Korean Drama 'Descendants Of The Sun' Breaks Records Thanks To Chinese Investments

The two lead actors of popular Korean drama Descendants of the Sun were in Hong Kong on Tuesday for the series’ first overseas promotional activity. The drama will premiere in the city the next day on local channel Viu TV. The show is already available on Viu’s free K-drama streaming site Viu.com, where it is the most-watched show.

Descendants of the Sun is a romantic drama between a soldier played by Song Joong-ki and a doctor played by Song Hye-kyo set in a fictional war-torn Mediterranean country Uruk.

The 16-episode drama is the most popular television show in South Korea, reaching the top spot with about 30% of the country’s audience share after just five episodes in, according to research firm Nielson Korea. Last week, its latest episode (11th) was viewed by 34.3% of the audience in South Korea’s capital and reached a record 40.9% rating.

The popularity of the TV show quickly paid off its 13 billion won ($11 million) production cost, which was helped funded by Chinese companies.

Baidu ’s video-streaming affiliate iQiyi.com bought the exclusive rights to stream the show in China for $250,000 per episode which, in total, is equivalent to about 40% of the show’s production costs. The show was released simultaneously in South Korea and China, the first Korean drama to do so, and was viewed more than 1 billion times on the platform.

Hong Kong-based Huace Media Investment is the second largest shareholder of Seoul-based Next Entertainment World (NEW), which produced Descendants of the Sun. The investment firm bought a 15% stake in the South Korean company for 323 million RMB ($52.65 million) back in 2014, allowing NEW to afford such high production costs.

The Hong Kong company is the investment arm of Chinese billionaire Fu Meicheng & family's Shenzhen-listed Zhejiang Huace Film & TV .

Analysts praised Huace’s movie production for the Korean drama, according to investment agency ChinaGoAbroad. Since the release of the drama in Feb. 24, Huace’s shares rose 17.6%, beating the Shenzhen index’s 3.31%.

With China becoming South Korea’s largest export destination for Korean popular culture, more partnerships like Huace and NEW are expected. A few weeks ago, Yonhap reported that the sequel to Korean fantasy action film D-War will be produced in China, financed with 500 million RMB investment from state-controlled Chinese Culture Group, and is expected to be released in mid-2017.