Song Hye-kyo Called Her Flops “Growth.” Eight Years Later, Descendants of the Sun Hit 2 Billion Views

Part 2 of 3 in The Face of Asia Who Won't Win With Her Face: Song Hye-kyo

Featured photo: Song Hye-kyo at the Blue Dragon Series Awards, July 19, 2023. Photo: K-POPIT via YouTube / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped).

Previously: from a school-uniform model contest to Autumn in My Heart, All In and Full House, three ratings legends by 23. Read Part 1.

2011: “I grew through those failures”

“If I only wanted to make money, I’d have taken the easy road with familiar genres like romantic comedy or melodrama.” That was Song Hye-kyo in October 2011, ahead of the release of the film A Reason to Live. She went on: “Even if the results aren’t good, going down the road I want to go seems right in the long run,” and then, “I think I personally grew through those ‘failures'” (Kyunghyang Shinmun, October 15, 2011). It was an interview in which Asia’s most expensive romantic lead said the word “failure” about herself. Every time I read it, I’m prouder of her. Her list of failures starts in 2005.

Also read: Won Bin Shaved His Head in The Man from Nowhere, Then Left the Screen for 16 Years

2005–2008: the report card from the box office

Back in March 2005 after a few months in the US, she said, “I had a good rest. It was a good chance to look back at myself” (KBS Global, cited by Wikipedia). Her first film, My Girl and I, was panned by both audiences and critics (Wikipedia).

The 2007 Hwang Jin Yi was a blockbuster with a budget of 10 billion won (about $10.8 million) (Kyeonggi Ilbo, April 3, 2007). The producers first had Jun Ji-hyun and Soo Ae in mind, and Song was told she was “too cute” for the role of a gisaeng (Chosun Ilbo, March 27, 2007, cited by Wikipedia). She won the part, but the box office fell short of expectations. What remained was Best New Actress at the Korean Film Awards (Wikipedia, list of awards).

2008: Joo Joon-young and Jung Ji-oh in Worlds Within

In October 2008 she received a script from writer Noh Hee-kyung for the first time. In KBS2’s Worlds Within (The World They Live In), she played TV drama producer Joo Joon-young, and Hyun Bin played her senior producer Jung Ji-oh (Jeonbuk Ilbo, October 13, 2008). Critics called it a “masterpiece drama,” but the ratings struggled, and the young leads’ acting drew criticism. Noh answered head-on: “The acting controversy will disappear. From episode 5, you can feel it getting much better.” Of the two actors she said, “They will become great Korean actors, and they are very mature as people too” (Jeonbuk Ilbo, November 11, 2008).

2011–2013: A Reason to Live and Wong Kar-wai’s set

Instead of going back to romantic comedy, she went to director Lee Jeong-hyang, whom she admired, and starred in A Reason to Live. She played a documentary director who forgave the boy who killed her fiancé, and she called the film “a turning point” (Wikipedia). That year she won the acting award at the Women in Film Korea Awards.

Her longest challenge was in Hong Kong. To play Zhang Yongcheng, wife of Ip Man (Tony Leung), in Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, she separately learned Cantonese and martial arts (New Daily, May 28, 2010), and the shoot stretched over several years. When rumors of friction surfaced around the 2013 release, she didn’t hide it: “Honestly, it wasn’t easy work… There were hard times and there were fun times” (Kyeonggi Ilbo, July 1, 2013).

2013: Oh Young, called back by Noh Hee-kyung

The person who called her back while she was holding those film report cards was Noh Hee-kyung. In SBS’s 2013 That Winter, the Wind Blows, she played Oh Young, a blind heiress, and Jo In-sung played Oh Soo, a con man who approaches her pretending to be her long-lost brother. The drama held No. 1 in its time slot for most of its run (Wikipedia), and Song won the Grand Prize at that year’s APAN Star Awards and the Top Excellence Award at the SBS Drama Awards (Wikipedia, list of awards). It was the first Grand Prize of her life.

The next year she played the young mother of a son with progeria in Lee Jae-yong’s My Brilliant Life, and joined John Woo’s The Crossing (Wikipedia).

2016: Descendants of the Sun, 38.8% and 2 billion views

On February 24, 2016, KBS2’s Descendants of the Sun premiered. In Kim Eun-sook’s script, Song played surgeon Kang Mo-yeon and Song Joong-ki played special forces captain Yoo Si-jin. Ratings that started at 14.3% for the first episode closed at 38.8% in the April finale, and on China’s iQiyi, which aired it simultaneously with Korea, cumulative views topped 2 billion (New Daily, April 15, 2016). Sixteen years after Autumn in My Heart first showed her face to Asia, the same actress stood at the center of Asia’s conversation again. As a fan, the applause that came back to an actress who had held on for eight years thrilled me as if it were my own.

At the KBS Drama Awards on December 31 that year, she shared the Grand Prize with Song Joong-ki and also took Best Couple and Asia’s Best Couple (Dailian, January 1, 2017).

In July 2017 she donated 100 million won (about $88,000) to Seoul National University Children’s Hospital (Wikipedia). Then she made no dramas for two years. In November 2018, the Song Hye-kyo of tvN’s Encounter was standing on the Malecón, the seaside promenade of Havana, Cuba.

Where to watch (checked on JustWatch, October 25, 2026) – Hwang Jin Yi (2007): US, Tubi (free) · Korea, Netflix, TVING, Watcha – Worlds Within (2008): Korea, Watcha – The Grandmaster (2013): US, Plex (free) · Korea, Watcha – That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013): US and Korea, Netflix; US, Viki – My Brilliant Life (2014): US, Viki, Tubi (free) – Descendants of the Sun (2016): US, Viki, OnDemandKorea · Korea, Wavve, Watcha

Sources

• Kyunghyang Shinmun, October 15, 2011: Song Hye-kyo interview
• Wikipedia: Song Hye-kyo (citing KBS Global 2005 and Chosun Ilbo, March 27, 2007), list of awards
• Kyeonggi Ilbo, April 3, 2007: Hwang Jin Yi, Kyeonggi Ilbo, July 1, 2013: Grandmaster rumors
• Jeonbuk Ilbo, October 13, 2008: Worlds Within, Jeonbuk Ilbo, November 11, 2008: Noh Hee-kyung interview
• New Daily, May 28, 2010: The Grandmaster, New Daily, April 15, 2016: Descendants of the Sun 38.8% and iQiyi, Dailian, January 1, 2017: KBS Drama Awards
• Currency conversions: about 929 won per dollar in 2007, about 1,130 won per dollar in 2017