The drama "Winter Sonata" is said to have started Hallyu fever because it got so many non-Koreans obsessed about k-dramas. And the romantic story may soon inspire even more Hallyu devotion.
The original drama was aired in 2002 and rated as high as 28.8 percent of the viewers in Korea but it also attracted tourists from other countries to visit Korea.
The story of love and loss starred Choi Ji Woo and Bae Yong Joon, who became the first of many Korean drama stars to gain international popularity. The series and its stars were especially popular in Japan. When Bae Yong Joon first visited Japan in 2004, more than 3,000 women, guarded by 250 policemen met him at the airport.
Foreign visitors to Namiseom Island, where the drama was filmed, tripled after the drama aired. And the island even erected a statue to commemorate the importance of the drama to island tourism.
The popularity of "Winter Sonata" proceeded to inspire an anime version and a musical. And now it has inspired a sequel. On April 14, Pan Entertainment, which produced the original drama, said they were working in a sequel tentatively titled "Winter Sonata 2." The company told the Korean media outlet OSEN that "Winter Sonata 2" is already in the works.
"Producer Yoon Suk Ho will be responsible for the overall production and writers Yoon Eun Kyung and Kim Eun Hee, who wrote the previous drama, are in charge of the screenplay again," said the Pan Entertainment representative. "The director has not yet been decided. The first draft of our synopsis will be out next month."
The production company said that the decision to create a sequel was based on nostalgia and could be considered a gift to devoted fans.
"We thought it would be great to bring back the memory to Korean as well as Japanese viewers who were touched by the drama. It's like an elaborate gift that we could give back to the public. We started planning in order to make a good project out of that simple and humble intention."
No sooner did the production company announce its intentions but netizens started to wonder how the story of the sequel would be related to the original drama. Would the original stars appear in the drama as older versions of themselves? Would it be about them or would younger stars be added or replaced to update the drama?
If younger stars do replace the older stars, who would it be? Lee Min Ho? Yoon Eun Hye?
Who do you think should star in this drama replay? Let us know.
