If there is anyone who has claimed 2025 in the literal sense, it has to be him: Park Bo-gum starring Kdramas, has won over our hearts (and streaming platforms) with shows like When Life Hands You Tangerines and Good Boy. Whether he’s playing a reclusive romantic in the sticks or a punchy boxer with a tender soul, Bo-gum tends to bring an emotional magic that can transcend the quality of the writing or the format. Not so much acting but reminding us how it feels to live, love, and suffer.
You’re observing him, and suddenly you’re experiencing things you didn’t even know you were missing. On this birthday, as the K-drama world rightfully glows with accolades for this sunshine in real life, how can we not take a glance back at the iconic characters who made Park Bo-gum the soulful actor we’ve grown to adore?
He is not just our collective K-drama crush. He is the emotional figure in stories that endure. It is time to (lovingly) scream into the void about the Park Bo-gum Kdramas that we love, the ones that made us laugh, cry, hurt and heal.
Best Park Bo-gum Starring Kdramas
When Life Gives You Tangerines
I mean, we didn’t even try to pretend that we weren’t sobbing from episode one. Here was no melodrama, but soft waves that slowly drew us back into the nostalgia of youth, family and unspoken longing. Park Bo-gum as Yang Gwan-sik? A man of few words but a thousand emotions. Each look, every reluctant smile, every subtle expression of love for Ae-sun (a star turn by IU) was like a handwritten poem. This is not just a drama, but a warm memory etched into our bones. And, as tangerines ripen in silence, so also with this story. Slowly, sweetly, soulfully.
Good Boy Kdrama
When I hit play, I anticipated hanging for some easy Park Bo-gum action, y’all. But the snippet this dude delivers? Surprising. From outright laugh-out-loud to teeth-gritted boxing bouts and yes, a slow-burning tease romance, Bo-gum proves he can very well pull off a crazy ensemble drama. To watch him as Yoon Dong-ju is to be cheering for your buddy who’s finally getting the hang of living for himself. And, goodness gracious, those fight scenes? Serve. Those subtle looks? Slay. This drama has it all: mystery, muscle and moments that are sure to give your heart a skip.
Record of Youth
Sa Hye-jun deserved the world, and Bo-gum made us believe it. This K-drama is for anyone who has been brave enough to dream big in life but has been weighed down by the reality on the ground. He’s a model-turned-aspiring actor who works so hard, it hurts. The emotional repression, the breaks in his voice when he attempts to smile despite it all — ugh, tear out my heart. It’s not cool, but it’s genuine. And Bo-gum’s acting brought the “youth” in Record of Youth to feel human.
Encounter
Some characters are just typed out in star dust, and Park Bo-gum as Kim Jin-hyuk in Encounter is literally that. He glows — both with real light and with happiness. This drama gave us a fairytale of an open-hearted young man who shows a closed-off woman (Song Hye-kyo) how to love again. Their status-gap, age-gap relationship wasn’t just swoony — it was sweet and real. Bo-gum gave us Jin-hyuk like a daydream in a suit, and we devoured it.
Love in the Moonlight
This is drama at the peak of “Kdrama first love.” Prince Lee Yeong was born royal, but Bo-gum added a dash of lovable humanity to him — cheeky, haughty, lovesick. That fan dance? That tearful confession? That rooftop heartbreak? Cinema. Both that bespectacled bromance and the chemistry with himself and Kim Yoo-jung were everything and then some, and their palace romance was like a fluttering page from a very old, very beautiful fairy tale. If you haven’t seen this, get your life.
Reply 1988
No list would be complete without the drama that turned Bo-gum into a national heartthrob. Choi Taek is the kindest, gentlest boy in the Reply world, and to see him fall in love so blushing, so innocent, was enough to melt us all into puddles. He never spoke much, but when he did, always worth it. Whenever he looked at Deok-sun, we felt our hearts squeeze in secondhand love. All this was the melodrama that left us grumbling to ourselves, “Protect Choi Taek at all costs.”
Hello Monster
Let’s be real, nobody expected Park Bo-gum to do this to us in this short a role. But Hello Monster did it. As a dark and mysterious figure so far removed from his more familiar warm presence, he made us shiver. It was creepy, it was dark, and Bo-gum killed it. A little bit tragic; a little bit dangerous — and still somehow sympathetic? The duality is madness. Peak acting. Period.
Park Bo-gum’s birthday is not only a date; it’s a soft reminder of the emotional acting we are lucky enough to witness on a Kdrama featuring Park Bo-gum as the male lead. He is not only an actor, he’s the sensation that you feel when someone can look at you without you even saying a thing.
Happy birthday Park Bo-gum! So here’s to the man who made us cry with his silences and fall in love with one languid, searing glance. May this new year be just as shining as you are on the inside, and may you continue to teach us the meaning of love in all its quiet beauty.
Also Read: Happy Father’s Day 2025: 6 Best Kdrama Dads Who Taught Us the Importance of Unconditional Love
