Actor Kong Hyojin has returned not as the familiar rom-com queen but as a noir grounded in everyday life.
Kong Hyojin met viewers on the small screen after about a year by playing legendary sniper Kingfisher Yoo Bona, who returns after three years of parental leave, in MBC's new Friday-Saturday drama 'A Bona fide Killer' (planned by Kwon Seong-chang, written by Kim Eun-hee, directed by Yoon Jong-ho and Kim Ji-hun), which premiered on the 31st of last month.
With a soft tone and a relaxed expression, Kong Hyojin carefully built Bona's everyday life with her family, and the moment she picks up a gun she changed the mood of the drama in an instant with a sharp gaze and calm demeanor. The reversal from a character sharing small joys with her husband Kwon Tae-seong (Jung Jun-won) and daughter Kwon Yul (Hwang Bom-yi) to a cold-blooded killer who punishes vicious criminals enhanced the character's appeal through Kong Hyojin's detailed control of tempo and intensity.
This performance was all the more surprising because it came from Kong Hyojin, who is called the rom-com queen. The unfamiliar combination of noir elements produced a fresh variation. Her distinctive natural everyday acting met the brutal world of a killer to give the existing noir genre another shade, and by arming herself with intense charisma she built a unique realm of a "noir grounded in everyday life" that is possible only because of Kong Hyojin.
On her activities, Kong Hyojin said, "'A Bona fide Killer' is attractive because the drama is mainly about Yoo Bona's ordinary life as a working mom," adding, "I worked to naturally move between Yoo Bona, who fills her days for her family, and the cold-blooded killer."
Meanwhile, MBC's Friday-Saturday drama 'A Bona fide Killer' is a drama depicting the struggle of a working mother with the world's deadliest job to protect her work-life balance. It recorded a 7.4% rating for its first broadcast (Nielsen Korea national), and drew attention with 8.0% for episode 2. Kong Hyojin, who suffered a ratings setback with her previous work 'When the Stars Gossip,' reclaimed her honor by achieving high ratings and topicality from the first broadcast.
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