Autumn in My Heart


Autumn in My Heart is a 2000 South Korean romantic television drama, starring Song Seung-heon, Song Hye-kyo and Won Bin. The series is the first installment of season-themed tetralogy Endless Love drama series directed by Yoon Seok-ho. It aired on KBS2 from September 18 to November 7, 2000, on Mondays and Tuesdays for 16 episodes.
The series was very successful in South Korea, averaging viewership ratings of 38.6% and reaching a peak viewership of 46.1%. It is considered a pioneer in Korean melodramatic series, launching a worldwide fever that is commonly referred to as the "Korean Wave". Tours of sites in Korea related to the show have been developed following its success.

Synopsis

The story begins with toddler Yoon Joon-suh, accidentally causing the switch of his sister and another baby when he drops the name cards on the two babies' cribs in the hospital's baby room. A nurse who comes in puts the name cards back incorrectly. The story then jumps forward to the teenage years of the two main characters: Yoon Eun-suh and Yoon Joon-suh. Eun-suh is the most popular girl in class, which incites the jealousy of her rival, Choi Shin-ae. Shin-ae is smart but does not get the attention she craves from the teacher and her classmates.
When Eun-suh gets hit by a truck and needs a blood transfusion, it is found out that she is not the Yoons' biological daughter. She instead belongs to the Chois. Choi Shin-ae is also discovered to not be the Choi's biological daughter, but the Yoons'. In the end, the two daughters return to their original birth parents. Shin-ae moves in with the Yoon family, and Eun-suh moves in with Mrs. Choi, who operates a small restaurant living in abject poverty. Their situations are now reversed. Shin-ae is the more popular girl in class and Eun-suh is the one ignored. Shortly after the switch, the Yoon family moves to the United States and Eun-suh loses touch with them.
Ten years later, Joon-suh returns to South Korea as a successful artist. He goes back to his hometown. He encounters his old friend, Han Tae-seok, who stays at the hotel where Eun-suh works as a telephone receptionist. Tae-seok, falls in love with Eun-suh and manipulates her until she is fired from her job. One day Eun-suh sees Joon-suh and follows him to the beach where he is with his fiancée Yumi and Tae-seok. The two "siblings" finally meet again after ten years.
Eun-suh and Joon-suh appears to have a sibling relationship in front of the others, but they meet each other secretly and fall in love even though she always refers to him as "oppa". Shin-ae finds out about their relationship and exposes the two after she finds a love letter Eun-suh wrote to Joon-suh. The two decide to stay together, but are soon forced apart again because their parents are against the union. Yumi hurts herself and blackmails Joon-suh with suicide to hold on to him.
As a fight between Joon-suh and Tae-seok erupts over their love for Eun-suh, she discovers she has leukemia. She doesn't tell anyone except Tae-seok, who offers to pay for her treatment. When her health deteriorates, the others begin finding out the extent of her condition. Eun-suh soon falls into a coma. Joon-suh finds out about Eun-suh's health and reacts with shock and fear, while Tae-seok forces Joon-suh to try to wake up Eun-suh. Eventually, Eun-suh wakes up, but is too weak to follow the treatment. When it is clear that there is no hope, Joon-suh takes her home so she can spend her last days with him. At this point, Yumi finally lets go of Joon-suh. Joon-suh proposes to Eun-suh and they get married. Eun-suh dies as Joon-suh carries her around the beach where they spent her birthday as teenagers.
Before Eun-suh dies, she tells Joon-suh to move on and continue living. However, Joon-suh, dazed and grief-stricken by the death of his love, is struck by a truck in the same place as Eun-suh's accident during her teenage years. It is unknown if he survived the accident.

Cast

Main

The 13-track soundtrack for Autumn in My Heart includes Jung Il-young's heartfelt ballads "Reason", "Prayer" and "In My Dream" as well as the main flute theme and the guitar and piano versions of some of the songs. "Romance", also known as "Forbidden Love" is a classic piece used for this soundtrack. It comes from a famous work of unknown authorship "Spanish Romance".
  1. Main Title
  2. Reason – Jung Il-young
  3. Romance – Choi Tae-won
  4. Gido – Jung Il-young
  5. Remember – Park Jung-Won
  6. Eolmana Naega – Yoon Chang-gun
  7. Reason
  8. Romance – Lee Hong-rae
  9. Nunmul – Lee Hong-rae
  10. Eolmana Naega – Guitar by Ham Choon-ho
  11. Kkum Sogeseo – Jung Il-young
  12. Eolmana Naega – Piano by Yoo Jung-young
  13. Gido
A song played during emotional scenes, but excluded from the soundtrack, was "Return to Love" by Kevin Kern.

International broadcast

The series has been broadcast in several countries, including Singapore in 2001, Indonesia in 2002, the Philippines in 2003 and Sri Lanka and Mexico in 2007. In the Philippines it was re-broadcast multiple times and received a peak viewership rating of 39.7% in 2003, placing it among the top ten highest rated Asian dramas to air in the country. It also aired in Mongolia, Malaysia, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Egypt, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
The South Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism worked with KBS to export Winter Sonata to markets such as Egypt. However, the success of South Korean TV dramas in Egypt started with a drama, Autumn Story, which was a hit before the ministry's promotion campaign. Japanese fan reaction to the same shows also started well before the South Korean government jumped on the bandwagon.
The series is available to stream on Iflix in Asia with English, Malay, Sinhalese, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian and Simplified Mandarin subtitles.

Awards

;37th Baeksang Arts Awards - 2001
;KBS Drama Awards – 2000