Sound of Your Heart (Photo : Laftel/YouTube)
The KBS 2TV-produced webtoon “Sound of Your Heart” just showed that video streaming platform could effectively skip the Hallyu ban imposed by China on South Korea because of the THAAD missiles.
The Lee Kwang Soo-starrer, which features “Descendants of the Sun” actor Song Joong-ki in a cameo role, actually premiered simultaneously in China over Sohu TV, a video streaming platform, and South Korea on Nov. 7. However, the first 10 episodes were aired in South Korea on Naver TV Cast, every Monday at 6 p.m., while the remaining 10 episodes aired on KBS 2TV beginning on Dec. 9. At 11:10 p.m.
Christian Daily reported that since the Nov. 7 premiere on Sohu TV, “Sound of You Heart” has more than 1 million views as of Dec. 15, making it the number 1 show for Hallyu on Sohu TV. The popularity of the webtoon could have something to do with Song Joong-ki’s cameo role since the 31-year-old actor has a huge following in China after iQiyi aired “Descendants of the Sun.”
In South Korea, the webtoon has more than 30 million views on Naver TV and registered a 6.2 percent rating on its KBS 2TV premiere in Seoul for both TNmS and AGB Nielsen. Nationwide, it logged a 4.9 percent rating on TNmS and 5.7 percent on AGB Nielsen.
The plot of “Sound of Your Heart” revolves around the adventure of Jo Seok (Lee Kwang-soo) and his wife Aebong (Jung So-min) and their family. Other main stars of the webtoon are Kim Dae-myung as Jo Joon, the older brother of Jo Seok, Kim Byeong-ok as Jo Chul-wang, his father, and Kim Mi-kyung as Kwon Jung-kwon, his mother.
Lee Kwang-soo’s character, like that of Song Joong-ki, is a webtoon writer. Naver is one of the pioneers of webtoon in South Korea, after Daum created a webtoon service in 2003.
