Sandglass (TV series)

Sandglass is the story of two men whose friendship is tested through the 1970s and 80s, one of Korea's most volatile periods. Park Tae-soo (Choi Min-soo), tough and loyal, grows up to become a gangster and his pal Kang Woo-suk (Park Sang-won), smart with firm moral values, becomes a prosecutor.^[5] Yoon Hye-rin (Go Hyun-jung), a beautiful and spirited daughter of a wealthy casino owner, is a classmate of Woo-suk in college. She is introduced to Tae-soo via Woo-suk and they fall in love.^[6]

A notable aspect of this series is its depiction of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, an event during which Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, head of the military junta that took over the country after the assassination of President Park Chung Hee, sent paratroopers into Gwangju to violently crack down the uprising, resulting in a massacre of hundreds of civilians. A taboo subject during the airing of the series, the violent scenes (based on individual accounts) resulted in shock and grief for the public at that time. In the mid-90s, South Korea had not come to terms with what happened after the government muzzled free speech. "Sandglass" inspired a visible output of films dealing with the subject such as A Petal (1996) and Peppermint Candy (2000). It even influenced the prosecution of ex-President Chun Doo-hwan responsible for the massacre, resulting in his conviction decades after the incident.^[7]

• In the table below, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

Traffic was visibly lighter and pubs reported slow business as government officials, students and office workers alike headed home early to watch Sandglass every Monday through Thursday evenings.^{[citation needed]}

Sandglass remains one of the highest-rated TV series in Korean broadcasting history (by single episode viewership rating):

1. 그대 그리고 나 – You and I (66.9% / 1998-04-26 / MBC)
2. 첫사랑 – First Love (65.8% / 1997-04-20 / KBS2)
3. 사랑이 뭐길래 – What is Love? (64.9% / 1992-05-24 / MBC)
4. 모래시계 – Sandglass (64.5% / 1995-02-06 / SBS)
5. 허준 – Hur Jun (63.5% / 2000-06-27 / MBC)
6. 젊은이의 양지 – Youth's Sunny Place (62.7% / 1995-11-12 / KBS2)
7. 아들과 딸 – Son and Daughter (61.1% / 1993-03-21 / MBC)
8. 태조왕건 – Taejo Wang Geon (60.2% / 2001-05-20 / KBS1)
9. 여명의 눈동자 – Eyes of Dawn (58.4% / 1992-02-06 / MBC)
10. 대장금 – Dae Jang Geum (57.8% / 2004-03-23 / MBC)

A song, titled "Zhuravli" ("Crane"), by a Russian singer Joseph Kobzon was featured in the series. Although many Koreans did not understand the lyrics, it is still one of the most widely recognized song in Korea thanks to the show's popularity. The song actually mourns the Soviet soldiers killed while defending their homeland and who later became cranes. The lyrics blend well with the theme of the show since one of the major plot devices of the show, the Gwangju Massacre, commemorates the dead who were caught in the middle of the tragedy.^[8]

As a tribute to the late director Kim Jong-hak (who died on July 23, 2013),^[9] cable subsidiary SBS Plus aired reruns of Sandglass from July 29 to August 15, 2013, at 20:40 every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with two consecutive episodes per night. This was exactly how the show was originally broadcast in 1995.^[10]