''Asphalt Man'' () is a 1995 South Korean television series starring

Lee Byung-hun Lee Byung-hun (; born July 12, 1970) is a South Korean actor. He has received acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably '' Joint Security Area'' (2000); '' A Bittersweet Life'' (2005); '' The Good, the Bad, the Weird'' (2008) ...

, Jung Woo-sung, Choi Jin-sil, and Lee Young-ae. Based on the 1991 comic of the same title by

manhwa Manhwa () is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to Korean comics. Modern Manhwa has extended its reach to many other countries. These comics have branched outside of Korea by acce ...

artist

Huh Young-man Huh Young-man (born June 26, 1947) is a South Korean manhwa artist. Early life Huh Young-man was born Huh Hyeong-man in present-day Yeosu, a far southern coastal city of what is now South Jeolla Province, South Korea in 1947. He was the third ch ...

, it aired on SBS from May 17 to July 6, 1995, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 16 episodes.

Plot

Kang Dong-joon (

) is a young car designer who dreams of starting his own car company in Korea. He tries to get assistance from his father ( Park In-hwan), but the family is in financial trouble. His younger brother Dong-seok ( Jung Woo-sung) hates their father, and leaves the country to become a car racer in the United States. Meanwhile, his sister Dong-hee ( Lee Young-ae) also flees to the U.S. after conceiving a child with a U.S. army soldier.

Cast

Kang family

as Kang Dong-joon * Jung Woo-sung as Kang Dong-seok (brother) * Lee Young-ae as Kang Dong-hee (sister) * Park In-hwan as Mr. Kang (father) * Choi Jin-sil as Oh Hwa-ryun (Dong-joon's wife)

Other people

* Huh Joon-ho as Han Ki-soo *

Kim Soo-mi Kim Soo-mi (; born Kim Young-ok (); October 24, 1949 – October 25, 2024) was a South Korean actress who had a prolific career in film and television. Career She debuted in a talent contest in 1970, then shot to fame in ''Country Diaries''. ...

as Natasha * Jo Min-su as Bae Jong-ok *Kim Soo-ji as Song-yi (Natasha's daughter) *

Lee Jung-gil Lee Jung-gil (born October 1, 1944) is a South Korean actor. After making his acting debut in 1967 in the stage play ''Sakhalinsk's The Sky and the Earth'', Lee has had a prolific career in Korean television and film. Filmography Television ser ...

as Son Ki Joon *

Byun Hee-bong Byun Hee-bong (; born Byun In-chul; 8 June 1942 – 18 September 2023) was a South Korean film, television and voice actor. In 1963, he embarked on his voice acting career by making his debut in the first season of DBS Donga Broadcasting. He fu ...

* Song Jae-ho *Daniel Beauchamp as Tom (American Soldier)

Production

''Asphalt Man'' began shooting in late 1994 with an estimated production budget of per episode. Filming took 5 months, at the

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

auto factory plant in

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

and in

Dongducheon Dongducheon (; ) is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The city, to the north of Seoul, is strategically important for the defense of the Korean capital. The main camps of the United States Second Infantry Division are in the city, and t ...

, including 45 days of overseas location shoots in the United States, which was rare at that time for a

Korean drama Korean drama (), also known as K-drama or Koreanovela, refers to Korean language, Korean-language television shows made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise ...

. The U.S. scenes were filmed in

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

and Silver Peak, Alpine County in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The snow rally in the drama's climax was shot in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, though several cast and crew members reportedly suffered from

oxygen deficiency Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level. Hypoxia may be classified as either '' generalized'', affecting the whole body, or ''local'', affecting a region of t ...

. As the drama's official sponsor,

Hyundai Motor Company Hyundai Motor Company, often referred to as Hyundai Motors, ( ) and commonly known as Hyundai (), is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, which ...

contributed more than . Various models of Hyundai Motors were featured in the drama as concept cars, production models and Rally vehicles, such as the Accent and the Elantra/Avante. In particular, the Tiburon was first introduced in the scene of Dong-joon's Death Valley Rally.

References

External links

''Asphalt Man'' official SBS website
{{in lang, ko (archived)
''Asphalt Man''
at SBS Global Seoul Broadcasting System television dramas 1995 South Korean television series debuts 1995 South Korean television series endings Korean-language television shows Television shows based on works by Huh Young-man South Korean action television series South Korean romance television series 1990s romance television series 1990s South Korean television series