OCN is doing what it does best—dark gritty horror-thriller—with Hand: The Guest. Starring Kim Jae-wook (Temperature of Love) and Kim Dong-wook (With the Gods), this drama tells the story of a priest, psychic, and investigator who fight supernatural crimes.
Well, this drama already had me at Kim Jae-wook, but then it threw him in a smexy priest’s smock and now I’m just plastered to my computer, rewatching him in the teaser charismatically smolder into the camera. He plays a priest with a tragic past; in his childhood, he had an encounter that led him to believe in demons. Appointed by the diocese to be an exorcist, he lives an isolated life casting out evil spirits that have possessed human beings.
Kim Jae-wook’s character, Choi Yoon, is described as the typical ice man, a rule-abiding, emotionless cynic. In the teaser, he commands a demon to go back to hell as scenes of people with signs of possession are shown. Later he says to someone: “Even though you don’t know evil well… even though you’ve never felt the pain that evil causes…” The vibe and color tone of the teasers are very reminiscent of PD Kim Hong-sun’s previous dramas like Voice and Liar Game, and I’m loving it. Kim Jae-wook was also in the popular suspense-thriller Voice, so the reunion with this PD for Hand: The Guest is drawing lots of attention.
On the other hand (hur, couldn’t resist) is Kim Dong-wook who is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated actors in dramaland. I was originally taken by his performance in Dandelion Family, and I’m looking forward to seeing him act opposite of Kim Jae-wook as a psychic medium who communicates with ghosts. Coincidentally, he also had a traumatic childhood experience that burdened him with a darkness in his heart. Could the two childhood incidents be related?
Unlike Kim Jae-wook’s character, Kim Dong-wook’s character lives a relatively normal life at least on the outside. Perhaps he adjusted better because he comes from a generational shaman family. Despite his “normal life,” he’s been trying to find an evil spirit that lives in the past and the present with his psychic abilities. In the teaser above, he informs Kim Jae-wook that the human has been possessed and that another person will die again.
The last teaser below starts off with a line that asks you to put your earphones in. Throughout, Kim Jae-wook prays to God and the Holy Trinity to protect them from evil demons, and asks the Lord to cast them to hell.
OCN’s Wednesday-Thursday drama Hand: The Guest will begin airing on September 12.
