K-Dramas haven't been the same without Hyun Bin—will he ever return for a CLOY-style romance?

In one particular scene of Crash Landing on You, a rather hollow-eyed Hyun Bin tells a weakened and broken Son Ye-jjin that their romance was a lie. It’s a pain to see her now. He’s doing it to protect her, of course, but the sheer anguish and emotional weight of that moment is a kind of romance few K-Dramas have managed to replicate since, save for a rare few. CLOY is filled with such moments, one particularly searing one being Hyun Bin frantically tells Son Ye-jin not to run to the border, as she just had surgery. It's melodramatic, mushy, but it's the romance that you watch for days.

Perhaps, just what the doctor ordered. But where is the Hyun Bin-type romance now?

In other words, it’s been a while since we’ve seen Hyun Bin in a romantic K-drama—not a film, where he now seems to have taken up permanent residence. Lately, he’s often appeared as a stoic patriot or a shadowy agent, sometimes rogue, always intense. The stark gauntness of these roles lingers long after the credits roll, a testament to what Hyun Bin is capable of. And yes, it’s been enjoyable watching him slip into spy mode—cheers to Confidential Assignment for revealing a grittier side of Hyun Bin we hadn’t seen before.

But, for those who grew into K-Dramas because of him, Hyun Bin represents a different time: A campy, melodramatic time, much before even Crash Landing on You. For most of us who started K-Dramas, Hyun Bin and Lee Min-ho were usually were the starting point. We walked with Hyun Bin in the utter madness of Secret Garden, witnessed a soul-swapping romance mixed with familial dysfunction that would make Bollywood proud.

There were the little gems in his career that many fans might not know now, but existed and reigned supreme at the time: My Lovely Sam Soon and Worlds Within, with Song Hye-kyo. They ruled the fandoms at that time. Hyun Bin began to establish his own niche of romantic hero: The wild, unpredictable, yet vulnerable hero. Brattish of course, because we’re talking about the times of arrogant CEOs falling in love.

If you’ve followed Hyun Bin’s career, you’ve witnessed every phase — from the campy and melodramatic to the downright cringe, followed by a gradual shift into more experimental territory.
This includes Memories of the Alhambra, starring Park Shin Hye, which teased a romance we never quite got, and the curious case of Hyde, Jekyll, Me, where he took on the challenging role of a man with dissociative identity disorder.

And then came Crash Landing on You. A drama that should have been ridiculous on paper—a North Korean officer and a South Korean heiress?—but instead became an instant classic.

Hyun Bin brought quiet restraint, quiet ache, and old-school romantic gravitas. It was the comeback fans didn’t even realise they needed.

Currently, there’s not much news on his next K-Drama, except that it’s called Made in Korea, and that it’s a political thriller. But, we wouldn’t really mind seeing him in a romantic drama again. Perhaps it will be something new and refreshing in the current landscape. Maybe, he will bring back that old touch, of what K-Dramas so famous in the first place.

 Either way, the K-Drama world needs Hyun Bin.