K-pop girl group member Kwon Yuri, who is professionally known as Yuri, is playing her second lead role in a drama series. Her character in the new OCN drama series titled "Neighborhood Hero" is a sassy girl named Bae Jung Yeon.
The first South Korean drama series that featured Yuri as an actress is "Unstoppable Marriage," in which she played a supporting role. In 2012, she played her first lead role on TV as Choi Anna in the CBS drama series "Fashion King."
In 2015, Yuri had a cameo appearance in episode 20 of the MBC drama series "Kill Me, Heal Me." In "Neighborhood Hero," her character is a part-time worker who speaks her mind.
Directed by Kwak Jung-hwan and written by Kim Gwan-hoo, "Neighborhood Hero" premiered on Jan. 23 on OCN. Its lead character Baek Shi-Yoon, a former secret agent, is played by "Confession of Murder" actor Park Si-hoo.
To hide his past, Park's character buys a bar named Neighborhood as he retires and tries to lead a peaceful life. As the owner of the bar, he develops a close relationship with the regulars at the bar and eventually meets Choi Chan-kyu, a young man who wants to become a police officer, played by "Scholar Who Walks the Night" alum Lee Soo-hyuk.
Lee's character fails his exams to join the police force several times. He works as a temporary employee at the Neighborhood bar and becomes the protégé of the owner. The two join forces to fight bad guys.
The new OCN drama series serves as a comeback project for Park, who was last seen on TV in South Korea in SBS drama series "Cheongdam-dong Alice," in which he played Cha Seung-jo in 2012. In February 2013, Park was accused of raping an aspiring actress, who requested that the case be dropped by the prosecution a few months later.
In December 2015, the courts ordered Park's former agency to pay 270 million Korean won ($230,000) over failure to follow through the actor's contracted projects, Koogle TV has learned. In a recent press conference for "Neighborhood Hero," the actor expressed his gratitude for the chance to return to the entertainment industry in his home country.
"I was able to review my life in the past three years and spend time with precious people," Korea Times quoted Park as saying. Watch a clip of his performance in the new OCN drama series, also known as "Local Hero," here:
