`Winter Sonata` starts up again on TV screens

The Korea Broadcasting System will start rerunning its hit drama "Winter Sonata" from today three years after it was first aired in 2001. Two episodes will be run back to back every Saturday over 10 weeks.

The much hyped drama featuring Bae Yong-joon, Choi Ji-woo and Park Yong-ha, was the first Korean TV drama to be aired on NHK, Japan`s public broadcaster. It also touched off an unprecedented craze for Korean pop culture among Japanese fans. It earned Bae the honorific Japanese nickname "Yonsama."

The drama brought a flock of Japanese tourists to Korea, who wanted to visit its filming sites, including those in Chuncheon and Yangyang in Gangwon Province. To deal with the ever-increasing number of Japanese visitors, Korean Air launched direct charter flights between Osaka in Japan and Yangyang beginning today. The flight is scheduled once a week and will be offered through March 25.

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Seven travel agencies in Gangwon Province have formed a committee to join hands with JTB, one of the largest travel agencies in Japan, for the tour packages, the first of which has been sold out.

Some experts estimated that "Winter Sonata" has generated about 2.3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) worth of economic outcome and opened a new chapter in the relationship between the two neighboring countries.

The drama has also been exported to the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt.

The Japan Broadcasting Corporation is currently running the drama for the fourth time, the first two on satellite and then on terrestrial. The last episode of the third run garnered 20.6 percent of rating view, topping the drama list in Japan.

This time "Winter Sonata" will be broadcast with subtitles and not dubbed in Japanese, probably as an effort to meet the demands of fans who want to hear the actual voice of "Yonsama."

Japanese radio performers are disappointed with the news, but their Korean counterparts are even more crushed with KBS`s decision to rerun the drama at the prime time which has been slotted for movies, most of which are foreign films dubbed in Korean.

More than 70 KBS radio performers went on a silent protest, arguing the rerun of "Winter Sonata" is a step toward getting rid of the weekend movie program. Their profession is already in decline.

Some Korean TV viewers are also voicing their disagreement.

A viewer named Kim Ji-won posted on the broadcasting company`s Web site, "If KBS wants to increase its viewing rate, it should air more entertaining programs instead of boring movies." She added that rerunning "Winter Sonata" will not bring viewers to its channel since those watching it are Koreans, not Japanese fans.

Other viewers such as Oh Hae-seong and Lee Han-bi pleaded not to replace Saturday movies with "Winter Sonata" saying that the long-established program should be maintained for the viewers, asking KBS to put their viewers before the viewing rate.

(glamazon@heraldm.com)



By Hwang You-mee