Lovely Runner Sold to Multiple Countries for Network Airing, Confirming Overseas Sale of Dramas Remain Primarily Due to Lead Actor Popularity Abroad

View Comments

• I don know, I think it depends from case to case, or from drama to drama, since I saw dramas where female characters getting more popularity.
  So Ye Ji in Psycho, IU in Hotel Del Luna, very successful female centric dramas like Song Hye Kyo in Glory and Park Eun Bin in Extraordinary Attorney Woo. For last year I see many news about female actresses as main leads in dramas: Han So Hee and Jeon Jong Seo in Project Y, Kim Go Eun and Jeon Do Yeon in Price of confession, Kim Tae Ri in Jeong Hyeon, Go Youn Jung in Resident playbook (whole PR was on her only). I can't remember so much attention to female cast in dramas 2-3 years ago, it seems like situation smoothly changes, and both gender characters seems interesting for audience now.
  So, I want to say that Byun Woo Seok popularity and Lovely Runner doesn't speak about whole kdrama tendency to be focusing on male actor more than on female.
  Or, well, maybe it's my optimistic side speaks for it.

  • In a way it’s not exactly true that women focused dramas didn’t exist back in the day. Dae Jang Geum, Painter of the Wind, The Princess’s Man, Jang Ok Jung and Queen Seon Dok did exist and were extremely popular and re broadcast across various countries. Especially Dae Jang Geum which is just as much a part of the original Hallyu wave as Winter Sonata. Actually female focused dramas don’t do as well as they used to. Actresses don’t gain immense popularity from them. All the actors you’ve mentioned are already well known and extremely popular hence why they are getting dramas focused on them but none of these dramas will get re broadcasters for TV in other countries since they are already sold to either Netflix or Disney+. Nor do female focused dramas of recent years contribute to the Hallyu wave. They mainly exist to make the women look “cool” instead of giving them proper narratives. It’s just women doing roles that were originally played by men without making the narrative very uniquely female. Except Jeongnyeon which sounds quite original but the drama is erasing all LGBTQ elements from the original source material so let’s see what the final product ends up being.

    • Hmm, about women look cool, the same goes for men, since they have the same type of roles. So this is can means that people like "cool" characters regardless on gender.
      You said that female focused dramas don't do well, but Glory and Extraordinary Attorney Woo were extremely popular last year.
      What "uniquely female narrative" means?

    • About Jeongnyeon, is this considered that they erasing LGBTQ elements from a script? I thought it's just predictions from k-drama fans

    • @Oleysa Isn’t BWS famous for being a lovelorn loser in LR? That’s the narrative I’ve seen on YouTube. Many are talking about the popularity of EAW but it was mostly due to the elements of Autism and a quirky female lead that it became popular and created a syndrome in Korea. LR has a different kind of popularity. The male lead is besieged by sasengs and people have gone crazy for him. PEB didn’t get that kind of fanatics after her drama. They are very different in outcome but men definitely gain more crazy fans while women just get recognition.

    • @raised
      Yeah, I mostly compared BWS popularity with SYJ and IU's popularity after their dramas, and Glory and Attorney Woo as worldwide successful dramas with female leads. Just to say, that female actress and dramas with them can be popular as well.
      OMG, it's really crazy if BWS even has sasaengs.

    • @Olesya1 is IU really comparable tho? She’s an idol singer with a huge fan base from that as well. She was already a huge success even before Hotel del Luna. While popular, I don’t recall SYJ reaching anywhere close to this same popularity as BWS currently but I also don’t follow her career.

  • Hmmm...I disagree that it's recent for female centred to get popularity. Female centred dramas have always been a thing and as @Seven said there even used to be a whole genre of sageuks which were mainly focused on female protagonists and their world where the male characters were more like supporting characters. Those dramas were huge domestically and sold overseas to great success but they are very rare now.

    Of the dramas you named only Song Hye Kyo and to a lesser extent, Park Eun Bin's dramas sell overseas now. The jury is out on the other dramas on your list as they aren't released yet, some haven't even started filming.

    • @Sunny
      But comparing with male centric dramas I can't remember anything so successful like Song Hye Kyo or Park Eun Bin's dramas. Maybe Reborn rich and Big mouth, but this makes them equal

    • Squid Game, Hot Stove League, Vincenzo, Punch, Flower of Evil, Hospital Playlist (majority of the cast is male), Kill Me Heal Me (Ji Sung was the heart of the drama), Doctor Prisoner, Taxi Driver etc. There are plenty of male centric dramas that have been very successful. I would even put down Moon Embracing The Sun, Iris, All In and The Giant in that list.

    • @techi
      I mean for the last two years, since I mentioned that situation smoothly changing.

    • EAW was sold for cheap to Netflix and The Glory only sold at a high price because SHK is a veteran Hallyu Star and KES is a star writer. When people talk about female oriented dramas don’t sell well they mean before the drama airs when they have to sell it for simulcast broadcast dramas that have female leads at the main don’t sell well. Even Castaway Diva sold for cheap despite the success of EAW and it had mediocre ratings and Netflix ranking. Dropped out in just 3 weeks from the top 10 globally. Male lead dramas tend to sell better. The dog drama with CEW sold at a high price because of his casting. MBC was not ready to air Wonderful World until CEW was cast. Even for Tempest KDW is top billed over JJH. Same might happen with the GY-SHK drama where he is more likely too be the main star.

• A trending article yesterday says that Kdramas are now mostly pre-produced so they could no longer rely on advertising as products would be out of fashion one year later when the drama is finally broadcast. At the same time fees for actors, directors and writers are increasing so it is really difficult for production to make a profit. This makes overseas sales doubly important. Overseas sales have always been important but are more so now, and as very few female stars could sell dramas overseas on their appeal alone this is why male actors are much more valued and rewarded. Only actors with overseas fame would be cast in top dramas. I guess this is why BSW's agency is busy scheduling his overseas fan meets.

• ps. I am not that sure about the three Bazaar cover images newly released. They seem to prioritize the Cartier jewelry much more than the artist.

• ps. I am not that sure about the three Bazaar cover images. They seem to prioritize the Cartier jewelry more than the artist wearing it.

• A lot of kdramas are sold in other countries, they don't do articles about it.

  • Yeah I thought literally every single kdrama was sold overseas tho, even the not so popular ones cos I see it on my local channel every night. Korean weekend dramas are big where I live, interestingly, not the trendy ones like LR. Not sure why an article needed to be written to make this seem so special for LR. I'm just amused at all these articles for this drama

    Also there are alot of really popular female centric dramas that users above have alr talked abt. Dong Yi, Dae jang geum, my sassy girl to my glory m hotel del luna in recent years.

• He is so good-looking😍

• I dont see this drama being talked about that much in my country. Try asking a random person on the street outside of Korea if they know who Byun Woo Seok is, compared to when you ask who Lee Min Ho is, for example, when he did Boys over Flowers. To compare BWS & LR with the phenomenon created by Winter Sonata is exaggerating IMO.

• Koala makes it seem like Lovely Runner is the only drama after Winter Sonata that gets so much popularity & sold to many countries, when in reality so many other dramas did as well.

• Sold to multiple country? I thought it already no 1 in 130 regions on Viki? To whom they are selling it?
  BYW he looks so fine

• When I first started watching kdramas the split used to be pretty even Steven. Female leads like Ha Ji Won, Song Hye, Jun Ji Jyun has a very loyal international base. Stories used to be female centric, but off late it is shifting changing. Now the focus is on the eponymous Oppa and no one else with rabid female fans. At that time the Indian and Pakistani shows I used to watch were very male centric and this is what I used to love about k dramas. Cue in 2024, we have multitude of female led shows from Aarya, Heeramandi and so many more in Indian shows. Also English language based shows are becoming so female led such as Brigerton. The shows are also tackling gender bias such as reindeer which shows how even men can be harassed and women can be perpetrators. So well I am finding that most of the times the plots in k drama land are being overused. And the focus on the enteral Oppa. Thankfully shows like the Revenant, 2521, Movies like Exhuma, Attorney woo exist all of which have become intentional hits. But yes the everyday average k dramas, I find myself skipping mor and more