Domestically produced drama plays the Korean wave card. What is there to look forward to in "High Quality Unrequited Love"?

"4K technology, super IP, star lineup, huge investment, novel subject matter..." These have become high-frequency words to describe self-produced web dramas. With self-produced dramas being highly recognized by the industry and audiences, all major video sites want to set new records in self-produced content this year. As a reformer of the domestic network self-produced model, Sohu Video has come up with new tricks this time.

The Sino-Korean web drama "High Quality Unrequited Love" will be broadcast on Sohu on November 14, and will become the first Korean drama customized for the Internet in China. Yes! You heard it right. Sohu Video, the domestic video website that has produced a series of down-to-earth self-made dramas such as "Diaosi Man", "Fleeting Time" and "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer", has produced a Korean drama this time.

This is the first time that a domestically produced drama has played the Korean Wave card. What on earth is so exciting about the “three highs” Korean drama “High Quality Unrequited Love” that is worth the audience’s expectations?

Actor's good looks

In this age where looks matter, a drama would be embarrassed to be promoted if it doesn’t have a few handsome young actors, let alone Korean idol dramas that have always been based on celebrities.

This time, "High Quality Unrequited Love" is starred by Korean handsome boy Ding Yiu as the male lead, who plays Choi Se-hoon, the boss of a Korean entertainment company who looks cold but is childish at heart. The female lead is the popular Korean female artist Chen Shiyan, who will play Liu Yiling, a simple and ordinary country girl who is not tainted by money, status and utilitarianism in the world. Yoon Bora of the Korean four-member group Sistar also makes a hot appearance in the play.

Ding Yiu's popularity in the mainland has soared recently. At the beginning of the year, he won the award for the most popular actor with Asian influence at the Oriental Festival held by Dragon TV. He has starred in popular Korean dramas such as "Please Miss" and "Night Watchman's Journal". This year, he also starred in the Chinese movie "Female Tomboy Perfect Lover", becoming a new generation of popular "little fresh meat" across the Chinese and Korean film circles. The heroine Chen Shiyan has starred in classic works such as "It's Okay, Daddy's Daughter", "My Daughter is a Flower", and "Bridal Mask". Last year, she became a household name with the popular Korean drama "Doctor Stranger" and won the Daejeon TV Drama Festival Women's Popularity Award. She can be said to be a hot post-90s acting school.

In the past, domestic web dramas became popular before they were aired. In addition to having super IP, the choice of actors also determined the reputation of the homemade dramas among fans to a certain extent. The two popular actors joined "High Quality Unrequited Love", bringing more highlights to this customized Korean drama.

High quality screenwriter

At the media screening organized by Sohu, the first six episodes of "High Quality Unrequited Love" were released in advance. Judging from the content that has been aired, the drama has changed the problems of Korean dramas with dragging plots, slow immersion and messy main lines. The romantic Mary Sue plot has always been a guarantee of ratings for TV series. Overall, "High Quality Unrequited Love" can be called a romantic comedy with many highlights and quite innovative.

Judging from the reactions of the media at the scene, each episode of the drama has a lot of funny scenes, which made the audience burst into laughter; the relationship between the male and female protagonists is clear, and the plot rhythm is well controlled, which can attract the audience to continue watching. An American drama fan who is not very interested in Korean dramas said, "At least "High Quality Unrequited Love" will not make him give up the drama." Most viewers responded that each episode is too short at 15 minutes, and only watching 6 episodes is really whetting their appetite.

According to the Chinese producer of "High Quality Unrequited Love", before the filming of this drama, Sohu Video spent a long time explaining the domestic online drama model to the Korean producers and discussing the script together. Considering that this drama is the first Korean drama customized for the Internet in China, the dragging plot model of previous Korean dramas was changed, all in order to make "High Quality Unrequited Love" more in line with the drama-chasing model of domestic video website users.

High quality production

Earlier this year, in order to expand the self-made platform model for domestic dramas, Sohu Video invested in KeyEast, the agency of top Korean star Kim Soo-hyun, and became its second largest shareholder, laying the foundation for Sohu to achieve complete coverage of Korean drama copyright resources to production resources.

It is understood that "High Quality Unrequited Love" was jointly developed and produced by Sohu Video and South Korea's Kim Jong-hak Film and Television Production Company. In the Korean TV drama industry, Kim Jong-hak can be called the originator of "gold medal director" and "director CEO". The "Kim Jong-hak Production Studio" he founded in 1998 has launched many popular Korean dramas, such as "Beautiful Days", "Full House", "Chaser", "I Hear Your Voice" and other works. Kim Jong-hak Film and Television Production Company is now a major Korean film and television drama production company. Industry insiders believe that the drama will become the "China-Korea Annual Drama", which is likely to subvert the previous cooperation model of China-Korea film and television production and try to develop more creative resources on the Internet platform.

It is understood that in addition to "High Quality Unrequited Love", Sohu Video will also launch another self-made Korean drama "Flower Volleyball" as part of Sohu Video's self-made layout. As an important part of the "4+2+2" (four major Chinese dramas, two major Korean dramas, and two major brand comedies) strategy, self-produced online Korean dramas will become the representative work of Sohu Video's upgrade and innovation in the self-produced drama category in the future.

In order to get rid of the dilemma of spending money to purchase dramas, and stimulated by the favorable ratings of online dramas last year, the self-produced drama market this year presents a "grand occasion" of diversified types, flourishing and gathering of super IPs. According to relevant statistics, 29 new online dramas were added in China in September alone, and there were 96 online dramas on the Internet. Under this circumstance, it is not easy for video websites to make new highlights among the many self-produced dramas. Sohu Video uses a boutique strategy to fight against "mass-produced online dramas", does not blindly expand the number, and does not produce self-produced dramas indiscriminately, but improves and expands the quality and reputation of domestic online self-produced dramas, leading the self-produced online dramas into the high-quality creation stage.

It is also worth noting that after iQiyi launched the model of paying members to watch the full series of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", many video websites followed suit. When choosing series for the membership system, video websites often selected popular IP masterpieces from various companies. For example, Tencent also chose this payment model when it aired "The Darker Side of the ...

According to Sohu, "High Quality Unrequited Love" will be updated on Saturdays and Sundays, and recharged members can watch the entire series at once. This will become Sohu Video's first self-produced drama that allows members to watch the entire series, which shows that the producers are confident in the film's ratings.

From paying for Korean dramas to cooperating to customize Korean dramas, domestic video websites have taken another important step in exploring their business models. As self-produced dramas gradually mature, the creation model of international customized dramas by Chinese video websites may become a common phenomenon in the future. Perhaps it won’t take too long before domestic audiences can watch "domestic" American dramas and customized Japanese dramas on video websites. These are also works worth looking forward to.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.