Dream High is a 2011 South Korean television series broadcast starring miss A's Bae Suzy, Kim Soo-hyun, T-ara's Ham Eun-jung, IU, and 2PM's Ok Taec-yeon and Jang Woo-young. The drama was popular among teenagers, and brought in viewership ratings in the 18 to 20% range during its two-month run. A special episode, where the cast of the show performed the Dream High Special Concert on a stage near Seoul, was aired on March 1, 2011, the day after the series ended. Its sequel Dream High 2 aired a year later with a different cast.
Synopsis
Six students at Kirin High School share dreams of becoming K-pop idols, among others. During their school years, they learn how to develop their singing, songwriting and dancing skills while undergoing personal growth. They also start to develop feelings for one another. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses, but they strive to debut with the support and guidance of one another.
While "Someday" fared well commercially and reached number one on the Gaon Digital Chart, it was embroiled in controversy after the song's writer and composer, Park Jin-young, was accused of plagiarizing the song, "To My Man". Songwriter Kim Shin-il won his plagiarism lawsuit against Park Jin-young in 2013, however, an appeal to the Supreme Court of South Korea led to an eventual High Court retrial in 2015.
Reception
On October 5, 2011, Japan's daily paper Sankei Sports reported that Dream High was handed the Grand Prize and 'Hallyu award at the SKY PerfecTV! awards which took place in Tokyo. On October 24, 2011, Dream High was given the Special Award for Foreign Drama at the 5th International Drama Festival held in Tokyo. On December 31, 2011, Dream High won the following at the KBS Drama Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Lee Yoon-ji; Best New Actor and Popularity Award for Kim Soo-hyun; Best New Actress for Bae Suzy; and Best Couple Award for Kim Soo-hyun and Bae Suzy. On May 10, 2012, Dream High was honored at the Rose d'Or, the global entertainment television festival ceremony which took place at Lucerne, Switzerland. It won the Golden Rose under the Youth category, the first ever Korean production to do so. On March 7, 2013, Dream High was honored as the Best Foreign Soap Opera at the 2013 USTv Students Choice Award in the Philippines, it is an annual awarding ceremony that recognized excellence and Christian values in Philippine television programs and personalities. The awards were based on students’ preferences survey that accounts for Roman Catholic values.
Ratings
In this table, represent the lowest ratings and represent the highest ratings.
The drama was adapted into a Japanese stage musical, with Yuya Matsushita and Bright's Nanaka playing the roles of Song Sam-dong and Go Hye-mi, respectively. It had runs at the New National Theatre Tokyo from July 3 to July 20, 2012, and was produced by the "Dream High: Musical Production Committee", composed of TBS, Avex Live Creative, Nelke Planning and LawsonHMV Entertainment. After the publication of Dream High Special Making Book in February 2011 which contained behind-the-scene stories and photos as well as special interviews with the show's cast, a two-volume "image novel" was also released featuring still cuts from the drama.
It is revealed that Dream High takes place in the same universe as one of the most famous Korean dramas, My Love from the Star: in episode 17 of My Love from the Star, Bae Suzy makes a special guest appearance as Go Hye-mi, the main protagonist of Dream High.
