Remember Jun Yeol in ‘Reply 1988’? I bet you still haven’t moved on. *same!*.
Ryu Jun Yeol is born on September 25, 1986, and debuted in 2013, in a short film ‘Finding My Gundam’. He gained popularity through his breakthrough role on the television series ‘Reply 1988’. Since then, he has starred in box-office hit films ‘The King,’ ‘A Taxi Driver,’ and ‘Believer’.
1. Reply 1988
Reply 1988 revolves around the lives of a group of five friends and their families in Ssangmun-dong, a small neighborhood in Seoul.
Jun Yeol stars as Jung Hwan, a Stoic and sarcastic guy who grew up a floor above Sung Duk Seon (Hyeri). The drama hit a peak rating of 18.8% during its premiere broadcast, making it to the top 5 highest-rated K-Drama in Cable TV history.
2. Lucky Romance
Following his success in ‘Reply 1988,’ Jun Yeol cast in ‘Lucky Romance’. In the drama, he plays a 31-year-old man, Je Soo-Ho. He was born as a genius, logical and scientific person, who does not believe in anything supernatural. In addition, he is the owner and CEO of Zeze Factory, a game developer company. This drama showed a cute and happy side of Jun Yeol.
Lucky Romance is a 2016 South Korean television series based on the webtoon of the same name, starring Hwang Jung-eum and Ryu Jun-yeol. The drama centers on the romantic and comedic interactions between a woman who has blind faith in superstitions, with the CEO of a game developer company.
3. A Taxi Driver
If you enjoy watching historical movies based on real-life, then you should add this movie to your list! The film centers on a taxi driver from Seoul who becomes involved in the events of the Gwangju Uprising. Not to mention, the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
Ryu Jun Yeol acts like a college student who excels in English. He translates for a German journalist and his taxi driver that covers the story of the Gwangju Democratization Movement.
4. The King
The King is a South Korean political crime drama film starring Jo In-sung and Jung Woo-sung. It was released on January 18, 2017.
Jun Yeol plays the role of Doo Il, a tattooed guy who’s doing all sorts of illegal things to rise in the prosecutor’s legal system. He won the ‘Best New Actor Award’ for this drama on the 53rd Baeksang Awards and 1st The Seoul Awards.
5. Believer
Believer is an action-crime film that was released in 2018. It is a remake of the 2012 Johnnie To film Drug War.
Jun Yeol plays the role of Seo Young-rak, a low-level drug dealer and a police informant.
Meanwhile, Ryu Jun Yeol is doing environmental activities. He developed an interest in environmentalism after filming ‘Youth Over Flowers’ in Africa. Since then, he began to campaign for environmental protection.
In December 2018, Ryu donated ₩10 million to Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organization. Also, he has been making donations since 2016 for campaigns such as Save the Arctic. In 2020, Ryu made yet another donation to Greenpeace in response to Australian wildfires.
