As women crowd ballparks, K-drama actors take on new professions

Kim Woo-bin and Ryu Seung-ryong have little in common in terms of age or acting style. Their filmographies, however, are about to gain one common thread, and it has something to do with baseball.

In December, Kim is set to appear in tvN drama “Gift,” a tentative English title, as a former baseball player who coaches a high school baseball team. Ryu, meanwhile, stars as a famous baseball player in the film “Portrait of a Family,” which opens next month.

They are not the only ones. Suddenly baseball players and coaches have become some of the most sought-after characters in the Korean drama and film industry; Gong Myoung is currently filming MBC drama “Your Ground,” a tentative English title set to air at the end of this year, in which he plays a pitcher. Kim Rae-won will appear as a coach in SBS drama “Full Count,” expected to air next year.

There are more baseball-related projects on the way. They include “Green Light” and “Sunning Baseball Club,” both tentative English titles. Together with the four aforementioned works, they bring the number of baseball-themed productions awaiting release or in development to at least six as of Tuesday. For the moment, baseball appears to be the hottest subject in the K-content industry.

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It wasn’t like this just four or five years ago, when baseball-themed content was rarely seen. A string of failed baseball dramas, including MBC’s “Strike Love,” which ended early due to low ratings, created a widespread perception that it was difficult to hit a home run with baseball as a subject. Although the SBS drama “Hot Stove League” attracted considerable attention in 2019, its success was regarded as an exception, and the industry remained wary of producing baseball dramas and films.

Attitudes within the industry have shifted dramatically over the past year or two, however, as attendance at Korea’s professional baseball games surpassed 10 million for two consecutive years. Of those ticket buyers, women accounted for 54.4 percent in 2024, which has begun to convince content producers that baseball could be commercially viable as a subject.

“Women are the primary audience for dramas and are also heading to the ballpark in large numbers,” said an official involved in producing a baseball drama slated for release late this year or afterward. “Interest in baseball is higher than ever, which prompted us to create a drama built around the sport.”

The women interviewed enjoyed baseball in different ways.

Lee So-min, 47, said she previously watched Major League Baseball and began going to games after Ryu Hyun-jin returned to Korea in 2024.

Another woman, surnamed Nam, said she goes to the ballpark three or four times a month “not to have fun, but to live.”

“At work, I feel like I’m dying, but at the ballpark, I can feel the blood rushing through my veins, and I even occasionally burp. I used to enjoy going to the theater, but there are always people who ruin the experience for everyone else. At the same time, people are so sensitive about audience etiquette that you end up sitting completely still and watching in silence, almost like a corpse,” she said.

“At the ballpark, though, I can shout as much as I want, even when I go alone, and the open-air atmosphere feels so refreshing.”

Some simply enjoyed the game itself. Others went to games to relieve the stress of everyday life, a sentiment summed up by the remark, “I go there not to have fun, but to live.” It shows how baseball has moved beyond being merely an interest and become part of people’s everyday lives.

As baseball reached a broader segment of the public, it also began forging closer ties with the entertainment sector, with individual players’ celebrity appeal gradually extending beyond the stadium and into popular culture. One recent example is Lee Jung-hoo, the Korean outfielder for the San Francisco Giants, who signed an exclusive contract with entertainment agency Galaxy Corporation, which also represents G-Dragon of BIGBANG and Taemin of SHINee.

As baseball’s stature grew, Korean content producers wasted no time capitalizing on its popularity, rolling out a flood of baseball films and dramas featuring actors in roles from across the sport.

But while baseball-themed films and dramas are back, their old formulas and storylines are not. The new productions coming out in 2026 are different, down to their protagonists.

Earlier works largely portrayed the lives of real-life players such as Choi Dong-won, Sun Dong-yol and Gam Sa-yong. In the upcoming “Full Count,” however, the main character is not a permanent manager but an interim one. In “Your Ground,” the protagonist is neither a player nor a manager, but a player’s agent. “Sunning Baseball Club,” meanwhile, goes further by placing a recreational baseball team, far removed from the professional leagues, at the center of its story.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.