While a divorce usually signals the end of a relationship between a married couple, in the case of Ji Sun-woo and her cheating husband Lee Tae-oh in JTBC’s drama “The World of the Married,” it is only the beginning to the real revenge.

Halfway through the 16-episode set, JTBC’s sensational drama “The World of the Married” is gaining more popularity with each episode as the relationship between the divorced couple intensifies. The series marked its highest viewership rating of 20.1 percent in the latest episode, the highest figure from a JTBC drama save for the 23.8 percent scored by the smash-hit “Sky Castle” last year.

Hinting at more revenge in the coming episodes, Kim Hee-ae, who plays Sun-woo in the drama, said during a press conference Friday, “there will be some elements through which we could look back on our lives through the drama.”

Kim’s counterpart Park Hae-joon, who takes up the role as Tae-oh, also attended the press conference online.

“I did not expect so many people would watch (the drama). It is a genre drama and the first few episodes were also rated R. The huge love (from viewers) still feels unreal, but I feel it is like a gift for all the people who have really tried our best for the drama,” Kim said.

Park, who said he had even been worried about the supposed “bad influence” of the drama, said he was trying not read online comments about his acting to prevent himself from getting affected by the reactions.

“I am getting a lot of phone calls from people around me these days,” Park said. “Many married couples around me say they talk about their own relationships, watching the drama together, and now I feel the drama may not have such bad influence as people are able to communicate through the drama.”

Describing the last scene of the sixth episode -- where Sun-woo induces Tae-oh to hit her in front of their son -- as her favorite, Kim said, “It was a perfect moment made together in the perfect harmony of the script, the actors and all the staff members.”

“While the first part of the drama was a race toward the sixth episode, the latter part would be another race towards the 12th episode,” Kim said, hinting that another climax in both the story and her acting is about to come.

The broadcasting station on Thursday announced the remaining eight episodes of the series will be rated 19. Initially, only the first six episodes were rated as suitable only for adults, but concerns of violent and provocative scenes were raised as the series continued.

“We have decided on the over-19 ratings of the videos to portray the heightening tension among the characters more realistically,” JTBC said through a statement.

The Friday-Saturday series helmed by producer Mo Wan-il is based on the BBC television series “Doctor Foster.”



By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)