Actress Goh Hyeon-jung, former beauty pageant winner, proved that even 10 years of absence could not wear down her beauty and her acting skill in Seoul Broadcasting System`s "Spring Days."
The first episode of the weekend drama, which aired on Jan. 8, garnered a high starting record of 27.8 percent of viewing rates in a survey by TNS Media Korea.
"Spring Days" features Goh as Seo Jeong-eun who suffers from aphasia after being abandoned by her mother. She lives in an island with her doctor grandfather and falls in love with Goh Eun-seop (played by Ji Jin-hee), who visits her grandfather in search for his mother.
Goh slowly opens her heart and starts to talk but the drama twists fate as Ji is injured in a car accident and loses his memory. She decides to stay with him and take care of him with his stepbrother Eun-seop (Cho In-sung), another doctor, forming a love triangle.
While the much publicized drama started strong and did not fail to meet the expectations of both viewers and performers, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation`s ambitious project "The Sad Love Story" is discouraged by the rather lukewarm responses since it was first aired on Jan. 5.
The drama also was publicized for its top-of-the-line cast, especially since Song Seung-heon, slated as one of the two leading actors, was forced to drop out of the drama when he was found to have dodged military service, a mandatory duty for Korean men.
Yeon Jeong-hoon, relatively less known than Song, stepped in both literally and figuratively as he will be involved in a love-or-friendship dilemma between Kwon Sang-woo and Kim Hee-sun in the drama.
Kim has been touted as one of the most beautiful actresses in Korea while her performing has garnered mixed reviews. After two years of break from the TV screen, she ambitiously undertook a role as a blind girl in heartbreaking love with Kwon.
Although some criticized her acting as mediocre, which probably will not affect the prospective of the drama as before, "The Sad Love Story" is expected to gain more enthusiastic response as it unfolds more a dramatic story filmed in New York.
Next week, another celebrated actress will add more heat to the drama war. Lee Hyo-ri, the sexy, attractive K-pop star, debuts as a full-time TV actress in SBS`s "Three-leaf Clover" on Monday.
She will shed her glamorous image and transform herself into a high school dropout factory worker Kang Jin-a who survives the death of her father and walkout of her mother. Lee stars opposite Ryu Jin who plays the role of a bohemian chic boss Ryu Se-hyeong, while Kim Kang-woo will appear as a childhood friend who always stands by her.
Her fans have been paying keen attention to her debut as an actress. SBS producers expect her popularity to help boost the viewing rate of the drama.
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(glamazon@heraldcorp.com)
By Hwang You-mee