I was thinking that it’d been a long time since I’d seen Gong Myung in dramaland, but I realized it was because I cut out of Revolutionary Love so early that I could only remember him being in Bride of the Water God 2017. He’s been offered KBS’s new workplace drama Happy to Die, which sounds like a healthy dose of wish fulfillment for beleaguered office grunts, described as a refreshing burst of cider thrown at the frustrations of real life. It’s based on an award-winning webtoon about the fantastical time-bending journey that turns a terrible boss into a decent human being. Because we all know it takes serious magic to make that happen.
Kang Ji-hwan (Children of a Lesser God) has been confirmed for the starring role as the boss everyone hates with a fiery passion and wishes an untimely death upon. They get their wish when the manager dies unexpectedly and then gets caught in some sort of time-loop where he keeps dying and being brought back to life. In the course of the time travel, he learns to stop being an abusive team leader and tyrant. I’m guessing that’s mostly due to the subordinate who keeps saving him from dying every day, which is the role that Baek Jin-hee (Let’s Eat 3) has been offered.
Gong Myung is up to play a marketing manager of the chicken company where all of our characters work. He turns heads in the office for his good looks but also his wackiness, and he’s the type to force his subordinates into games of chance to determine who goes on assignments. Nobody can complain about him though, because he’s the nephew of the company’s president. I can see Gong Myung playing a quirky, immature chaebol a la Lee Won-geun in Jugglers and having fun with it, so it seems like a good fit for the character.
Happy to Die will be helmed by PD Lee Eun-jin, who directed Trot Lovers and Sassy Go Go, and also worked on Chief Kim and Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-ho. It’s scheduled to follow The Ghost Detective on Wednesdays and Thursdays in late October.