A production press conference for the web drama "Secret Message," starring Korean rapper T.O.P., of BigBang, and Japanese actress Ueno Juri, was held at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul, today.

"Secret Message" is a joint Korean-Japanese production web drama, depicting a love story among young adults. T.O.P will play a Korean man Woo-hyun and Ueno Juri will feature a Japanese woman Haruka.

"It has been seven years since my last drama "Iris." I have tried my best with a strong sense of responsibility to show people how I have improved as an actor," said T.O.P. during the press conference. "Because I enjoyed Ueno Juri's dramas, I was very excited and was looking forward to meet her when I heard she was cast as my partner."

"I was worried a little bit about the language barrier before filming," said Juri. "However, I felt like there existed between me and T.O.P. a sort of telepathy, which made me focusing well on the filming, though I could not understand Korean."

"Secret Message" will be aired in 18 episodes and each episode runs for about 10 minutes. The first episode will premiere on next Monday at 8 p.m., via video streaming sites Naver TV Cast and LINE TV. After the first episode, the drama will air on the sites every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. for three weeks.

Meanwhile, the drama will air in Japan via Dtv, which is a Japan's biggest video streaming service site.

Source: The Korean Times

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The Secret Message (2015)

DramaFever, which made its name as a digital distribution source for Korean television dramas and other international TV fare, is making its first foray into original programming as solo producers.

The streamer will produce and distribute a concert documentary featuring the popular Korean pop group BIGBANG. The production, “BIGBANG: Made Concert 2015,” follows the internationally popular boy band on the U.S. leg of their world tour, playing sold-out shows in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. The film is directed by Mark Haney, who previously produced shows and tours for artists like Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Britney Spears.

DramaFever has previously co-produced two original drama series, “Heirs” and “Tomorrow’s Cantabile,” with Hwa & Dam Pictures and Group 8, respectively. This documentary will be both DramaFever’s first fully in-house original project and its first unscripted effort.

For its first fully original endeavor, DramaFever is taking a calculated stab at its core audience. “BIGBANG: Made Concert 2015” is likely to appeal to females in the 18-24 demographic that make up the majority of DramaFever’s existing user base. These are not only the audience members most engaged with the DramaFever platform globally, but also, as millennial and post-millennial media consumers, those most likely to be receptive to original streaming content.


Historically speaking, K-pop and streaming video have proved a potent mix. The genre, which commonly features bouncy danceable tracks and colorful, highly stylized videos, has been a hit on platforms such as YouTube. The video giant famously catapulted Korean novelty rapper Psy to international fame with “Gangnam Style,” which is the platform’s most-watched video with close to 2.44 billion views, and it has shown impressive though more modest global returns for acts such as Hyuna, Girls Generation and BIGBANG, which have found previously unknown buy-in from western audiences through the platform.

The documentary will be available for DramaFever premium subscribers on Nov. 6 and to non-subscribers on Nov. 11. The series is housed on a dedicated subsite, dramafever.com/bigbang, which also contains licensed content from the band designed to build and maintain its fan base.

Source: The Video Ink