| Director: | Oh Chung-hwan |
| Country: | South Korea |
| Language: | Korean |
| Num Episodes: | 16 |
| Location: | Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Company: | SidusHQ |
| Network: | SBS TV |
While You Were Sleeping is a 2017 South Korean television series starring Lee Jong-suk, Bae Suzy, Lee Sang-yeob, and Jung Hae-in. Consisting of sixteen chapters distributed over 16 episodes, this legal drama-fantasy television series centers on the lives on three young adults—a field reporter, a prosecutor, and a police officer—who have acquired the ability to foresee future events through their dreams, after saving each other many years ago.
The series is directed by Oh Chung-hwan and written by Park Hye-ryun.[1] It aired on SBS from September 27 to November 16, 2017 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the 22:00 (KST). The drama completed filming and editing before airing the pilot episode.[2] [3] [4] The drama is available on online streaming services such as Netflix, Viki, KOCOWA and Viu. iQIYI also broadcasts the drama.[5]
While You Were Sleeping is a combination of the romance, legal drama and fantasy genres, focusing on the tale of three young adults who have acquired the ability to see the future through their dreams: field reporter Nam Hong-joo (Bae Suzy), rookie prosecutor Jung Jae-chan (Lee Jong-suk), and police officer Han Woo-tak (Jung Hae-in). Some of these dreams show crimes that Jae-chan has to investigate and others show disastrous events that one or more of them will have to endure. Troubled by these dreams, the trio collaborate with each other to prevent their ominous dreams from turning into reality and to defeat their archenemy, the corrupt lawyer Lee Yoo-beom (Lee Sang-yeob).
A 29-year-old rookie prosecutor. Jae-chan was the son of Jung Il-seung, a police chief officer who was murdered by the same runaway soldier who killed Hong-joo's father. Back in his adolescent years, he was a carefree boy with no worries about his studies. After reconciling with his father, he became a changed teenager and aimed to work as a prosecutor. It was also at this age that he acquired from Hong-joo the ability to see the future through dreams, when Hong-joo saved him from drowning in a lake while preventing police officer Choi Dam-dong, the runaway soldier's older brother, from committing suicide.
Despite appearing cold and lacking a sense of humor, Jae-chan is still foolish and funny in some aspects. Since the first appearance of his future-seeing dreams, he will do everything he can to prevent them from coming true. He falls in love with Hong-joo after days of going out with each other, without knowing or recognising that she was "Bamtori", his childhood acquaintance who also lost her father to the runaway soldier (his lack of recognition was due to him remembering Hong-joo as a boy from her tomboyish mannerisms and short, boy-like haircut). He was born in April 1988, and his blood type is B. Despite all the chaos he somehow managed to fall for Nam Hong-joo and is very protective towards her.
Born in 1988, Hong-joo is a 29-year-old journalist and field reporter who has the power of precognition (the ability to see events in the future), which takes effect while dreaming. She was once a tomboyish girl nicknamed "Bamtori" who aspires to become a baseball player. Since she was a child, Hong-joo has been haunted by seeing the deaths of other people in her dreams, one of which is the untimely death of her father, Nam Chul-doo, at the hands of a runaway soldier who also killed Jae-chan's father. She first met Jae-chan when both their fathers' funerals were jointly conducted on the same date in the same funeral hall. By saving Jae-chan from drowning, she had inadvertently made Jae-chan acquire the same ability that she has. Due to her short haircut and tomboyish characteristics, many people, including the reporters of the runaway soldier case and Jae-chan mistook her as a boy.
Now that she is fatherless, Hong-joo began dreaming of the impending deaths of her mother, Yoon Moon-sun, and herself: the former happening due to an accident she gets into and the latter due to her occupation as a field reporter. Unfortunately, like all the other dreams, she does not know when the deaths will happen; she can only guess. In her attempt to stop her dreams from becoming reality, she leaves her job and helps her mother in running a samgyeopsal restaurant. Nevertheless, she regains her resolve in doing her job as a field reporter with Jae-chan to support her in preventing their dreams from coming true. She later in the series falls in love with Jae-chan and begins dating him.
A 34-year-old successful and famous prosecutor turned lawyer who does not hold any attachments. Yoo-beom was Jae-chan's private tutor when Jae-chan was in his adolescence. He coaxed Jae-chan into falsifying his report cards so that they could gain money from Jae-chan's father and buy a motorcycle. With Yoo-beom driving the new motorcycle, they get into an accident and he leaves Jae-chan behind to fend for himself, an incident which made Jae-chan dislike him.
As a former prosecutor, Yoo-beom dared to falsify evidence just to finish his cases. As a lawyer, he works in Haekwang Law Firm, taking on any case that brings him a lot of money and going to whatever lengths to achieve an outcome he desires, such as fabricating evidence or manipulating testimonies even if he knows if his clients are truly guilty or innocent. He even went as far as to murder Ha Joo-an, the true culprit of the IV drip serial murders to cover up the fact that he fabricated evidence that wrongly convicted a doctor for perpertuating the 19 killings. Yoo-beom was eventually found guilty of murder and fabrication of evidence and sentenced to incarceration for life.
He was Hong-joo's boyfriend because of a blind date. However, they broke up after Jae-chan saved her from the accident that night. Yoo-beom's birthday was 20 November 1983.
A 29-year-old police officer who was the top placer in his class of aspiring policemen. Woo-tak is considered to be a handsome, intelligent, and able-bodied police officer. Although he exemplifies the ideal policeman, he keeps a secret that can jeopardize his career in the police: he is actually suffering from color blindness but an error in the assessment made his condition undetected.
Woo-tak was destined, without him knowing, to die in a car accident that Yoo-beom will cause on a snowy Valentine's Day after he delivered Yoon Moon-sun's cellphone which she left at her restaurant. Thanks to Jae-chan, who intercepted Hong-joo's car which Yoo-beom was driving, he was saved from his supposed death and acquired from him the ability to see future events through dreams. Together with Jae-chan and Hong-joo, they work together to keep their bad dreams from coming true. As the trio went on with their lives, Woo-tak began having an affection for Hong-joo, although he kept his feelings concealed, sensing that Hong-joo and Jae-chan are developing feelings for each other. His birthday was in September 1988, and his blood type is O.
A police officer turned detective/inspector who works for Jae-chan in the Prosecution Office. Choi Dam-dong was the older brother of Choi wook-hyun, the runaway soldier who killed Dam-dong's chief and Jae-chan father, Jung Il-seung, and Hong-joo's father, Nam Chul-doo. During his younger years as a police officer, he attempted to commit suicide by drowning himself in a lake out of the shame he felt for Guk-hyun's crimes. Before he completely drowns, Jae-chan and Hong-joo save him and convince him to move on with his life. From that moment on, he wished he could meet them once again in the future.
Now an old detective, Inspector Choi's skills as a former policeman are still in action, particularly when it comes to crime scenes. He once worked for ex-prosecutor Yoo-beom, though he was unaware of Yoo-beom's fraudulent schemes until when he began working for Jae-chan. He began supporting the unknowing Jae-chan in his investigations and gives him helpful advice. He also talks formally to Jae-chan even though he is much older than him. It is also revealed in the latter episodes of While You Were Sleeping that he had also acquired the ability to see the future through dreams, apparently from Hong-joo and Jae-chan.
A female prosecutor with a charming and friendly appearance. Prosecutor Shin was Jae-chan's colleague when they were in college, but she holds a higher position than Jae-chan in the prosecution office, next to their superiors. She also has a high success rate at prosecuting criminals, though she sometimes finds it hard to accept her own mistakes, especially her failure in Kang Dae-hee's poisoning case.
A senior prosecutor who became close to and supportive of Jae-chan. He is willing to cover up for Jae-chan and to let him borrow his personal things, even his own car. He began to secretly date fellow prosecutor Son Woo-joo. Later on, their secret affair was accidentally revealed to their co-workers when he wore by mistake Prosecutor Son's lipstick which he inadvertently switched with his lip balm.
Another senior prosecutor who was a single mother unbeknown to her co-workers. She became close to Prosecutor Lee and ended up being married to him.
Chief of the Prosecution Officer Division 3 who is very conscious about his division's reputation and performance. He has the same name as a mobile phone thief whom he indicted ten years ago when he was still a prosecutor.
Jae-chan's assisting officer who likes handsome men but can get easily turned off.
a police officer along with Han Woo-tak; he sensed that Woo-tak had color blindness but kept the secret to himself to prevent Woo-tak from getting discharged
a young pianist who suffers from her father Jun-mo's abusiveness; Seung-won's girlfriend
So-yoon's mother who is fearful and submissive to her abusive husband Jun-mo
So-yoon's abusive father; Lawyer Lee Yoo-beom's regular client
Hong-joo's deceased father; a bus driver who was killed by the runaway soldier who also killed Jung Il-seung
Jae-chan's deceased father; the former police chief officer of Il-yoo Police Station before he was killed by the runaway soldier (his subordinate Choi Dam-dong's younger brother) who also killed Nam Chul-doo
a soldier who deserted from the army and during the escape, he used a rifle to kill Jae-chan's father and detonated a grenade on a bus, causing both himself and Hong-joo's father to die in the explosion. It is later revealed that he was the younger brother of Choi Dam-dong.
Dae-hee's younger sister, an employee in a coffee shop. Her brother Dae-hee had killed her second brother Byung-hee for insurance. She was originally set to be murdered by Dae-hee for her insurance as well but survived the murderous rampage with Hong-joo and Woo-tak's help
Cho-hee's older brother; a chicken restaurant owner who killed his younger brother for his insurance; one of Lawyer Lee Yoo-beom's clients; initially acquitted of killing his brother, he was once again arrested and after a retrial, he receives a life sentence for his brother's murder in the end
Seung-won's classmate and son of Myung Yi-suk, a doctor who was falsely accused as the culprit of an intravenous drip serial killing of 19 hospital patients. Even after his father was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and after his father's death by suicide, Dae-gu sought to help his father prove his innocence, and he harboured a strong sense of hatred towards Yoo-beom ever since
Woo-tak's high school roommate and internet installer who was falsely accused of being the culprit behind Yoo Soo-kyung's sudden death
a nationally renowned athlete in archery who is very much loved by the people around her because of her virtuousness and generosity. She died when an attack of fainting spells due to otolithiasis caused her to collapse and injure her head, leading to severe cerebral hemorrhage.
a skilled marksman who is suffering from pancreatic cancer and is in terminal condition. He is Soo-kyung's father, becoming one of Lawyer Lee Yoo-beom's clients for her daughter's case.
Prosecutor Son's son who suffers from chronic kidney failure
Professor Moon Tae-min's teaching assistant and an organ donor to seven patients (including Chan-ho). He was one of the victims of Professor Moon's abusiveness, from which he got his injured arm. He was secretly killed by Professor Moon after he attempted to reveal Professor Moon's wrongdoings during a book launching activity.
a seemingly benevolent professor and writer who is abusive to his students and subordinates in reality. He secretly killed Lee Hwan after a book launching ceremony. He is one of Lawyer Lee Yoo-beom's clients.
a mailman turned thief whose nine-year-old daughter became paralyzed after a car accident. With her daughter needing constant care at home, he abandoned his job and resorted to stealing mobile phones. He has the same name as the prosecutor who sent him behind bars. Her daughter died ten years ago while he was in jail.
Dae-young continued his crime even after he was out of jail and stole Ha Joo-an's phone in the process. He copied Joo-an's files in a flash drive before giving it to Jae-chan for investigation.
Ha Joo-an's accomplice who knew about Joo-an's crime. He was asked to retrieve the phone which contained the photos of Joo-an's 19 victims. He was then killed by Joo-an after he got caught by the police.
the real culprit of a seriously dreaded intravenous drip serial killing of 19 hospital patients. She was a bed-ridden patient suffering from Crohn’s disease. Out of her intense animosity towards her fellow patients who were already about to be discharged, she injected her first 11 victims with Vecaron. She killed her remaining eight targets in the same manner after the arrest of the doctor Myung Yi-suk, who was first assumed to be the culprit of the crime. She also kept photos of her victims in her phone, which was stolen by the thief Park Dae-young and the contents revealed to Jae-chan and his team. During her appearances in the show, Joo-an had never shown any tinge of remorse for her actions. She was killed by Lawyer Lee Yoo-beom, who threw her off the building and let her fell to her death after she attempted to murder Hong-joo.
| While You Were Sleeping OST | |
| Type: | Soundtrack |
| Artist: | Various artists |
| Genre: | Soundtrack |
| Length: | 68:20 |
| Language: | Korean, English |
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Sales | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR Gaon | ||||
| "When Night Falls" (Eddy Kim) | 2017 | 34 |
| Part 1 |
| "It's You" (Henry) | 54 |
| Part 2 | |
| "You Belong to My World" (Roy Kim) | 20 |
| Part 3 | |
| "I Love You Boy" (Suzy) | 13 |
| Part 4 | |
| "I Miss You Today Too" (Davichi) | 20 |
| Part 7 | |
| "Maze" (Kim Na-young) | 31 |
| Part 8 | |
| "IF" (Jung Joon-il) | 33 |
| Part 10 | |
| "Words I Want To Hear" (Suzy) | 30 |
| Part 13 |
| Broadcast date | Title[29] | Average audience share | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TNmS[30] | AGB Nielsen[31] | ||||||
| Nationwide | Seoul | Nationwide | Seoul | ||||
| 1 | September 27, 2017 | While You Were Sleeping[32] (Korean: 당신이 잠든 사이에) | 8.2% | 9.1% | 7.2% | 8.1% | |
| 2 | 9.4% | 10.8% | 9.2% | 10.4% | |||
| 3 | September 28, 2017 | The Good, The Bad, and The Weird[33] (Korean: 좋은놈 나쁜놈 이상한놈) | 8.0% | 8.7% | 8.3% | 9.8% | |
| 4 | 9.3% | 10.2% | 9.2% | 11.0% | |||
| 5 | October 4, 2017 | Secretly, Greatly[34] (Korean: 은밀하게 위대하게) | |||||
| 6 | 5.5% | 5.7% | 6.1% | 7.0% | |||
| 7 | October 5, 2017 | A Few Good Men[35] (Korean: 어 퓨 굿 맨) | 8.3% | 8.2% | 7.9% | 8.2% | |
| 8 | 9.9% | 8.9% | 9.6% | ||||
| 9 | October 11, 2017 | Don't Trust Her[36] (Korean: 그녀를 믿지 마세요) | 7.8% | 9.3% | 8.1% | 10.0% | |
| 10 | 8.9% | 10.2% | 9.4% | 11.5% | |||
| 11 | October 12, 2017 | City of the Blind[37] (Korean: 눈먼자들의 도시) | 7.5% | 7.8% | 8.9% | 10.3% | |
| 12 | 8.5% | 8.9% | 9.7% | ||||
| 13 | October 18, 2017 | A Secret That Can't Be Told[38] (Korean: 말할수 없는 비밀) | 7.6% | 8.5% | 8.6% | 9.5% | |
| 14 | 9.1% | 11.3% | |||||
| 15 | October 19, 2017 | Pride and Prejudice[39] (Korean: 오만과 편견) | 7.1% | 7.7% | 7.9% | 8.9% | |
| 16 | 8.0% | 8.9% | 8.9% | 10.0% | |||
| 17 | October 25, 2017 | The Usual Suspect[40] (Korean: 유주얼 서스펙트) | 7.7% | 8.1% | 7.3% | 8.0% | |
| 18 | 8.8% | 9.7% | 8.9% | 10.0% | |||
| 19 | October 26, 2017 | Boy Meets Girl[41] (Korean: 소년, 소녀 만나다) | 6.5% | 7.0% | 8.2% | 9.6% | |
| 20 | 7.4% | 8.7% | 8.9% | 10.3% | |||
| 21 | November 1, 2017 | To Die or to be Bad[42] (Korean: 죽거나 혹은 나쁘거나) | 6.5% | 7.6% | 6.9% | 7.9% | |
| 22 | 7.6% | 8.9% | 8.4% | 9.7% | |||
| 23 | November 2, 2017 | Knocking on Heaven's Door[43] (Korean: 노킹온 헤븐스 도어) | 7.0% | 7.1% | 7.3% | 8.3% | |
| 24 | 8.2% | 9.0% | 8.6% | 9.9% | |||
| 25 | November 8, 2017 | We're on Our Way To Meet You Now[44] (Korean: 지금 만나러 갑니다) | 5.7% | 7.2% | 6.8% | 8.2% | |
| 26 | 6.8% | 8.4% | 8.6% | 10.0% | |||
| 27 | November 9, 2017 | Catch Me If You Can[45] (Korean: 캐치미 이프유캔) | 7.7% | 9.3% | 7.7% | 8.9% | |
| 28 | 8.7% | 10.1% | 9.6% | 11.3% | |||
| 29 | November 15, 2017 | Stand By Me[46] (Korean: 스탠 바이 미) | 7.2% | 8.1% | 8.1% | 9.3% | |
| 30 | 8.7% | 10.0% | 9.6% | 11.0% | |||
| 31 | November 16, 2017 | Goodbye, My Friend[47] (Korean: 굿 바이 마이 프랜드) | 7.6% | 8.6% | 8.7% | 10.0% | |
| 32 | 8.7% | 9.5% | 9.7% | 11.0% | |||
| Average | 7.7% | 8.7% | 8.3% | 9.6% | |||
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 19th Mnet Asian Music Awards | Best OST | Bae Suzy – "I Love You Boy" | [48] | |
| 25th SBS Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Wednesday–Thursday Drama | Lee Jong-suk | [49] | ||
| Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Wednesday–Thursday Drama | Bae Suzy | ||||
| Character of the Year | Lee Sang-yeob | ||||
| Excellence Award, Actor in a Wednesday–Thursday Drama | |||||
| Jung Hae-in | |||||
| Excellence Award, Actress in a Wednesday–Thursday Drama | Ko Sung-hee | ||||
| Best Supporting Actor | Kim Won-hae | ||||
| Best Supporting Actress | Hwang Young-hee | ||||
| Youth Acting Award | Nam Da-reum | ||||
| Shin Yi-joon | |||||
| Best Couple | Lee Jong-suk & Bae Suzy | ||||
| 2018 | Korea First Brand Awards | Drama Category | While You Were Sleeping | ||
| 54th Baeksang Arts Awards | Most Popular Actress | Bae Suzy | [50] | ||
| 13th Seoul International Drama Awards | Top Excellence Award for Korean Drama | While You Were Sleeping | [51] | ||
| Outstanding Korean Actor | Lee Jong-suk | [52] | |||
| Outstanding Korean Actress | Bae Suzy | ||||
| 6th APAN Star Awards | Top Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries | Lee Jong-suk | [53] | ||
| Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries | Bae Suzy | ||||
| K-Star Award, Actor | Lee Jong-suk | ||||
| K-Star Award, Actress | Bae Suzy |
After the first episode aired, the whole community site went crazy with stories while you were asleep thanks to the twist. After the show aired, writer Park Hye-ryeon topped the list of real-time search words. After the drama aired, the title of the drama or actors usually topped the list, but it is very rare for the writer to top the list of real-time search words. In fact, it overwhelmingly topped the list of popularity indexes. However, he failed to go further in the second half and maintained a small response. However, since this period, tvN has organized dramas on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and a total of four dramas have been added at the same time, and the situation has been bad, with terrestrial broadcasters suddenly introducing intermediate advertisements to break the trend. Nevertheless, it remained No. 1 at the same time until the end, and it was overwhelmingly No. 1 in the drama's popularity that year.[54]