The K-wave is seeing a revival in popularity in China because of the SBS drama "My Love from the Star" (airs Wednesdays and Thursdays on KBFD).
Ji-hyun Jun, aka Gianna Jun ("My Sassy Girl," "The Thieves," "Windstruck," "The Berlin File," and "Blood: The Last Vampire"), plays the female lead in this drama. She falls in love with an alien played by Soo Hyun Kim ("Miss Granny," "Secretly Greatly," "The Thieves," "Giant," "Dream High," "Will It Snow for Christmas?").
The show’s theme song is already a big hit on the music charts. The drama has the Midas touch in Korea and China where everything in the show becomes popular. Korean restaurants in China are seeing a big boom again, whether it be Korean BBQ, pork belly, spicy rice cakes or fried chicken. In one of the episodes, Jun says, while eating a fried drumstick, "There’s nothing like a chi-maek on a snowy day" (chi-maek is short for chicken and beer).
Fried chicken and beer has seen tremendous growth because of the drama and helped China partially recover from the recent avian influenza outbreak. The last drama to have this kind of effect in China was "Jewel in the Palace" in 2003.
THIS WEEK’S SYNOPSES
"Madly in Love"
Episodes 35 and 36
Sunday, 6:30 p.m.: Nan-cho gives Dong-ho money to get lost, but it seems that he wants more than that. Yoo-jung overhears a heated argument between Moon-do and Moo-yeol.
She finds out that Moon-do took the will. Stunned, she looks for Soo-hyeok, but there too she finds something shocking. She needs to talk to someone, but the only person she can think of is Moo-yeol.
He tells her that his grandfather’s will somehow involves both their families. She decides to find out exactly how.
Sunday, 7:45 p.m.: Eun-sook struggles with Moon-do’s confession about his involvement with Director Han’s death.
She wants to go to the police but can’t because of Moo-yeol. She’s in his office when Nan-cho walks in while Moon-do is telling Eun-sook that he didn’t care about her. This infuriates Nan-cho. Meanwhile, Yoo-jung and Moo-yeol go to the police to try to find out more about her father’s accident.
"Case Number 113"
Parts 1 and 2
Monday and Tuesday, 7:45 p.m.: A case of murder with no body or suspect. A girl is seen going into a murder site, but no one is seen leaving the site and there’s no body to be found. What’s the secret behind this murder case?
"My Love from the Star"
Episodes 16 and 17
Wednesday, 7:45 p.m.: Hee-kyong finally wakes up. Jae-kyong tries to feel out Hee-kyong to see how much he knows about Han Yoo-ra and him. Yoon-jae sees his sister coming out of Min-joon’s place in the morning and decides to confront Min-joon.
Thursday, 7:45 p.m.: Hee-kyong finds a shocking clue as he looks into his brother’s death. Song-yi can’t accept the fact that Min-joon has to leave in a month and tries to push him away. Sad and hurt, Min-joon drinks himself into a stupor.
"The Woman Who Married 3 Times"
Episodes 29 and 30
Friday, 7:45 p.m.: Chae-rin catches Seul-gi listening to Eun-soo’s book recording. Chae-rin breaks the recorder in a rage. Joon-gu tries to push Dami away, but Dami can’t accept his rejection. Dami sends pictures of Joon-gu and herself to Eun-soo.
Saturday, 7:45 p.m.: Betrayed for the second time, Eun-soo asks Hyun-soo to come and take her away from Joon-gu’s house. When Tae-won asks Chae-rin to break up, she does a 180 and becomes much nicer to the family.
Jeff Chung is general manager of KBFD TV, which televises Korean dramas with English subtitles. Reach him at 521-8066 or jeffchung@kbfd.com.
