Group 8 to Make Korean Version of Japanese Drama “Nodame Cantabile”

Award-winning Japanese drama “Nodame Cantabile” will be remade for Korean television.

Broadcasting insiders said on January 27 that production company Group 8 has decided to produce a Korean version of “Nodame Cantabile.”

“Nodame Cantabile” first appeared in a Japanese manga magazine in 2001 and is the work of manga artist Tomoko Ninomiya. The classical music-themed manga has a total of 23 volumes, and over 26 million copies have been sold to date.

In 2006, Fuji TV adapted “Nodame Cantabile” into a drama, with the Ueno Juri as Noda Megumi and Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki Shinichi. The following year, Fuji TV made an anime version of the series. “Nodame Cantabile” was a huge hit, along with its OST and associated games. Two movie sequels to the drama were released in theaters in 2009 and 2010, with the original cast.

“Nodame Cantabile” was also immensely popular abroad; it was screened in places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, and achieved 2% ratings when screened on cable in Korea.

2008 MBC drama “Beethoven Virus” had similar subject matter. The classical music-themed drama starred Kim Myung Min, Jang Geun Suk and Lee Ji Ah.

Group 8, which also did “Goong,” “Boys Over Flowers” and “Pretty Man,” is no stranger to drama adaptations of comics. The company plans to air the drama within the year, and is currently casting writers and actors. The drama has yet to find itself a broadcaster.

To those who watched the drama, who would you cast?

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