KBS is casting for its upcoming drama Happy to Die, and offers are out to Kang Ji-hwan (Children of a Lesser God) and Baek Jin-hee (Let’s Eat 3) to star in the time-bendy webtoon adaptation. Though the time-bendy aspect might seem like an overused concept at this point, especially with Familiar Wife airing over on tvN, the synopsis sounds quite different in tone, and just fresh enough for those of us with genre-fatigue.
Kang Ji-hwan is up to play a marketing manager at a fried chicken company, who graduated from an elite university at the top of his class. He might have a great resume, but what he’s known for within his company is his terrible personality. He’s verbally abusive with absolutely no filter, and he’s the type of manager everyone has fantasized about killing at least once. Unfortunately for him, his colleagues’ fantasies come to fruition and his character dies at the beginning of the show, only to be caught in a time rift that keeps bringing him back to life.
If she accepts, Baek Jin-hee will play a long-suffering subordinate to Kang Ji-hwan’s tyrannical manager, who gets caught up in her manager’s constant battle for survival. The reports don’t elaborate on whether, or how, she gets stuck in this time rift alongside him, but she plays an important role in stopping Kang Ji-hwan’s character’s death on a daily basis. Which sounds exhausting, but great fun for us as viewers, since we get to witness Kang Ji-hwan’s character painfully transform into a decent human being. Nothing like a good sci-fi comeuppance for everyone’s worst workplace nightmare.
Hopefully, confirmations come in relatively quickly, since Happy to Die is planning to premiere before the year is out. At least the show has its director in PD Lee Eun-jin, whose previous credits include Trot Lovers and Sassy Go Go, the latter of which was pretty cute. It’ll be interesting to see how this director handles what sounds like a darker show like Happy to Die.
KBS has slated Happy to Die to premiere in November in its Wednesday-Thursday slot, following The Ghost Detective.