Sandglass (TV series)
| Sandglass | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Hourglass |
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Song Ji-na |
| Directed by | Kim Jong-hak |
| Starring |
Choi Min-soo Park Sang-won Go Hyun-jung |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
| Original language(s) | Korean |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Running time | Mondays to Thursdays at 20:40 (KST) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Seoul Broadcasting System |
| Original release | 10 January – 16 February 1995 |
Sandglass (Hangul: 모래시계; Hanja: 모래時計; RR: Moraesigye; also known as The Hourglass) is a South Korean television series. It is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in history, and is also considered one of the most significant. Written by Song Ji-na and directed by Kim Jong-hak, it aired on SBS in 1995 in 24 episodes.
A depiction of the tragic relationship among three friends affected by the political and civilian oppression of 1970s and 1980s Korea, the series mixed politics, melodrama, and action. It recorded a peak rating of 64.5%, the third highest of all time, and launched its leading trio of Choi Min-soo, Go Hyun-jung, and Park Sang-won into stardom. Its reenactment of the Gwangju Uprising (interspersed with archival video footage) has been called one of the most realistic and memorable moments in Korean TV history.
Sandglass is the story of two men whose friendship is put to the test through the 1970s and 1980s, one of Korea's politically tumultuous periods. Park Tae-soo (Choi Min-soo), tough and loyal, grows up to become a gangster. Kang Woo-suk (Park Sang-won), smart with firm moral values, grows up to become a prosecutor. Yoon Hye-rin (Go Hyun-jung), a beautiful and spirited daughter of a very wealthy casino owner, is a classmate of Woo-suk in college. Hye-rin is introduced to Tae-soo via Woo-suk and they fall in love.
A notable aspect of the series is its handling of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, an event during which the head of the military junta (which had taken over South Korea after the assassination of President Park Chung-hee), General Chun Doo-hwan, sent paratroopers into Gwangju to put down the rebellion resulting in a massacre of hundreds of civilians. A taboo subject during the airing of the series, the violent scenes (based on individual accounts) resulted in shock and grief for the South Koreans at that time. (The mid-90s South Korea had not come to terms with what happened after government muzzled free speech.) After the drama aired, there was a visible output of films dealing with the subject (such as A Petal (1996) and Peppermint Candy (2000)). It even influenced the prosecution of ex-President Chun Doo-hwan responsible for the massacre (he was finally jailed, decades after the incident).
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