Classic Hallyu Drama What Happened to Bali to Get 2018 Remake with Same PD
OMG! That was my reaction at the end of watching K-drama What Happened in Bali, and that is my reaction now upon hearing the news that the drama is barreling towards a 2018 remake that likely no one wants. Fourteen years after WHIB catapulted Jo In Sung, Ha Ji Won, and So Ji Sub to a new level in their acting careers, the same PD is readying a remake that has me screaming no no no noooooooooo with the same visceral level of freaking out that Jo In Sung exhibited portraying the character of a chaebol heir with nary a redeeming quality.
I love this drama to pieces and don’t think there’s a bat’s chance in hell that a remake can approach the impending train wreck perfection of the original in narrative propulsion. Because everyone now knows how it’s all going to end, the tension and what’s going on nervousness won’t be there anymore, not to mention I doubt any of the current crop of twenty-something actors and actresses can pull off what the OT3 did in the original. I admit the 2004 drama now looks crazy dated in visuals but if you can overlook that then the acting, story, directing, and soundtrack all combine to still deliver a gut punch of melodrama intensity that has nary been approached for me since WHIB.
Will this kind of crazy plot even work now???
Highly doubtful… think Fashion King.
This was so so intense and yeah I don’t think any drama can approach the level of intensity that this drama invoked in me.
Andwae!!!!!Ummm did they not learn from “sassy girl drama” to leave classics alone?At this rate, we will hear all the classic dramas like “winter sonata”, “autumn in my heart”, “full house”, “All in”,”dae jang geum” etc being remade.
As for this drama, mark my words..if SM, YG have any investment in this drama..You will see one of their models/idols playing the male leads.And knets would have a field day bashing them.
The three I can think of right now who can maybe reprise the roles at the top of my head, are Park Bo Gum, Yoo Seung Ho and Kim So Hyun.But Yoo Seung needs a break.Kim So Hyun is signed to another drama.PBG is a tad bit young to be doing makjang melos like these.Otherwise, I cant see any young actress who can take on HJW’s character.Also imagine the fanwars if they recruit hallyu oppas.
Yoo Seung-ho would actually be so perfect for something like this. Too bad I love him too much to want such train wreck for him. INAR is so perfect and he needs to stick to happier dramas more than sad. But I don’t think he needs a break. I mean, okay he does, but I rather not because well, more YSH is better for everyone!
Kim So-hyun would probably do well however she’s too young. As for PBG, why not? He hasn’t done a melo yet and he should try. No reason not to except well, this will be disastrous.
YSH is the younger version of So Ji Sub and would definitely be a good candidate. I, too, wish for him to stick with brighter dramas even though I know he has the acting chops for heavier roles. I just love seeing that bright smile of his.
Yoo Seung Ho is not as talent as So Ji Sub though. No way he will pull it off.
Yoo Seung Ho is good. I don’t agree with the comment that he is not as talented as SJS. IMO, the only thing that he is lacking is that he is so boyish looking and simply has that boyish aura, unlike SJS being all homme fatale. Another actor that could at least do a decent job for SJS role is Woo Do Hwan or Ryu Jun Yeol.
@missjb I’m a huge SJS fan but if we are talking about sheer talent Yoo Seung Ho is much more superior and he is still young. SJS is good at playing sad, brooding anti-heroes. He is extremely charismatic and our eyes want to feast upon his looks on the screen. But he is stiff while acting.
If this was pre-production and they wait a little up to 2019.I think Kang Ha Neul would have been a good candidate too.But who for Jo In Sung? tall, pretty man with enough acting chops to justify his predecessor’s role?I
cant think of any?Park Seo Joon is not flower boy, just a handsome guy, and he can act.would he be a good candidate for JIS role?
Or we can just the originals to redp the drama.They are all still very active.Its been three years since we saw JIS in a drama.The last time we saw SJS was in a fluff drama(Oh My Venus) two years ago.I need to see HJW acting with charismatic men, with adequate acting chops, who are around her age.So this is perfect for a reunion.
@missjb – seriously? I get if someone is bias towards SJS but honestly, to say YSH is not as talented is pure nonsense. He’s so young and already so much more superior in acting chops compared to SJS at 24. But I honestly don’t want YSH in this drama. He’s worth so much more.
@all well let’s agree to disagree. I just don’t rate Yo Seung Ho as an actor that much compare to his peer ex child actor turn adult. There is people who is more talent than So Ji Sub. But Yo Seung Ho is still learning acting with maturity.
Kim So Hyun and Yoo Seung Ho are popular choices amongst KNet as well. Melo King and Queen clearly but I don’t want a remake for this drama. It’ll never do justice to the original.
Jo In-sung was only 23 yrs old when he did SHIB. So Yoo Seung-ho being young is not a good argument. I’m writing this in Dec 2020, Seung-ho is now 27 yrs old.
WHIB – NOT sure if it was on Hotelier2002 site back then, or SJS-related (JSA) site it spawned that had a whole bunch of us longtime early Kdiehards (including Thundie Ms Thunderbolt) discussing this drama for so long.
Making many fans of SJS.
And discussions over Jo In-sung’s rosebud lips. Hhahahah!
And the frustration. And the ultimate decision mentally, to put the finale of drama prematurely eatly(as we also did Lovers in Paris) – ie it ends (for our peace of mind) a couple of episodes early. And that’s the conclusion.
And I still don’t understand or get the hype over Ha Ji-won to this day (esp in all the movies I have seen of her) – whether in looks, or in acting. Nevermind completely,style – it doesn’t exist for her. (although most of her fans among my cyber community back then loved her from Damo).
WHIB – NOT sure if it was on Hotelier2002 site back then, or SJS-related (JSA) site it spawned; that had a whole bunch of us longtime early Kdiehards (including Thundie Ms Thunderbolt), discussing this drama for so long.
Making many fans of enigmatic quiet SJS. 🙂
And discussions over Jo In-sung’s rosebud lips. Hhahahah!
And the frustration. And the ultimate decision mentally, to put the finale of drama prematurely early(as we also did Lovers in Paris) – ie it ends (for our peace of mind) a couple of episodes early. And that’s the (self-delusional) conclusion for our drama sanity.
And …
I still don’t understand or get the hype over Ha Ji-won to this day (esp in all the movies I have seen of her) – whether in looks, or in acting. Nevermind completely, the lack of style – it doesn’t exist for her imo (although most of her fans among my cyber community back then, just loved her from Damo. Now she looks good in period, that I’d grant her).
If they make a remake then please, with the same cast?
But they all died in the orginal. Unless they all resurrected as zombies and going through another round of hell and this time with a different ending, that would be interesting ?.
or come back as AI with switched brains… hahaha… or as aliens or monsters in another dimension with lots of special effects (but this better be a pre-produced drama)… LOL…
LOL. This is funny.
Or may be they wake up and realized all was just a dream or may be before JIS shot himself in the head, he stumbled and fell into a manhole and there… there….happened to be a time-slip and everything reset to zero.
Hahaha so funny.Or maybe they all reincarnate.They now have amnesia.Its no longer memories in Bali.It becomes “Memories in Busan”/What Happened in Busan.HJW loves both of them.So she marries both of them and they have a polygamous family.Everyone lives happily ever after.THE END!!!!
Haha love those ideas! I was thinking that it would all have been just a dream? Kinda like the ending in Spanish drama Los Serrano
This is probably the first kdrama I love and stayed up late just to watch it. It was a masterpiece for me… Ha Ji Won has been my favorite Korean actress since then. For HJW’s role, I can think of Kim Tae Ri, Oh Yeon Seo or Chun Woo Hee? Or just find a good rookie actress in their 20’s
A lot of people will disagree but the ending is perfect, there’s no way you can give that drama a happy ending after all that happened.
Are we running out of ideas for new dramas, movies??. Is there is a dry spell finding inspiration for new plots, story line.
Yeah, this is the second drama re-make news that I’ve heard recently. I guess sometimes it can work, but the end of this drama is such that I don’t think it is a good fit.
How are they going to remanufacture the therapy-inducing tension? I love rewatching dramas, but I have never be able to put myself through that trauma again. I love it, have cautiously recommended it to others, but I’m not sure about a remake.
It’ s depend on who the producer and the writers. Alsobwho will start in it. And alot of producer and writers nowadays is afraidcto take a risk to makecit as twistas original suggest, so it might be don’t have the same punch.
I’m interested to see who stars in it but for me the first one is still the most memorable. Kdramas are finally going down the remake route which was bound to happen some day. At least this way audiences can’t complain about plagiarism.
God this drama scarred me so much I was just left totally shocked by the ending…….Idk how this is gonna work but if they’re doing it all I ask is that the casting is good.
I’m not one for remake, haven’t seen one that stands out. But if they’re gonna do a remake of this, one actress comes to my mind is Kim Ji Won. Now we can talk.
Was not a fan of the original and did not understand the ending. If I remembered correctly..thus was the drama where it seems like psycho love where the guy used violence and then at the end he pulled the gun on the girl? I jist remebered that this was one of the most aweful drama I have watched. They should do a remake on the dramas that eas actually Hallyu drama’s instead.
TVB Hong Kong has been doing remake since forever. Some are successful and some are not.
I think it is mostly Mainland China doing remakes of TVB classics presently. TVB have been doing remakes of their late 70’s early 80’s hit drama during late 90’s early 2000’s and have not had any sucess..the one I know of was the Bund starring Nadia Chan was a remake, but it came no where near the original. Even though I am a big fan of Nadia (Adia) Chan and Noel Leung and the rest if the cast in that remake, the plot did not make sense in that remake. Of course TVB also did a remake of the Jin Yong novels, which I did not watch since well, the 80’s Condor Heroes is stil the best version to me. No one can beat Barbara Yeung as ” Wong Yong”…I haven’t heard of any remakes that TVB made recently, “Triumph in the Sky II’ was not a remake, it was a sequel ( kind of).
I didn’t watch the old one so yeah! make it happen, please ?
Surely, this would fail. the first one left such a bad taste.
This drama is called a CLASSIC for a reason. Whoever stupid enough to come up with a remake….Good luck… You are sure gonna need truck loads of luck, I tell you.
Hell no!
I am so scared of remake. I could not find a single young actors who have the same charisma as the 3 original leads. And look at HJW, JIS and SJS now… 14 years later and they are still on career high because they have that talents right from the get go. Maybe they could do a decent remake but be prepared to be compared with the original and hell, it’s not going to be easy. Classics like WHIB, Winter Sonata, Autumn In My Heart, Coffee Prince, My Name Is Kim Sam Soon should never ever be considered for a remake.
Same thought exactly. OMG!! No.nooooooooo…..no one can bring that level of intensity and awesome to the roles. Till now I’m still traumatised by the ending. I wonder if they will retain the same ending. If they are thinking of casting idols in this…..,
plz dont make them die atleast.
still the best korean drama for me.
Hotelier, endless love, all about eve, memories of bali… Aaaahhh that classic dramas.
Remake? Aigoo.. Good luck in finding good actors then. But people will compare the original one with the remake. It’s such a burden for the new actors since the original actors are still having big names in this industry.
It’s only a little burden compared to the amount of spotlight and fame the young actor or actress will get. A generation would have passed and only audiences who have seen the original compare. I see more benefits in remakes then disadvantages.
But we still dunno if this remake will be a hit or a miss. And we never know koreans’ preference. They can change from thriller-law thing to cheesy romance. From real life story to fantasy story. It will be awkward for mature actors to play in this drama. But young actors will be the great choice. But then 87-89 actors are on the military or will join it soon. The 90er Kang Ha Neul also in military (i wish he acts as sojisub’s character). Well, 90line actors will be the choice then. They better cast big names cuz some nugus will be in disadvantages more than popular ones.
Nooooooo i hate and love it but not a remake, a fluffy rom com ok but not this , im not against remake but few ever surpass the original
Its a bad, bad idea. Please don’t remake this. Please.
What about just a continuation of part 1 with the same cast. The story would be that they did not die, and was saved and brought to hospital, but they did not end with each other. They have gone on separate lives but unmarried, cannot forget what happened in Bali, they will be back to the spot where they met. He he he, you cannot repeat the same ending, obsession and tragic..but just want to see them three in one drama.