Premiered in 1976 at Sejong Center Grand Theater, Like the Sun belongs to the lineage of large historical musicals that extended from earlier works such as O Sea, Speak, while shifting toward explicitly martial-historical subject matter.

Contemporary descriptions note the work also reflected state policy themes and “national crisis overcoming” discourse, though this entry foregrounds its theatrical and historical dimensions. Surviving government newsreel footage makes this one of the better visually documented early Korean historical musicals.

As a music-theatre treatment of Yang Manchun, the work also participates in a longer Korean performance tradition of reinterpreting military-historical heroes through large ensemble spectacle.