General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Splash Splash Love (퐁당퐁당 Love)

Splash Splash Love (퐁당퐁당 LOVE; also romanized Pongdang Pongdang LOVE) is a 2015 South Korean time-slip romance drama produced by MBC as its 54th anniversary special, in which a high school senior who has given up on math falls through a rain shower into drought-stricken Joseon and becomes the young king's mathematics tutor.¹^•² It was released in two formats from the same footage: a ten-episode web drama on Naver TV Cast beginning December 10, 2015, and two broadcast parts on MBC (about 70 minutes) on December 13 and 20, 2015, airing Sundays at 00:05.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Title	퐁당퐁당 LOVE (Pongdang Pongdang LOVE), English title Splash Splash Love³
Broadcast	Web: 10 episodes on Naver TV Cast from 2015-12-10; TV: 2 parts on MBC, 2015-12-13 and 2015-12-20, Sundays 00:05, 70 minutes each³^•⁴
Genre	Historical, fantasy, romance (web drama, romantic comedy)²^•⁵
Main cast	Kim Seul-gi (Jang Dan-bi), Yoon Doo-joon (King Lee Do), Jin Ki-joo (Queen Soheon), Ahn Hyo-seop (Park Yeon / Che Ah-jik)²
Production	Director and screenwriter Kim Ji-hyun; chief producer Park Seong-eun; music Jung Ji-chan³^•⁶
Award	Winner of the 2015 Asian Television Awards (ATA) in the short drama category⁷
Ratings	Episode 1: 3.5% (TNmS nationwide) and 3.3% (AGB Nielsen nationwide); episode 2: 3.0% and 2.5%³

Spoilers

Premise

Jang Dan-bi (Kim Seul-gi) is a twelfth-grade student who has given up on math, with no particular dream or talent, whose mother nags her daily about her grades. On the day of the College Scholastic Ability Test (KSAT, 수능), unable to bear the pressure, she runs away and prays to escape her hellish life; the falling rain grants her wish and carries her back to the Joseon era, which is suffering a severe drought.⁸^•²

There she meets King Lee Do (Yoon Doo-joon), a young workaholic monarch who ascended the throne at an early age. After his accession, drought and epidemic disease strike Joseon, and the conservative faction stirs public sentiment against him. Unable to rely on superstition, Lee Do has his Hall of Worthies (Jiphyeonjeon) scholars try to predict rain, but the scholars' scientific knowledge falls short of his own, and he is frustrated. Dan-bi appears before him carrying substantial mathematical knowledge and modern objects, and he learns from her one piece of knowledge after another to pursue his ambitions.⁹^•⁸ Mistaken for a eunuch, Dan-bi uses her modern-day knowledge to assist the king, and the two grow closer as he works to help a people worn down by famine and epidemic.¹⁰

Characters

Jang Dan-bi (Kim Seul-gi) is described by MBC as an ordinary Korean high school senior and "math give-upper" who prefers to get by comfortably in a complicated world rather than rebel against it.⁸ In the palace she lives under the male identity of "Gosami," a low palace servant.⁹

Queen Soheon (Jin Ki-joo) is the queen of Joseon, raised in privilege and living according to her father's wishes. Seeing her cold husband enjoy himself for the first time, with the servant Gosami, she feels intense loneliness inside the palace, and intuits that Gosami is a woman, which she experiences as a serious threat to her position.⁸

Yeon (Ahn Hyo-seop) holds the post of Che Ah-jik (체아직), a temporary Joseon official position with no fixed salary, filled and replaced according to performance assessments. Born a slave in the household of the queen's father, he entered the palace thanks to his dexterity. He picks up the mobile phone Dan-bi drops from the sky and uses it as a chance to present her to the king, hoping to rise to a higher position through her, but comes to see that she is kinder and more special than he expected.⁸

The supporting and cameo cast doubles between eras: Go Gyu-pil plays Dan-bi's math teacher in the present and the head eunuch in Joseon; Im Ye-jin plays Dan-bi's mother and Queen Mother Wonkyung; Kim Kap-soo appears in photographs as Hwang Hui, the Chief State Councillor of Joseon and Dan-bi's father; Jung Kyu-soo plays Chief State Councillor Shim On; and Lee Dae-yeon plays the Hall of Worthies vice director Choi Man-ri.¹^•³

Production and release

The drama was directed and written by Kim Ji-hyun, whose prior work was The Diary of a Resentful Woman (2014), with Park Seong-eun as chief producer.³^•⁷ MBC described it as its first drama produced with separate web and terrestrial versions: the web episodes went up on Naver at 5 p.m. beginning December 10, while the first broadcast part, 80 minutes including material not shown on the web, aired December 13 at 00:05.¹¹ By December 13, three web episodes had been released and cumulative plays had passed 840,000.¹¹

The broadcast drew modest but stable ratings for a late-night special: 3.5% nationwide (TNmS) and 3.3% (AGB Nielsen) for part 1, and 3.0% and 2.5% for part 2.³ MBC re-aired the drama repeatedly: a Christmas marathon on December 25, 2015; a 133-minute re-edited version for the Lunar New Year on February 8, 2016; and consecutive reruns for Chuseok in October 2017.¹²

Music and reception

The soundtrack was led by "Neoege Pongdang" (너에게 퐁당, "Splash Toward You"), a modern-rock number written, composed, and arranged by Jung Ji-chan of the duo One More Chance, released in a version by the singer Remi and later re-recorded by Kim Hyung-jung; the album also includes the melancholy instrumental piece "Mirae" (미래, 未來, "The Future, Lee Do's Dream").⁶

The drama won the 2015 Asian Television Awards in the short drama category, according to MBC's international sales materials.⁷ On the streaming platform Rakuten Viki it holds a 9.5 user rating, and on the Korean catalog site KinoLights it carries a 3.8 average from 44 user reviews, with commenters praising the chemistry between Kim Seul-gi and Yoon Doo-joon and the OST while noting the short running time.⁵^•¹³ Viewer requests for a second season continued to appear on MBC's official page years after broadcast.¹⁴ DramaWiki lists a related series, My Divine Emissary (2024).³

Historical setting

The drama is set in the reign of a young King Lee Do, a name matching King Sejong the Great's personal name (이도, 李裪), and surrounds him with figures from early Sejong-era politics, including Hwang Hui, Shim On, and Choi Man-ri of the Hall of Worthies.¹^•⁷ MBC's synopsis frames the story as a growth romance transcending time and space, offered as "empathy and fighting spirit" to modern people leaping over precarious reality.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Sp to Z

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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