Can This Love Be Translated? Cast and Characters of New K-Drama Starring Kim Seon-ho - Netflix Tudum

  • Who’s Who

    Meet the Cast and Characters of Can This Love Be Translated?

    The talented, star-studded cast speaks for itself.

    By Claire Choe
    Jan. 16, 2026

In Can This Love Be Translated?, a romance unfolds across continents and languages between an acclaimed interpreter and an overnight movie star. Written by the Hong sisters — the minds behind modern classics like Hotel Del Luna and Master’s Sun — comes an international love story in which much is left unsaid. Below, get to know the cast and characters, whose onscreen charisma needs no translation.

A young man in a suit stands indoors, smiling softly in a modern, warmly lit setting with a concrete pillar and blurred backgrounds, creating a calm and approachable mood.

Kim Seon-ho

as Joo Ho-jin
About the Character

Once a promising novelist, Ho-jin works as a multilingual interpreter, preferring to deal with other people’s thoughts and emotions rather than his own. Reserved and introspective, he lives in his maternal grandfather’s house, surrounded by history — antique books and old memories. In more ways than one, he’s stuck in the past.

 

When Ho-jin becomes the interpreter for a reality show, Romantic Trip, he’s tasked with translating interactions between superstar Mu-hee and her Japanese co-star, Hiro. When he met Mu-hee once before, he thought she was unusual. After all, their personalities couldn’t be more different. “Since the series is a throwback to old-school romance, I thought that externally [Mu-hee and I] would have to be very different,” Kim Seon-ho tells Tudum. “If [she] is the grass swaying in the wind, I have to be the tree that doesn’t sway.” But as Ho-jin works with Mu-hee and becomes accustomed to her way of speaking, it helps him see things from her point of view. “[As] Ho-jin gets to know Mu-hee, their colors mix and dye each other.”

Previously In

The Childe

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A woman in a black leather jacket stands outside at night on a dimly lit street, looking at someone out of frame with a soft, expectant expression. The mood is intimate and calm, with blurred city lights in the background.

Go Youn-jung

as Cha Mu-hee
About the Character

Mu-hee first meets Ho-jin in Japan after the most humiliating moment of her life — her boyfriend cheated on her, validating her long-held belief that she’s unworthy of love.

 

Later, she lands a breakthrough role as killer zombie Do Ra-mi in the horror film The Quiet Woman and becomes a global sensation. She begins filming Romantic Trip with heartthrob Hiro and Ho-jin (as their interpreter), but she finds herself again at the mercy of her darkest emotions — while also developing romantic feelings.

 

“Mu-hee seems very honest with her emotions, but I think she’s also the least honest,” Go Youn-jung tells Tudum. “[Her emotions] show on her face, but she tries so hard not to show them. … [As Mu-hee] I wanted to show a character who is always wearing a complicated expression, not in a scheming type of way but in the sense that her anxieties and traumas are always informing her thoughts.”

Previously In

Moving

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A young man in a suit rides a bicycle outdoors on a gravel path, holding colorful balloons, with green trees and a wooden fence in the background on a sunny day.

Sota Fukushi

as Hiro Kurosawa
About the Character

A Japanese actor once celebrated for his charming romantic image, Hiro is now fading from the spotlight. Beneath his polished facade, he secretly resents the relentless performance required to maintain his carefully curated public persona. Hiro reluctantly joins Romantic Trip to reignite his career, expecting to work alongside the incorrigible Do Ra-mi he saw onscreen. But over time, the once defensive and guarded Hiro is charmed by the sweet and genuine woman beneath the larger-than-life character. 

Previously In

Goodbye Ghosts!

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Woman in a pink shirt sits at a wooden table, smiling and facing two people in a bright, modern room with white chairs and a kitchen in the background.

Lee E-dam

as Shin Ji-sun
About the Character

Ji-sun is a hotshot reality TV producer often regarded as an alpha female who’s beautiful, intelligent, and effortlessly charismatic. Ji-sun first met Ho-jin in Japan but later dated Ho-jin’s half-brother Jin-suk, unaware that they were related. 

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The Queen Who Crowns

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Young man in a hotel lobby with a backpack, standing beside a luggage cart loaded with suitcases and bags amid polished wood columns and lush indoor plants.

Choi Woo-sung

as Kim Yong-u
About the Character

Once an aspiring professional athlete whose career ended due to injury, Yong-u became Mu-hee’s manager just as she was beginning to act. Because he has been by her side from the start, Yong-u knows Mu-hee better than anyone and supports her like a devoted younger brother with unwavering loyalty. 

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