A groundbreaking Mexican television series is making waves in the entertainment industry by becoming the country's first drama to deliberately adopt the visual style and narrative structure of Korean romantic dramas. "Contrato de Corazones, Tu y Yo" (Heart Contract, You and Me) is set to premiere on October 27 on Mexico's Canal 5, which is part of the TelevisaUnivision network.
This 20-episode romantic drama represents a bold crossover that blends the traditional elements of Mexican telenovelas with the distinctive cinematographic and storytelling techniques that have made Korean dramas globally popular. The series incorporates slow-motion editing sequences, dreamlike cinematography, and emotionally complex teen romance narratives in a clear tribute to Korean storytelling methods that is already creating significant buzz throughout Latin America and beyond.
The storyline follows Ferry, a high school student who is a devoted K-pop fan with dreams of studying fashion design in Seoul, South Korea. After successfully securing a scholarship to attend a prestigious private school, Ferry makes the decision to conceal her working-class background from her new classmates. Her carefully constructed facade becomes complicated when Sebastian, a brooding and mysterious student, discovers her secret.
To protect her reputation and maintain her place at the elite school, Ferry and Sebastian enter into a fake dating arrangement that serves both of their interests. However, as is typical in romantic dramas, genuine emotions begin to complicate their originally straightforward business-like agreement. The situation becomes even more complex when Mateo, Sebastian's estranged former friend who also happens to be the school's popular basketball team captain, develops romantic feelings for Ferry, creating a tense love triangle that drives much of the series' conflict.
This love triangle setup will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has watched Korean high school dramas, and according to the production team, this familiarity is completely intentional. Director Eduardo Murguia has explained that the series deliberately preserves the core values and emotional depth of traditional Mexican melodrama while consciously adopting both the storytelling techniques and editing styles that have made Korean dramas so successful worldwide.
Murguia specifically points to the series' extended use of slow-motion sequences, surreal visual transitions, and carefully polished computer graphics and color grading as prime examples of Korean drama influence. Even the props and set design incorporate elements pulled from Korean graphic design aesthetics, he notes, as part of a strategic effort to appeal to both older traditional drama fans and younger audiences who have grown up consuming Korean content.
The timing of this production is particularly significant given Mexico's position in the global television landscape. Mexico's telenovela industry represents one of the most powerful and influential television production ecosystems in the world, with Mexican shows being exported to more than 100 countries and translated into over 30 different languages. Despite this massive international reach and the steadily growing popularity of Korean dramas across Latin America, local adaptations that directly incorporate K-drama elements have remained extremely rare until now.
"Contrato de Corazones, Tu y Yo" will air in a coveted prime-time television slot and is being strategically positioned as a youth-oriented flagship series for Canal 5. The network is hoping to build on the massive ratings success of its previous hit "Las hijas de la Senora Garcia" (The Daughters of Mrs. Garcia), which achieved remarkable viewership numbers by drawing 7.5 million viewers for its series finale in March, according to local industry tracking organizations. This new series represents a significant gamble for the network as it attempts to capture both traditional telenovela audiences and the growing demographic of young viewers who are increasingly drawn to Korean entertainment content.
