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TvN’s new drama “Yumi’s Cells”(CJ ENM) |
A growing number of popular Korean webtoons are being turned into drama series, moving their creative storylines and strong fanbases to a new medium.
For those who have not seen the original webtoons, the Chuseok holiday can be the time to catch up on some reading before watching the two highly anticipated drama series soon to be launched.
“Yumi’s Cells,” written and drawn by Lee Dong-gun, is a popular webtoon with a whopping 512 episodes.
After the last episode was presented on Naver’s webtoon platform on Nov. 7 last year, the webtoon had more than 3.4 billion accumulated views.
The series presents Yumi making everyday decisions at work and in her relationships. In her brain, there are 200 different cells, which take human form and interact with each other. As a result of their interaction, Yumi makes different choices in her life.
Lee’s webtoon has proven popular especially among Koreans in their 20s and 30s, who relate to Yumi’s struggles at different stages of life.
“Yumi’s Cells,” a tvN adaption of Lee’s webtoon, aired its first episode Friday. Kim Go-eun, who is widely known for appearing in the network’s hit drama series “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God” played Yumi, while the scenes of Yumi’s cells are presented with animated characters.
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Netflix drama series “Hellbound,” directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Netflix) |
The upcoming Netflix series “Hellbound” is also based on a webtoon of the same title written by Yeon Sang-ho and drawn by Choi Kyu-seok.
The original webtoon tells a unique story of supernatural events in which random people suddenly are condemned to hell. Amid the chaos, a religious organization called New Truth Church that worships supernatural phenomena arises, and its followers increase dramatically. Attempting to discover the truth behind the strange occurrences, the characters take on the religious group.
The drama series is highly anticipated as it is directed by the original writer Yeon, who also directed “Train to Busan.” Yoo Ah-in, Park Jeong-min and Kim Hyun-joo also star in the TV drama.
The series has been invited to screen select episodes at three international film festivals this year: the 46th Toronto International Film Festival, 26th Busan International Film Festival and 65th BFI London Film Festival.
By Song Seung-hyun (
ssh@heraldcorp.com)
