That Winter, The Wind Blows

그 겨울, 바람이 분다 (That Winter, The Wind Blows) is a rather well-known drama that originally aired from February 13th to April 3rd 2013 on SBS and consists of 16 episodes.
The drama is based on the Japanese series 愛なんていらねえよ、夏 (I Don't Need Love, Summer) that was aired in Japan in 2002.

Story: Oh Soo is on of the best gamblers in the Cheongdamdong neighborhood but lives a rather meaningless life: He was left behind by his parents under a tree when he was a baby and lost his first love. There's another man called Oh Soo who takes care of his home.
The gambler Oh Soo is in a relationship with the actress So-ra who's nearly obsessed with him and doesn't realize that he doesn't love her as much. When she has to leave for one year, she plans to get him arrested for embezzlement afraid he might leave her for another woman when she's not with him.
One day, Oh Young, the heir of a company, appears at Oh Soo's apartment door and asks for him but he realizes that he's looking for the other Oh Soo. Later he reads out a letter the brother of that woman wrote to her because she is blind but has to run away soon. The other Oh Soo returns and dies. At the same time Oh Young's father passed away and she left.
One year later Oh Soo is in a difficult situation but suddenly a company attorney appears mistaking him for the dead Oh Soo who would've been another heir for the same company as Oh Young since they were siblings. Thinking he might be able to repay a debt he has left because of So-ra he decides to become the Oh Soo that died one year ago..

Cast: The cast is actually a really good one, the main reason why I watched this drama. At first we have Jo In-sung as Oh Soo. I've never heard about him before but I think it was actually a good drama for him to become more popular. Song Hye-kyo is seen as Oh Young. I don't know if it's really that difficult but I still think it's rather hard to act as if you're blind. I mean you can't show any reaction to the things you can't here and feel and remaining emotionless while 'looking' straight ahead needs a lot of proficiency. Oh Soo's best friend and partner Park Jin-sung was acted by Kim Bum, the main reason why I watched this drama. He's not a coward, quite the opposite, and he wants to take every risk to save his life. I quite like Kim Bum taking the roles of impulsive characters, it fits him well. Especially if he's confronted with a woman like Moon Hee-sun who was played by Jung Eun-ji of A Pink. Watching the two of them fight is actually one of the funniest things in the drama. And yes, Eun-ji did a good job as well.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was performed by good and popular ballad singers who participated in many many many soundtracks before. My favorite track was sung by Yesung of Super Junior and is called "먹지 (Gray Paper)". I've been listening to this song without a break for hours because it's so beautiful. Another really good song was "그리고 하나 (And One)" by Taeyeon of SNSD. Though I'm not a huge fan of SM Entertainment artists, I really liked those two songs. But I'm not that much into the ballad genre so to me, the OST was a little bit boring after some time.


My personal rating: 6/10

Why such a 'bad' rating? It might be because it's a melodrama but from time to time I almost fell asleep.. some dialogues were written in an incredible boring manner, there weren't that many exciting scenes - and usually I've heard a melodrama should make people cry? If that's the case it definitely didn't work. I think it's good if you're into that genre but I doubt I would've finished this if it wouldn't have been for the cast who put a lot of effort into this. The soundtrack is nice but if you're more into dance pop or rock ballads it's definitely not the right OST for you.
On the other hand, the scenery, the filming and the characters are nice so.. take those really beautiful gifs for now.