How ‘Gorae-byeol’ Became K-Drama’s Most Anticipated Historical Drama

On April 24, 2026, cameras began rolling on one of the most anticipated Korean dramas of the decade. Gorae-byeol (고래별) — adapted from a Presidential Award-winning webtoon about love and sacrifice during Korea's independence movement — has officially entered production, with Choi Woo-shik and Moon Ga-young leading a cast that signals serious creative ambition from the first day of filming.

The project carries weight before a single episode has aired. The source material, a 106-chapter webtoon by author Na Yoonhee serialized on Naver Webtoon from 2019 to 2021, received the Presidential Award (대통령상) at the 2021 Korea Content Awards — one of the highest honors the Korean government bestows on entertainment content. That credential, combined with a cast featuring one of Korea's most internationally recognized actors and direction by one of its most acclaimed cinematic storytellers, positions Gorae-byeol as exactly the kind of production that defines a television year.

The drama is scheduled to air on tvN in 2027, giving the production team the runway to match its source material's emotional scope. Set in the Japanese colonial era, the story follows an independence fighter and the woman who risks everything to protect him — described by fans since publication as "the Korean Little Mermaid," a love story shaped by the weight of history.

The Webtoon That Earned a Presidential Award — and Why It Took Five Years to Reach Screens

Na Yoonhee's Gorae-byeol did not accumulate its fan base quietly. During its run on Naver Webtoon, the series drew a devoted readership through its rare combination of genre elements: historical romance, political tension, and a central relationship defined by sacrifice rather than convenience. The story's male lead, Gang Ui-hyeon, begins the narrative as the product of a pro-Japanese family who travels to Japan for his education — only to witness the mass killing of Koreans during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and return home transformed. The female lead, Sua, works as a servant in a pro-Japanese household while harboring her own quiet resistance.

The Presidential Award in 2021 was institutional confirmation of what readers already knew: this was storytelling with cultural significance beyond entertainment. The award, given annually by the Korean government to recognize content that contributes meaningfully to Korean culture, is not handed to commercially successful webtoons — it is given to work that demonstrates craft and cultural resonance. Gorae-byeol received it for both.

The drama adaptation was announced in 2022, but production took time to assemble the right elements. TakeOne Studio brought in director Heo Jin-ho, whose filmography includes Christmas in August (1998), which premiered at the Cannes Critics' Week and became a landmark of quiet Korean cinema, and Princess Deokhye (2015), a historical drama about the last Korean princess under Japanese colonization. The thematic overlap between Heo's existing work and Gorae-byeol's setting is unmistakable. This is not a director being assigned to a project — it is a director finding the project that fits the arc of his career.

Choi Woo-shik, Moon Ga-young, and the Star Power Behind the Story

The casting of Choi Woo-shik as Gang Ui-hyeon is a statement in itself. In 2019, Choi played the lead role of Ki-woo in Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, which became the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Parasite ensemble also won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Choi is, in the most literal sense, part of a cast that changed cinema history.

What makes his choice of Gorae-byeol significant is that it is a choice. Post-Parasite, Choi has built a deliberate career in Korean content — Our Beloved Summer (Netflix, 2021-2022), several domestic films — rather than pivoting aggressively toward Hollywood projects. His selection of an independence fighter as his next major television role suggests an actor oriented toward historical and cultural weight rather than commercial calculation.

Moon Ga-young brings a different kind of credibility. Her recent work across dramas like My Dearest Nemesis (2025, tvN) and Law and the City (2025, tvN), alongside the film Once We Were Us (2025), reflects a performer actively expanding her range across genres. Playing Sua — a teenage servant girl in a pro-Japanese household who becomes entangled in the independence movement — requires the kind of emotional precision that Moon has demonstrated across her recent projects. The character's arc from survival to agency maps naturally onto an actor whose career has followed a similar trajectory.

The Webtoon-to-K-Drama Machine — and Why Gorae-byeol Is Its Next Test

The broader context for Gorae-byeol's production is a K-drama industry in the middle of an unprecedented transformation. The Korean webtoon market reached an estimated USD 7.48 billion in 2024, with projections pointing toward USD 9.71 billion by 2025 — a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30 percent. More than 40 Korean dramas have been adapted from webtoons in just the past three years. The webtoon-to-screen pipeline has become one of the most reliable creative production models in global entertainment.

But not all webtoon adaptations are created equal. Itaewon Class, True Beauty, and All of Us Are Dead demonstrated that the right source material, properly adapted, can generate global streaming success. What distinguishes Gorae-byeol is that its adaptation challenge is structural, not just commercial. Historical webtoons with serious thematic weight — independence movements, colonial trauma, sacrifice — require production decisions that prioritize authenticity over genre-friendly simplification. The precedent from director Heo's own filmography, particularly Princess Deokhye, suggests he understands that particular responsibility.

The historical K-drama genre itself is experiencing a revival that runs parallel to the webtoon boom. Mr. Sunshine (2018, tvN), set in the same independence movement era and starring Lee Byung-hun, became one of the highest-rated Korean cable dramas of its time, reaching an 18.1% viewership rating in its finale. Netflix's Gyeongseong Creature (2023) renewed global audience interest in Korean colonial-era storytelling. Gorae-byeol enters a genre lane that has demonstrated proven audience appetite — but also one where the production bar has been set high by its predecessors.

What Gorae-byeol's Production Start Signals for 2027 K-Drama

The significance of a drama beginning production is not always in the immediate announcement — it is in what the assembly of talent communicates about the industry's priorities. When a studio combines a Presidential Award-winning webtoon, a director with Cannes credentials, an actor from the first Best Picture Oscar-winning non-English film, and a female lead with demonstrated range across recent prestige dramas, the message is clear: this production is not being hedged. It is being built to succeed at a level that extends beyond domestic viewership.

TakeOne Studio's decision to target tvN for a 2027 premiere rather than pursuing immediate streaming placement reflects a confidence that the drama deserves the full weight of a tentpole broadcast rollout. In the current K-drama landscape, where Netflix and other streaming platforms have absorbed much of the industry's prestige production, that choice is itself a statement about the creative team's faith in the material.

For fans of the original webtoon, the production's start is the culmination of years of patience. For the broader K-drama audience, it is the opening move of what may become 2027's most discussed Korean television event. The cameras are rolling. The wait is almost over.