Bae Yong-joon’s “The Legend” bags 8 awards and becomes the biggest winner of the MBC Drama Awards 2007. The award ceremony was held on Dec 30 in Seoul, with Shin Dong-yup and Hyun Young as the emcees.

Below are pictures of some Korean stars on the red carpet…

Bae Yong-joon in clutches because of injury sustained while filming The Legend

Gong Yoo and Joo Ji-hoon

Han Ji-min and Gong Hyo-jin

Jang Hyuk and Lee Junki

Lee Ji-ah (with her self-designed dress) and Lee Yoon-ji

Nam Sang-mi and Park Jung-ah

Park Shin-hye and Yoon Eun-hye (Image credits as labeled)

Some of the major awards winners…

Daesang (Grand Prize)
Bae Yong-joon (The Legend)

Top Excellent Actors
Kim Myung-min (White Tower) and Lee Seo-jin (Yi San)

Top Excellent Actresses
Gong Hyo-jin (Thank You) and Yoon Eun-hye (The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince)

Excellent Actors
Gong Yoo (The 1st Shop pf Coffee Prince) and Lee Jun-ki (Time Between Dog and Wolf)

Excellent Actresses
Han Ji-min (Yi San) and Nam Sang-mi (Time Between Dog and Wolf)

The first 3 episodes shared the story of the king when he was young, and featured some young Korean actors. Bae Yong-joon and other main cast (Moon So-ri and Lee Ji-ah etc.) were introduced in the 4th episode, and the ratings soared up to 31.7%.

Actor Bae Yong-joon in The Legend

With the popularity of Bae, the drama is also highly anticipated in Japan. Japanese TV station NHK has announced that the drama will start showing on its channel from December 3.

“Legend of the First King’s Four Gods” (or simply “The Legend”; 태왕사신기) is a Korean TV drama set to premiere on September 10, 2007.

Legend of the First King’s Four Gods

The Legend is a historical fantasy drama based on the epic story of the 19th king of Goguryeo in ancient Korean era. It is actor Bae Yong-joon’s first TV drama since the highly acclaimed series “Winter Sonata” in 2002.

The co-stars of Legend include Moon So-ri, Lee Ji-ah and Choi Min-soo etc.

I don’t really like Winter Sonata, but the melodrama still remains one of the most popular Korean dramas ever… a recent Japanese poll has chosen Bae (nickname Yon-sama by his fans) and his Sonata’s co-star Choi Ji-woo as the most popular Korean artists in Japan.