Overview of That Winter, The Wind Blows
It premiered on SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) with two back-to-back episodes on February 13, 2013. The 16-episode series continued airing on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55, ending on April 3, 2013.
Profile
- Drama: That Winter, the Wind Blows
- Director: Kim Kyu-tae
- Writer: Noh Hee-kyung
- Network: SBS
- Episodes: 16
- Release Date: February 13 – April 3, 2013
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Cast
Main
- Jo In-sung as Oh Soo
An orphan and a dead inside lout with a penchant for physical violence, either give or take. Heartbroken after the demise of his first love, he becomes a high-class gambler and playboy. - Song Hye-kyo as Oh Young
Legal heiress of a conglomerate. Oh Young is blind and has led a lonely life, estranged from her mother and older brother since she was a child. Brought up in a cold, controlled environment and with vultures hovering over her wealth and her ailing father, she has a rather indifferent personality.
People around Oh Soo
- Kim Bum as Park Jin-sung
Oh Soo’s closest companion and right-hand man. Jin-sung is loyal and fiery and aspires to save enough money to buy his father an organic cattle farm. - Kyung Soo-jin as Moon Hee-joo
Oh Soo’s first love. Hee-joo was pregnant with his child and met with an unfortunate demise in a motorbike accident. - Jung Eun-ji as Moon Hee-sun
The younger sister of Hee-joo (Oh Soo’s first love). Hee-sun is an eccentric, tomboyish young woman who has a strong love for flowers. After Oh Soo leaves Hee-joo, Hee-sun attempts to hate him, but she is unable to and instead cooperates with his plan.
People around Oh Young
- Bae Jong-ok as Wang Hye-ji
Officially a secretary of the Oh’s, Hye-ji runs the company and is Oh Young’s caretaker. - Kim Tae-woo as Jo Moo-chul
A gangster, with past ties to Soo, Jin-sung, and Hee-sun. - Kim Kyu-chul as Jang Sung
Family lawyer of the Oh’s. - Kim Young-hoon as Lee Myung
Oh Young’s fiance.
Others
- Im Se-mi as Son Mi-ra
Oh Young’s friend who works at a coffee shop. - Choi Seung-kyung as Shim Joong-tae
- Han Jung-hyun as Kim Jung-hyun
- Jung Kyung-soon as Jo Sun-hee
A doctor, and Moo-chul’s estranged older sister. - Kim Jong-hyun as the gangster
- Go In-beom as Jin-sung’s father
- Seo Hyo-rim as Jin So-ra
Oh Soo’s ex-girlfriend and gang boss’s mistress. She steals the boss’s money, for which Soo is falsely accused. - Lee Jae-woo as Oh Soo
Young’s older brother, who died in a car accident. - Yoo Gun as Jung-woo
Oh Young’s first love.
Synopsis
Oh Soo has always lost the people he has loved. His mother abandoned him when he was a baby and he happened to encounter the pain of his first love’s untimely demise. The spiralling traumas left him cold-hearted and he turns to a life of high-stakes gambling and womanizing to get whatever he wants in. Oh Soo makes a sport out of targeting rich women. Upon meeting Oh Young, a wealthy heiress, he believes he has stumbled upon his best female prey yet.
Oh Young is a blind, untrusting woman battling with the same bitter after-taste of losing everything she loved. Oh Young’s parents got divorced at a very young age and she became estranged from her mother and older brother. Surrounded by snakes and wipers preying upon her wealth, she grew up incredibly lonely, without having anyone to trust. Adding to the blues, Oh Young’s ailing father dies, leaving her the sole heir to a large corporation (PI Group) and in turn in a very vulnerable situation.
Oh Soo is imprisoned for a year on the charges of embezzlement. Upon release, a scam appears in front of Oh Soo in the form of lawyer Jang-sun (lawyer of PI group). Lawyer Jang is in search of Oh Young’s brother who also happens to be named Oh Soo and ends up confronting the gambler Oh Soo.
Oh Young’s brother Oh Soo met with an unfortunate death in an accident and the gambler conceals the truth and claims himself as Oh Young’s long-lost brother. He’s had a difficult life that gets him mixed up with some shady people and deep in debt and when a golden opportunity to make some money arises, he jumps at the chance. So, fresh out of prison, Oh Soo masquerades as Oh Young’s long-lost brother solely concerned with amassing wealth.
Theme
The world is changing at its fastest pace today. Hardly anything around us is to be seen or heard during the race. The need to be seen and heard might not reveal itself until a life perishes. Often, some lives around us are in a loop from which they desperately want to come out. A loving word, a listening heart and a gentle pat on the back could rekindle life and hope inside them and make them want to live again. The ever-capturing theme of ‘sympathy and empathy rekindling hope in human lives’ is beautifully presented in the romantic melodrama, ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’.
This theme never goes out of style as sympathy, empathy and hope are some factors that navigate human lives. Introduced as a bad guy, Oh Soo turns out to be a tender, caring and empathetic human being when he starts to live with Oh Young. The idea that he falls headlong in love with the fake sister that he is trying to scam is quite compelling. Oh Soo feels seen by Oh Young even though she is blind. He understands his deepest thoughts and vulnerabilities, such as being heard and receiving heart-soothing kindness.
Perhaps Oh Young’s words are the first words of compassion Oh Soo has ever received for himself. All that while, self-loathing accompanied Oh Soo’s words, but here, he gets assured that it is okay to not be okay all the time and that it’s okay to cry and be scared. Oh Young was being empathetic in her words because what she longed for from her childhood was some words of understanding. She wanted her cries to be heard, her fears to be seen, and her worries to be addressed.
Being denied a compassionate gesture from childhood, Oh Young develops herself into a cold-hearted person immersed in hovering gloom all the time. The sky becomes clear, and sunshine peeps into Oh Young’s life when she starts receiving the warmth of brotherly love from Oh Soo. The happy stretches with the person Oh Young believes to be her brother make her feel secure and important. She herself identifies the growth of a happy person inside her.
Awards
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49th Baeksang Arts Awards (2013)
Best Director (Television)- Kim Kyu-tae
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19th Shanghai Television Festival (2013)
Silver Award for Best Foreign TV Series
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2nd APAN Star Awards (2013)
Daesang (Grand Prize)- Song Hye-kyo
Best Performance- Jung Eun-ji
Best OST- “Winter Love” – The One
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SBS Drama Awards (2013)
SBS Special Award (Jo In-sung)
Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries(Song Hye-kyo)
New Star Award(Jung Eun-ji)
Top 10 Stars – Jo In-sung and Jung Eun-ji
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23rd Seoul Music Awards (2014)
Best OST – The One (Winter Love)
Interesting Facts about That Winter, The Wind Blows
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The writer (No Hee-kyung) and director (Kim Kyu-tae) of the K-Drama ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’ worked together on the 2008 K-Drama ‘World’s Within’.
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AGB Nielsen Media Research says the premiere episode of ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’ achieved a nationwide rating of 11.3 percent in viewership, ranked third behind Iris II on KBS and 7th Grade Civil Servant on MBC.
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Scenes from the K-drama were parodied by the sketch comedy show ‘Saturday Night Live Korea’ on cable channel tvN.
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In March 2013, Song Hye-kyo sponsored the cost of the publication of guidebooks for the blind at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, noting that her role as a blind woman helped her better understand the daily challenges faced by people with disabilities.
FAQs
- Who is the director of the K- Drama ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’?
Kim Kyu-tae. - How many episodes are there in the K- Drama ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’
16 episodes. - What is the genre of the K- Drama ‘That Winter, The Wind Blows’?
Romance, Melodrama. - What is the Instagram ID’s of Lead Actors?
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zoinsung_official is the Instagram ID of Jo In-sung and kyo1122 is the Instagram ID of Song Hye-kyo.
