'Manager Kim' Kim Dae-hoon, an action star beyond the Hakssi Uncle image from 'When Life Gives You Tangerines'

'Manager Kim' Kim Dae-hoon is being positioned as an action star who has moved beyond the Hakssi Uncle image associated with 'When Life Gives You Tangerines.'

As SBS Friday-Saturday drama 'Manager Kim' has shown an explosive ratings climb from its earliest broadcasts and begun to make its presence felt in the global content market, the character work built by actor Choi Dae-hoon around so-called 'core action' is emerging as one of the drama's central driving forces.

'Manager Kim,' written by Nam Dae-joong, directed by Lee Seung-young and Lee So-eun, planned by Studio S and produced by Studio S and Fantagio, is a hyper-realism-based action narrative. It follows an ordinary head of household and father who is pushed into extreme circumstances after his daughter's disappearance and gradually transforms into an extraordinary combat subject in order to survive and carry out a rescue.

In the series, Choi Dae-hoon plays Seong Han-su, a character with a layered background as both a former North Korea infiltration operative and a former national taekwondo athlete. Through the role, Choi builds a multidimensional figure who combines physicality, intelligence and emotional attachment rather than functioning simply as an action performer.

The drama recorded 15.7 percent nationwide viewership and a peak of 18.1 percent after only two episodes, according to Nielsen Korea, strongly driving its early box-office indicators. At the same time, it rose to No. 3 on Netflix's global TV shows chart, including non-English content, proving its capacity to expand beyond platform boundaries.

Its third episode then renewed the drama's own ratings high, posting an average of 19.6 percent in the Seoul metropolitan area, a nationwide average of 18.8 percent and an instantaneous peak of 23 percent. The result has helped form what can be described as a narrative tension structure that repeatedly pushes to new highs.

In particular, the action sequence Choi Dae-hoon realizes in this episode is being assessed as more than a simple reenactment of physical combat. By precisely varying taekwondo movements around core stability, the scene shows the possible expansion of a cinematic grammar for core-based action.

That approach moves beyond the direct, strike-centered staging often emphasized in Korean drama action. It can instead be read as an action aesthetic based on the trunk of the body, using control of the central muscles and shifts in balance as the basis for movement.

Within the story, Seong Han-su's background as a former national taekwondo athlete and unofficial operative allows him to display both bodily control and tactical judgment during combat situations. This setup makes the character function not merely as someone who carries out fights, but as a strategic physical operative, giving him a distinct position within the action-drama genre.

Choi Dae-hoon had already shown the possibility of being a physical-balance actor through the high-difficulty balance movements and body-control performance he delivered in the earlier Netflix series 'When Life Gives You Tangerines.' In 'Manager Kim,' that ability expands into taekwondo-based barehanded action, making the work meaningful as a full realization of a core-centered acting mechanism.

Narratively, Seong Han-su is more than a combat agent. He also functions as an emotional mediator and an ethical stabilizing device. He provides both technical support and psychological backing to Manager Kim, played by So Ji-sub, as he struggles to find the kidnapped child, and he becomes a central axis in the relationship-driven narrative.

The line 'You are a father' compresses the character's emotional center of gravity into a single sentence. Inside a story driven heavily by action, it also works as a device that gives the narrative an ethical direction.

In the action sequences, Seong Han-su dominates the battlefield even in an asymmetric twenty-against-one combat situation. He does so through unshaken bodily control and tactical flexibility, showing not just physical superiority but context-aware combat capability.

The relaxed attitude and humor added to those moments also serve to ease tension around the character. Through them, Seong Han-su adjusts the rhythm of the story on multiple levels rather than existing only as a figure of force.

As a result, Seong Han-su, as played by Choi Dae-hoon, is establishing himself as a hexagonal character construct that encompasses action, story, emotion and relationships. This is becoming a key reason 'Manager Kim' is expanding beyond a simple revenge-action narrative into a character-centered drama.

Attention is now focused on how Seong Han-su will maintain his functional and emotional role as a central axis in the cooperation structure and pursuit narrative that will unfold in later episodes.