Vietnamese student lands lead role in South Korean sitcom
College student Nguyen Dang Cuu is the leading actor in a South Korean TV series on a multicultural family.
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| Nguyen Dang Cuu (R) in a scene from South Korean TV series |
In "My Nickname Is President," Cuu plays Lee Min Guk, a Vietnamese-Korean man newly hired by a company.
Guk’s experiences in the office and home, highlighting discrimination based on position and financial status in South Korean society, especially for descendants of a mixed family, form the crux of the 18-episode series.
From the first day at work, Min Guk is bullied and discriminated against by older colleagues because he has a foreign origin.
The first three episodes of the series have already been screened. On some online forums, many Vietnamese viewers have encouraged and supported Cuu as this is the first time for him to act in a series.
Cuu, born in 1992 in the central province of Ha Tinh, is currently a senior student in economics at Daegu University in the Republic of Korea (RoK). He was invited to audition for the role by a friend.
The low-budget sitcom is being broadcast on the RoK's KCTV Channel 7. It is produced by KCTV, the biggest broadcasting system in the RoK’s Jeju province.
Before "My Nickname Is President," some Korean films have also dealt with the topic of Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Korean people in the RoK, including "Hanoi Bride," "Golden Bride" and "Hometown Over The Hill."