Old dramas are making a comeback.

Since ‘I‘m Sorry, I Love You’, which aired in 2004, popular dramas from 20 years ago such as ‘My Name is Kim Sam Soon’, ‘High Kick Through the Roof’, and ‘Princess Hours’ have recently been revived on various OTTs and YouTube, receiving a lot of attention.

In the past, ‘old dramas’ were brought back to the spotlight on cable channels, but they quieted down due to the rapid increase in OTTs. Recently, OTTs have been releasing old dramas one after another.

People in their 10s and 20s are showing deep curiosity because they can feel the atmosphere of that time that is different from the current trend, and people in their 30s and 40s are looking for old dramas out of nostalgia.

This trend is due to the rapid decrease in the number of dramas produced because they could not afford the ‘surge’ in terms of production cost due to the hundreds of millions of won appearance fees of some stars, and some dramas have been remade or remastered to provide ‘cost-effectiveness’.

Recently, Wavve has been re-releasing popular dramas from the 2000s under the title ‘New Classic Project’.

It is garnering attention by selecting dramas that led the Hallyu craze, such as ‘Winter Sonata’, ‘Full House’, and ‘Boys Over Flowers’.

It is not simply broadcasting dramas that were broadcast in the past, but has been refurbished into 4K versions to deliver them ‘more clearly and vividly’.

As part of the New Classic Project, the first to be released, ‘My Name is Kim Sam Soon’ and ‘I’m Sorry, I Love You’, were reborn as 2024 versions by directors Kim Yoon-chul and Lee Hyung-min, as well as the editing, music director, and other key staff members who participated in the original works. The narratives of the people around the main characters were boldly removed, and each was remastered by compressing them into 6 and 8 parts.

Thanks to presenting it to suit the tastes of viewers who enjoy high definition and ‘shorts form’, ‘My Name is Kim Sam Soon’ even ranked first in new paid subscribers on Wave on the first day of its release.

Going back in time, the sitcoms ‘Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic: Soonpoong’, ‘No One Can Stop Them’, ‘High Kick Through the Roof’, ‘Three Guys Three Girls’, and the dramas ‘Palace’, ‘Wild Times’, ‘Country Diaries’, etc. that were aired in the late 1990s are also being re-released on MBC and SBS‘s official YouTube channels under the titles ‘Old Drama’‘Back Drama’, gaining popularity with between 1 million and 5 million views.


Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com