Yook Sung-jae (The Lonely Shining Goblin), Hwang Jung-eum (Handsome Guy and Jung-eum), and Choi Won-young (Hyena, Doctor Prisoner) feature in the recently released teaser for webtoon-based drama, Mystic Pop-up Bar (previously known as Two Tops Pocha). At this mysterious late-night pocha (food cart), a cantankerous auntie and an innocent part-timer help customers relieve their burdens and heal mentally by going into their dreams.
In the teaser, part-time customer service rep Yook Sung-jae walks down the street with a heavy weariness. In narration, Hwang Jung-eum clucks at his bloodshot eyes, dark circles and sallow skin. Yook Sung-jae’s feet lead him to an alluring pocha where he finds delicious anju (food you eat with alcohol) and liquor. At the end of this sequence, she decides on Yook Sung-jae: “Today, I choose you.”
We see that Hwang Jung-eum is the auntie who runs the pocha. Following her pronouncement, the teaser switches to show a Joseon-era woman dressed in white in front of a noble audience. We quickly flash back to a drunk Yook Sung-jae, and then Hwang Jung-eum begins to explain the philosophy of her pocha to a lady in the middle of a garage.
Her pocha is called Two Tops Pocha. In a world where people are divided into superior and inferior, top and bottom, her pocha is a place where everyone is a top. Of course, when everyone is a top, there’s no need for the condescension and power-tripping so often found elsewhere.
Copy flashes onscreen, saying: “To all of humanity, come to our pocha, where owners and customers are both tops. A condescension-free zone.” Choi Won-young features in a couple interspersed clips with Hwang Jung-eum and Yook-Sung-jae, to round out the trio as a suppressed team leader who is always sent on errands and useless tasks.
Yook Sung-jae is mobbed by angry ajummas at his job, and ends up hiding behind a bed frame. Two figures dressed in black fight and flip over, and Yook Sung-jae sends a wink toward camera. The teaser ends with Hwang Jung-eum offering: “Want a drink with me?”
JTBC Wednesday-Thursday drama Mystic Pop-up Bar, directed by Jeon Chang-geun (The Package), will begin on May 20.
