Cha Eun-woo’s navy enlistment has left followers heartbroken, with the Korean celebrity and Astro member set to serve for 18 months earlier than his anticipated discharge in January 2027.
On the time of writing, 28-year-old Cha Eun-woo joined the South Korean necessary navy service as an active-duty soldier on July 28. According to Korea Dispatch, he’ll endure coaching on the Nonsan Coaching Heart earlier than serving within the navy band. Forward of his enlistment, the singer and actor shared his ideas in a YouTube live stream about his new cropped haircut, saying, “It’s the shortest it’s been since I used to be two or three.” He added, “It feels unusual. I can’t consider today has come for me.” He additionally expressed his need to bid farewell correctly, assuring followers, “Let’s meet once more with a stronger physique and thoughts. I’ll be again safely.”
Earlier than his enlistment, the Ok-pop idol made a number of heartfelt gestures for his followers—he featured in IU’s music video, “A Beautiful Person,” after which handled followers to an immersive expertise along with his VR live performance, Cha Eun-woo VR Live performance: Reminiscences, which was screened in 21 cities globally, together with Seoul, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. Subsequently, he hit the stage with the fan meet-and-greet, The Royal, at Kyung Hee College in Seoul and even jammed with Arden Cho for a canopy of the track “Free” from Netflix’s hit animated movie KPop Demon Hunters.
Cha Eun-woo’s subsequent large tasks embody the extremely anticipated superhero action-comedy drama The Wonderfools alongside notable Korean actors like Park Eun-bin, and his debut movie position in First Ride with Kang Ha-neul. However earlier than we stay up for these new roles, we’re hitting rewind with a glance again on the Ok-dramas which have outlined his appearing profession thus far. Listed here are Cha Eun-woo’s prime 5 roles, ranked.
5. Island (2022-2023)
Unfolding on Jeju Island, this webtoon-based fantasy, motion, and horror collection stars Kim Nam-gil as Van, a half-human, half-monster; Lee Da-hee as Received Mi-ho, a chaebol heiress exiled to the island; and Cha Eun-woo as Yohan, a priest who joins forces to take down evil forces threatening to destroy the world.
Yohan is charismatic, expert in exorcism, witty, and absolutely devoted to redeeming humanity. Cha Eun-woo’s efficiency captures all these sides with nuance, including layers to the character’s complexity. He visits Jeju Island primarily for Mi-ho, who turns into embroiled within the thriller and horror plaguing the island. Their chemistry provides emotional depth to the story’s in any other case pervasive darkness and concern, humanizing Yohan’s supernatural expertise and grounding him in humanity.
4. Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (2019)
Shin Se-kyung performs the titular position, whereas Cha Eun-woo performs Yi Rim, a prince moonlighting as a romance novelist. The drama narrates Goo Hae-ryung’s journey as she challenges a society that belittles girls. She questions norms, prioritizes information that empowers herself and people in want, and progressively turns into one among Joseon’s most revered feminine royal courtroom historians.
In the meantime, Cha’s Yi Rim seems to have all of it—an ideal profile and a spotlight from girls. However behind the facade, he struggles with emotions of loneliness and despair. Regardless of being an inheritor to the dominion, he stays unaware of his true ancestry. However his life modifications when he meets Hae-ryung, and sparks fly regardless of their clashing opinions. Cha absolutely embodies Yi Rim’s sense of isolation, vulnerability, and emotional depth, in addition to his rising emotions for Hae-ryung, culminating in a fancy love story amid the Joseon dynasty’s energy struggles and political intrigue.
3. True Magnificence (2020-2021)
True Magnificence explores the concept appearances might be deceiving, underlining the message that magnificence is simply skin-deep. Lim Ju-kyung (Mun Ka-young), the heroine, learns make-up tips to camouflage her perceived unattractiveness, and her makeover quickly crowns her the college goddess. Nevertheless, “uneasy lies the top that wears the crown,” as she fears her true face being uncovered. Her rising apprehensions intensify when Lee Su-ho (Cha Eun-woo), the chilly and curt campus heartthrob, enters her life and turns into drawn to her.
Cha completely portrays Su-ho—quiet, withdrawn, and critical—his chilly exterior rooted in a troubled previous and damaged household. But, Ju-kyung helps him cope along with his long-held grief, simply as he helps her overcome her deep-seated inferiority advanced.
2. My ID Is Gangnam Magnificence (2018)
This hit webtoon-turned-drama follows Im Soo-hyang’s Kang Mi-rae, a school scholar who undergoes cosmetic surgery after years of bullying, solely to understand that the ridicule doesn’t cease—it simply takes on a unique kind. On the opposite facet, Cha Eun-woo’s Doh Kyung-seok is the present’s good-looking male lead, a mysterious genius hiding emotional scars. He’s not simply focused on seems to be and falls for Mi-rae’s awkward attraction. As they develop nearer, they heal one another, studying to look previous appearances and recognize interior magnificence.
Cha Eun-woo brings a whole lot of depth to a perfect-looking, reserved Kyung-seok, seamlessly balancing his aloofness with a delicate facet that Mi-rae efficiently attracts out of him. The drama is an perception into love, self-acceptance, and the subtleties of human relationships. On the identical time, it’s a mockery of societal requirements and the significance we place on our seems to be via “Gangnam magnificence,” an insulting time period for Koreans who’ve had cosmetic surgery to look a sure method.
1. Fantastic World (2024)
One in all his most intense performances thus far, the character Kwon Seon-yul, showcases Cha Eun-woo’s rising vary as an actor. Fantastic World, one among our 10 best K-dramas of 2024, follows well-known psychology professor Eun Soo-hyeon (Kim Nam-joo), who loses her little one and vows vengeance after being denied justice. She comes face-to-face with an elusive Seon-yul, a moody, guarded determine whose life is entangled in an internet of crime, deceit, distress, misunderstandings, and above all else, revenge.
Fantastic World meanders via a maze of twists and turns, finally arriving at themes of repentance and reconciliation within the wake of hard-won confessions. Cha Eun-woo brings his A-game as Seon-yul, channeling a ache that’s as intense as his thirst for justice—all of which he skillfully wraps in dreamy seems to be that amplify the character’s on-screen presence and influence.