My Korean Jagiya to Quietly End Tomorrow Night

No thrills, no fanfare, no anything.

Simply put, Friday’s conclusion of GMA’s ‘My Korean Jagiya’ will be a quiet one. After 105 episodes, the series will officially come to an end with very little promotion whatsoever.

‘My Korean Jagiya’ starred the unlikely pairing of Heart Evangelista and Korean actor Alexander Lee. First airing on August 21, 2017, ‘My Korean Jagiya’ became the first Filipino drama series to feature a few scenes taped in Korea.

The series was initially pitted against ‘A Love to Last’ during its first month on air. Not surprisingly, ‘My Korean Jagiya’ struggled, getting around 9-10% in the ratings versus the 18-20% that ‘A Love to Last’ earns.

‘My Korean Jagiya”s ratings improved somewhat once ABS-CBN premiered the more serious drama ‘The Good Son’. Still, despite improving its average by around 1 or 2%, it was not enough to win their timeslot.

It also didn’t help that ‘My Korean Jagiya’ received very little support of late outside of GMA’s commercial breaks. While its teasers were present on the GMA Drama Facebook page, GMA management has apparently stopped uploading such videos on its official YouTube page (despite its claim of over four billion views and counting).

Despite the lack of support and its overall performance, it was still worth noting that ‘My Korean Jagiya’ was able to make it past the 100th episode. Reaching 100 episodes was not bad, but GMA would have celebrated such a milestone had the series rated well (at least there was a sizable population of Korean expats watching the show).

Much like its predecessor ‘I Heart Davao’, promoting a particular culture became quite a theme for ‘My Korean Jagiya’. Uniting Filipinos and Koreans in one roof, the series helped expand the unlikely yet fruitful love affair between Filipinos and the Korean lifestyle.

That said, regardless of its shortcomings, ‘My Korean Jagiya’ was a terrific show to watch. Any Korean drama fan in the Philippines would love to appreciate this one-of-a-kind drama.

Come tomorrow night, ‘My Korean Jagiya’ will look to leave one final imprint to its fans. It will be an interesting ending to see, so find out what fate awaits the love story between Gia (Heart) and Kim (Alexander).

New Challenger for A Love to Last: My Korean Jagiya

‘A Love to Last’ has a new opponent.

Through 158 episodes (as of August 18, 2017), the ABS-CBN primetime series has overcome all challenges thrown at them. Initially pitted against ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ season 1 (10 episodes from January 9-20), ‘A Love to Last’ has since made mincemeat of fellow romantic comedy series ‘Meant to Be’ (108 episodes from January 23-June 23) and ‘I Heart Davao’ (40 episodes from June 27-August 18).

Now they look to claim another victim starting next week. However, their next opponent is no ordinary romantic comedy.

In the past several years, both GMA and ABS-CBN imported several successful Korean dramas to fill in programming hours. Now GMA takes over Korean cultures and landscapes in the form of ‘My Korean Jagiya’.

Leading the way for ‘My Korean Jagiya’ will be Heart Evangelista. Her character Gia is a Korean grade school tutor and a dedicated K-drama fan girl who was nonetheless teased that she is next in her family to become an old maid.

Gia’s dream is to meet her long-time crush and once-famous Korean superstar Kim Jun-ho, portrayed by top Korean star Alexander Lee. At first, Gia searched for Kim in Korea while on a scholarship training, but wound up returning to Manila to find Kim drunk and beaten by gangsters in a bar, beginning a seemingly fruitful friendship.

‘My Korean Jagiya’ will also star Janice de Belen, Ricky Davao, Iya Villania, Edgar Allan Guzman, Valeen Montenegro, Frances Makil Ignacio, Myke Solomon, Jinri Park, Divine Aucina, and Khane dela Cruz. Korean stars David Kim, Michelle Oh, and Jerry Lee will play special roles in the series as well.

Parts of ‘My Korean Jagiya’ were shot in South Korea, and featured several key spots that were made famous by several iconic Koreanovelas such as ‘Jewel in the Palace’, ‘My Name is Kim Sam Soon’, My Love from the Star’ and ‘Winter Sonata’. The Seoul Film Commission and Seoul Metropolitan Government assisted the series’ producers in the production process.

While ‘My Korean Jagiya’ is a uniquely wonderful series for both Filipinos and Koreans to enjoy, their biggest hurdle to success comes in the form of ‘A Love to Last’. Despite being perceived as ‘boring’ in the minds of critics, ‘A Love to Last’ continues to beat all comers, and this is something that should concern ‘My Korean Jagiya’ a lot.

One can only hope that ‘My Korean Jagiya’ will not be the short-lived drama that befell more recent romcoms ‘My Love from the Star’ and ‘I Heart Davao’. If the series can somehow go beyond 80 episodes, then that should be good enough for their morale.

Directed by Mark Reyes, ‘My Korean Jagiya’ airs weekdays after ‘Mulawin vs. Ravena’ on GMA Telebabad.