Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hye-sun
With tvN’s See You in My 19th Life kicking off this past weekend, busy bee Shin Hye-sun confirmed casting for JTBC’s romance Welcome to Samdalri as her next project – acting opposite Ji Chang-wook (If You Wish Upon Me).
As we can surmise by the title, the drama takes place in the beautiful Samdalri, a small town located on Jeju Island. Here resides our hero Jo Yong-pil (Ji Chang-wook), who works as a local weather forecaster. For his colleagues, Yong-pil is a PR nightmare – always arguing with head office directives and stubbornly sticking to what he believes is the accurate forecast of the day.
But Yong-pil’s passion stems from losing his mother to the sea during a diving accident caused by a weather report miscalculation. In order to prevent the same fate for his beloved townspeople, Yong-pil is determined to be the lookout and safeguard for his hometown.
Although Yong-pil always had a big heart for Samdalri, his once childhood bestie Jo Sam-dal (Shin Hye-sun) had always dreamed of leaving. As soon as she was old enough, she crossed the channel to live in the big city of Seoul, where she dropped her bumpkin name and became known as Jo Eun-hye instead.
Putting her nose to the grindstone, Sam-dal succeeded in gaining fame as a talented fashion photographer. But despite the years it took to build her career, all it took was one incident for everything to come crashing down. The story then sets off with Sam-dal returning to her family home to rest, where she is reunited with her estranged friend.
Directed by PD Cha Young-hoon (Forecasting Love and Weather, When the Camellia Blooms) with scripts penned by Kwon Hye-joo (Hi Bye, Mama!, Go Back Spouses), JTBC’s Welcome to Samdalri is slated to air in the weekend slot later this year.