Loving: Gong Yoo

Come squee with me! 😀 This post kicks off a new series on the blog. I hereby bring you: K-Love Confessions!

As you can see from the tagline up top, this blog is for reviews and fangirling, and while I’ve been busily posting reviews, the fangirling’s been limited to the context of the reviews.

I will admit, though, that in spite of that, there have been times that I’ve managed to fangirl very successfully anyway (see Big and The Moon that Embraces the Sun) Coz, y’know, a persistent fangirl lets nothing stand in her way! Heh.

Still. Here’s where the serious fangirling begins.

In each K-Love Confession, I will focus on one of my K-loves – I have several big ones, and quite a few medium-sized ones – and there will be extended fangirling and spazzing. And photos. Lots of photos 😉

Ahem. So where shall we begin?

Just from looking around my blog, you’d probably have guessed my biggest K-love of them all: Gong Yoo ♥ Swoon.

So of course, he had to be my first featured K-love.

ROUND 1:

I first set eyes on Gong Yoo in 2007 when he appeared on my screen as Choi Han Gyul in Coffee Prince.

Almost right away, in episode 1, we’re treated to an extended shirtless scene, with him wearing nothing but a towel:

To be honest, this shirtless scene did nothing for me, though I did think it was played out nicely and very funny.

At the time, his physique wasn’t as, er, shall we say, eye-popping, as it is now, and I thought the shirtless scene was pretty matter-of-fact. Fun, but not quite drool-worthy.

I did love his turn as Choi Han Gyul, though. I loved his natural acting style and his excellent chemistry with Yoon Eun Hye.

I loved a lot of things about Coffee Prince – and watched it 5 times to prove it! – but what I loved most, hands down, was his smitten face.

He looked so. very. adorable. every time he looked giddy and smitten over Go Eun Chan.

Check out these screencaps of said smitten face:

So. Darn. Cute.

Every time he looked at her that way, or had that expression on his face simply from thinking about her, my heart would melt a little more, and I got the warm fuzzies.

I wanted a Choi Han Gyul of my very own, who would look the same way just from thinking about me. ♥

I went on to watch One Fine Day (2006) but I didn’t like the show. I liked the amount of screen time his bare arms and torso got though.

His shirtless scenes and bare arms were very nice eye candy, but I didn’t care much for the show, and by the time it ended, I was ready to move on.

I liked him a lot, but it wasn’t love. Yet. 😉

ROUND 2:

Much as I prefer my dramas to movies, I sometimes go on a movie whirl, and one day in 2011, I happened to watch S Diary (2004), starring Kim Sun Ah.

Gong Yoo wasn’t in a lead role per se, coz he basically played one of Kim Sun Ah’s ex-boyfriends, but I have to tell you, in the limited time that he did appear on my screen, boy did I sit up and take notice of him. Big time.

He was HOT. Smoking hot.

His shirtless scenes took my breath away.

I thought he had really good muscle definition and an excellent V-line. He wasn’t too chunky, nor too skinny. Just perfect. He didn’t look like a meathead in clothes; he just looked very good. And then, when the shirt came off, he was jaw-droppingly delicious.

Plus he was perfectly believable as both the cool, bad boy and the head-over-heels smitten boy. He was so natural on camera.

To get a feel for how hot he is in this movie, check out this Gong Yoo cut of S Diary. It’s spoilery, but he is sexy, adorable and very, very hot.

I loved that he moved without stiffness – did you catch that little snippet of him dancing? – and he showed some serious kissing chops. Mmm.

I was smitten, and immediately went on a Gong Yoo hunt.

I watched Spy Girl (2004), in which he was the lead, but although it was cute, it wasn’t enough to satisfy.

Then I watched Hello My Teacher (2005), in which he was adorable with Gong Hyo Jin, but not exactly hot.

Once that was over, I was out of Gong Yoo goodies.

So I did the unthinkable: I re-watched One Fine Day, and this time, I spent the whole time just ogling him:

The one thing it had going for it was lots and lots of Gong Yoo ogling time.

I gave it a whole re-watch, just to ogle him.

During the re-watch, I discovered that his acting was better than I remembered.

After the re-watch, though, my Gong Yoo love got derailed by a brand new fangirl crush on Jang Hyuk brought on by Chuno.

ROUND 3:

Fast forward to 2012, when Big happened. I found Gong Yoo Seriously. Hot.

Such a glorious feast for the eyes. He was even hotter than I remembered.

It wasn’t only post-army abs we were talking about. The man was chiseled from head to toe. So. Delicious.

Not only was he hot, he did fabulously in the acting department, and always came across as very natural and likable.

He was adorable as the teenager in a grown-up’s body. And when he was the teenager acting as a cool grown-up all dressed up in a suit, he was dashing and all kinds of hot.

I was reminded all over again why I love Gong Yoo. I even had a couple of actual Gong Yoo dreams 😉

During my watch of Big, I did some trawling on the net for photos of Gong Yoo, and found some gorgeous gems.

This set of photos, which made heated rounds in the blogosphere, really caught my attention:

My knees. They buckled.

And then I found these which were related to the first set:

SAFETY WARNING:

Super hot photos ahead. May cause spontaneous combustion, ovary explosion or related affliction. View with care!

Swooonn. Mind. Boggling. Deliciousness.

Ok, lest you take issue with the relative lack of photos of him clothed, let me say that I do appreciate him clothed too, thank you very much.

Here. One dashing, fully-clothed Gong Yoo for you:

Up to this point, I was fully in awe of Gong Yoo’s charisma onscreen, his fabulous acting chops, his handsome face and his very, very delicious physique.

But actually, I wasn’t yet in love.

THE CLINCHER:

As Big neared the end of its run, I was swept off my feet by the bonus track that Gong Yoo sang for the OST.

I was wowed by his heartfelt delivery, and amazed at his dedication. You can check out that track on my review of Big here.

Along with the OST track, I also read lots of BTS tidbits and watched BTS videos on YouTube, and that’s when I officially fell in love with Gong Yoo. ♥

The clincher: he’s got a great sense of humor behind the scenes.

I read a few tidbits on his jokes and comments while he was filming, and he comes across as genuinely funny and nice. He’s also playful, which I really enjoy. That doesn’t sound like much, but it really is.

He’s nice and considerate towards other actors and keeps things light, playful and jokey for everyone.

I loved this tidbit on a scene where Lee Min Jung had a lot of NGs trying to put a watch on his wrist. He teased Lee Min Jung, saying something like, “I’ll do it. Clearly you’ve never seen a watch this expensive before.”

And when he corrected Suzy in another scene, for saying a line before he completed the action of putting the pickle in his mouth, he later cushioned it by jokingly blaming himself for not eating it sooner.

I loved too, that when he was not doing a scene well, he’d berate himself out loud in exasperation, which cracked up everyone and diffused tension.

Aww.. All that just makes smile with a sigh of appreciation.

I found him so sweet and funny that I kept looking at more and more Big BTS footage and subbed interviews on Youtube.

And here’s the thing: the more BTS footage I see of him, the more likable and funny I find him.

I’ve found that for many other actors, my interest in them drops after I start to watch interviews & BTS footage of them, coz I start to find them boring.

So not the case with Gong Yoo. He’s witty, funny & likable in all the footage I’ve seen of him.

I really liked this interview that he did with Lee Min Jung & Suzy for Big, which you can watch subbed here: