Drama 'Doubt' gains buzz with powerful chemistry between young actor and Han Suk-kyu

By KTimes

When profiler Jang Tae-su (played by Han Suk-kyu, 59) asks his daughter, “Did you kill Song Min-a?” the air turns icy. This isn’t an interrogation room but her bedroom, and he’s pressing his own child.

As her father’s suspicions push her to the edge, she approaches him, meeting his gaze with a calm, calculated question, “Do you think Mom’s death was a suicide?” In this chilling moment from the MBC drama “Doubt,” high school senior Ha-bin (played by Chae Won-bin, 23) faces her father with a haunting stillness.

Chae’s cold expressions and deep voice add a psychopathic edge, raising tension with every scene. Though she debuted in 2019 and took supporting roles in series like “Sweet Home,” her powerful portrayal in this drama has captivated audiences online, with many saying, “She stands her ground against Han Suk-kyu’s intensity” and “Her restrained emotions add depth without a single scream.”

According to her agency, Outer Universe, Chae struggled with the role’s differences from her real personality, saying she “couldn’t use her usual self as a base for the character.” Yet she secured this role after leaving a strong impression in her first audition, which lasted almost three hours.

Director Song Yeon-hwa said, “Her mysterious gaze and mature demeanor resonated with Ha-bin’s character, making her the perfect fit.” Even Han Seok-kyu, upon hearing her voice, felt a promising synergy, noting that her tone aligned well with his for their onscreen dynamic as father and daughter.

Why viewers in their 40s and 50s are hooked

In this drama, which ruthlessly exposes a family destroyed by suspicion, Chae and Han’s voice chemistry strikes a haunting chord. As deaths surround the family, Tae-su and his wife, Ji-soo (Oh Yeon-soo), begin suspecting their daughter, with their mistrust plunging them into psychological despair.

Han embraced the unraveling father’s role, even recording days without shaving on his schedule. The actors’ grounded performances and the director’s noir-like black-and-white scenes, capturing the family’s fractured landscape, deepen the tragedy. In one scene, Ha-bin’s shadow ominously splits in two as she confronts her father, heightening the psychological impact.

Cultural critic Jeong Deok-hyun attributes the show’s success with older viewers to its portrayal of a father’s dilemma, saying, “The series drags viewers into this psychological nightmare where family and trust clash, and that resonance has sparked its word-of-mouth popularity.”

In fact, despite its 5 to 6 percent viewership, “Doubt” ranks second in online searches among viewers in their 40s and 50s, even surpassing popular tvN drama “Jeongnyeon,” which has a higher average rating.

Reflection of disappearing family bonds

According to the 2023 Population and Housing Census released by Statistics Korea in July, single-person households make up 36 percent of all households.

Content highlighting the fragility and volatility of family, such as “Doubt,” is on the rise. The trend of producing content that explores family betrayal aligns with the reality of what some describe as the “disappearance of the family.”

Professor Yoon Seok-jin of Chungnam National University’s Korean literature department says, “In ‘Doubt,’ even scenes where the father and daughter share a meal feel strangely foreign.”

He adds, “The popularity of content about family betrayal reflects the accelerated breakdown of the traditional family and the resulting generational communication divide.”

This trend can also be seen as a response to people increasingly getting stuck in “internet echo chambers” created by artificial intelligence algorithms, where they start to believe this narrow view is the “real world.”

Cultural critic Gong Hee-jung interprets it as “a societal fear of how dangerous it is to live in a time where people only believe what they see, losing self-objectivity, which manifests in popular culture as distrust and the breakdown of families — the very people who should be closest.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.