Former Apink Naeun, who is now pursuing an acting career is being criticized for her "lacking" acting skills. Amid criticism, why is she being compared to Girls Generation YoonA?

Son Na Eun Draws Mixed Reactions For 'Awkward' Acting Skills Despite Being 12-Year Experience

Amid the hot responses that the K-drama, "Agency" is earning, one of the main leads Son Na Eun is suffering from a controversy over her acting skills.

In particular, the former K-pop idol turned full-time actress plays the role of Kang Han Na. At first glance, she appears to be an immature and bratty daughter of a third-gen conglomerate, but in reality, she is a professional businesswoman with genius intuition.

In other words, she is a smart person who's only pretending to be a scoundrel. This huge character must be portrayed using three-dimensional and detailed acting skills including an on-point facial expression. As her character was introduced next to "Acting Master" Lee Bo Young, her character appears to be a big lead in the drama.

Unfortunately, Son Na Eun garnered mixed reactions for having awkward acting skills, emphasizing her consistently unnatural expression, inaccurate pronunciation and vocalization, and excessive emotional expression as if watching a musical, not a drama. Among her scenes, the actress shouting scene made people doubt their eyes and ears.

Ex-Apink Na Eun Gets Compared To SNSD YoonA

With Na Eun's recent performance, a lot of people were disappointed as the idol actress is not necessarily a rookie, rather, she's been an actress for 12 years already, alongside Park Seo Jun and Kim Go Eun.

Even when she was still an idol, her love for acting is also known given that she even majored in theater at her university. She even frustrated some K-pop enthusiasts after leaving her long-time girl group Apink just to focus on her acting career, leading her to move to YG Entertainment alone.

Unfortunately, her acting skills, according to viewers, do not seem to be as good as her burning passion.

Amid criticism, people can't help but compare her to Girls' Generation YoonA, an exemplary example of a successful transition from being an idol to an actress.

Similar to Na Eun, YoonA is also in charge of the visual center position in her group Girls' Generation and she graduated college with the same course as Na Eun as well. Just like the latter, YoonA also took a break from her idol career to focus on her acting projects.

In addition to these, the two stars also share the same height, blood type, and even the fact that their first homecoming work in 2023 was a JTBC drama.

However, their respective acting abilities are drawing a distinctly different responses.

Unlike Son Na Eun's consistently criticized acting skills, Lim YoonA has been steadily recognized for her acting skills for more than a decade and is loved as a "box office queen." She became known for a lot of hits may it be on the small or big screen such as, "Confidential Assignment," "Big Mouth," "Exit" and more.

Above all her achievements as an actress, she didn't give up on her idol career and was able to dominate the chart following SNSD's full comeback in 2022.

This year, her explosive acting will once again be seen through the JTBC's new drama "King the Land," which is scheduled to air in the first half of 2023.

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Eunice Dawson.