Actor Joo Ji-hoon is experiencing a ‘second heyday’, sweeping the global box office charts and various topic rankings with the Netflix original series ‘Trauma Center’. Due to the success of this drama, which is based on a web novel and webtoon, his past hit works based on comics and webtoons are also being put into the spotlight.

O Joo Ji-hoon, No. 1 in topicality

‘Trauma Center’ ranked 3rd in the non-English category of the weekly viewership rankings just 3 days after its release on the 10th of last month, and in its 2nd week, it beat ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 to take 1st place. With 114.3 million hours and 16.6 million views over the past two weeks, it has proven its worth by rising to 2nd place in the overall rankings, including English-language dramas.

Due to the popularity of the drama, the popularity of the original web novel and webtoon is also skyrocketing. The drama is based on the web novel ‘Trauma Center: Golden Hour’ by Hansan Lee, and a webtoon of the same name based on the web novel was also produced. According to Naver Webtoon, the number of webtoon views after the drama was released increased by 68 times compared to before.

In addition, Joo Ji-hoon, who played the role of genius surgeon Baek Kang-hyeok in the drama and received favorable reviews such as ‘100% original work viewership rate’, ranked first in the topicality category of TV·OTT trending drama casts announced by Good Data Corporation, an online K-content competitiveness analysis agency. This is the first time Joo Ji-hoon has topped this chart.

100% success rate for original webtoons

Due to the success of ‘Severe Trauma Center’, attention is once again focused on Joo Ji-hoon‘s previous works based on webtoons and comics. In particular, Joo Ji-hoon is also known as the original ‘manhwa-ripped man’ (a man ripped from a comic book) who led all of his works based on webtoons and comics to success. Joo Ji-hoon himself said, “There is probably no actor who has done more works based on comic books than me.”

His debut work, the 2007 MBC drama ‘Palace’, which made Joo Ji-hoon, who had been a model, suddenly gain attention as a rising actor, is a representative example. ‘Palace’ is based on the published webtoon by Park So-hee that has been serialized since 2002.
Not only his first drama, but also his screen debut ‘Seoyoung’s Oriental Bakery Antique’ is based on the Japanese published webtoon of the same name, and his first 10 million movie, ‘Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds’ and its sequel ‘Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days’ are also based on Joo Ho-min‘s popular webtoon ‘Along with the Gods’.

‘The Lighting Store’, released on Disney+ in December of last year ahead of ‘Trauma Center’, is also based on the webtoon by Kang Full that was serialized in 2015. According to the Walt Disney Company, ‘The Lighting Store’ achieved the most viewers among the Disney+ Korean original dramas released in 2024.



Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.