The Hong sisters’ new “exorcist romance drama” Hwayugi released three brief clips introducing its main characters, just a month before its premiere date on tvN. Based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, Hwayugi is a modern retelling of a legendary odyssey full of monsters and adventures. In the original story, the main character is a human monk tasked with finding special ancient texts with a set of troublesome companions, and among them, the most beloved and reviled character is Sun Wukong, a trickster Monkey God.
“The great” Sun Wukong will be played by Lee Seung-gi (You’re All Surrounded), who was just discharged from his military enlistment duties. And in the retelling, the monk character has been changed to a female character, “A human with the ability to see spirits,” played by Oh Yeon-seo (My Sassy Girl). The gentler counterpart to Lee Seung-gi’s mischievous Sun Wukong is the “Bull Demon King, God of Spirits,” played by Cha Seung-won (Hwajeong). Together they fight a world full of dark spirits, in search of light.
That’s all the teasers tell us; they don’t really give any more information regarding the story, but previous character and story synopses seem to indicate that it’ll take place primarily in the real estate and entertainment industries. Oh Yeon-seo’s character is supposed to be a real-estate mogul that builds her empire by selling houses that supposedly have bad juju attached to them. Meanwhile, Cha Seung-won plays the vain but gentlemanly CEO of the best talent agency in the country, employing Lee Hong-ki (Modern Farmer) who plays the nation’s top celebrity (and also an analogous character to the Pig God in the original novel).
I’m not quite sure what the hands of flame symbolize, but maybe it’s a cleansing fire to exorcise the spirits? Either way, I’m excited to see the bromance between Cha Seung-won and Lee Seung-gi again because You’re All Surrounded was not enough! Saturday-Sunday drama Hwayugi will begin airing on December 23 on tvN.
