Remake: Love Me Not/That Winter The Wind Blows

In previous articles we talked about dramas remakes and how similar yet different the versions would be. We’re still in the world of remakes, but this time around we will talk about remaking a movie into a drama. (I apologize for the length of what follows)

Synopsis:

A con artist better known as a cold hearted womanizer seduces women in order to take their money and gamble it away. He’s then cornered by a huge debt and his life becomes at stake because if he doesn’t return the money; he will be killed. Desperate for his life, he takes his rich dead friend’s place and pretends to be the long-lost brother of a cold hearted blind heiress in order to rip her money away. As these two lonely souls meet, they start to open up for each other and eventually fall in love but he still has to clear his debts and a disease that threatens her life relapses again…

I have to point that the story was originated in the Japanese Drama "Ai Nante Irane Yo, Natsu" that I didn't watch and thus I didn't include in the article.


Main Cast:
                  Kim Ju Hyuk                                Moon Geun Young                                  Jung Eun Ji

                  Jo In Sung                                       Song Hye Kyo                                         Kim Bum


Characters:


Similarities: They resemble each other in many ways; they appear as cold hearted male leads with a troubled past and a carefree mind; they’re the selfish type who don’t care about anyone else’s gain but themselves and have few close people. However, they manage to have great character developments later on.
Differences: There were many differences too; Oh Soo had many past scars which made him go through life with difficulty while Julian’s past wasn’t actually revealed much which means that Oh Soo’s cold hearted nature was created by his past while Julian was always that type of man, maybe his past took a part in changing his character but it wasn’t as deep as Oh Soo’s changes.




Similarities: The two of them were pretty much alike; they come very strong at the beginning because of what they went through so they developed a cold nature to protect themselves. They’re not talkative and have a gloomy yet strong aura around them. Then with time, they begin to rely on the male leads in everything.
Differences: Oh Young was more open about her feelings and her thoughts; she has more strength in her character and doesn’t come out weak except at the end where her actions were somehow unbalanced while Ryu Min had many weak moments that made her look pathetic sometimes; her character doesn’t give the feeling of a strong female lead like in Oh Young’s case. Despite the fact that the latter relied on the male lead more than in Ryu Min’s case, it still felt that Oh Young was much more powerful than her even if she had a lot of contradictory moments herself.




Similarities: They’re both the closest friends of the male leads; they respect them to the point of idolizing them. They’re also their partner in crime and their right hands in handling things which made their roles pretty important.
Differences: They have many dissimilar points; Tae Ho’s relationship with Julian didn’t feel as deep as Jin Sung’s relationship with Oh Soo. Moreover, Tae Ho turned against Julian at some point which made him feel like an enemy. Jin Sung on the other hand never betrayed or thought about turning his back on Oh Soo, he was always by his side even if he had a lot to lose, he never gave up on him: He simply treated him as a real brother.




Similarities: I don’t believe they had many similarities to talk about but let’s mention that they both remained by the second male lead’s side to help them. And they both disliked the male lead at first.
Differences: Moon Hee Sun felt like a real second female lead while Ji Hye wasn’t an important character. In the latter’s case, she has been Tae Ho’s girlfriend ever since the beginning and she always disliked Julian. While Moon Hee Sun shared a special relationship with Oh Soo since she’s the sister of the woman he loved in the past. Even though she hated him because she believed he was the reason behind her sister’s death, she helped him despite the fact that she always caused him trouble.




Similarities: They’re both the guardians of the female lead but they use this way to control her life and take her freedom away.
Differences: In Mrs. Lee’s case she was always behind the money, she always schemed to keep Ryu Min in the dark in order to have everything for herself but Secretary Wang’s case was not the same; she cares about Oh Young in her own controlling way, it takes a lot of patience to understand where she stands and what are her thoughts; she was one of the complicated character in the drama.




Similarities: They’re the debt collectors; the ones who keep an eye on the male lead in order to make sure that they are collecting the money. They keep popping out everywhere around the male leads in order to trouble their lives. They’re both tough characters and don’t hesitate to use strength to get what they want.
Differences: Kwang Soo was an evil character from the beginning until the end, he felt inflexible and determined to ruin Julian no matter what the cost. Moo Cheol on the other hand had a past relationship with Oh Soo since they both loved the same woman but she chose Oh Soo instead and since she died because of him, Moo Cheol always wanted to bring Oh Soo down. He was more important than Kwang Soo in the story’s development and he always had unpredictable and interesting actions. One of the most appealing characters and a villain you can’t manage to hate. He was in fact my favorite character in the drama.




Considering the fact that I am not melodramas’ fan, my first encounter with the story was pretty good; I liked the different concept and the believable acting. It was enjoyable throughout even if the chemistry was insufficient, I still liked the developments.
The acting was good although it was hard to believe Moon Geun Young as a cold hearted character at the beginning so when she changed her attitude it became more enjoyable.
The story was pretty well done for a movie; all the important details were there that’s why it felt complete and satisfying but I must say that I didn’t find it as sad as everyone did. Well, it’s hard for me to communicate with sad productions since they don’t affect me but if you’re into that type, I am sure you would enjoy this one.


Trailer:

 




Let’s start with: This got to be the most beautifully shot drama I ever saw; I want the HD camera that SBS was using for this (Hey, what’s wrong with dreams?) and I also want to visit all the places in this drama especially the snow tree that Oh Soo was left under; mesmerizing sceneries indeed.
It was a given that the drama would go more in depth and deliver more details than the movie that’s why I was expecting much from this; I can say that I got what I wanted but here comes the line “careful what you wish for”, I didn’t hate the drama, in fact I liked it more than the movie but there were many additional events and details near the end that I didn’t appreciate adding them, the few last episodes made me scratch my head and wonder “What happened?”. They could’ve wrapped it up better than that even if I didn’t dislike the ending since it left us thinking and proposing several theories.
However, that doesn’t deny the fact that I liked the way they put a background for everything that happened and the way Oh Soo got that debt (yes, So Ra is a super crazy woman, how can people like her become actresses?). I also appreciated and fell in love with the chemistry between Oh Soo and Oh Young, our adorable oxygen couple (O2) had great on screen moments.
Let’s not forget the amazing bromance between Oh Soo and Jin Sung alongside with pretty well done side characters that I found very lacking from the movie.

The acting was great most of the time; over the top sometimes and very repetitive at another time. Overall, the drama was without doubt more enjoyable than the movie but I still appreciated watching Love Me Not before That Winter The Wind Blows.

Trailer: