''Resurrection'' (; also known as ''Rebirth'' and ''Revenge'') is a 2005

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

starring

Uhm Tae-woong Uhm Tae-woong (born April 5, 1974) is a South Korean actor. He made his acting debut in 1998, but initially struggled to emerge from under the shadow of his older sister, popular singer-actress Uhm Jung-hwa. After several years of small roles ...

Han Ji-min Han Ji-min (; born November 5, 1982) is a South Korean actress. After minor roles in ''All In (TV series), All In'' (2003) and ''Dae Jang Geum'' (2003–2004), Han had her breakout role in revenge series ''Resurrection (2005 TV series), Resurrec ...

, So Yi-hyun, Go Joo-won,

Kang Shin-il Kang Shin-il (born November 26, 1960) is a South Korean actor. Kang graduated from Kyung Hee University with a degree in electronic engineering, but he soon put aside his studies and spent most of his time in Daehangno, Seoul's theater district, ...

Kim Kap-soo Kim Kap-soo (; born April 7, 1957) is a South Korean actor. Since his acting debut in 1977, Kim has had a long career on the stage, in television dramas and film. In addition to acting full-time, he also has his own master class acting studio. ...

Kim Kyu-chul Kim Kyu-chul (born April 6, 1960) is a South Korean actor. Kim spent more than a decade as a stage actor before he made his onscreen breakthrough in 1993 with Im Kwon-taek's '' Seopyeonje'', considered one of the classics of Korean cinema. Kim b ...

Gi Ju-bong Gi Ju-bong (born September 3, 1955) is a South Korean actor. Career Gi began acting in 1977 and is notable for ''Offending the Audience ''Offending the Audience'' is a play by Austrian writer Peter Handke. It is sometimes called an ''anti-p ...

, and

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 ...

. The series is about a man who pretends to be his identical

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother in order to unearth the conspiracy surrounding his father's death and wreak revenge on his murderers. It aired on

KBS2 KBS 2TV is a South Korean free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen ...

from June 1 to August 18, 2005, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:50 for 24 episodes. The series is the first installment of the revenge

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

by director Park Chan-hong and writer Kim Ji-woo, followed by ''

The Devil Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or 'e ...

'' in 2007 and '' Don't Look Back: The Legend of Orpheus'' in 2013.

Plot

After a horrific car crash kills his father, young Ha-eun is taken in by a family of strangers and raised to be a caring, happy young man (

). He becomes a police officer and begins to look into the death of his father, only to discover some horrifying truths about not only the accident, but also his own identity. Ha-eun discovers that his name is really Yoo Kang-hyuk and that he has a twin brother called Shin-hyuk (also played by Uhm), who is now VP of a large company. When a cruel twist of fate gives Ha-eun the opportunity to assume his brother's identity, he sees this as his chance to discover the truth about his tragic past and avenge the wrongs done to him and his family.

Cast

as Seo Ha-eun/Yoo Shin-hyuk ** Kang San as young Ha-eun **

Kwak Jung-wook Kwak Jung-wook (; born 12 June 1990) is a South Korean actor. Personal life On January 24, 2022, it was confirmed that Kwak and Park Se-young are getting married in mid-February, and the wedding ceremony would be held privately in Seoul. Th ...

as teenage Ha-eun *

as Seo Eun-ha **

Park Eun-bin Park Eun-bin (; born September 4, 1992) is a South Korean actress. She began her career as a child model in 1996, and made her small screen debut as a child actor, child actress in 1998's ''White Nights 3.98''. Park received international recog ...

as teenage Eun-ha * So Yi-hyun as Lee Kang-joo *

as Seo Jae-soo *

as Lee Tae-joon *

as Choi Dong-chan *

as Kang In-chul *

as Jung Sang-gook * Go Joo-won as Jung Jin-woo * Go Myung-hwan as Kim Soo-chul * Jo Jae-wan as Ahn Jae-hoon *

Sunwoo Eun-sook Sunwoo Eun-sook (; born December 24, 1959) is a South Korean actress. Sunwoo made her acting debut in 1978, and rose to fame in the 1980s. Personal life Sunwoo married actor Lee Young-ha in 1981 when they were both at the peak of their caree ...

as Kim Yi-hwa * Yoo Hye-jung as Yoon Mi-jung * Lee Dong-gyu as Park Hee-soo * Choi Yong-min as Heo Deok-woo * Lee Yeon-hee as Kang Shin-young * Lee Dae-yeon as Gyung Gi-do * Kim Yoon-seok as Cheon Gong-myung ("President Cheon") * Joo Jin-mo as Park Sang-chul *

Ahn Nae-sang Ahn Nae-sang (; born December 25, 1964) is a South Korean actor. He began his career on the stage, and in 1994 made his film debut in the Bong Joon-ho short film ''Baeksekin'' ("White Man" or "White-collar worker"), followed by Jang Sun-woo's ...

as Yoo Geon-ha * Lee Han-wi as Im Dae-shik * Kim Gi-bok as Hwang Jong-in * Choi Won-seok as Yang Man-chul * Nam Hyun-joo as Man-chul's wife * Jung Ho-bin as Lee Jung-mu * Park Kwang-jung

Reception

In the same timeslot as hit series ''

My Lovely Sam Soon ''My Lovely Sam Soon'' () is a 2005 South Korean television series based on the internet novel of the same title by Ji Soo-hyun, which was published on March 9, 2004. Touted as the Korean version of '' Bridget Jones's Diary'', it starred Kim Su ...

'', ratings suffered as a result, going down as much as 7% compared to ''Sam-soons high 40s. But broadcaster KBS received numerous requests from viewers to re-run the show during weekends, so they could watch both dramas; the re-runs recorded encouraging numbers. And after ''Sam-soon'' finished airing, ratings for ''Resurrection'' shot up to 20%, reaching a peak of 22.9% on the drama's finale, with the number of messages posted by viewers on its bulletin board surpassing one million. Called a "mania drama" (Korean slang for

cult hit A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

- TV series with a tremendous following online, that somehow end up struggling in the ratings), ''Resurrection'' gained praise for its tight plotting, complex characterization, and a career-making, emotionally intense performance from

Ratings

Source
TNS Media Korea

Awards and nominations

International broadcast

''Resurrection'' first aired in Japan on cable channel So-net beginning April 5, 2006, which was lead actor

's birthday. Its popularity led to reruns on multiple channels, including

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

, FBC

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

TV and

TV Hokkaido , callsigns JOHI-DTV (channel 7) is a Japanese television station based in Sapporo serving as the affiliate of the TX Network for Hokkaido. TVh started broadcasting in 1989. Nikkei, Inc. is the biggest shareholder of TVh. History In June 19 ...

International remakes

In October 2015, ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'' producer Michael Uslan acquired the rights to

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

five KBS dramas in the United States, including ''Resurrection''. Though the series was unsuccessful in the ratings during its run, KBS Content Business Office manager Jung Ji-young explained that Uslan chose it for its strong and dramatic plot. In 2016, the series was adapted in Turkey under the title ''Kış Güneşi'', which is also known under its English-translated title ''Winter Sun''.

References

External links

''Resurrection'' official KBS website
* * {{IMDb title, 0499170, Resurrection Korean-language television shows Korean Broadcasting System television dramas 2005 South Korean television series debuts 2005 South Korean television series endings South Korean thriller television series