The most unexpected star of the film Wild Thing might just be Oh Jung-se. Amid the glitzy lineup of Kang Dong-won, Um Tae-goo, and Park Ji-hyun, Oh Jung-se hijacks attention as Choi Seong-gon, a former "ballad prince." With long hair covering one eye, dewy gaze, and oddly earnest stage manners, he looks like a character built purely for laughs — yet Oh’s Choi Seong-gon isn’t a throwaway gag. He’s the face of someone still clinging to a vanished heyday. The track 'I Like You' he performs in the film cracked the Melon Hot 100, and its YouTube music video has topped 1.5 million views. No wonder people online are saying, "Isn’t Oh Jung-se the real lead of this movie?"
Oh Jung-se’s current moment isn’t an overnight breakthrough. He started as a bit-part actor in the 1997 film Father and spent years building his filmography in minor and supporting roles. He never shied away from genre or scale, appearing in films like Petty Romance, How to Use Guys with Secret Tips, Extreme Job, Swing Kids and dramas like Misaeng: Incomplete Life, The Vampire Detective, When the Camellia Blooms, Hot Stove League, and It's Okay to Not Be Okay. Even when supporting roles were his norm, Oh consistently delivered exactly what each scene needed.
One project that truly cemented his name with the public was the film How to Use Guys with Secret Tips. Playing an over-the-top top star, Lee Seung-jae, he unleashed his own brand of comedy and revealed the full potential of "Oh Jung-se’s lovable loser" charm. Then came Noh Gyu-tae in When the Camellia Blooms — a turning point. He’s a guy you should hate but somehow can’t, someone who’s silly yet strangely heartbreaking. Through Noh Gyu-tae, Oh drew out both everyday-life comedy and deep human empathy. In Hot Stove League as Kwon Kyung-min, he brought another shade of real-world grit, and in It's Okay to Not Be Okay as Moon Sang-tae, he showcased the powerful range of his emotional acting.
His trophy shelf proves the years of steady work. For When the Camellia Blooms, Oh won Best Supporting Actor in TV at the 56th Baeksang Arts Awards, and the following year he took home the same award again for It's Okay to Not Be Okay. The two characters couldn’t be more different — one a small-town big shot armed with bravado and insecurity, the other a man with a world and senses entirely his own. Time and again, Oh has presented a new rhythm and a new face, to the point you forget it’s the same actor.
His interviews and acceptance speeches often radiate humble optimism. He talks more about process than results, more about walking together than finishing first. Even when re-signing with his agency, he framed it not as loyalty but as wanting "a good company I can learn more from," valuing the journey of thinking and growing with those around him. That attitude seeps into his characters. Oh Jung-se rarely plays perfect people. They’re petty, narrow-minded, even shabby at times — and yet they always feel deeply human. It’s because the actor never looks down on them.
The same goes for Choi Seong-gon in Wild Thing.
He’s funny yet forlorn, tacky yet strangely captivating. Oh doesn’t mock the character — he believes in him to the end. So audiences find themselves laughing at Choi Seong-gon, then suddenly realizing he’s singing with his whole heart. Oh Jung-se’s quietly steadfast approach is exploding once again right now in Wild Thing.