Title: 장사의 신 – 객주 2015 / The Merchant: Gaekju 2015
Chinese Title: 生意之神 – 客主2015
Also Known as: God of Commerce: Gaekju 2015
Previously known as: 객주 (The Innkeeper)
Genre: Period, Romance
Episodes: 36+5
Broadcast network: KBS2
Broadcast period: 2015-Sep-23 to 2016-Feb-18
Air time: Wednesday & Thursday 22:00
Synopsis
Based on the ten-volume original novel “Gaekju” by Kim Joo Young which was published from 1979-June to 1983-Feb through daily newspaper “The Seoul Shinmun”.
A drama that tells the story of tradesmen in the late years of the Joseon era. Cheon Bong Sam (Jang Hyuk), the descendant of a merchant family, starts off in the market as a barker and makes his way up to become a wealthy merchant.
Cast
Main Cast
Jang Hyuk as Cheon Bong Sam
– Jo Hyun Do as Cheon Bong Sam (child)
Yoo Oh Sung as Gil So Gae
– Park Gun Tae as So Gae (young)
Kim Min Jung as Mae Wol
Han Chae Ah as Jo So Sa
Chun Family Merchant Group
Park Eun Hye as Cheon So Rye
– Seo Ji Hee as Cheon So Rye(child)
Im Hyung Joon as Oh Deuk Gae
Im Dae Ho as a peddler
Song Young Jae as Mung Gae
Park Hyo Joon as Ahm Mang Chi
Songpa Stables
Jung Tae Woo as Seon Dol
Ryu Dam as Gom Bae
Kim Myung Soo as Jo Sung Joon
Park Sang Myun as Song Man Chi
Yang Jung Ah as Bang Geum
Lee Dal Hyung as Choi Dol
Bang Hyung Joo as Wang Bal
Yuguijeon Merchant Group
Moon Ga Young as Wol Yi
Lee Duk Hwa as Shin Suk Joo
Kim Il Woo as Maeng Goo Bum
Kim Gyu Chul as Kim Bo Hyun
Kim Hak Chul as Kim Hak Joon
Kim Jong Kook as Park Seo Gi
Im Ho as Min Gyum Ho
Others
Jun Hun Tae (전헌태)
Kim Seung Wook
Kim Ha Kyoon
Kim Duk Hyun
Jun Jin Gi
Seol Ji Yoon
Gi Yun Ho (기연호)
Go Kyu Pil
Go In Bum
Kim Jin Tae
Jung Dong Kyu
Lee Ji Hyun
Lee Ki Yeol
Choi Ji Na
Ahn Jae Mo
Jo Duk Hyun
Woo Hyun
Kim Ki Doo
Park Yoo Seung
Cameos
Kim Seung Soo as Chun Oh Soo (Chun Bong Sam’s father)
Lee Won Jong as Gil Sang Moon (Gil So Gae’s father)
Choi Joo Bong
Production Credits
Chief Producer: Kang Byung Taek
Producer: Kim Min Kyung (김민경), Park Woo Ram (박우람), Ahn Chang Hyun (안창현), Han Hye Yun (한혜연)
Director: Kim Jong Sun, Kim Dong Hwi
Screenwriters: Jung Sung Hee and Lee Han Ho
Note
– The word “Gaekju” was used during the Joseon Dynasty period and has not been used in the present days and the meaning is “Broker” or “Commission Merchant”.
– The drama was initially announced as a 36-episode drama. Due to the high ratings of this drama, the production team decided to increase 5 more episodes to total of 41 episodes. (source)
Awards
2015 KBS Drama Awards: Best Couple Awards – Jang Hyuk & Han Chae Ah (The Merchant: Gaekju 2015)
2015 KBS Drama Awards: Best Supporting Actor – Park Bo Gum (I Remember You) & Kim Gyu Chul (The Merchant: Gaekju & Jingbirok)
2015 KBS Drama Awards: Excellence Actress (Medium Series): Kim Min Jung (The Merchant: Gaekju 2015)
2015 KBS Drama Awards: Excellence Actor (Medium Series): Jang Hyuk (The Merchant: Gaekju 2015)
Episode Ratings
| Date | Ep | TNmS | TNmS | AGB | AGB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Seoul | Nationwide | Seoul | ||
| 2015-09-23 | 1 | 5.2 | (<6.7) | 6.9 | 7.3 (18th) |
| 2015-09-24 | 2 | 4.5 | (<7.2) | 5.9 | 5.8 |
| 2015-09-30 | 3 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 5.8 |
| 2015-10-01 | 4 | 4.3 | (<7.8) | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| 2015-10-07 | 5 | 6.9 (18th) | 7.2 (20th) | 7.8 (17th) | 8.2 (15th) |
| 2015-10-08 | 6 | 7.4 (19th) | 7.7 (18th) | 9.5 (12th) | 10.0 (12th) |
| 2015-10-14 | 7 | 8.7 (14th) | 9.1 (9th) | 11.1 (7th) | 11.5 (7th) |
| 2015-10-15 | 8 | 8.4 (19th) | 9.2 (16th) | 10.0 (11th) | 9.8 (13th) |
| 2015-10-21 | 9 | 8.1 (17th) | 9.1 (11th) | 9.9 (10th) | 10.5 (9th) |
| 2015-10-22 | 10 | 8.0 (19th) | 8.5 (18th) | 10.9 (10th) | 11.2 (10th) |
| 2015-10-28 | 11 | 8.2 (17th) | 8.5 (15th) | 10.1 (14th) | 9.9 (13th) |
| 2015-10-29 | x | Posponed | For | Baseball | Game |
| 2015-11-04 | 12 | 7.7 (17th) | 8.2 (16th) | 11.1 (7th) | 11.3 (8th) |
| 2015-11-05 | 13 | 7.8 (20th) | 8.3 (17th) | 10.2 (12th) | 10.2 (13th) |
| 2015-11-11 | 14 | 7.9 (17th) | 8.7 (14th) | 11.3 (8th) | 11.7 (7th) |
| 2015-11-12 | 15 | 9.5 (13th) | 10.2 (8th) | 12.1 (6th) | 11.6 (6th) |
| 2015-11-18 | 16 | Not | Available | 12.0 (6th) | 11.9 (7th) |
| 2015-11-19 | 17 | 8.0 (19th) | 8.9 (12th) | 11.7 (7th) | 11.6 (6th) |
| 2015-11-25 | 18 | 8.6 (16th) | 8.9 (11th) | 12.2 (6th) | 12.2 (6th) |
| 2015-11-26 | 19 | 9.2 (14th) | 9.6 (9th) | 13.0 (6th) | 12.8 (5th) |
| 2015-12-02 | 20 | 8.1 (15th) | 8.7 (12th) | 12.4 (6th) | 12.6 (7th) |
| 2015-12-03 | 21 | 9.7 (14th) | 10.6 (8th) | 12.2 (6th) | 12.3 (6th) |
| 2015-12-09 | 22 | 8.4 (15th) | 9.2 (9th) | 11.6 (7th) | 11.8 (6th) |
| 2015-12-10 | 23 | 8.5 (14th) | 9.4 (9th) | 11.4 (7th) | 11.6 (7th) |
| 2015-12-16 | 24 | 8.4 (17th) | 8.7 (12th) | 10.6 (12th) | 10.1 (10th) |
| 2015-12-17 | 25 | 7.4 (20th) | 7.6 (16th) | 11.6 (8th) | 10.9 (9th) |
| 2015-12-23 | 26 | 7.7 (18th) | 8.2 (11th) | 11.7 (6th) | 11.0 (8th) |
| 2015-12-24 | 27 | 7.6 (18th) | 8.0 (11th) | 11.0 (8th) | 11.1 (7th) |
| 2016-01-06 | 28 | 7.7 (19th) | 8.5 (12th) | 9.8 (7th) | 9.7 (8th) |
| 2016-01-07 | 29 | 8.8 (19th) | 9.6 (12th) | 11.4 (7th) | 11.6 (9th) |
| 2016-01-13 | 30 | 8.0 (19th) | 8.5 (17th) | 10.7 (11th) | 10.4 (11th) |
| 2016-01-14 | 31 | 9.2 (17th) | 9.5 (15th) | 11.4 (8th) | 11.5 (8th) |
| 2016-01-20 | 32 | 8.4 (20th) | 8.1 (19th) | 10.8 (12th) | 10.2 (11th) |
| 2016-01-21 | 33 | 9.8 (18th) | 9.3 (15th) | 11.5 (8th) | 11.0 (10th) |
| 2016-01-27 | 34 | 9.1 (18th) | 9.1 (14th) | 10.2 (11th) | 9.9 (11th) |
| 2016-01-28 | 35 | 9.9 (16th) | 9.6 (13th) | 11.8 (10th) | 11.0 (10th) |
| 2016-02-03 | 36 | 9.1 (18th) | 9.0 (14th) | 11.2 (9th) | 11.1 (9th) |
| 2016-02-04 | 37 | 9.9 (15th) | 10.1 (11th) | 11.4 (11th) | 10.6 (12th) |
| 2016-02-10 | 38 | 8.7 (20th) | 8.9 (20th) | 10.4 (16th) | (<10.0) |
| 2016-02-11 | 39 | 8.4 | 8.5 (17th) | 11.1 (10th) | 10.4 (13th) |
| 2016-02-17 | 40 | 8.5 (20th) | 8.5 (16th) | 10.4 (12th) | 9.7 (15th) |
| 2016-02-18 | 41 | 8.8 (20th) | 9.4 (13th) | 11.2 (10th) | 10.9 (10th) |
Sources: TNmS Media Korea & AGB Nielsen Korea
*** Different between TNmS Media Korea & AGB Nielson – Here
Poster
Related Photo
(Other Photo from Official Site)
Trailer I & Trailer II & Trailer III & Trailer IV & Trailer V & Trailer VI
60 Responses to “The Merchant: Gaekju 2015”
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January 1st, 2016 at 10:12 pm
bagus banget filmnya nih.. semoga episodenya lebih panjang 😀
January 24th, 2016 at 11:51 am
I’ll continue to support jang hyuk, he deserves the name of kibg of dramasm kudos! Fighting!
January 25th, 2016 at 5:38 pm
Can’t believe Jang Hyuk would accept a role of a hero who is so stupid and ignorant that he is repeatedly fooled by Gil Sogae. He repeatedly is outfitted by all the bad guys and gets all his friends and family killed. I guess some actors will take any role for money.
January 29th, 2016 at 2:25 pm
i dont like this drama .
February 1st, 2016 at 11:22 am
same here. I dont like the drama. very slow and with no point with script badly written. Wasted Jang Hyuk’s acting.
February 17th, 2016 at 8:25 pm
nice
February 19th, 2016 at 1:20 pm
For me it is boring, too. Although I like period dramas a lot
February 21st, 2016 at 3:31 pm
Jang Hyuk best actor 😉
February 29th, 2016 at 9:50 am
why extend this drama ? not interesting!!!!
July 15th, 2017 at 7:36 pm
I’ve watched over 200 Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese dramas over the years, including about 60 historical Korean dramas. This one was about the WORST.
A great cast was wasted on a lousy script about subject matter presented in a boring way.
Jang Hyuk’s talents as an action hero were wasted, playing the role of a complete idiot. And it was boring.