[News] Hong Sisters back with their sixth drama

March 14th, 2010 // by javabeans


The Hong sisters writing team — Hong Jung-eun, Hong Mi-ran — are coming back with another drama series! The intense popularity of their last series, You’re Beautiful, means there’ll be a lot of anticipation for their follow-up — and while nobody’s infallible, these two writers have a solid track record in the romantic-comedy genre (they’re five for five with hits like My Girl and Hong Gil Dong).

Now they’ve cast singer-actor Lee Seung-gi, who’s coming off a huge series himself in last year’s Brilliant Legacy. He’ll play the “extremely immature” (and somewhat cowardly) lead in their new drama.

The series is called My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and is described as a fantasy-melodrama. A “gumiho” is a legendary fox with nine tails that is frequently found in Korean folklore and horror tales. The main character meets a gumiho and fears getting his liver taken by her (the gumiho eats human livers), and winds up falling for her. The Hong sisters’ brand is strong on spirited comic scenarios, so even though they describe this as the most melodramatic of their projects, you can expect that the melo aspect will be more quirky than conventional.

The writers explained, “Western countries have Dracula. In Korea, our classic ghost is the gumiho, and we prepared our story around that. …The gumiho carries meaning of shaking a person’s resolve. The main character’s friends all say how great he must feel to have such a beautiful girlfriend, but he can’t reveal to them that she’s a gumiho.” Fearing for his own safety, he ends up doing all sorts of things to “protect” his liver from her. The gumiho character is extraordinarily beautiful, and will be cast with an actress in her early 20s. Lee’s casting is in the final stages as the producers finalize contract details.

The Hong sisters explained that this idea kept coming to them when they found themselves facing difficulties while writing You’re Beautiful. The drama will begin shooting in May, and plans to air in the summer (tentatively July or August).

Via Newsen, Star News