We kdrama fans know that it was 2005’s mega-hit drama My Name Is Kim Samsoon (aka My Lovely Samsoon) that catapulted American model-actor Daniel Henney to stardom in Korea, but it’s also apparently the reason for his U.S. television debut four years later.
Henney has landed a leading role playing “David Lee,” a Korean-American doctor, on the new CBS medical drama Three Rivers, which premieres this fall. The producers of the show searched widely for Asian actors in their casting process, and ended up watching Samsoon. They felt that the gentleness he displayed as Jung Ryeo-won’s doctor was similar to what they were looking for in the Lee character, and auditioned him. The producers reportedly agreed to cast him immediately after his audition “without argument.”
My Name Is Kim Sam-soon (aka My Lovely Sam-soon), the super-popular 2005 drama that made Kim Sun-ah and Hyun Bin into household names, is being given the Hollywood treatment and remade as a U.S. television series. Hopefully Sam-soon will meet with better success as a remake than other Hollywoodified versions like My Sassy Girl and Il Mare (as The Lake House).
NBC will be producing the series as a prime-time drama, casting has been completed, with the script is in the revision process. Production is scheduled to begin early next year.
A few notes on the U.S. television process: just because a drama has entered production does NOT mean, as it does in Korea, that it will definitely air. The pilot will need to be shot, after which point the network can decide whether or not to order more episodes. If it dies in that stage, we’ll never see it, and if it proceeds, it will usually be given an initial 13-episode order, or half a season. (If the ratings are good, the back 9 episodes will usually be ordered to finish out the season. If ratings are bad, the series may be canceled at any point, whether or not all the produced episodes have been aired. There’s always a small chance that the drama will be picked up to series but canceled before any episodes air.)
Also, I actually heard about this a few months ago (in an unofficial capacity), and if the people involved in this remake are who I think they are, there’s a chance this series may turn out decently well. Also, considering that Samsoon was compared a lot to Bridget Jones’s Diary, the inherent premise of the series is one that translates well to Western audiences.
Anyone’s who’s been watching kdramas for a number of years has probably, at some point, noted the same thing as the following article. Early Hallyu kicked off the hallmarks of The Korean Melodrama (And Boy Do I Mean Drama!), and I think more recent offerings are unfortunately still colored (dare I say tainted?) by the tropes established in the early stuff. For instance, the impoverished but virtuous female, the Prince Charming who rescues her, the evil and jealous second female lead who’d do anything to sabotage the main romance, the second male lead who never had a shot, the cancer, the tears, the angst. Consider: Autumn Fairy Tale, Winter Sonata, Stairway to Heaven, Star In My Heart, Glass Slippers, All About Eve…
Judging from those early dramas alone, I wouldn’t blame people outside the culture for thinking, “Boy those Koreans sure have a lot of young rich studs and poor beautiful damsels in distress. Imagine how productive the country would be if everyone stopped trying to futz around with each other’s love lives and just got their act together.”
Anyway, many dramas these days still play on the old stereotypes, but the tenor has changed. The stage is gradually shifting, perhaps most notably in the female roles:
Female Characters, Boundless Transformations
Where’s the end to actresses’ transformations? Nowadays, female characters in every kind of drama and film are evolving. In particular, with the success of projects depending less on plot than character, actresses are taking “meaningful risks” in going for a different image or acting that evokes audience sympathy.
TV miniseries in the ’80s and ’90s employed the “Cinderella story” formula in search of success, and brought about a general trend following the “Candy”-esque [the manhwa] philosophy: “Though I’m loney, though I’m sad, I don’t cry.”
In these stories, a kind and obedient female would overcome all sorts of adversities to realize her success in the form of love with a successful man. As a result, popular actresses cultivated innocent images that would elicit a protective instinct. Typical examples include Shin Aera of Love In Your Arms [Sarang eul gudae eui poom ahn ae] and Choi Jin Shil of Star in My Heart.
SONG OF THE DAY
My Name Is Kim Sam Soon OST – “She Is” by Clazziquai. This song makes me totally nostalgic every time I hear it. [ zShare download ]
Sexy actress Kim Sun Ah, who’d had a fairly lengthy resume but vaulted to superfame in My Name Is Kim Sam Soon, is back after a rather quiet past two years.
Her first post-Sam Soon project was supposed to be the legal drama movie Thursday’s Child (she was cast as a tough lawyer in the film), but that project ran into problems midway through filming and fizzled. She’s also done CFs in the intervening time, but this’ll be her first acting project in a while.
Now she’s cast in another film, Girl Scout, and her fans are thrilled to have her back, pronouncing that “Samsoon has returned.” They’ve been going to the filming location showering Kim Sun Ah (and staff) with gifts of snacks and such. (Honestly, I don’t know how the Korean entertainment system allows fans such access and proximity — sooner or later, the crazies’ll come out, and I’m not even talking about the rabid anti’s).
Girl Scout is described as a comic crime drama, and Kim Sun Ah takes on the role of someone who’s accident-prone regarding financial matters.
Personally, I’d rather see her back in another drama series, but it’s nice she’s back in whatever form. Two years of unintended absence (wrought with legal and contractual disputes, I believe) taken at the height of her popularity just seems wrong.
