Winter Sonata (2002)

An impressively touching love story. Performed with passion. However, It´s makjang. Be prepared.

The biggest impetus for the KWave came from "Winter Sonata" - this KDrama is almost a blockbuster among KDramas. Its success was enormous. The series sparked its own fan tourism to filming locations on Nami Island, Geojie Island and Chuncheon that continues to this day. The soundtrack also wrote history. In the meantime there is an anime version of the story, a musical production as well as a manga and a Playtstation version...

The love story is told in an impressively touching way and performed with passion. In beautiful pictures and with plenty of dramatic twists. The chemistry between the two main actors is perfectly tuned. Bae Yong Joon even shines in two roles at the same time.

However. It is makjang! Twists and turns awaiting around each and every corner. Be prepared for sorrow. You might get angry more than once. The protagonist´s can get on your nerves. For sure. Don´t complain. I told you. It is truely astonishing that still (if you are ready to sympathize to some extent) you will ´enjoy´ the show. ... whereas ´joy´ might not exactly hit the spot... :-)

In case you are not aware (as I wasn´t at first):
Since the story begins in the youth of the main characters, you also get an impression of the Korean lifestyle and everyday life in the late 1980s and 1990s, with true ´democracy´ in South Korea still being in diapers and a conservative, strict, authoritarian aura dominating everyday life. When I saw the series for the first time, I didn´t know much about the political and social conditions. Plus from my German background those morals, values and virtues all seemed old fashioned and in my life rather outdated - it reminded me more of the world of the old black and white movies of the 1930s and 40s: hierarchies and manners, the decisions of the protagonists, the prevailing moral concepts, all of which I - today, far away in Germany - could only shake my head at. Now, as I have learned more about South Korean culture, I know better, where this is coming from... Sympathy and compassion are thus enhanced.

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