Actress Jang Shin-young returns to drama for the first time in three years as the controversy surrounding her husband, actor Kang Kyung-jun, concludes.

Jang Shin-young will appear in MBC's daily drama 'The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun' (planned by Jang Jae-hoon, directed by Kim Jin-hyung, written by Seol Kyung-eun), which first airs today (9th). The work depicts a woman's desperate revenge against a chaebol in the name of her only daughter, and it has garnered much attention due to Jang Shin-young's casting.

In the drama, Jang Shin-young plays the role of Baek Seol-hee, an unmarried mother who runs a tteokbokki restaurant and stands up against a chaebol for her daughter's revenge. This marks her return to acting after about three years since her appearance in 'Cleaning Up' in 2022.

It took three years for Jang Shin-young to return to drama, due to the issue surrounding Kang Kyung-jun's infidelity. The couple married in 2018 after five years of public dating, overcoming Jang Shin-young's divorce. In December 2023, Kang Kyung-jun was named as a party involved in an extramarital affair and faced a lawsuit for damages amounting to 50 million won.

During the first trial held at the Seoul Family Court on July 24 of last year, Kang Kyung-jun's side decided to conclude the lawsuit by accepting the claimant's request.

Eight months after the controversy erupted, Jang Shin-young revealed through social media in August of last year, "I went through a pain that is difficult to express in words, but we want to live together again, solely for our children."

After that, Jang Shin-young made her comeback in October of last year on SBS's 'My Little Old Boy', and about five months later, she began her full return activities on KBS 2TV's 'Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant'.

Although it could be burdensome due to her husband's personal issues, Jang Shin-young chose to return as the head of the household. At the production briefing for 'The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun', she said of her return, "I feel a lot of tension and excitement. I started with the burden of 'I just need to do well'. But while filming, I started to gain energy little by little. I was very tense and wondered, 'Can I really do this role well?', but as I read the script, I became more absorbed in it. I felt that this role is truly something I could be satisfied with as an actor."

She also conveyed, "I am grateful to the director for giving me the opportunity of playing Baek Seol-hee. I was really thirsty for acting, and when this opportunity came, I thought, 'Let’s give it our all.' With each scene I shot, I thought, 'This is the last of this drama,' and 'This is the last of my acting,' and I put my heart into it. I believe that when viewers see this, they might feel something. I hope they view it as a character or content of our drama, rather than my personal matters."

Kim Jin-hyung, the director, affectionately shared about casting Jang Shin-young, saying, "From the moment I received the script and read it, I have been continuously watching Jang Shin-young's acting, so even with a long break, her image kept coming to mind whenever I read the lines." He added, "This casting was done with intuitively striking individuals in mind. Most of them were people I thought of as my first choice. I had no burden due to the controversy."

'The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun' will have its premiere today (9th) at 7:05 p.m.

[Photo] OSEN DB

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