Ji Chang-wook turns 38: The master of making chaos look so good and stylish —Melting Me Softly included

Ji Chang-wook has range, but more importantly, he has conviction. Even when the script goes sideways, he shows up for it like Jack on the Titanic. 

Not just for his stellar acting for sure, but because, you can see how much he really wills himself into a role—regardless of how silly and frivolous the show might be. Chang-wook has your back and will still pull off the performance that will make you sigh and say, “Well okay, nothing else made sense, but he did.” 

With a career dotted with a complete mesh of genres, including the brilliant Suspicious Partner, which was a psychological thriller, courtroom drama and a romantic comedy, he has also given us gifts like the languid, painful ache of Lovestruck in the City. And then there’s the soft Welcome to Samdal-ri, and pleasant Backstreet Rookie. Both have one common thread: You just remember the acting.  

But nothing is as perplexing as his choices of K2 and Melting Me Softly. The first one was a starry hit, and nobody quite remembers the second one, barring that it starred Chang-wook and a few clips often go viral, with people asking, “Oh wow, where is this from?”

So here’s the lowdown on K2. It is rather scatterbrained and is literally quite all over the place, and is a complete waste of Yoona, but the makers were clearly focused on Chang-wook,  a practically invincible agent, who gets entangled in the complicated story between a step-mother and daughter. Thugs, blood, and 16 episodes of action sequences. 

The story is incidental, but it’s just so much fun to watch Chang-wook himself, grim and bloodied, pulling off car chases, stepping out of burning cars with an unconscious woman—because we all love some drama, or engaging in a battle to the death after a surgery from being stabbed. But hey, no questions about this main character energy, if Chang-wook is serving, we take what we get.

You go along with him for this love story with Yoona, though wishing that the show had been brave enough to pull off a completely different romance—now that would have been something. Moreover, Chang-wook has chemistry wherever he goes, even if it’s just a potted plant next to him.

That’s K2. And then there's the fever dream that is Melting Me Softly. The title says it all. A cryogenic experiment goes wrong, and two people are frozen for 20 years, only to be unfrozen with one very inconvenient side effect: their body temperature can’t rise above a certain point. Yes, seriously.

It’s bizarre. It’s science-adjacent. But once again, Chang-wook shows up with so much sincerity, you go with it. He’s that friend who drags you to a weird party—you didn’t want to go, but now you’re sipping coffee in the corner watching him thrive, and you’re weirdly glad you came.

That’s what Melting Me Softly and K2 feels like. A friend doing very silly things, but he’s having fun, and so do you. 

Happy birthday Ji Chang-wook. Thank you for the silliness.