Jang Nara's Fantasy Romance Proves Age Is Just A Number

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Jang Nara
Mr. Baek
Shin Ha Kyun

After delighting audiences as the cheerful post-it girl Kim Mi Young in "Fated To Love You," actress Jang Nara has decided to do another romantic comedy. Only this time the comedy will feature an element of fantasy.

Her new rom-com is "Mr. Baek." At the start of "Mr. Baek" her character Eun Ha Soo is a temporary worker just like Kim Mi Young was. Eun Ha Soo's father died and she must struggle to make a living. She works long days and keeps switching jobs, eager to earn a few extra pennies in wages. Despite the tough living conditions, like Kim Mi Young, she is ever optimistic and cheerful. Eun Ha Soo finally lands a full time job and in true Candy Girl fashion falls in love with the president of the company. There's only one problem. And it's the big age gap between them. The man she falls in love with is in his 70s.

Through some magical intervention, the company president gets another chance at youth and love, returning to his 30-year-old body. While quite a few k-dramas have recently focused on romances in which the leading actors have a significant age difference, this age gap may be the biggest one yet.

Jang Nara's love interest is in his 70s, while she is only 33 and, with her huge doe eyes, looks even younger.  In her 2011 comedy "Baby Faced Beauty," she even played a 34-year-old designer, who is mistaken for a 25-year-old.

It was the odd but intriguing fantasy element of the drama that interested Jang Nara and prompted her to choose the role.

"I decided on my casting because the fantasy-romance genre and interesting storyline pulled me in," she said.

Thanks to magic, her 70-year-old love interest will not look 70. Shin Ha Kyun, who played legislator Kim Soo Young in "All About My Romance," plays  Choi Shin Hyung. Choi is the chaebol who thinks he has everything, money, position, power, but discovers that none of it compares to love. He finds out that youth is indeed wasted on the young who cannot truly appreciate it. The role was previously offered to Ji Chang Wook and Kim Nam Gil, both of whom declined.

Lee Sang Yeop, who directed "The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry" and "King's Daughter Soo Baek Hyang," will direct "Mr. Baek." Choi Joon Young, who wrote "Emergency Couple," will write the screenplay. The drama will premiere in November.

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