Netflix K-drama Tomorrow: spirited start for suicide-themed fantasy series starring Kim Hee-seon and Rowoon
- In this fantasy take on a pressing social problem in South Korea, the Jade Emperor leads a bureau of grim reapers in the afterlife who must prevent suicides
- Koo Ryeon (Kim Hee-seon) takes a tough-love approach to her task, and soon gets help from Choi Jun-woong (Rowoon) to help a writer facing her school bully
Following a week’s delay, Tomorrow launched at the beginning of April. Featuring Alice’s Kim Hee-seon and SF9 K-pop boy band member Rowoon, the show spins a fantastical premise around one of South Korea’s most persistent hot-button issues: suicide.
Thanks to the staggering success of K-dramas and K-pop, the global image of Korean culture is riding high. Dazzled by attractive young idols and breezy stories festooned with high fashion and bright, popping colours, viewers may naturally have formed an idealised image of the country.
Yet, despite its extraordinary economic and cultural advances, South Korean society remains extremely conservative. The country has comfortably occupied the rock bottom ranking in the glass-ceiling index published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – the club of wealthy, developed countries – for years. And it has a high suicide rate.
Statistics compiled by the organisation get a lot of media coverage in South Korea, almost always because they highlight a major problem; the people behind Tomorrow, produced by Korean broadcaster MBS, are all too aware of this.
The Jade Empress (Kim Hae-sook), who leads a bureau of grim reapers in the afterlife, rattles off statistics during a meeting with her subordinates. She mentions that 40 people take their lives each day in South Korea (almost 15,000 a year) and despairs that the country also has the lowest birth rate among OECD members.