8.6 /10 1 Votes
7.9/10 IMDb First episode date 26 March 2012 Number of episodes 20 | 93% AsianWiki Also known as Love Rides the Rain Final episode date 29 May 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Im Yoon-ahJang Keun-suk Cast Im Yoon‑ah, Jang Keun‑suk, Seo In‑guk, Kim Young‑kwang, Son Eun‑seo Similar Spring Waltz, Spy Myung‑wol, Mary Stayed Out All Night, Angel Eyes, Faith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Love Rain (Hangul: 사랑비; RR: Sarangbi) is a 2012 South Korean television series directed by Yoon Seok-ho. Set in the seventies and the present day, it tells a love story over two generations, with Jang Keun-suk and Im Yoon-ah playing dual roles. It aired on KBS2 from March 26 to May 29, 2012 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 20 episodes.
Contents
- Love Rain OST Jang Keun Suk SarangBi
- Plot
- Cast
- Production
- Reception
- Plagiarism lawsuit
- Soundtrack
- International broadcast
- Film
- References
Despite low viewership ratings in Korea, it was popular overseas and was the most expensive Korean drama presold to Japan in 2012.
Love Rain OST - Jang Keun Suk 'SarangBi'
Plot
It's love at first sight when Seo In-ha (Jang Keun-suk) and Kim Yoon-hee (Im Yoon-ah) meet as shy university students in the seventies. It takes time for the hesitant pair to finally voice their feelings, but circumstances beyond their control send them down different paths. In 2012, In-ha (Jung Jin-young) is now unhappily married to Baek Hye-jung, one of Yoon-hee's former best friends. He has never gotten over his first love, and when he runs into Yoon-hee (Lee Mi-sook) after so many years, the two reconcile and look forward to making up for lost time.
In-ha's son Seo Joon (Jang Keun-suk) is a photographer, and he bumps into Yoon-hee's daughter Jung Ha-na (Im Yoon-ah) by chance. Unlike her mother, Ha-na is a cheerful and vivacious girl, and though they initially find each other troublesome, even as they argue, they can't help but be drawn to each other. Gradually their feelings develop, and Joon and Ha-na fall in love.
Unaware that their children are dating each other, Seo In-ha (Jung Jin-young) and Kim Yoon-hee (Lee Mi-sook) announce that they are getting married, which will make Joon and Ha-na step-siblings. As both couples deal with the shock, Joon and Ha-na struggle with sacrificing their love for their parents' long-aborted happiness.
Cast
Production
Love Rain reunited director Yoon Seok-ho and screenwriter Oh Soo-yeon; they previously worked together on Autumn in My Heart and Winter Sonata a decade before.
Jung Jin-young and Jang Keun-suk were costars in the films The Happy Life (2007) and The Case of Itaewon Homicide (2009). Im Yoon-ah and Yoo Hye-ri were costars in the television series You are My Destiny (2008) and Cinderella Man (2009).
Love Rain began filming on September 24, 2011. The first day's shooting for the '70s' era took place at Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea.
The drama was featured at the MIPTV, an international event for marketing and purchasing entertainment content held in Cannes, France in April 2012.
Reception
Love Rain received low ratings domestically, with an average of 5.1% nationwide.
But due to the Korean Wave appeal of its lead stars Jang and Im, of all the Korean dramas sold abroad for 2012, Love Rain went for the highest price to Japan before it was even broadcast in Korea. It cost ₩450 million per episode, adding up to some ₩900 million (or US$10 million) in total. It has since been exported to 12 countries in Asia and Europe including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, and Singapore, recording around ₩115 billion in overseas sales.
Plagiarism lawsuit
Egg Film, the production company behind the 2003 film The Classic filed an injunction at Seoul District Court against Yoon's Color for copyright infringement on June 6, 2012. In it, the motion sought to ban any future broadcast of Love Rain and any subsequent production and sales of the drama and its related products. Egg Film claimed that the TV series' plot and characters were too similar to the film, specifically the themes of a couple breaking up because one chose friendship over love, and years later their children falling in love with one another.
Yoon's Color disputed the claims, stating that the themes were common to the melodrama genre, since several scenes of The Classic were also similar to Yoon Seok-ho's earlier TV dramas. They accused Egg Film of "trying to jump on the bandwagon" given the overseas success of Love Rain.
Soundtrack
Love Rain also featured non-Korean background music, such as "Verden Vil Bedras" by Sigvart Dagsland in episode 6, and "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" instrumentals in episodes 1 and 3. Also the song "Vem vet" by Swedish singer and songwriter Lisa Ekdahl is used several times during the series.
International broadcast
Film
Love Rain was re-edited into a two-part film which screened in Japanese theaters. The first part, composed mainly of scenes set in the 1970s, was released on September 20, 2013, while the second part, which focuses on the present-day, was released on October 11, 2013. The film later aired on cable channel WOWOW in August 2014.