As soon as the new drama “When the phone rings” aired on the evening of November 22-23, the acting skills of Chae Soo Bin - an actress who has been in the industry for 12 years - became the focus of criticism.
In the film, she plays Hong Hee Joo - the wife of Baek Sa Eon (Yoo Yeon Seok) - the youngest spokesperson of the Blue House, and also a sign language interpreter who lost the ability to speak after a childhood accident.
According to the plot of the film, Hong Hee Joo is a girl who marries in place of her sister. However, because of the arranged marriage, Hee Joo's life goes through many difficulties: being manipulated by her mother, being ignored by her husband.
Naver commented that because Hee Joo is a character who has to experience many complex emotions through her eyes, expressions, and sign language instead of words, this setting becomes a disadvantage for Chae Soo Bin.
“On screen, Chae Soo Bin always appears with inconsistent expressions, constantly embarrassed. Especially in the kidnapping scene, she overuses the way of rolling her eyes to convey emotions. This breaks the audience's immersion, especially in a film with a heavy atmosphere like “When the phone rings” - the Korean newspaper wrote.
On the other hand, the actress's romantic chemistry with her senior Yoo Yeon Seok is still a question mark, as the relationship between the two characters they play has not progressed much. Yoo Yeon Seok's acting, engaging with his handsome appearance, overshadows Chae Soo Bin's role in this work.
Before “When the Phone Rings” in 2022, Chae Soo Bin also faced similar controversy when she starred in “The Fabulous”. In “The Fabulous”, the actress took on the female lead role of Pyo Ji Eun - who dreamed of working in the fashion industry since she was a child.
While living her dream as a public relations director for a luxury brand, and working hard in a dynamic yet competitive environment, Ji Eun always maintains a positive, optimistic spirit.
Naver reported that at that time, Chae Soo Bin received negative feedback for continuing to “play the same type of character”. The reason was because the actress lacked flexibility and did not dare to step out of her comfort zone, when she continuously transformed into cheerful, hard-working and positive female leads in projects such as “I am not a robot”, “Half a piece”, “Rookie Police”…
If it continues to not improve its skills, it is unlikely that “When the Phone Rings” will be able to win in terms of viewership ratings, as the ratings of the first two episodes of the show were only average, reaching 5.5% and 4.7% respectively.
