This drama portrays the turbulent life of Lee Mi Reuk, a Korean expatriate who fought for the freedom of his country while studying medicine in Tokyo, during the period when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. He f...展开led to China and eventually settled in Germany. The first co-production between Korea and Germany, made to celebrate the 125th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries, 압록강은 흐른다 (Der Yalu Fließt) is not only a very faithful adaptation of the original (the first episode is more or less the novel's content, while the remaining two talk about the rest of Li's life in Germany), but also a throwback to the great period dramas of the early to mid 90s, like 카레이스키 (Kareisky) and 여명의 눈동자 (Eyes of Dawn).