Last year, Korean actor Kim Ji Soo restarted his entertainment career in the Philippines with new acting projects. What does he have planned for 2025?
Once one of K-Drama’s rising stars, Ji Soo’s career took a hit in 2021, following accusations of school violence, bullying, sexual harassment, and assault. Ji Soo enlisted in the military, provided an update on the allegations in 2023, then signed with a new agency last year. On August 28, 2024, Sparkle GMA Artist Center, a talent agency based in the Philippines, announced that it had signed Ji Soo.
Sparkle GMA Artist Center officially welcomes their favorite ✨oppa✨ Kim Ji Soo as the newest addition to their diverse roster of talents ✨
Congratulations and welcome to Sparkle, Kim Ji Soo! 🫶🏻#KimJiSoo pic.twitter.com/7F3k88KMpk
— Sparkle GMA Artist Center (@Sparkle_GMA) August 28, 2024
In 2024, Ji Soo appeared in the series Black Rider, the film Mujigae, and the record-breaking series Abot-Kamay na Pangarap. Abot-Kamay na Pangarap.
Earlier this month, Ji Soo shared photos from a magazine cover shoot on his personal Instagram. He completely transformed his look for Rank, a lifestyle magazine based in the Philippines, that is now showing support for his new start.
Rank referred to Ji Soo as “The Unbreakable Kim Ji Soo” in photos for its annual “Flight Issue.” The magazine also shed light on Ji Soo’s journey, calling his return to the Philippines “kismet.”
From a chance meeting with a Filipino photographer in South Korea during his trainee days, to his first film outing produced by a Filipino team, it is safe to say that it is kismet that brought Kim Ji Soo back to Philippine shores. Now, as he sets up camp on the new, hopeful acts of his still-evolving story as an actor and a human being, it makes perfect sense that his resurgence finds new direction in a familiar zip code.
— Rank
Like the actor himself, who made no attempt to erase his controversy on social media, Rank didn’t shy away from Ji Soo’s past. The magazine’s social media posts for Ji Soo’s cover shoot mention “the noise that dampened” his “very meteoric rise” as a K-Drama star as well as his “next, bold move” after “tumultuous years of controversy and intrigue.”
Hot off the heels of his recent outings as he breaks new ground in Philippine entertainment this year, from a number of television series in what is now his home network, GMA Network and its talent management arm, Sparkle GMA Artist Center, along with a film pairing with Filipina actress #AlexaIlacad, the South Korean actor sets out to cross borders in every known sense of the word—far from his own country where, he grew to become a promising new addition to the pantheon of wildly-popular drama actors of his generation, and away from the noise that dampened this very meteoric rise.
With this seismic shift, setting up new frontiers anew in a foreign but familiar land, the now-31-year old actor is finding his fresh footing, making his next, bold move in a new, bold world, following tumultuous years of controversy and intrigue. And as he continues to face the storm head on, he forges and builds a brand new path, and in the process draws us in on a strong, compelling case—an invitation, even—to see the talent, the charm, and the unbreakable grit of the actor that he was and he sets out to be.
— Rank
On social media, netizens have also shown support for Ji Soo’s overseas work, and many look forward to seeing what he does next.
Controversial Actor Kim Ji Soo Says Goodbye To His Record-Breaking Series
Source: Rank Magazine
