Everything You Need to Know About the Netflix K-Drama ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’

Love is in the air as weather forecasters fall for each other in Netflix’s new K-drama Forecasting Love and Weather. The series directed by Cha Young Hun of When the Camellia Blooms and starring Park Min-young and Song Kang is heading to the streaming platform this February 12, 2022, with two episodes to be released per week.

Watch the trailer of Forecasting Love and Weather below:

Before the pilot episode of this series drops tomorrow, we had the chance to virtually attend a press conference for the show which included director Cha Young-hun, and the main cast: Park Min Young, Song Kang, Yoon Bak, and Yura. During the presscon, they talked more about the series, its characters, and how it all came together.

Synopsis

This 16-episode rom-com series follows the “cheerful romance drama” of people at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The story centers on Jin Ha-Kyung who decides not to commit to an office romance ever again after a brutal breakup. But when the new team member Lee Si-woo arrives, she can’t help but fall for him.

As actress Park Min-young described the series, “It has elements of romance, it has elements of work, growth, and ambition. So it has a diverse array of emotions and elements, and I think this makes the story even more interesting.”

Forecasting Love and Weather is heading to Netflix on Saturday, February 12, 2022, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Two episodes will be released every week on Saturdays and Sundays with a total of 16 episodes.

The Cast and Characters

Forecasting Love and Weather has a star-studded cast K-drama fans would want to watch out for. Park Min-young of What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, Her Private Life, and City Hunter plays Jin Ha-Kyung, the youngest chief forecaster in KMA’s Forecasters’ Division 2.

“I think for the first time, we’re going to get some cold wind from Siberia,” said Min-young, comparing Jin Ha-Kyung with the bubbly characters she played in the past. “She is very cold-headed, she is a stickler to the principles and rules, and she’s not really a very popular character. Work is always first for her, and I think that’s one of the reasons she was dumped by her boyfriend, she’s always about work.”

Meanwhile, Song Kang of Navillera, Love Alarm, Nevertheless, and Sweet Home, stars as the special reporter Lee Si-woo. Kang described his character as “an innocent and very funny guy, but he is down to business about the weather.”

Yoon Bak who starred in You Are My Spring and Itaewon Class will play Ha-kyung’s ex-boyfriend Han Ki-joon, who is the KMA spokesperson director. According to actor Bak, the character “cares a lot about what people think of him,” and is “the worst person.”

Lastly, Yura of Now We Are Breaking Up stars as the daily weather reporter Chae Yoo-jin. “Yoo-jin wants to become successful,” shared Yura. “She is in her 20s, and she has a lot of ambitions, but not everything goes her way so she struggles really hard.”

Getting the Cast Onboard

The series has an exciting roster of stars but what attracted them to join the project? The cast members also answered this question during the press conference. For Park Min-young, it was the uniqueness of the story that got her saying yes.

“I never really knew much about the weather service and I don’t think there’s a series that really delved into this area so I thought that was really crisp-fresh,” said Min-young. But she also shared some of the challenges of doing this series: “If there’s like a medical drama or a legal drama, there are a lot of them so I can learn from the other dramas and series. And I kinda know how they speak and what terminologies they use. But for the weather service, I really had no idea how they spoke and what terminologies there are so it was really difficult to look up the terminologies. So I had to look up documentaries in order to familiarize myself with the service.

“So it was like a big, difficult homework for me. At first, I didn’t think it was too difficult, but now I think this series was one of the most challenging for me. But because it was challenging, I really enjoyed it, and I’m really proud that I pulled it off,” the actress added.

Meanwhile, Song Kang highlighted the humor of the story and how he relates to his character when answering why he got on board for the project. “First I thought the premise of the KMA is very interesting, and while I was reading the script, I think it was very humorous. It was very funny in some parts, so that is why it was really attractive for me. And my character Si-woo is really innocent, naive, and kind of dorky so I think that he resembles me to some extent that’s why I chose this series,” he explained.

Yura also loved the humor, as well as the heart-fluttering parts of the script. “I auditioned twice for Forecasting Love and Weather,” shared the actress. “When I read the script, I was just like an audience reading the script, right? So I read the [first through fourth episodes] in the script and I found myself bursting out in laughter and sometimes my heart would flutter. And then I went to see the director, director Cha is such a nice person. I was really touched by his good heart so I was sure that I wanted to be in this series.”

Yoon Bak, unlike his co-stars actually wanted to say no to the project because of his character. Here’s why he pushed through with the role:

“I have to be frank, right? I don’t want to lie,” the actor began. “The three actors said that the script was fun and that applied to me too. Everyone was so nice except for my character, Han Ki-Joon. He’s like the worst person ever so I really didn’t like him, but they offered me this character. So I had a meeting, and I was going to say no, and I went to see the director, but then the director persuaded me that I should take this part, so that’s why I became a part of this series. But you know, filming was fun and exciting and I could find the evil inside of me coming out, so it’s a very meaningful experience for me as well.

Life and the Weather Side by Side

Asked how the story of Forecasting Love and Weather took shape, director Cha Young-hun explained that it has been in the head of creator and writer Sun Young for a very long time before it was finally brought to life on TV.

“I think it took her about two years to do all the research and for about eight months, she practically lived at the KMA,” revealed Young-hun. “She worked overnight with them for two months, to really get a grasp of what’s happening there and when I talked to her, I felt like the weather and life of people, I think there are many similarities and I found that very interesting.”

“We are not able to know what is going to happen next in our life and that is the same for the weather. Then I put myself in the shoes of the people who have to forecast this unpredictable weather, and I think that was the trigger that interested both the writer and myself to this story. We cannot predict what is going to happen next in our lives, or what’s going to happen in the weather. We sometimes get the wrong gut feeling but we don’t give up. Weather forecasters need to continue to make the weather forecast and people need to continue with their everyday life. And I thought that was very intriguing,” the director added.

Watch Forecasting Love and Weather when it starts streaming on Netflix this February 12, 2022.

About ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’
Directed by: Cha Young Hun
Writer: Sun Young
Premiere date: February 12th
Episodes: 16 episodes (Every Sat & Sun 2 episodes per week)
Starring: Park Min Young, Song Kang, Yoon Bak, and Yura
Distributed by: Netflix
Logline: Inside a national weather service, love proves just as difficult to predict as rain or shine for a diligent forecaster and her free-spirited co-worker.
Release Date: February 12, 2022