Hero chosen for joint Korea-Japan drama `Friend¡¯¡¯

TV actor Won Bin, 24, who rose to stardom in the KBS drama ¡°Autumn Fairy Tale,¡± has been chosen as the hero of the first-ever drama co-produced by Korea and Japan.

Won will team up with Kyoko Fukada, 19, a teenage star in Japan, in ¡°Friend,¡± which is to be jointly produced by MBC Production and TBS of Japan. The program will be broadcast simultaneously in the two countries beginning in January next year.

MBC Production tried to recruit an actor to play the hero through open auditions but failed to find one. Won is said to look like Takuya Kimura, TV actor and singer who is now extremely popular in Japan.

MBC Production`s Kang Byung-mun, who will produce the drama together with Hideki Isano, said, "Won Bin is a symbol of today`s young Koreans but does not yet have an established image. We expect him to do well in the role.¡¯¡¯

"Friend,¡¯¡¯ which is being penned by popular Japanese writer Yoshikazu Okada, is about a Japanese woman visiting Seoul for the first time and a Korean student who guides her tour group. Overcoming the opposition of their families and friends, the two fall in love and struggle to overcome the cultural difference that threaten their relationship.

The drama will be aired in four installments of 60 minutes each. Korea¡¯s Bae Han-Chon and Japan¡¯s Nobuhiro Doi will jointly direct it.

The production staff, made up of both Koreans and Japanese, will begin discussions on the program in March, when the scripts for the first two parts are expected to be completed. Work will continue in May, when the final scripts are due. Shooting will start in September in both countries.