Grid, starring Lee Si-young and Seo Kang-joon, a Disney+ original mystery, sends a message about saving the planet, a rarity in South Korean drama series, director says
- Lee Khan’s suspense thriller follows Ghost, a mysterious figure played by Lee Si-young who develops a system to protect humans from disaster
- When she reappears after a 24-year absence, she helps a serial killer escape, triggering a hunt for the truth behind the pair’s links
By Lee Gyu-lee
The global streaming platform Disney+ debuted another Korean original series, the sci-fi mystery Grid, this week, hoping to give a boost to its stagnating performance in Korea.
Directed by filmmaker Lee Khan, who led the action film The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful (2019), the new suspense thriller series revolves around a mysterious figure called Ghost (Lee Si-young) who disappeared after developing a system known as Grid that protected humans from a deadly disaster. Some 24 years after her disappearance, she resurfaces and helps a serial killer get away.
When detective Jung Sae-byeok (Kim A-joong) witnesses the existence of the mysterious being, she joins forces with government official Kim Sae-ha (Seo Kang-joon) to reveal the secret of Ghost and chase down the truth behind the link with the serial killer.
The 10-part series was written by Lee Soo-yeon, who is the writer and creator of tvN’s hit crime thriller series Stranger.
“It wasn’t easy to make up my mind to lead this series,” the director said this week. “What struck me was the series’ theme, which is ‘we should protect our planet Earth.’ Until now, I have actually been questioning why there are no series or films in Korea that talk about saving Earth. So I joined hands with the writer.”
The series would be a subtle sci-fi in genre with less visual effects, the director said. His main focus in making the series was creating a fictional universe in which to set the unfamiliar plot, he added.
“There are a lot of sci-fi elements but our series doesn’t put forth the visual effects of those. It develops different stories that the writer wanted to unfold, anchoring on reality,” he said. “As the plot is rather unfamiliar, we put in a lot of effort to convincingly develop the fictional universe.”