| Asphalt Man | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Man on the Asphalt The Man from the Asphalt Street Dream Racers |
| Based on | Asphalt Man by Huh Young-man |
| Written by | Park Hyun-joo |
| Directed by | Lee Jang-soo |
| Starring | Lee Byung-hun Choi Jin-sil Jung Woo-sung Lee Young-ae |
| Composer | Choi Kyung-shik |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
| Original language | Korean |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Korea United States |
| Running time | Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 (KST) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Seoul Broadcasting System |
| Release | May 17 – July 6, 1995 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Aseupalteu Sanai |
| McCune–Reischauer | Asŭp‘alt‘ŭ Sanai |
Asphalt Man (Korean: 아스팔트 사나이; RR: Aseupalteu Sanai) is a 1995 South Korean television series starring Lee Byung-hun, Choi Jin-sil, Jung Woo-sung, and Lee Young-ae. Based on the 1991 comic of the same title by manhwa artist Huh Young-man, it aired on SBS from May 17 to July 6, 1995, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 16 episodes.
Kang Dong-joon (Lee Byung-hun) is a young car designer who dreams of starting his own car company in Korea. He tries to get assistance from his father (Park In-hwan), but the family is in financial trouble. His younger brother Dong-seok (Jung Woo-sung) hates their father, and leaves the country to become a car racer in the United States. Meanwhile, his sister Dong-hee (Lee Young-ae) also flees to the U.S. after conceiving a child with a U.S. army soldier.
Asphalt Man began shooting in late 1994 with an estimated production budget of ₩1 billion per episode. Filming took 5 months, at the Hyundai auto factory plant in Ulsan and in Dongducheon, including 45 days of overseas location shoots in the United States, which was rare at that time for a Korean drama. The U.S. scenes were filmed in Death Valley and Silver Peak, Alpine County in California. The snow rally in the drama's climax was shot in Utah, though several cast and crew members reportedly suffered from oxygen deficiency.
As the drama's official sponsor, Hyundai Motor Company contributed more than ₩1.2 billion. Various models of Hyundai Motors were featured in the drama as concept cars, production models and Rally vehicles, such as the Accent and the Elantra/Avante. In particular, the Tiburon was first introduced in the scene of Dong-joon's Death Valley Rally.