim Takgu (2010) and Moon Embracing The Sun (2012), called Bring It On, Ghost the first drama where she "transitions into a grown-up actress".

She has quite a number of fight scenes as well as scenes involving wirework.

"To prepare myself for our action sequences, I spent one month doing martial arts training," Kim said.

"It was tough. I sprained my neck once during the training."

Filming with Ok was super fun and enjoyable though, she said, adding that he is now her favourite male co-actor.

POP IDOLS

Other pop idols Kim has worked with include EXO's D.O. (in 2016 movie Pure Love), SHINee's Minho and Block B's Zico, her co-hosts for music programme Show! Music Core.

"Taecyeon is very energetic and positive all the time. Some days, we are naughty and we'd make fun of each other, usually about our (10-year) age difference," she said, adding that it "isn't noticeable till he shares the songs he likes".

"Sometimes, on set, Taecyeon would play a song he loves and he'd ask me if I like it too," she recalled.

"When I tell him I don't know that song at all, he'd exclaim, 'What? How can you not know this song?'

"Only then do I feel that, yeah, maybe we do have a generation gap between us."

This article was first published on October 01, 2016.
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