The Military Thread

"This show satisfies all my fantasies," 35-year-old Beijing fan Ms Dai tells the BBC. "It reminds me of the feeling you have in a romantic relationship."

Seoul's latest offering chronicles the star-crossed relationship between a soldier and surgeon. It has won millions of fans across the region, but also caused alarm from some authorities.

Love is a battlefield

The 16-episode show began airing on South Korean television in February. It is also being simulcast online in China and streamed on other websites - not always legally - watched by South East Asian fans.

It has all the familiar ingredients of a K-drama: a convoluted plot, A-list actors and an exotic location - in this case Greece, standing in as the fictional war-torn Mediterranean country Uruk.

But one unique feature of Descendants of the Sun is its military setting - it is often not fate that gets in the way of the main characters' happiness, but the urgencies of war.

The show is mostly set in Uruk where a special forces captain played by Song Joong-ki juggles peacekeeping duties with wooing an army surgeon played by Song Hye-kyo - rather inconveniently, he often has to leave her at crucial moments to save lives or go on mysterious missions.

"The surgeon is a woman with a First World problem in a five-star package. She has a mystery man who is totally into her but who keeps leaving. Yet the drama also keeps reuniting them in airbrushed, beautified real-world circumstances," was how one Singaporean newspaper review summed up its premise.

The military theme has resonated because the armed forces play a big part in South Korean society, with the constant looming threat of war with the North, and where conscription is mandatory for male citizens.

An editorial carried by the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily praised it as "an excellent advertisement for conscription" showcasing South Korea's "national spirit" and "communitarian culture", and suggested China create a similar soap opera.

International appeal

At home, the drama has broken viewership records and won plaudits from even the likes of President Park Geun-hye, who said it could help spread South Korean culture and boost tourism.

What fans are saying

"The military theme does not appear frequently in TV shows so combined with the romantic theme, this is not like other Korean soap operas," - Ms Gao, 24, Beijing resident

"Unlike most Korean dramas which are about a rich guy who falls in love with a poor, golden-hearted girl, the story feels more like the love story of two evenly-matched adults." - Chen Yuanni, 32, Beijing resident

"(Song Joong-ki) is very good looking with a boyish look. In real life a captain must shoulder a lot of burden and would look older." - Prayuth Chan-ocha, prime minister of Thailand

The city of Taekbaek, where some of the filming took place, is now planning to rebuild the film set because of intense interest from tourists, reports the Korea Times.

But its main fan base lies overseas, particularly China, where so far it has been viewed more than 440 million times on popular video-streaming site iQiyi.com. China has strict rules on broadcasting foreign dramas, but relaxed them for Descendants of the Sun, whose production was reportedly partly funded by Chinese investors.

It was a move seen by some as a sign of warming relations with South Korea, though others have pointed out that one scene depicting a fight with North Korea - China's ally - was censored in the Chinese broadcast.

Even Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha - an army general who took power in a military coup - is a fan, urging his countrymen last week to watch it as it promotes "patriotism, sacrifice, obeying orders and being a dutiful citizen".

The show has been sold to 27 countries including the UK and translated into 32 different languages, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

But fandom has its costs. There were panicky reports in Chinese media earlier this month of a woman who nearly went blind binge-watching the show and another drama, when her 18-hour marathon session triggered acute glaucoma.

Chinese authorities have warned of the dangers of watching Korean dramas, which it said could lead to marital trouble and criminal behaviour.

Earlier this month, Chinese tabloids carried a bizarre story of a young man who was so jealous of his wife's obsession with Song Joong-ki that one night he drunkenly stormed into a photography studio and demanded that the shop owner take pictures to "make him look like Song". The owner eventually called the police.

China's public security ministry highlighted this incident in an advisory on its Weibo social media account two weeks ago.

"When chasing male or female stars, do not become too infatuated with them. Because sometimes your casual words could end up hurting those who really care for you," it said.

It also cautioned citizens against imitating the more melodramatic aspects of K-dramas, such as "forcibly kissing women" and slapping one another during lovers' tiffs.

"This sort of behaviour may seem romantic, but this kind of romance is not acceptable to everyone... it becomes wrong when you justify criminal behaviour as romance," it said.

In the latest episode, the show's protagonists temporarily put aside their romantic angst to fend off the twin threats of a villainous arms dealer and a viral disease spreading through the barracks.

Will love overcome all? Come 14 April, the day the finale will air, millions across Asia will be tuning in to find out.

Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, led a search team, assisted by historians from the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in Washington, D.C., to accomplish what past searches had failed to do – find Indianapolis, considered the last great naval tragedy of World War II.

“To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending World War II is truly humbling,” said Allen in a statement provided to USNI News on Saturday. “As Americans, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the crew for their courage, persistence and sacrifice in the face of horrendous circumstances. While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming.”

On July 30, 1945, what turned out to be the final days of World War II, Indianapolis had just completed a secret mission to the island Tinian, delivering components of the atomic bomb “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima which would ultimately help end the war. The ship sunk in 12 minutes, before a distress signal could be sent or much of the life-saving equipment was deployed, according to a statement from the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. Because of the secrecy surrounding the mission, the ship wasn’t listed as overdue

Around 800 of the ship’s 1,196 sailors and Marines survived the sinking, but after four to five days in the water, suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks, only 316 survived.

The collision was reported at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time, while the ship was transiting to a routine port visit in Singapore.

Initial reports indicate John S. Mc Cain sustained damage to her port side aft.

Search and rescue efforts are underway in coordination with local authorities.