When something works as well as Kim Hee Ae‘s collaboration with the production team (PD and writer) of her last two dramas in Secret Love Affair and A Wife’s Credentials, why mess with a good thing, right? Sure she should change it up but I think there’s room for one more potential gem between them before viewers might get tired of it. I love Kim Hee Ae so much and hopefully SBS will be hands off and let this team present their style of nuanced storytelling which has brought accolades to cable network jTBC.
Kim Hee Ae is finally confirmed for the upcoming Mon-Tues prime time SBS drama War of the Brilliant Minds (tentative title), originally schedule for 50-episodes but now slimmed down to 30-episodes as the production team elected to forgo the lengthy childhood segment component. Bummer for that since Kim So Hyun would be a dead ringer for child Kim Hee Ae, but the production has decided not to start the drama in the 1970’s and instead focus only on the adult life of the heroine character. Casting is currently on for the leading man described only as an actor in his early 30’s.
War of the Brilliant Minds is slated to follow Punch with Kim Rae Won and Jo Jae Hyun to premiere in February 2015. By all accounts the drama is a meta fictional take on the life of Kim Hee Ae herself, with her character a representation for the South Korean woman coming of age and finding her place in a changing nation from the 1980’s until the present. Since it’s a life story of Kim Hee Ae from young adult until her forties, at least it finally moves the collaboration of her work with this production team beyond the limited specific scope of a wife’s adulterous experiences from the confines of a loveless marriage. AWC and SLA did that topic well enough and there’s no need to basically repackage the topic again for a third time. With this drama on the SBS calendar, the network’s Mon-Tues slot is now filled all the way until summer 2015.
As a huge fan of SLA and KHA, I am looking forward to this. Thanks for the heads up.
I’m personally thrilled they’re doing away with the childhood sequence; seriously why can’t more dramas do that? I never want to start a show where I know I’m going to have to trudge through multiple episodes of the kids before getting to the “point” of the story, despite how good some of the kid actors may be.
But sometimes childhood portions are the best! I dont regret watching MoonSun because I got to see the amazing childhood part.
Early 30s leading man:
Lee Jun Ki, Lee Je Hoon, Jo In Sung,etc.
Take your pick!
Add Kang dong won and Gong yoo please for another strong contendor…
Ahn Pan Seok? I’m on board, baby!!!
Funny how everyone goes on about how this production team specializes in adulterous wives in loveless marriages. Actually, they also do pandemic thrillers really really well (though, sans Kim Hee Ae, it is true). I’d say End of the World is their best work (and quite possibly the stonking best k-drama of all time), so personally I’m not concerned about any kind of rut.
Ha. I love the EOTW too & all those I know who were watching it didn’t regret their decision.
With this team, I’m in by principle. & yes, SBS better leave them alone: Let the Pros do their magic.
EOTW is fantastic, but it was written by a someone other than the writer who did SLA & AWC. Nevertheless, I’ll watch anything APS does, without question! BEYOND EXCITED FOR THIS!
Oh, this is good.
I have been asking for Ji Sung for anything lately, so I’ll put his name out there for this, too.
I still need to finish A Wife’s Credentials, but it’s barely available anywhere. KHA and LSJ were electric together (hands down one of the best kiss scenes I’ve seen).
I definitely plan on checking out EOTW based on recs here 🙂
Oh that is wonderful drama news. I am very much looking forward to seeing this collaboration. And as Koala says so well here, I am so thrilled to see the team explore other facets & experiences of life here.
Hope the winning team can make it through. It’s SBS, known as a channel that is able to change the storyline in the middle of the broadcast for their liking especially for the ratings sake.