Jake (찬희)
Recent winter’s greatest drama was <Winter Love Song>.  The location that the drama was filmed is now populated by lovers, now considered an attraction site.  Not only that, but mufflers, accessories, and even the actors’ hairstyles are exploding with popularity.  While <Winter Love Song>’s main theme song is now the most used ringer sound for mobile phones, the drama’s homepage set a new record with more than 10,000,000 messages posted in a single day.  It started out as a storm but now it has become a hurricane.  What is the secret to <Winter Love Song>’s success?

One. It’s blatant, but it has magnetism
As most trendy dramas are, <Winter Love Song>’s story is an obvious love story.  However, as <Fall Fairytale> did, that obvious story is making the viewers feel the pain of the characters’ tragedies, becoming sympathetic, in the end shedding tears for them.  <Winter Love Song>’s magnetism comes from the cinematographic styling of director Yun SukHo.  Like his nickname ‘visual poet’, each cut is reminiscent of a well composed water color painting, naturally grabbing the audiences’ attention.  Adding to this, mystery elements such as ‘birth secret’ and ‘amnesia’ creates a dramatic pace that progressively unveils each layer of the story.  Everyone has a first love, and this widely acceptable theme was a crucial part of maximizing <Winter Love Song>’s range of target audience.



Two. Lead roles become sensations

Nobody will argue about Bae YongJun being the hottest star.  It’s not just his muffler and glasses, but his so called ‘wind hair’ is also a part of the trend to be like Bae YongJun.  And his whimsical fans are crying and smiling in reaction to his every little move.  Last spring, he came back to TV drama with MBC’s <Hotelier>, but his role wasn’t as influential.  With <Winter Love Song>, he reached his second pinnacle.  The reason for such explosive popularity is mostly due to his more comfortable acting style.  Unlike his earlier works where his roles were stiff and tense, he came back with a million dollar smile that appeal to fans as a more natural character.  He shows again that he has the most adult female fans.  Along with his smile, Bae YongJun’s image slowly became the symbol of first love, and entered into the viewer’s hearts.

Choi JiWoo, who shows a totally different image, is also the pillar that supports <Winter Love Song>’s popularity.  Surprising everyone with her lively high school girl character in the earlier parts of the drama, she comes back with her trademark tearful image.  She stimulated the fans emotion, making them shed tears.  People who work in broadcast television agree that there is no other person who is as innoncent and pure as Choi JiWoo.  As if proving that, she is perfuming a woman’s scent in this drama.  Since 1995 in a debut drama <First Love>, she continues her ‘unfailing rating’ legend.

Other actors appearing in the drama are getting a spotlight, and they are slowly becoming a household name.  Almost faceless before <Winter Love Song>, Park SolMi deeply curved her existence into the viewer’s memory.  Although she is hated by the viewers because of the bad character she plays, she is happier than ever.

Also, there is Ryu SuengSu, who made his mark with the movie <Let’s Play Moon>(Dal_Ma_Ya Nol_Ja).  With <Winter Love Song>, he gained a more various fan base, and is slowly becoming a well-known star.

Three. (This was about the popularity of ski resorts and the location where ‘Winter Love Song’ was filmed.)

Four.  It’s similar, but something’s different

When you watch <Winter Love Song>, you think that it’s very close to <Fall Fairytale>.  It’s because the director is the same, and the character development and struggle are similar.  And it’s also because Bae YongJun is to die from leukemia.  In the homepage, people are protesting not to kill Bae YongJun.  Director Yun SukHo doesn’t want to make <Winter Love Song> into another <Fall Fairytale>, so he wants to save Bae YongJun, as well.  He says, because tragedy seems to give a longer lasting impression, he would not make it a happy ending.  But he won’t do that by killing off one of the main characters.  Instead, he wants to choose a less dramatic ending that can communicate more well with the audiences’ emotion.  He added that there are several possibilities in talks with the writer.

Once having considered expanding <Winter Love Song> with more episodes, it has been verified that it will end with the total of 20 episodes as previously planned.  Leaving while at the top is what this drama is similar to <Fall Fairytale>.
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