S. Korea:'Emperor of the Sea' Drawing Attention of International TV Market

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 05/15/05

[TigerLikesRooster]

'Emperor of the Sea' Drawing Attention of International TV Market

The popular drama "Emperor of the Sea" is getting rave reviews in the overseas market. The KBS 2TV drama is up for an Emmy, the prestigious U.S. TV award, and recently, at the major international TV market MIPTV, it received concentrated attention from the entire world.

MIPTV is an international TV program market that opens every April in Cannes, France. This year's festival, convened from Monday to Friday at the Palais des Festivals -- the same venue as the Cannes International Film Festival -- and attended by about 10,000 broadcast officials from about 100 countries worldwide, was a smashing success.

"Emperor of the Sea" banner hung outside the Palais des Festivals, venue for the MIPTV market

According to a KBS official who attended the event, there was an endless line of officials from overseas broadcast companies leading to the KBS booth. From the opening day of the festival, officials were flooding in, and not just from "Korean Wave" markets like Japan and China, but also from markets where Korean dramas have yet to penetrate deeply, like Europe and the United States.

The 25-meter-long, 12-meter-wide "Emperor of the Sea" banner hanging outside the Palais des Festivals also drew the attention of visitors. A former Universal Studios marketing manager said, "U.S. and European broadcasters are busy with reality programs, which can be made on the cheap and draw many viewers, and sitcoms. They cannot even picture doing movie-quality dramas like 'Emperor of the Sea'... The market competitiveness and chances for success for 'Emperor of the Sea' are highly evaluated."

Meanwhile, perhaps reflecting this interest, 17 journalists with the Seoul Foreign Press Club from 13 media outlets like Reuters, CNN and the Asahi Shimbun visited the KBS drama set in Suwon, where "Emperor of the Sea" is filmed. Their fierce coverage war once again reaffirmed the popularity of the drama.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504150015.html

[TigerLikesRooster]

Major Characters of "Emperor of The Sea"

Assassin Yom Jang (left): a black knight

Royal Plenipotentiary Chang Bogo (middle) : The Emperor of the Sea,  the head of a trading empire

Lady Chung Hwa (right): the eternal love of Chang Bogo, a lead female character

 

Lady Jami (left) : a Marchiavellian aristocrat and merchant

Master Sol Pyong (right): an honorable merchant

[TigerLikesRooster]

I am not sure if you are into this kind of thing. However, I will ping you anyway.:-)

[Petronski]

Them graphics is huge!

[Little Ray]

Looks Great! Is it available in English or just subtitles?

[martin_fierro]

Hey, cool!

Kam sa ham nae da for the ping!

I always wanted to go stylin' in traditional Korean garb.

[nuconvert]

Thanx. I just finished reading before you pinged.
I'd love to see this sort of programming instead of those ridiculous "reality" shows. Can't wait 'til the end of those idiotic shows. What a low point in televison.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #4

They have not got around to that stage yet. I hope that they do English voice-over. It is a good drama.

[struggle]

Man, this kinds looks like the Korean Mito Komon.



But ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN FUYU NO SONATA!!!!

Man that show is gay.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #

I looked for smaller images, to cut down loading time. However, they are not as good as these. Sorry for endless wait for image-loading.:-)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #8

FUYU NO SONATA is a classic chick-flick, or should I say a 'mama flick'?

[Future Snake Eater]

"Emperor of the Sea"? Isn't that what tuna's called?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #11

Unfortunately, tuna does not play a role in this drama. Poor tuna.:-)

[Graybeard58]

I am using firefox and windows xp and a cable connection and the graphics only partially open.

Anyone else having this problem?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yeah, I'm "in to it" alright! :-)

[Little Ray]

The costumes, even the armor, look good, too.
It would be nice if someone did a movie about Admiral Yi Sun Shin and the war against Japanese.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I can only stand watching about 10 minutes of it, at a time.

I guess girls (it seems!) ALL over Asia are in love with gay guys.

Maybe it's the 'non threatening, sensitive, fashion-sense, good listener' kind of thing they like about it and dream about?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #15

Somebody has to make a great movie version, complete with shots from sky, which will show how formation works.

I haven't heard any movie project about it now. Hopefully, somebody will do it soon.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #16

I heard that women go back and forth between nice guys and tough guys. It has something to do with their ovulation cycle. When women hit most fertile period of a month, they go for tough guys. For the rest of a month, they swear they like nice guys. I am not kidding. It is from a scientific study. I believe I read about it here in FR.

[Petronski]

I'm on DSL. No problem for me. ;O)

[BJClinton]

I take it you like the show? What is it about?