From her admiration of Goblin star Gong Yoo to watching Korean dramas in her spare time, Vice President Leni Robredo is as serious a K-drama fan as anyone can find.
In another series of vlogger Chef Sharwin Tee’s Straight Guy K Drama Reviews, Robredo played “VP Picks,” wherein she was asked to choose between Korean dramas, actors, characters, and storylines.
First of is the vice president’s choice of “captain.” Is it Captain Ri (played by Hyun Bin in Crash Landing on You) or Captain Yoo (Song Joong-ki in Descendants of the Sun)? Robredo said she’ll go with Hyun Bin because she doesn’t like traditionally handsome men.
“I like the characters who add more to the actor’s looks. The one in Descendants of the Sun is too handsome. Even in terms of character in K-drama, for me, Captain Ri’s is deeper,” she said in Filipino.
One of the very first K-dramas that Robredo watched was Reply 1988, a popular series about family and friendship set in 1988. It also revolved around the love triangle of Choi Taek (Park Bo-gum), Jung-hwan (Ryoo Joon-yeol), and Duk-sun (Hyeri).
The vice president said she would have made the same choice as Hyeri’s character. She was not particularly fond of Jung-hwan because he was too shy about his feelings for Duk-sun.
But how about in the recently concluded Start Up? Fans were divided between #TeamGoodBoy (Kim Sun-ho as Han Ji-pyeong) and #TeamDosan (Nam Joo-hyuk as Nam Do-san).
“I’m a turncoat here, Chef. From the first episode until around the last three episodes, I’m Team GoodBoy but the last two to three episodes, I’m okay with Dosan,” Robredo said.
It’s probably because she was influenced by her youngest daughter, Jillian, who was TeamDosan all the way, she said. She shared that Jillian, who’s studying at New York University, already saw Nam Joo-hyuk in person. The Korean star visited the country for a local brand he endorses.
“From episode 1, she liked Dosan. We were arguing because I’m TeamGoodBoy. Later on, when GoodBoy was okay during the last episodes, I became okay with Dosan, too,” Robredo explained.
As for her choice between the doctors in Doctors and Descendants of the Sun, Tee has to be creative with his question.
He asked the vice president which team of doctors she will take on a medical mission?
Robredo was quick to answer that she will prefer the characters from Doctors since the two leading actors there were the best neurosurgeons.
Robredo has always been vocal about her admiration of Korean stars, more so of Park Seo-joon who is considered to be a quarantine favorite. Many K-drama fans watched his dramas during the lockdown last year because of COVID-19.
Park Seo-joon starred in What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Fight For My Way, and Itaewon Class.
At first, Robredo said it was hard for her to choose just one because Park Seo-joon was one of her favorite Korean actors and she likes every one of his dramas.
Forced to choose among his dramas, Robredo then decided to go with Fight For My Way, a story about a struggling amateur taekwondo athlete who has to fight against odds for his dreams.
In a separate Facebook post, Robredo said she enjoyed doing the interview with Tee, who she thanked for being “one of the most generous persons I know.”
“One of the rare interviews when I don’t talk about work at all… He has been helping us build libraries in the poorest communities from way back.”
“Couldn’t say no to him when he asked me for this interview. But I actually enjoyed myself. It was a breather to talk about something else other than work,” she said with a smiling emoticon.