Winter Sonata

Waktu tayang : January 14 - March 19, 2002

Waktu menonton : Junior High or Elementary school.
Hal paling berkesan : Beautiful beautiful snow.

Winter Sonata is my mom's favorite drama. She loved loved loved it. She even had Bae Yong Jun's poster on the wall. She played the OST nonstop. She had a boxset edition of the DVD. And Winter Sonata is actually the first KDrama that I remember finishing, because of my mom. And seeing as this is a melodrama tear fest and generally is not my kind of thing, I ended up liking it to a point. It's the most prominent drama that jump start the Hallyu wave, and it's wildly popular.

The story starts when the main character is in high school. Joong-sang (Bae Yong Jun) is a new student at the high school. He moved to the town to find his biological father. He met a fellow student, Yu Jin (Choi Ji Woo), through chance. And they fall in love, no surprise there. He suspect that his biological father is Sang Hyuk's father, a fellow student and Yu Jin's bestfriend, who's also secretly in love with Yu Jin (no surprise there). But then he found out that her mother is actually just friends with Sang Hyuk's father, and she is actually in love with Yu Jin's father. Believing Yu Jin to be her sister (what's with this korean fascination of pseudo incest plot by the way?) , he went away to the city but remember at the last minute that Yu Jin's waiting for him. He decided to go back to give a last goodbye, but an accident claim him and everyone believe that he was dead.

Fast forward ten years later, and Yu Jin is celebrating her engagement with Sang Hyuk. On the way to the engagement party, he saw someone resembling Joong-san and chased him. She never really gotten over the death of Joong-sang. And then she found out that the person is actually Lee Min Hyung (Bae Yong Jun, with brown hair), her friend's boyfriend, there to attend her engagement party. The resemblance is uncanny though, and she can't get over that fact. When they're forced to work together to build a winter resort, they gradually fall in love all over again.

Of course there's still a LOT more conflict. Illness, opposing friends and families, Min Hyung's biological father and past, and a lot more. The truth is I hate this type of drama. I prefer a drama that is centered on the conflict between two people's love story and not about other unrelated stuff. But because this is the first KDrama that I finish, and my mom's love for them, I ended up surprisingly liking it.

Bae Yong Jun is great as Joong-sang/Min Hyung. He can portray the difference between both character. Joong-sang is quiet and cold, and Min Hyung is outgoing and happy. Both are clearly portrayed, and the viewers can see the difference. Choi Ji Woo did a passable job with her role. Too much crying for my taste, but maybe that's the script's fault, not her fault. The others did a passable job too.

This is actually the second drama in the Season series. It consist of Autumn in My Heart, Winter Sonata, Summer Scent, and Spring Waltz. Whereas Autumn in My Heart is filled with brown tone, from the scene, the autumn leaves, to the character's clothes, Winter Sonata is filled with winter tone. It takes place at Winter so there's snow everywhere. The clothes are white and black, sweaters and jackets. But the snow scene are absolutely beautiful. There's actually a tour to see the scene's location in Korea, as the movie Hello Stranger portrayed.

Overall, this is my favorite from the Season series. Note that it didn't count much because I only watch part of Autumn in My Heart, only the first episodes of Spring Waltz, and didn't even bother with Summer Scent. But this is actually somewhat good. I like it even with all the melodrama around, but I didn't love it.