Sunday, May 4, 2014

Melody of Love (TV series)

Copyright:  KBS1
Daytime soaps long time ago became a world trend from many TV networks. South Korea, with its expanding film production and many promising names (Joon-ho Bong and his Snowpiercer is first that comes to mind) is also a big producer of TV shows in this format. Melody of Love is a perfect example. This soap opera focuses on characters and their emotional relationships, but also includes a lot of music as a background story.

The storyline of this South Korean daily TV show drama follows the lives of several young people. They are all in their twenties and trying hard to begin their real adulthood. But, this turbulent period is a challenge for them, both in their professional and personal lives.

The show focuses on three different families that are interlocked by several relationships. Gong Deul-im is a newcomer actress and a musician who is working hard at realizing her dreams of fame, even though her parents don’t approve her career choice.

Deul-im is romantically involved with Park Hyun-woo, an ambitious lawyer. Han Tae-kyung is a stage director and a leader of a drama company with whom Deul-im works, a man that presents him as a strict perfectionist focused strictly on his job. But in fact Tae-kyung will begin to have feelings for Gong Soo-im, Deul-im older sister. As their relationships become more interwoven, all characters in Melody of Love try to find personal happiness but also care about their family members, lovers and friends, mending any wrongdoings from the past.

From all of this, it’s easy to see how the intended audience for this TV show is; teenagers are the biggest group in my opinion, or those interested in South Korean contemporary family structure and relationship (obviously, dramatised to a point). To others, Melody of Love will probably seem like just another TV soap opera.