Japanese-Korean romances surge to leverage audiences and funds
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Eye Love You depicted the love story of Yoon Tae-oh, a Korean graduate student in Japan, and Yuri, a chief executive with the ability to read minds through eye contact.
PHOTO: EYELOVEYOU_TBS/INSTAGRAM
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SEOUL – Dramas depicting intercultural romances between Japanese and South Korean characters are all the rage now, amid efforts to draw in a broader audience and leverage larger production budgets, according to industry officials on Sept 13.
In Japan, hit romance fantasy series Eye Love You lit up the early part of 2024. The drama depicted the love story of Yoon Tae-oh (Chae Jong-hyeop), a South Korean graduate student in Japan, and Yuri (Fumi Nikaido), a Japanese chief executive with the ability to read minds through eye contact.
The 10-part series, riding high on rave reviews on its charming characters and the humorous moments arising from the cultural differences between Tae-oh and Yuri, stayed in Netflix Japan’s top 10 series list for five consecutive weeks. It also held onto a spot in Netflix Korea’s top 10 list for series for four weeks.
Coupang Play’s new original series What Comes After Love, featuring another intercultural romance between Japanese and Korean characters, is slated to hit small screens on Sept 27.
What Comes After Love, based on the popular novel of the same name co-written by South Korean writer Gong Ji-young and Japanese writer Tsuji Hitonari, narrates the story of Choi Hong (Lee Se-young) and Aoki Jungo (Kentaro Sakaguchi), former lovers who reunite by chance five years after they parted.
The series marks the South Korean TV debut of popular Japanese actor Sakaguchi, known for his leading roles in multiple Japanese hits, including romance film The Last 10 Years (2022).
South Korean actress Han Hyo-joo has teamed up with popular Japanese actor Oguri Shun in the Japanese Netflix romcom series Romantic Anonymous, to depict the love story between a genius chocolatier Han-na (played by Han) and Fujiwara (played by Oguri), the head of a popular chocolate shop.
The series, helmed by star Japanese director Sho Tsukikawa, known for directing hit Japanese romance film Let Me Eat Your Pancreas (2017), reportedly began filming in the first quarter of 2024, and is set to be released on Netflix in 2025.
According to industry officials, the production of series primarily featuring Korean and Japanese actors reflects the efforts by South Korea and Japan to reach and engage a larger audience beyond their saturated local markets.
“By collaborating on a global scale, content producers from Japan and Korea each seek to leverage each other’s strengths,” an official from a Korean production company said.
“Japanese production companies desire to leverage the growing global presence of K-content and Hallyu wave, by featuring Korean actors in their content,” he said.
“Meanwhile, securing production investment from Japan enables a larger scale of production for Korean producers, as domestic production budgets are limited.”
Sakaguchi, the male lead of What Comes After Love, saw much potential in this trend.
He said at a group interview held on Sept 13: “Right now, the focus is primarily on love stories, which everyone can relate to, but I believe we shouldn’t limit ourselves to this genre alone. Starting with this trend (of Japanese-Korean collab on romance series), I expect to see more variety in genres and collaborations in the future.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
