Descendants of the Sun (Photo : KBS 2TV)
If the release of cookies and other “Descendants of the Sun” merchandise is not proof enough, the clamor for a Season 2 of the 16-episode Korean drama is enough to make the producers of the show think again.
A second season has been definitely ruled out because of the tight schedule of the actors, but NEW, the producer of the blockbuster show which got a 40.4 percent viewership for Episode 14 shown on Thursday night, is considering making a movie version of “Descendants of the Sun.”
“We have been receiving a lot of questions regarding remakes and optional publication rights, so it is true that we have been negotiating with several companies,” a representative of NEW told MBN Star on Thursday. The representative added they are keeping all options open which means it could be a movie or a drama.
Among the speculations swirling around the movie version of “Descendants of the Sun” is that it would be released at the Cannes Film Market, reported Korea Times.
Meanwhile, according to Nielsen Korea, the record-high 40.4 percent viewership that the drama logged was during the scene when Yoo Si Jin, played by Song Joong-ki, invited Kang Mo Yeon, played by Song Hye-kyo, to watch a movie with him. The scene was at a hospital where Yoo was brought after he was hit by an unidentified gunman. But the average rating for the entire episode was 33 percent.
The popularity of the drama notwithstanding, the show has its critics too. One of them is film critic Hwang Jin-mi who scored Yoo for often making sexist comments. Quoting the army captain, Hwang wrote in her column published in March, “He says, ‘it is my duty as a soldier to protect children, the elderly and pretty women.’”
Hwang asked, “Why does it have to be ‘pretty women,’ instead of just ‘women’?” While culture critic Lee Moon-won pointed out that the show targets female audience, he said the drama reflects Korea’s situation of gender imbalance that makes women more vulnerable to unemployment and financial insecurity.
