| Native Name: |
| ||
| Creator: | Kim Kyung-hee | ||
| Director: | Go Dong-sun | ||
| Country: | South Korea | ||
| Language: | Korean | ||
| Num Episodes: | 24 | ||
| Producer: | Kim Un-ho | ||
| Camera: | Single-camera | ||
| Runtime: | 35 mins | ||
| Company: | Doremi Entertainment[1] [2] | ||
| Network: | MBC TV |
Man Who Dies to Live[3] is a South Korean television series starring Choi Min-soo, Kang Ye-won, and Shin Sung-rok.[4] The series aired two consecutive episodes on MBC every Wednesday and Thursday at 22:00 (KST), from July 19 to August 24, 2017.
Count Saeed Fahd Ali is a wealthy man of Korean descent living in the fictional kingdom of Bodoantia, located within the Mideast. He discovers he has a 35-year-old daughter back in South Korea, where he was known as Jang Dal-koo. Ali returns to Korea to meet his daughter, instructing his servant, Abdallah Muhammad Waliwala, to research her.
In Korea, Kang Ho-rim is a banker down on his luck, as the worst performer in the worst division of the bank. He is married to a woman named Lee Ji-young, and the two of them have a daughter named Eun-bi. Unbeknownst to Lee, Kang is having an affair with a woman whose name is also Lee Ji-young.
Abdallah hires a detective agency consisting of Detective Han and Miss Yang. Han presents Abdallah with two flash drives: One containing information on Ali's daughter and her family, and the other containing information on Kang's affair. Abdallah refuses the latter, taking only the former flash drive, but as fate would have it, the flash drives were switched, and Abdallah drives away with photos of Kang and his mistress.
Because both women share the same name and are the same age, the switch confuses Abdallah and Ali into believing the wrong woman is Ali's daughter.
The cast list refers to the two Lee Ji-youngs as "A" (Ali's daughter) and "B" (Kang's mistress) respectively to differentiate the two.
Meanwhile, Lee "A" has been writing drama scripts for many years while she works at a doctor's office. After years of rejections, she finally lands a meeting with a drama production company to review her script. Lee "B" is the producer in charge of reviewing scripts, but since Lee "A" submitted it under the wrong name by accident, Lee "B" does not initially notice that they share the same name.
Abdallah convinces Ali to start by getting familiar with someone close to Lee rather than confronting her directly. Ali decides to meet Kang and promises to invest a great deal of money with his bank, turning Kang into a celebrity at work.
Kang believes Ali is correct, and thinks that Ali's daughter is not his wife, but his mistress. However, he allows Ali to believe that he is married to Lee "B". The deception is time-consuming, however, and weighs heavily on Kang. He drinks himself into a stupor, and Lee "A" gets upset with him for not coming home.
Lee "A' goes to a night club with her boss, Wang Mi-ran. Ali is struck with a vision while praying and, following it, attends the same club. Wang takes an interest in Ali, and she tricks him into revealing that he is Korean.
The series was met with an online backlash and requests to boycott it from Arabs and Muslims, who alleged that the series contains inaccurate and insulting depictions of Muslim culture.[5] [6] The alleged scenes showed woman wearing a hijab and bikinis while laying next to a swimming pool, and the main character drinking wine for breakfast. Moreover, the poster portrayed the main character placing his foot next to the Quran.
MBC has since released an official apology in Korean, English, and Arabic, and stated at the beginning of episode 5 that they have removed the controversial scenes from all services of IPTV and VOD, stressing that Bodoantia is a fictional kingdom. The apology extends into the series canon, as episode 5 begins with Count Saeed Fahd Ali speaking directly to the audience over Arabic subtitles about the reverence that he has for Muslim culture.[7] [8]
Despite the controversy, the first 2 back-to-back episodes topped ratings in its timeslot as well as popularity charts in South Korea.[9] [10]
In the table below, represent the lowest ratings and represent the highest ratings.
| Episode # | Date | Average audience share | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TNmS Ratings[11] | AGB Nielsen[12] | |||||
| Nationwide | Seoul National Capital Area | Nationwide | Seoul National Capital Area | |||
| 1 | July 19, 2017 | 9.8% | 11.0% | 9.1% | 10.3% | |
| 2 | 10.5% | 11.3% | 9.1% | 10.4% | ||
| 3 | July 20, 2017 | 9.7% | 11.0% | 8.6% | 9.5% | |
| 4 | 10.0% | 11.2% | 9.6% | 10.5% | ||
| 5 | July 26, 2017 | 9.5% | 10.1% | 8.1% | 9.2% | |
| 6 | 10.7% | 10.8% | 9.4% | 10.6% | ||
| 7 | July 27, 2017 | 8.2% | 8.9% | 8.0% | 9.2% | |
| 8 | 8.9% | 10.1% | 9.2% | 10.3% | ||
| 9 | August 2, 2017 | 8.1% | 9.3% | |||
| 10 | 9.4% | 10.8% | 9.6% | 10.9% | ||
| 11 | August 3, 2017 | 8.1% | 8.7% | 9.9% | ||
| 12 | 8.5% | 9.9% | 9.6% | 11.0% | ||
| 13 | August 9, 2017 | 8.4% | 8.0% | 8.9% | ||
| 14 | 10.1% | 9.7% | 11.2% | 12.5% | ||
| 15 | August 10, 2017 | 10.4% | 10.5% | 11.1% | 12.6% | |
| 16 | 12.9% | 14.1% | ||||
| 17 | August 16, 2017 | 10.4% | 11.0% | 10.7% | 11.7% | |
| 18 | 11.7% | 12.7% | 12.8% | 14.1% | ||
| 19 | August 17, 2017 | 9.3% | 9.9% | 11.4% | 12.8% | |
| 20 | 10.8% | 11.4% | 13.5% | |||
| 21 | August 23, 2017 | 9.4% | 9.9% | 10.7% | 12.2% | |
| 22 | 10.8% | 11.8% | 12.8% | 14.1% | ||
| 23 | August 24, 2017 | 9.5% | 10.2% | 12.0% | 13.1% | |
| 24 | 10.7% | 11.5% | 15.1% | |||
| Average | ||||||