The impressive numbers for the blockbuster South Korean drama “Descendants of the Sun” keeps on adding. Beginning with just two countries, the number of countries watching the 16-episode love story set in a war-torn country has grown to 19 nations.
On Wednesday, Korea Times reported that the drama, which China’s Ministry of Justice warned Chinese female viewers against, has now 33 subtitles. The translations were the result of volunteer work of “Descendants of the Sun” fans who did it for free, according to Viki.
Viki is a video streaming website based in the U.S. The website coordinated with the volunteer translators in providing the subtitles for the megahit show to have a wider audience. The 33 translations are English, Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Arabic, German, Greek, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Thai, Tagalog, Turkish, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Persian, Hebrew, Croatian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Russian, Portguese, Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovakian and Czech.
Episodes 1 to 8 had already been released to these 33 languages in 18 licensed regions. The regions are in the Americas, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Romania, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Finland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran.
Viki advised pass holders in the 18 licensed regions that they got access to the drama as soon as it started to broadcast on Feb. 24. Non-holders of Viki pass in the licensed regions get access after two weeks of initial airing, which started on March 9.
Since the drama was aired over video platform iQiyi in China and KBS 2TV in South Korea, the focus of media has been on its two stars Song Joong-Ki and Song Hye Kyo, who portray Yoo Si Jin and Kang Mo Yeon, respectively. Viki identified two of the supporting cast. They are Jin Goo as Sergeant 1st Class Seo Dae Yong of the Special Warfare Command Unit and Kim Ji Won as Yoon Myung Ju, a surgeon at the Special Warfare Command Unit of the army.
The show’s Episode 9 airs Wednesday and Thursday. Below is the episode’s trailer.