Early in TBCBC 2.0, a bookclubber pointed out how well The Blue Castle would work as a kdrama. It's got the stifling family expectations, the class issues, the secret chaebol heir! (I'd love to link to the post but have looked for it and can't find it, so OP, if this was you, please let me know.)

So - a quick kdrama Valarney fancast! Instead of my typical imaginary modest CBC production, I'll assume the TBC script warrants a fully financed kdrama, so no budget constraints here. I'm also not going to worry about finding actors who are as close as possible to the characters' ages, because in kdramas they are perfectly happy to put a 40-year-old actor in bangs and a school uniform and say they're a teenager.

For Valancy, I think the one physical aspect of her character that really wouldn't survive translation is the emphasis on her skinniness as an embarrassing thing for which the Stirlings constantly criticize her, because I don't see how that could work in a kdrama culture that treats actresses as "fat" for being, say, only 10 pounds under a healthy weight as opposed to 20. And if you were to flip the reason for the Stirlings' criticism so that Valancy started out being seen as "fat" and underwent a journey where she was no longer seen that way at the end of the story, I think there are multiple levels on which that wouldn't be true to Valancy's evolution as a character. So I think I'm just leaving weight out of the equation altogether, and assuming kdrama!Valancy's family oppresses her in other ways.

When I think of a kdrama actress who can play quietly downtrodden, and who can undergo a journey to happy and blooming, the one who comes to mind is Shin Hyun Bin:

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And for Barney, when I think of someone who can play scruffy and weird and loves disguises, who else but Lee Je Hoon?

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