It was cold. Not just the "wear a scarf" kind of cold, but the bone-chilling, cinematic frost that defined K-drama aesthetics for an entire generation. When people talk about That Winter the Wind Blows, they usually start with the visuals. The cotton candy kiss. The snow-covered woods. Song Hye-kyo’s porcelain skin against a backdrop of pure white. But looking back on it now, years after its 2013 release, the show wasn't just about being pretty. It was actually pretty dark.
Melodramas are a dime a dozen in Seoul, but this one felt different. It had this specific, heavy atmosphere that sort of sits on your chest. You’ve got Jo In-sung playing Oh Soo, a high-stakes gambler who is basically a con artist with a death wish, and Song Hye-kyo as Oh Young, a legally blind heiress who’s understandably cynical about everyone around her. It’s a mess. A beautiful, tragic, high-fashion mess.
What Really Happened with That Winter the Wind Blows
Most people forget that this wasn't an original script. It was a remake of the 2002 Japanese drama I Don't Need Love, Summer (Ai nante irane yo, natsu). But while the Japanese version was sparse and almost cynical, the Korean adaptation cranked the emotional dial to eleven. Writer Noh Hee-kyung, who later gave us masterpieces like Dear My Friends and Our Blues, took a story about a fake brother and sister and turned it into a meditation on why people even bother living when everything is rigged against them.
Oh Soo is a garbage human when we meet him. Seriously. He’s a professional gambler who ends up in debt to a massive gangster, and his "plan" to save his own skin involves pretending to be the long-lost brother of a woman who can’t see him. It’s the ultimate "fake dating" trope but with a much higher body count and way more crying.
The chemistry was the thing. Jo In-sung’s acting is often polarizing—he’s very loud and very physical—but here, it worked. His height alone made the scenes with Song Hye-kyo look like something out of a classic 1940s film. They called them the "Oxy Couple" (a play on their names, Oh Soo and Oh Young), and the hype in 2013 was genuinely inescapable. You couldn't walk through a Myeong-dong subway station without seeing their faces.
📖 Related: Gwendoline Butler Dead in a Row: Why This 1957 Mystery Still Packs a Punch
The Visual Language of Director Kim Kyu-tae
If you watch it today, the first thing you’ll notice is the close-ups. Like, really close close-ups. Director Kim Kyu-tae obsessed over the actors' faces. He used shallow depth of field to blur out everything except a single tear or a twitch of a lip. It was risky. If the actors weren't perfect, it would have looked ridiculous.
But Song Hye-kyo was a revelation. Playing a blind character is a minefield for actors—many go too big or too "vacant"—but she spent months at welfare centers for the visually impaired. She learned how to focus her eyes slightly off-center and how to navigate a room using her other senses. It gave the show a grounded feeling that balanced out the more "soap opera" elements of the plot, like the secret wills and the evil corporate stepmothers.
Why the Ending Still Divides Fans
We have to talk about the ending. No spoilers for the three people who haven't seen it, but the finale of That Winter the Wind Blows is still debated in drama forums. Was it real? Was it a dream? Was it some weird purgatory?
Korean audiences in the early 2010s were tired of the "everyone dies of cancer" endings that dominated the 2000s (think Autumn in My Heart). They wanted hope, but they wanted it to feel earned. Noh Hee-kyung is famous for her humanism, so she wasn't going to give a cheap "happily ever after." Instead, we got a sequence that felt like a watercolor painting. It was blurry, soft, and ambiguous. Some people hated it. I personally think it was the only way the show could have ended without feeling like a total betrayal of the characters' trauma.
👉 See also: Why ASAP Rocky F kin Problems Still Runs the Club Over a Decade Later
Honestly, the show is a product of its time. The fashion is very 2013—lots of long coats and colorful scarves that became instant best-sellers. But the themes of loneliness and the "wind" as a metaphor for the harshness of life? Those are evergreen.
Breaking Down the "Fake Sibling" Controversy
Look, the "pseudo-incest" trope is a staple in some corners of Asian media, but That Winter the Wind Blows handled it with a weirdly high level of tension. Since we, the audience, know they aren't actually related, the drama comes from the guilt. Oh Soo is lying to her. He’s essentially stealing her heart under false pretenses while also trying to figure out if he should kill her for her money or save her from her own suicidal thoughts.
It sounds tawdry. In the hands of a lesser writer, it would have been. But the show treats their connection as two broken people finding a reason to breathe, rather than just a spicy taboo.
The Impact on the Hallyu Wave
This drama was a massive hit across Asia, specifically in China and Singapore. It solidified Song Hye-kyo’s status as the "Queen of Melodrama" long before The Glory or Descendants of the Sun. It also proved that "pretty" cinematography could be a storytelling tool in itself. Before this, many dramas were shot with flat, bright lighting. After this, everyone wanted that "winter film" look.
✨ Don't miss: Ashley My 600 Pound Life Now: What Really Happened to the Show’s Most Memorable Ashleys
The soundtrack also deserves a shoutout. The One’s "Winter Love" and Taeyeon’s "And One" were everywhere. If you hear those opening piano chords even now, you can almost feel the fake snow falling.
Key Takeaways for Your Next Rewatch
If you’re going back to watch it on Netflix or Viki, keep an eye on these things:
- The Color Palette: Notice how the colors shift from cold blues to warmer oranges as Oh Young starts to trust Oh Soo.
- The Hands: Because Oh Young is blind, her touch is her primary way of communicating. The way she touches Oh Soo’s face is some of the most intimate acting in the series.
- The Side Characters: Kim Bum (post-Boys Over Flowers) and Jung Eun-ji (Apink) provide the much-needed "bratty" energy to keep the show from becoming too depressing. Their chemistry is a total contrast to the main couple’s heavy, fated love.
How to Capture the "Winter Wind" Aesthetic
For fans of the show, the "look" of the drama is just as important as the plot. It’s about a specific kind of moody, sophisticated winter style.
- Invest in structured overcoats. Jo In-sung basically lived in long, colorful coats that highlighted his height.
- Focus on skin prep. The "glass skin" look was popularized by dramas like this. It’s about hydration, not heavy makeup.
- Find the "Cotton Candy" moment. Not literally, but find the small, sweet things in a harsh environment. That’s the core philosophy of the show.
That Winter the Wind Blows isn't a perfect show. It’s melodramatic. It’s sometimes frustratingly slow. But it has a soul. It’s about the fact that even when the wind is biting and you’re totally alone, there’s usually a reason to hang on for one more season.
To get the most out of a rewatch, try to view it through the lens of Oh Young’s sensory experience. Pay attention to the sound design—the whistling wind, the crunch of snow, the bells on her bracelet. It’s a much more immersive experience when you realize the show is trying to make you "see" the world the way she does.