For potentially his first cable drama ever, Song Seung-heon (Saimdang, Light’s Diary) is eyeing the upcoming fall OCN thriller Black as his next project, while Go Ara (Hwarang) is also in talks to become the female lead. Black is be about a a grim reaper who borrows the body of a man and ends up falling in love with a human woman. Because this goes against the rules of heaven, he’s punished by having any record of his existence erased such that there’s no trace of him left in the world’s memory.
If he confirms, Song Seung-heon will play the lead character, Han Moo-kang, who has two nicknames: “Grim Reaper of Criminals” and “Man in Black.” Moo-kang was originally a bright, cheerful man with a flamboyant fashion sense, until a secret caused a complete reversal in his life. Now he’s a stoic, blank-faced individual who wears black from head to toe. He’s known for not flinching at the most gruesome of crime scenes and for staying expressionless when faced with gory brutalized corpses.
On the other hand, details on Go Ara’s character have not been released, but I’m assuming she’ll play the human woman that the grim reaper fell in love with. From reading the synopsis, it seems like a mish-mash of 49 Days and the secondary love story in The Lonely Shining Goblin, both of which I enjoyed for the heart-wrenching dilemmas presented in loving a technically immortal/dead spiritual entity. (There’s also a a pinch of Hollywood movie Meet Joe Black in there.)
Just one more reason to watch if you’re into dark mysterious dramas: Black is a collaboration between God’s Gift–14 Days writer Choi Ran and Voice PD Kim Hong-sun, and this pair definitely knows how to play up those excellent thrilling elements.
OCN’s new supernatural crime-thriller Black will premiere this October.