Comebacks, webtoons complete 2016 drama line-up (2024)

Lee Young-ae will star as Shin Saimdang, artist, poet and mother of Confucian scholar Yulgok, in "Saimdang, the Herstory" later this year. / Korea Times

By Kwon Ji-youn

Actresses Kim Hye-soo, Lee Young-ae and Song Hye-kyo are set to make long-awaited comebacks, broadcasters are turning more webtoons into television series and JTBC is looking to turn crisis into opportunity with Han Ye-seul's newest romantic comedy in this year's drama lineup.

Kim, 45, will be a detective in tvN's "Signal," her first dramatic appearance in three years. "Signal" is scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings starting Jan. 22, after the curtain falls on "Reply 1988."

In her cable debut, she will star alongside actor Lee Je-hoon, best known for his role in the 2012 film "Architecture 101," and Cho Jin-woong, named Best Actor in film at last year's Baeksang Arts Awards. Kim and Cho who are investigators and Lee, a profiler, work together on a case that trenscends time.

Han Ye-seul will also be returning to the small screen this month.

Song Hye-kyo and Song Joong-ki will star in "Descendants of the Sun." / Courtesy of KBS

Han, who made a successful comeback from a three-year acting hiatus with "Birth of a Beauty" in 2013, will star opposite 25-year-old actor Sung Jun in the JTBC drama series "Madame Antoine." She will feature as a quack fortuneteller, alongside Sung as a psychologist.

Song Hye-kyo and Song Joong-ki will headline "Descendants of the Sun," set in the fictional war-torn country of Uruk. Song Joong-ki will feature as the leader of a special warfare command unit, and Song Hye-kyo as a doctor from Doctors Without Borders, both dispatched to the disaster- and disease-stricken country with UN peacekeeping troops.

Kim Eun-sook, who wrote the scripts for "Secret Garden" and "The Heirs," will team up with Lee Eung-bok, director of "School 2013," for "Descendants of the Sun." Filming has been completed and it will begin airing in February.

Later in the year, Lee Young-ae will play the dual roles of Shin Saimdang (1504-1551), the noted artist, poet and mother of Confucian scholar Yulgok, and a modern-day college lecturer in "Samindang, the Herstory."

The plot will shift back and forth between the 16th century and modern-day Korea to uncover the mysteries surrounding Shin Saimdang's diary and the painting "Portrait of a Beauty" by Shin Yun-bok (1758-?).

Lee's last dramatic appearance was in 2004 with MBC's "Jewel in the Palace." Her last acting gig was in 2005 in the film "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance."
The drama will be filmed in its entirety before a possible simultaneous release in China.

Anticipated dramas

Over the summer, actor Kim Woo-bin and Suzy of the K-pop idol group Miss A will return in "Uncontrollably Fond" (working title). The two will portray childhood friends whose ill-fated relationship drives them apart. They meet again as adults _ Kim, as a celebrity, and Suzy, as a documentary producer. The drama will be filmed early this year.

Jang Na-ra will portray a former pop idol in "A Happy Ending Once More," alongside Choung Kyung-ho. The story will follow the lives of men and women well into their 30s who are trying their hands again at happiness after marriage, divorce and childbirth.

MBC's "Tyrant" is set to begin airing in April. The 50-episode historical drama is set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Asian Financial Crisis hit. Actress Hwang Jung-eum, coming off two successful 2015 performances with "Kill Me, Heal Me" and "She Was Pretty," is likely to star. A second season of "Mrs. Cop" may also come through this year, the first season of which starred Kim Hee-ae as a veteran police officer and working mom, a change from the elegant roles viewers are used to seeing her in.

In May, Ko Hyun-jung will appear in the Friday-Saturday drama "Dear My Friends," about the "twilight youth" of the aging society and their young friends. The star-studded cast also includes Zo In-sung, Seong Dong-il and Kim Hye-ja, among others.

Webtoons remade

Moon Chae-won and Lee Jin-uk have been cast for "Goodbye Mr. Black," based on Hwang Mi-na's 1983 comic book of the same name. It will tell the story of a man who comes face to face with death several times in a revenge plot, and a woman forced into marriage to conceal her identity. It is set to air in March.

"Cheese in the Trap," which began airing Monday, is also hinged on Soonkki's webtoon of the same name. Park Hae-jin plays a mysterious college student who hides behind perfect grades, appearance and background. Kim Go-eun's character is the only person who sees through his guise.

MBC and the City of Busan are waiting to fix a slot in the TV guide with "The Mermaid's Prince," based on the webtoon "Cat and Dog."

KBS is turning the webtoon "Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-ho" into a drama series. Actor Park Shin-yang, best known for his role in "Lovers in Paris," will return to the small screen after five years for the adaptation, set to air in March.

The Korean version of the 2011 Chinese time-travel hit "Scarlet Heart" based on the novel Bu Bu Jing Xin by Tong Hua is set to be broadcast later in the year. The story will be retold to fit a Korean backdrop. Lee Joon-gi, IU, Kang Ha-neul and Kim Sung-kyun have confirmed roles, while EXO member Baekhyun is said to be in casting discussions.