KBS2 romantic drama "When the Camellia Blooms" is a story about a woman named Oh Dong-baek (Gong Hyo-jin). She is a single mother who takes good care of her son called Pil-Gu (Kim Kang-Hoon). She moved to the fictional town of Ongsan and decided to open up a bar which she named Camellia.
After six long years of living peacefully with her son and running her business, Dong-baek meets the playful Hwang Yong-sik portrayed by Kang Ha-Neul. Despite meeting Dong-baek as a single mother, Yong-sik never hesitated to declare his love for her. Though Dong-baek does not reciprocate his love, he is still persistent in winning her heart!
The story becomes even more interesting when Yong-sik's mother discovers about this relationship and strongly opposes it, as Dong-baek is a single mother with a son. She thinks Dong-baek is not fit to be in a relationship with her son. Plus, to add on the complicated story, Dong-baek's past lover and father of her child is also trying to win her back.
It pays to be persistent since Yong-sik eventually gets Dong-Baek to fall for him. To make things interesting, there seems to be a notorious killer on the loose, and its target is Dong Baek. And knowing that Ongsan is just a small town, gossip spreads fast, and there is a big possibility of catching this serial killer quickly. Yong-sik is doing his best to protect Dong-Baek and her son, doing his job as a policeman and figuring out who the real killer is.
"When Camellia Flower Blooms" was broadcasted from September 18 to November 21, 2019. It has released 20 episodes on its first season and is even available on Netflix! This makes it easier for us to watch and keep track. With its success, not only did it receive one, two, or three awards but five!
The Seoul International Drama Awards was done on September 15, 2020, at 3:00 in the afternoon. The drama bagged two awards in the International Competition Category, screenwriter Lim Sang-Chun won the Artist Award, and Gong Hyo-Jin took home the Female Actress Award. With these awards, we can see how popular the Drama was last year and how the female characters portrayed women empowerment and how well they carried themselves in the series.
Comparing to the previous nominees that Korean dramas were nominated, the numbers sky-rocketed! From only having two Korean Dramas to nine! We can observe how Korean dramas have evolved and are now widely recognized internationally!
Besides the mentioned awards, Kang Ha-Neul won the Male Actor Award and the Theme Song Award. The producers of the series also won several awards, Best Work Award, and as well as Artist Award. They not only succeeded in the 15th Seoul International Drama Awards but also in a couple more awards show like, 56th Baeksang Artist Awards; they won four awards and at the 47th Korean Broadcasting Awards, three awards.
How amazing is it to see that your sleepless nights turn out to be one of the best dramas there is? Indeed, hard work goes a long way!
