Former 'Running Man' star Lee Kwang-soo returns to screen in Vietnamese rom-com banking on his celebrity
The room erupted in laughter when Lee Kwang-soo admitted he'd only just spoken the film's Korean title "Prince Alone" — a playful nod to his nickname "Asian Prince" — out loud for the first time.
"I don't know, it's just embarrassing," he said at Monday's press conference at CGV Yongsan, visibly squirming at his own discomfort. "Saying 'Hello, I'm Lee Kwang-soo from "Prince Alone"' feels awkward coming out of my mouth."
Director Kim Sung-hoon immediately seized the opening. "Well, you know, I'm not entirely sure how accurate the so-called 'Asian Prince' thing really is," he said, drawing more laughs from the room.
The meta comedy was not accidental. "Love Barista" — the Korean Vietnamese co-production that opened in Vietnam last month and hits Korean theaters next week — is essentially a fan film disguised as a cross-cultural rom-com.
The former "Running Man" star plays Joon-woo, a fading Korean celebrity stranded penniless in Ho Chi Minh City after his manager accidentally flies home with his passport and wallet. What follows is a culture-clash romance with Thao (Hoang Hua), an aspiring barista who has never heard of him.
It is just the kind of lighthearted, brains-off entertainment that lives or dies on star power alone.
Joon-woo spends the film cycling through Lee's well-worn "Running Man" persona — the perpetually unlucky, easily flustered man-child — while stumbling through various corners of Ho Chi Minh City without cash or dignity. The film is a star showcase first, cultural exchange second, meaning that much rests on whether you find Lee charming enough to carry the thin premise for nearly two hours.
Kim traced the project back to a 2018 trip to Nha Trang for a film festival. "The landscapes stuck with me," he said. "We started talking with Vietnamese producers about doing something together. I wanted to explore how people communicate when language becomes a barrier — all those expressions and gestures you'd normally miss."
The shoot brought Lee back to Vietnam for the first time since "Running Man" made him a household name across Asia over a decade ago. "They gave me that 'Asia's Prince' nickname in Vietnam first," he said. "So there was this personal pressure to do right by them."
Working with Vietnamese actors helped sell the cross-cultural dynamic, he said, even as the language barrier made itself felt throughout. Lee and co-star Hoang Hua's massive height difference became its own running gag — director Kim justified the casting by noting the abundance of tall, vertical trees in Vietnam that could balance the frame. "Plus, when you're already dealing with someone who's basically 2 meters tall, a few more centimeters don't really matter," he added.
The reunion with Lee marked 12 years since the pair collaborated on the musical drama "My Little Hero."
"Time flies when you're not paying attention," Kim said. "We always talked about working together again. This just felt right — a long-form story where we could really dig into what Lee does best."
What Lee does best, apparently, is playing an outsized, almost parodic version of himself. Joon-woo's anxieties and self-consciousness as a world-renowned top star more or less mirror the insecurities Lee copped to feelings about his own career. "The character worries constantly about losing his spot, about younger stars taking over," Lee said. "I don't think about it quite that obsessively, but I get it.
"The bottom line is that I'm just grateful to keep working. I love being on set — it energizes me rather than drains me."
Still, the project represents something bigger than a star's return to cinema. Korean productions have increasingly turned to Vietnam as a co-production partner, chasing returns that the domestic box office alone can no longer guarantee. "Leaving Mom," another Korean Vietnamese collaboration that opened in October, pulled 2.2 million admissions in Vietnam last month.
Kim sees cross-border projects as necessary rather than optional.
"Korean cinema's in a tough spot. We can't just rely on our home market anymore," he said. "If we can build something that feels authentically Asian rather than purely Korean or purely Vietnamese, that expands what's possible."
"Love Barista" opens in local theaters Nov. 19.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
