We’ve got another remake in the works, though this time, it’s not a webtoon or a foreign show but a ’90s Korean drama that’s getting the modern treatment. MBC is currently negotiating with writer Noh Hee-kyung to remake her 1996 drama The Most Beautiful Goodbye in the World, which was also the project to launch her to fame as a writer.
The original drama, which was a 4-episode show, starred Na Mun-hee (Dear My Friends), Joo Hyun (Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim), Kim Young-ok (Shopping King Louis), and Lee Min-young (Strongest Deliveryman) in a story about a middle-aged wife and mother diagnosed with terminal cancer. The family that she’s been devoted to her whole adult life will come together for the first time and finally learn to appreciate her love for them, which they had always taken for granted. Dang, just writing those sentences makes me want to tear up; I might end up a blubbering mess if I actually watch it.
This project sounds like a very personal one for Noh Hee-kyung, not only for its success early on in her career—the show won the Daesang and Best Drama trophies at the 1997 Baeksang Arts Awards, and has been adapted into a novel, stage play, and film—but also because it was written as a tribute to her own mother, who passed away in 1994. I didn’t watch the 1996 show nor its subsequent adaptations, but it’ll be interesting to see whether they keep the short episode count and also who they cast in this, especially as the mom.
The show is still in its very early stages and MBC is still in talks with Noh Hee-kyung over whether they’ll even go ahead with the remake, but hopefully we see some progress soon, in time for maybe a late winter premiere. Maybe by that time I might have the urge to get my heart ripped out of my chest, who knows.
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