Festival celebrates 'Reply 1988,' 'Misaeng'
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Actor Ha Seok-jin and actress Park Ha-sun pose at the photo zone of tvN drama series “Drinking Solo” at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Oct., 8. / Courtesy of CJ E&M
By Kim Jae-heun
tvN held its 10th anniversary Festival & Award last weekend at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, attracting some 10,000 visitors. CJ E&M’s nationwide general entertainment network, tvN aired the awards ceremony “Alive and Alone,” recording high viewer ratings of 6.1 percent, which is considered a successful figure for a cable channel.
The anniversary festival began a day earlier on Saturday, where more than 12 booths of tvN’s popular drama series and TV shows were put up at the exhibition venue for people to visit and experience the content.
People took photographs in the mock filming spots of “Misaeng,” the drama series that recorded the all-time second-highest viewership ratings for a cable network program in the country. Visitors also experienced a recreation of Ssangmun-dong in northern Seoul and materials that appeared in “Reply 1988” ― the third installment of tvN’s “Reply” series that claimed the highest audience share in Korean cable TV history with 18.8 percent in its final episode. Kim Seol, one of the drama’s cast members who played the role of Sung Jin-joo, held an event to give autographs to fans.
YouTube’s popular makeup artist SSIN demonstrates her skill as part of tvN’s festival Live Session at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 8.
In the booth of “Problematic Men,” a television quiz show that airs every Sunday on tvN, people were given a puzzle to solve for a small present.
The most popular booths were that of tvN’s iconic documentary sitcom “Rude Miss Young-ae” and thriller genre soap opera “Signal.” A fortune teller at the booth read tarot cards for people consulting about their future and people queued in front of fake interrogation room of Signal where detectives strived find a clue to solve mysterious cases in the tight scenes of the small screen.
Other TV program booths included those of drama series “Another Oh Hae-young,” “Entourage,” “Drinking Solo” and television shows like “SNL Korea,” “Three Meals a Day,” and “Mr. Baek: The Homemade Food Master.”
Visitors play table tennis at the mock filming site of tvN’s reality cooking show “Three Meals a Day” at Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 8. / Courtesy of CJ E&M
Celebrities featured on the tvN small screen held live talk shows with the audience too. Actors Ryu Jun-yeol, Lee Dong-hwi and Ahn Jae-hong along with producer Shin Won-ho talked about behind scene stories while actress Kim Hyun-sook, who played the overweight Lee Young-ae in “Rude Miss Young-Ae,” consult about audience members’ troubles in their lives. Director Kim Won-seok and actors Yim Si-wan, Lee Sung-min and Kim Dae-myung from “Misaeng” also revealed their feelings and opinions about their drama that became a cultural phenomenon for sketching a tough life of current 20s and 30s.
Kim Seok-hyun, the chief producer of the tvN entertainment division, said it took 10 years for the cable channel to host the festival and award ceremony celebrating its anniversary marking a decade in business.
“We had several impressive works and drama series that affected the culture over last 10 years, but we honestly thought that we had a good batting average by luck,” said Kim during the press conference at the Standford Hotel in Mapo, western Seoul, Sept. 27. “We would present four new TV programs every year but that is not a big number compared to terrestrial TV channels like KBS, MBC or SBS.
“We then started to think about hosting an awards ceremony three years ago and we wanted to create a joyful event when the audience was ready for it,” added Kim.
Global K-pop star Psy performs during the opening ceremony of tvN10 Awards held at Kintex in Ilsan, Oct. 9. / Courtesy of CJ E&M
Young, fresh and eventful award ceremony
As the cable channel adopts its slogan as “content trend leader,” tvN was successful in carrying out the young, original and unconventional event last Sunday night.
The five-hour long event was full of comedy skits and special performances by singers in between the awarding of prizes.
Unlike the formal and boring Blue Dragon Film Awards or PaekSang Arts Awards, participants dressed freely and danced to music.
The comedians from tvN’s “Comedy Big League” parodied drama series actors invited to the event while inventing a “Kiss Time” event at the ceremony inspired by the casual event often seen at baseball games.
A visitor poses at the booth of tvN drama series “Drinking Solo” at Kintex in Ilsan Oct. 8.
If the award winners talk overtime on the stage after receiving a trophy, the microphone pole shrank down automatically to limit their endless speech on listing the names of the people they thanked.
The ceremony also presented unusual awards such as Slave Awards, Trendy Actor Awards and Scene-stealer Awards. Such a new title was given to recognize not only the main characters in the scene but also the supporting actors or comparatively low profile entertainers who contributed much in making the TV Show successful. Kim Hyun-sook received the Perfect Attendance Award for consistently appearing in tvN’s show for 10 years without a break.
“We celebrated our 10th anniversary with the audience and reflected the online votes in our awards. Many TV series contributed in building tvN in the last 10 years but we did not have time to show them all tonight as we were limited in time,” said chief producer Kim. “But we assure our fans we will produce more various genres of TV shows that can perfectly suit our slogan as trend content leader.”