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‘Goblin’ K-Drama Scores Highest Ratings Yet After Back Hug Scene In Episode 9 — Gong Yoo And Lee Dong Wook Become Fashion Icons

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 13:24 PST, Jan 1, 2017

Gong Yoo’s K-drama Goblin is on a roll. Yibada reports that the drama series has recently recorded its highest ratings yet.

According to Yibada, the show garnered more than 15 percent of the audience share in their time slot after Episode 9, which aired on December 30.

That episode featured a very romantic back hug scene between characters played by Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun. Based on the statistics from Nielson Korea, the ratings for the episode were actually 15.4 percent.

The average ratings per episode for this drama that premiered in December is 13.6 percent.

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As Yibada reports, during the episode, Kim Shin (Gong Yoo) admitted that he loved Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun) and sealed the deal with a back hug.

The relationship between Shin and Eun Tak has been causing some controversy of late. The reason is that Eun Tak is a young school girl and Shin, a supernatural being without a specific age, is being depicted by a middle-aged man.

So, as Inquisitr previously reported, there were some critics who described the show as promoting pedophilia.

But it looks like the controversy has not affected viewers’ opinion of the show since the ratings have not suffered in the least.

The show is apparently also influencing fashion trends as well.

According to an article by the Jakarta Post, Korean shoppers are falling in love with the oversized coats that Gong Yoo has been wearing on the show.

A particularly hot item is a coat from Lanvin Paris’ 2016 fall-winter collection, which Yoo, a model-turned-actor, wore in Goblin Episode 3. According to the Jakarta Post, it costs over $3,000 (4 million won).

Gong Yoo has also worn clothing by Givenchy, Burberry, and Tom Ford. His co-star Lee Dong Wook has also become a fashion influencer because of his role on the show.

He wears mostly all black suits on the show by younger, more accessible designers, the Jakarta Post notes.

“The items are not difficult to find, but still give off an exceptional vibe,” Lee Dong Wook’s stylist Nam Ju-hui said. “Though his role is Grim Reaper, his fashion is not always so somber, which has led to many fashion brands trying to sponsor him.”

Goblin, which is also known as Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, follows the story of Kim Shin, a lonely supernatural being who is responsible for human souls. He lives with the Grim Reaper, played by Lee Dong Wook, and wants to become a human being. To do so, he has to fall in love and marry a human woman, and the “woman” he chooses is Eun Tak, the 17-year-old school girl mentioned earlier.

Goblin airs on tvN on Fridays and Saturdays at 10 p.m. Korean Standard Time, but it’s also available on Drama Fever.

[Update: A previous version of this article stated that Kim Go Eun’s character is 17 on Goblin, which is incorrect. That part of the article has been changed]

[Featured Image by tvN]

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