MBC winds up for baseball drama Strike Love

18 April 26, 2009April 26, 2009

by javabeans

MBC’s upcoming baseball drama Strike Love [2009외인구단, for which I previously used the literal translation Alien Baseball Team], is another drama adapted from a popular manhwa, and has fans eager for its premiere next month.

The sports-themed series stars Yoon Tae-young (Legend) in the lead role of baseball player Kachi, while Kim Min-jung (New Heart) is cast as his love interest Omji (or Umji).

I wasn’t sure how I’d like this drama, but the new preview video clip makes it look pretty good (watch below).

Also cast are Kim Sung-min (Legend, Open City) as Madongtak, while Munhee actress Song Ah-young takes on the character of Hyunji. Along with the two leads, these four will form the main love rectangle of the series.

The baseball team includes a motley assortment of players, like the small but speedy shortstop; the super-tall half-Korean batter; the legendary one-armed batter; and so on. (If you’re like me and you have no exposure to the original comic, these names and roles mean little — the original manhwa was super-popular in the 1980s — but looking online, it seems there’s a pretty decent amount of excitement over this adaptation.)

Strike Love will be MBC’s newest weekend drama, and airs its first episode on May 2.

While I don’t care for sports, I think I’m actually developing a soft spot for sports dramas — like the classic Jang Dong-gun basketball miniseries The Last Match (I even kinda enjoyed the horrible Last Match wannabe Icing that followed), the Olympic village-based Taereung National Village, and, oh yeah, the figure-skating world of Triple. Hey, wait a sec — all of those are MBC dramas. Interesting.

On the other hand, in addition to Strike Love and Triple, this upcoming drama season will also see the golf drama Buddy on KBS (which, by the way, is also adapted from a manhwa by the same creator of Strike Love, Lee Hyun-sae), as well as something called Mister Sunshine (SBS) that is described as “sports melodrama mixed with fusion period piece.” Now, THAT sounds fascinating.

(On the downside, Mister Sunshine is apparently the next collaboration for the PD and writer who gave us the Lovers trilogy, On Air, and the new Kim Sun-ah series City Hall. But maybe that’s an upside to someone else. The drama takes place in the 1920s and ’30s, will take on 32 episodes, and is a joint Korean-Japanese production — and features an American lead character. I don’t know if news is accurate at all, but I’ve seen a few reports tossing around Mr. Wentworth Miller’s name as a possible candidate. I wouldn’t take this seriously yet, however — probably more that they’re making inquiries.)

Via Arts News

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1 belleza

April 26, 2009 at 1:26 PM

"Mister Sunshine (SBS) that is described as “sports melodrama mixed with fusion period piece.” "

They're remaking FIELD OF DREAMS?!? O_o

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2 jippo

April 26, 2009 at 1:44 PM

I love sports! My first Japanese drama series was Pride with Kimura Takuya...
I was very pleased to find high-quality sports-themed drama series in Korea, and I could seriously do with many additions to the list of drama series mentioned in the article.

Btw, KBS2 has this segment on the weekend that is a "reality" show on baseball. I'm so psyched! It seems to be modeled on the sports teams that are made up of celebs in the Korean entertainment industry, which I try to follow as much as I can.

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3 lidge_fan

April 26, 2009 at 1:56 PM

Love baseball and Kim Min Jung.....will check this out!!!
Thanks alot for the heads up, jb ^_^

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4 Gallivanter

April 26, 2009 at 2:03 PM

I might have to give Strike Love a try. It's baseball season, and for the first time in 9 years my team is doing well! Whoo~~

(Plus, and this is going to seriously uncool me, I really kind of LOVE Field of Dreams. I read the book it's based on every year)

I'm curious as to how Mister Sunshine is going to work out. I'm imagining "Last Samurai" meets "Bull Durham." Hm...interesting.

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5 Sere

April 26, 2009 at 2:36 PM

while I'm not much of a fan of tvshows about sports (and I have yet to watch a Kdrama about sports), this drama seems...appealing for some reason. IDK why exactly. *tentatively adds it to the list*

@belleza!
LOL LOL

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6 Biscuit

April 26, 2009 at 2:58 PM

oooh, didn't expect a baseball drama.

I'm happy for the new variety were getting this year. It's refreshing, it's fun, it's different. This is what we need than all the majority of dramatic series. (Sad the music part of the entertainment hasn't changed from it's wave of pop/electro music)

But since most dramas/movies based after comics/books always seem to hit success. Gourmet, Goong, Coffee Prince *novel*, BOF, Antique Bakery, Old Boy, 200 pounds beauty, Iljimae, etc = based after comic/novel.

Of-course there are failures too, but I can't help but notice how alot of these that turned out hits were based on a comic/novel XD

And I like the leads ^^

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"Mister Sunshine (SBS) that is described as “sports melodrama mixed with fusion period piece.” "

The first thing I thought of when I heard "Sports & fusion period" was that scene in Iljimae/Hong Gil Dong and that guy playing Golf. As well as actor Ahn Suk Hwan in Hong Gil Dong also doing golf and talking to his wife about teens and cars.. er... I meant, those old things that they used for transportation.

Anyways, this is taking on the 20's and 30's so I guess I wont be seeing that happen XD
But I dont like Wentworth Miller -.-

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7 seri

April 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM

naaaaa

but I have started watching story of a man, man I almost cried like in every scene lol

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8 jdb

April 26, 2009 at 4:06 PM

I always love sport drama, beside the lead actors there’s more about the game and sometimes become triangle in a relationship which instead of a person the passion of sports become a theme. The actor has quite an impact on the screen, he has this mysterious, strong aura and the eyes is expressive though not the typical clean look style he’s oozed with charm and sexuality which befits his skin color. I want to give this series a chance hope it’s really worth it.

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9 Gabby

April 26, 2009 at 5:09 PM

@Biscuit: How come you don't like Wentworth Miller? Personally, I think Mister Sunshine would be BEYOND lucky to have him, as he's a handsome and talented American television actor with some actual clout, and as javabeans noted, this PD/writer collab does not usually churn out quality material....but I seriously doubt Miller would ever agree to do it.

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10 loveydovey

April 26, 2009 at 5:22 PM

who's wentworth miller?

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11 anna

April 26, 2009 at 7:46 PM

"If you build it, he will come" - pretty much sum up all I know about baseball... hehe.

Honestly, I enjoy watching sport movie/drama, even if I know absolutely nothing about the sport. I like rooting for the underdog. And the cheese.

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12 Ajussiwannabe

April 26, 2009 at 8:37 PM

Just a few words of clarification. The English title should of this drama should really be more like "Misfits" since 외인 in the the title is paying homage to 외인부대 or the French Foreign Legionnaires and not "Aliens." The original comic strip which inspired this drama came out back in the 1970's.

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13 Biscuit

April 26, 2009 at 8:52 PM

@Gabby

I have the Dinotopia dvd that my mum bought at a garage sale... Wentworth's portrayal as David Scott reminds me of my brother. Gah.
(It's hard to think of him as anything other than David Scott since that was the first time I saw Wentworth and I watched Dinotopia WAAAAY too many times for my own good before I even saw him in any other series. Now I just see Wentworth as "the guy from Dinotopia who acts like my brother")

yeah -.-