Winter Sonata .
Profile .
- Drama: Winter Sonata
- Revised romanization: Gyeoul Yeonga
- Hangul: 겨울 연가 / 겨울연가
- Director: Yoon Seok-Ho, Hyeong-min Lee
- Writer: Kim Eun-Hee, Yoon Eun-Kyung, Oh Soo-Yun
- Network: KBS2
- Episode: 20
- Release Date: January 14 - March 19, 2002
- Runtime: 70 min.
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Plot .
The story begins when Joon-sang, the son of an eminent musician, moves to Chuncheon,
a rural city in South Korea. As an extraordinarily talented student,
Joon-sang is welcomed by his fellow students as well as his teachers,
but remains a quiet, introverted teenager. As he intends to find out
about his biological father, whom his mother claims has died, his search
to find out more about his father is what made him want to move to the
province. Having an identity crisis in adolescence because of the father
he has never met, and blaming his mother for this, Joon-sang believes
that no one truly loves him.
On his way to school one day, Joon-sang's classmate Yoo-jin, while
sitting next to him on the bus, falls asleep on his shoulder. Joon-sang
soon falls in love with Yoo-jin, who opens her innocent heart to him.
Their love, however, is cut short after Joon-sang is seriously injured
in a car accident and, due to brain damage, suffers from amnesia, unable
to remember anything prior to his accident.
Joon-sang's mother, yearning for Joon-sang's love and respect, has
Joon-sang brainwashed by a psychologist, so that Joon-sang will not
remember his painful childhood as an illegitimate child. As a result,
Joon-sang's memories prior to the accident are erased. Joon-sang's
mother decides to move to the United States with Joon-sang, where he can
start a new life under the identity of Lee Min-hyeong. His friends and
teachers are told that Joon-sang is dead.
Ten years later, Min-hyeong is an award-winning architect in the
United States. He does not remember anything about his life in Korea. He
is completely different, an open-minded person who cares about other
people, including his mother. He returns to Korea and Yoo-jin sees him
on the street, prompting her to put off her engagement to her childhood
friend Sang-hyeok. Little does she know that Min-hyeong is dating her
friend and past rival Chae-rin. The story's plot thickens when Yoo-jin's
interior design firm is awarded a project by Min-hyeong's architectural
firm, and has to work with Min-hyeong. Yoo-jin sometimes wonders if he
is her supposedly dead first love Joon-sang.
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Cast .
- Bae Yong-joon as Kang Joon-sang / Lee Min-hyeong
- Choi Ji-woo as Jeong Yoo-jin
- Park Yong-ha as Kim Sang-hyeok
- Park Sol-mi as Oh Chae-rin
- Lee Hye-eun as Kong Jin-sook
- Ryu Seung-soo as Kwon Yong-gook
- Kwon Hae-hyo as Kim seonbae
- Song Ok-sook as Kang Mi-hee, Joon-sang's mother
- Jung Dong-hwan as Kim Jin-woo, Sang-hyeok's father
- Kim Hae-sook as Lee Yeong-hee, Yoo-jin's mother
- Ha Ji-hye as Jeong Hee-jin, Yoo-jin's younger sister
- Jung Won-joong as Park Jong-ho, "Gargamel"
- Jang Hang-sun as Supervisor Min
- Lee Hyo-chun as Park Ji-young, Sang-hyeok's mother
- Park Hyun-sook as Lee Jeong-ah, Yoo-jin's colleague at Polaris
- Son Jong-bum as Yoo-jin's colleague at Polaris
- Yoo Yul as Radio broadcaster
- Maeng Ho-rim as Dr. Ahn
- Ha Jae-young as Jeong Hyeon-soo, Yoo-jin's father
Reception .
Winter Sonata is credited with causing the second wave of the Korean wave and extending it to Japan and the Philippines. It improved the image of South Korea among the Japanese and set fashion trends throughout East Asia. The series was a commercial success;
330,000 DVDs and 1,200,000 copies of Winter Sonata novelizations were sold. The series yielded more than US$27 billion when taking into account the profit it contributed to tourism. The number of visitors to the island of Namiseom (where the series was shot) grew from 250,000 to over 650,000 after the series was aired. A statue of the main characters can also be found on the island at the spot where they first kissed.
330,000 DVDs and 1,200,000 copies of Winter Sonata novelizations were sold. The series yielded more than US$27 billion when taking into account the profit it contributed to tourism. The number of visitors to the island of Namiseom (where the series was shot) grew from 250,000 to over 650,000 after the series was aired. A statue of the main characters can also be found on the island at the spot where they first kissed.
The series shot actor Bae Yong-joon into stardom in Asia, and he became especially popular among middle-aged Japanese women. When he first visited Japan in 2004, more than 3,000 women guarded by 350 policemen gathered at the airport to welcome him. Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister at the time, was quoted saying that Bae was more popular in Japan than himself.
The series was a success in a number of other Asian countries as well
Reairings .
The drama first aired in Japan on NHK in 2004; it was dubbed in Japanese and edited into 60-minute episodes. The final episode (which aired on August 23, 2004) recorded ratings of 20.6% in Kanto, 22.5% in Nagoya, and 23.8% in the Kansai
regions. The series as a whole had an average viewership in the 14% to
15% range. Due to overwhelming demand from viewers to watch the series
in its original format, it was re-aired on NHK's satellite channel BS2
unedited (in its original Korean audio, with Japanese subtitles), beginning December 20, 2004.
It was the first Korean drama that ushered in the Korean wave in Malaysia, when it aired in 2002 on TV3 dubbed in Mandarin with Malay subtitles. PMP Entertainment later released the drama in VCD and DVD format under the Bahasa title, Kisah Cinta Musim Salji (meaning "Winter Love Story"). A Malay cover version of the theme song was released with the title "Sonata Musim Salju" (meaning "Winter's Sonata").
In 2006 AZN Television bought the rights to air Winter Sonata in a 24-hour marathon with other Korean dramas.
Anime .
An anime adaptation of Winter Sonata premiered on Japan's SKY PerfecTV!
on October 17, 2009, consisting of 26 episodes subtitled in Japanese.
Directed by Ahn Jae-hoon and written by Kim Hyeong-wan, the program
featured 23 members of the original Korean cast voicing the characters,
including Bae and Choi who reprised their roles. The role of
"Sang-hyeok," originally played by Park Yong-ha, was voiced by singer Kang Yo-hwan and "Chae-rin" was dubbed by newcomer Lee Se-na in place of Park Sol-mi. During October 2011, Animax Asia aired the anime in Korean audio and English subtitles across Asia.
Remembering ‘Winter Sonata,’ the start of hallyu.
source: The Korea Herald
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111230000497
Pioneering hallyu TV drama sees 10th anniversary
On the night of Jan. 14, 2002, the first episode of KBS TV drama series “Winter Sonata” went on air. Korea was four months ahead of the highly anticipated 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan, and was still recovering from the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The term “hallyu,” which was in fact introduced in 1999 by local reporters in Beijing who were surprised by the popularity of Korean TV drama shows in China, was still unfamiliar among the viewers. Even Yoon Suk-ho, the producer of what later became the pioneering hallyu drama, had no idea what the series was about to lead to in Korea and Asia as a whole.
The year 2012 is surely a milestone year for the history of hallyu, as the famous love saga has its 10th year anniversary. Ever since the show ― the second installment of producer Yoon’s four part “Endless Love” series ― was aired in Japan through NHK in April of 2003, the show has symbolized the beginnings of hallyu across Asia.
Thanks to its enormous popularity, its main actor Bae Yong-joon rose to heartthrob status in East Asia, while its filming location, Nami Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, has welcomed more than one million visitors in the last decade.
Before 2003, however, the sob-fest love story had been regarded as just another popular TV series in Korea. It came after a series of tear-jerking romance movies and TV dramas released in Korea from the late 1990s on, including late popular actress Choi Jin-sil’s film “The Letter” (1997), director Hur Jin-ho’s “Christmas in August” (1998) and Yoon’s first installment of the “Endless Love” series “Autumn in My Heart” (2000).
Culture critic Lee Young-mi, who saw “Winter Sonata” as an “extension of therapeutic pop-culture products to ease the collective trauma of the 1997 financial crisis in Korea,” said the show’s popularity in Korea and Japan must be understood separately.
“People rejected the ‘traditional’ kind of love throughout the 1990s in Korea by the younger generation,” Lee told The Korea Herald during a phone interview on Wednesday.
Scenes from KBS’ 2002 hit drama series “Winter Sonata” (KBS)
“These young men and women were confident enough to have fun while not settling down or being too committed. But that confidence was totally shattered by the financial crisis in the late 1990s. By this time we all knew there was no such thing as romantic, ever-lasting love. But we needed to hang onto those fantasies to survive. So what came out were movies and drama series that dealt with death-transcending love stories. The popularity of ‘Winter Sonata’ in Korea took part of that.
“But its popularity in Japan has nothing to do with it,” Lee continued. “In general, though, I think the show received more positive reviews in Korea after it gained popularity in Japan. Most culture products that enjoy popularity overseas are hardly criticized locally in Korea.”
The show’s popularity in Japan was surprising to many, including the producer Yoon Suk-ho and then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who in 2004 famously said, “Bae Yong-joon is more popular than I am in Japan.”
Drawing at least 20 percent of prime time viewers in 2003, the show soon rose to cult status. NHK made $3.5 million from selling Winter Sonata-related products, while selling 330,000 DVD sets and 1,220,000 “Winter Sonata” novels. Its most enthusiastic viewers were middle-aged women, who were completely mesmerized by its main actor Bae Yong-joon, who starred as a caring and romantic ski resort CEO who would give up everything for his first love.
Bae, who the New York Times called “the $2.3 billion man” for his value in 2004, made his famous visit to Japan that year. Some 3,000 middle-aged women gathered at Narita International Airport to greet their heartthrob.
According to a scholarly article published on Keio Communication Review in 2007, some 350 riot police were there to guard the scene. In spite of the presence of the officers, however, 10 women were sent to hospital as they were injured from “pushing and shoving” in an attempt to see their “Yon-sama.”
“I had no idea it would become so popular in Japan,” producer Yoon Suk-ho told The Korea Herald during a phone interview on Wednesday. “In fact, the first installment of the series, ‘Autumn in My Heart,’ was popular in Southeast Asian counties, not Japan. I planned on filming as much snow as possible for ‘Winter Sonata’ to attract the viewers in those warm counties.”
Yoon, who last year produced the musical adaption of the show for the 10th year anniversary, which is currently on stage in Seoul, shared his favorite line of a review from a Japanese critic. “It said, ‘Winter Sonata’ awakened the little girls deeply buried in the middle-aged Japanese women’s subconscious,’” Yoon told The Korea Herald. “I think ‘Autumn in My Heart’ was popular in Southeast Asia as it dealt with social class differences as well as poverty. Japan, on the other hand, was the first country in Asia that went through modernization and westernization. I think the show touched on what these Japanese women left behind, as well as their fond memories and values that only exist in their past.”
Yoon is currently preparing for his upcoming TV drama “Loverain,” featuring young hallyu stars Jang Kuen-suk and popular girl group Girls’ Generation member Yoona as a young puppy-love couple in the ‘70s.
Jang, in particular, is largely considered one of the rising hallyu stars in Japan. Last year he successfully completed a one-of-a-kind, fantasy-like concert tour in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Unlike Bae, most of Jang’s fans are Japanese youngsters.
While the theme of the show resembles that of “Winter Sonata” ― pure and noble love shared by young innocent souls (which has been Yoon’s long-time interest) ― it will be interesting to see what the edgy and young duo will bring to the show, Yoon said.
“hallyu has become more about K-pop than the drama series nowadays,” Yoon said. “As a TV producer I am not particularly happy about that. But K-pop’s energetic and feisty. Jang Keun-suk has all of that K-pop quality. He’s open, honest, unique and is always himself. I think he will bring such energy to the show, while I will keep the good old stuff that needs to be kept (by telling the love story of the ‘70s).”
The musical adaptation of “Winter Sonata,” currently being staged at Myungbo Art Hall in central Seoul, runs until March 18. Tickets cost 50,000 won. Japanese subtitles are available. For more information, call (02) 1544-1555, or (070) 7019-6707.
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