appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
Lead cast: Kim Nam-joo, Cha Eun-woo, Kim Kang-woo, Im Se-mi
Latest Nielsen rating: 6.3 per cent
Wonderful World is a show about grief, how people deal with it, how it can affect them in different ways and, in some cases, how it can warp them.


Leading the series are two characters dealing with grief. There is the bestselling author Eun Soo-hyun (Kim Nam-joo), who loses her son to a hit-and-run accident and winds up in jail after avenging him, and there is the mysterious jack-of-all-trades Kwon Seon-yul (Cha Eun-woo).
At first, we are led to understand that Seon-yul is the only survivor of a fire started by Soo-hyun’s remorseful cellmate, who tasks Soo-hyun with relaying her regret to the young man and looking over him after her release.
Wonderful World: Kim Nam-joo, Cha Eun-woo in mystery K-drama
After serving her time behind bars for driving her car over and killing the man who did the same thing to her son and got away with it, Soo-hyun re-enters society and slowly attempts to return to some vestige of her former life.
Although she can no longer be the respected professor and bestselling author she was, she has made peace with her loss and with her actions. She is able to reconnect with the people she used to be close with, including her mother and her former manager Han Yoo-ri (Im Se-mi), who is like a real sister to her.
She is also welcomed with open arms by her television anchor husband Kang Soo-ho (Kim Kang-woo), who recently returned from America, where he was assigned as a foreign correspondent shortly after Soo-hyun’s incarceration.

Soo-hyun refused to see Soo-ho after going to jail and filed for divorce, and even now this is the one part of her past that she struggles to reconnect with. However, Soo-ho has waited for her all this time and their life together can now resume.
The uneasy status quo does not remain for long, as Soo-hyun receives an anonymous letter filled with photos of Soo-ho kissing another woman in a hotel room. Rather than stew over it, the hurt but level-headed Soo-hyun opts to confront him.
A guilty Soo-ho claims it was a one-time mistake and since it happened before they reconnected, Soo-hyun chooses to move on – except that her husband neglects to tell her who his mistake was with.

Of greater concern to Soo-hyun is where the pictures came from, especially after a set was also maliciously sent to her mother.
Through some sneaky editing, Wonderful World leads us to believe that a young man named Kwon Min-hyuk (Lim Ji-sub) is the person responsible, and that the reason for his threatening correspondence is that he is the son of the man that Soo-hyun killed.
The big midseason reveal is that that is only half true. The photos were indeed sent by the vengeful son of the dead hit-and-run driver, but that person turns out to be Seon-yul, who has been crafting an elaborate revenge scheme against Soo-hyun for years.
Min-hyuk is the boy who survived the arson perpetrated by Soo-hyun’s cellmate.
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in March 2024
The other major reveal has been another case of mistaken identity. Soo-hyun believed that the woman Soo-ho had an affair with was their neighbour, but part of Seon-yul’s carefully orchestrated plan leads her to discover that the other woman was, in fact, Yoo-ri, her closest friend.
With Seon-yul’s identity out in the open, we can finally see the full picture, flanked by the duelling extremes of grief and retribution.
Soo-hyun’s white-hot grief led to an immediate and impulsive act of bloody revenge and, while she showed no remorse for the killing, she has moved on from it, scrabbling back together what she can of her life.
On the other hand, Seon-yul’s equally passionate anger has simmered for over a decade, during which he put himself in Soo-hyun’s orbit while she was in prison and deliberately positioned himself for her to later approach him under false pretences.

All the energies of his adult life have been focused on this plan and this focus blinded him to everything else around him, including Hong Soo-jin (Yang Hye-ji), the girl who helps him and is clearly in love with him.
There is also Kim Joon (Park Hyuk-kwon), the congressman he does side jobs for who may be responsible for the death that launched this whole story in the first place. Joon is probably using Seol-yun, just as he probably used his father before him.
Wonderful World is not without its faults, but the pieces are steadily falling into place to produce what will hopefully be a satisfying finish.

Wonderful World is streaming on Disney+


Netflix K-drama Teach You a Lesson: corporal punishment for bullies in alarming school show

Disney+ K-drama Doctor on the Edge: Lee Jae-wook, Shin Ye-eun lead island medical romcom

K-drama Reborn Rookie: Lee Jun-young’s corporate body-swap fantasy hums with melodrama

HBO Max K-drama Fifties Professionals: Shin Ha-kyun action comedy revisits hits of old

Korean drama reviews

Disney+ K-drama midseason recap: Wonderful World – Kim Nam-joo, Cha Eun-woo go head to head in tale of grief and revenge

Cha Eun-woo (left) and Kim Nam-joo as the mysterious Kwon Seon-yul and author Eun Soo-hyun in a still from Wonderful World. At midseason the pieces are falling into place for a satisfying conclusion to the Disney+ K-drama.

Im Se-mi as manager Han Yoo-ri in a still from Wonderful World.

Kim Kang-woo as television anchor husband Kang Soo-ho in a still from Wonderful World.

Park Hyuk-kwon as congressman Kim Joon in a still from Wonderful World.

Cha Eun-woo as Seon-yul in a still from Wonderful World.

Disney+ K-drama review: Flex X Cop – Ahn Bo-hyun, Park Ji-hyun lead fun series that concludes on a disappointing note

Ahn Bo-hyun as Jin I-soo in a still from Flex X Cop.

Flex X Cop follows two police officers, Jin I-soo (played by Ahn Bo-hyun, above) and Lee Gang-hyun (Park Ji-hyun), who infiltrate a cult, and investigate a death at Jin’s corporate family compound.

Park Ji-hyun as Detective Lee Gang-hyun in a still from Flex X Cop.

Kwak Si-yang as Jin Seong-ju, I-soo’s older brother, in a still from Flex X Cop.

Ahn Bo-hyun as corporate heir turned police officer Jin I-soo in a still from Flex X Cop.

Park Ji-hyun as detective Lee Jang-hyun in a still from Flex X Cop.

Netflix K-drama Parasyte: The Grey – Train to Busan’s Yeon Sang-ho adapts Japanese alien invasion manga

Jeon So-nee as Jeong Su-in in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Jeon So-nee (centre) as Jeong Su-in in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. The K-drama series, directed by Train to Busan’s Yeon Sang-ho and co-starring Koo Kyo-hwan, Lee Jung-hyun and Kwon Hae-hyo, reimagines Hitoshi Iwaaki’s classic Japanese alien-invasion manga. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Koo Kyo-hwan as Seol Kang-woo in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Kwon Hae-hyo as detective Kim Cheol-min in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Lee Jung-hyun as Choi Jun-kyung in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Disney+ K-drama midseason recap: The Impossible Heir – Kim Jae-wook, Lee Jun-young struggle with weak script

Kim Jae-wook as Tae-oh in a still from The Impossible Heir. Kim, Lee Jun-young and Hong Su-zu have struggled through the weakly scripted Disney+ K-drama showing on Disney+.

Kim Jae-wook (left) as the ambitious Tae-oh and Hong Su-zu as neighbour Hye-won in a still from The Impossible Heir.

Lee Jun-young (left) as illegitimate heir In-ha and Choi Jin-ho as Chairman Kang Joong-mo in a still from The Impossible Heir.

Hong Su-zu (left) as Hye-won and Lee Jun-young as In-ha in a still from The Impossible Heir.

Queen of Tears star Kim Soo-hyun offered Knock Off role; new season for hit show Signal – Korean drama casting latest

Kim Soo-hyun in a still from Queen of Tears. Kim has been offered the lead role in a black comedy on Disney+, while a raft of sequels have been announced – including one for 2016 hit Signal.

Kang Tae-oh in a still from Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

Lee Sun-bin in a still from Work Later, Drink Now.

Yoo Yeon-seok in a still from Dr. Romantic season 3.

(From left) Lee Je-hoon, Kim Hye-soo and Cho Jin-woong in Signal.

Kim Hye-jun (left) and Lee Dong-wook in a still from A Shop for Killers.

K-drama Nothing Uncovered: Kim Ha-neul and Yeon Woo-jin dig up the truth in an old-style thriller based on web novel Grabbed by the Collar

Kim Ha-neul in a still from Nothing Uncovered.

Yeon Woo-jin as Kim Tae-heon, a detective and the ex-boyfriend of TV news show anchor Seo Jeong-won (Kim Ha-neul), in a still from Nothing Uncovered, a mystery thriller K-drama in which they team up to investigate suspicious deaths. 

Kim Ha-neul (right) as dogged reporter Seo Jeong-won, and Kim Min-jae (left) as her trusty cameraman Ju Yeong-seo, in a still from Nothing Uncovered.

Yoon Je-moon (left) as assemblyman Mo Hyeong-taek, the subject of an exposé by Jeong-won, and Jung Woong-in as her father-in-law, Seol Pan-ho, in a still from Nothing Uncovered.

Jang Seung-jo as Seo Jeong-won’s husband, Seol Woo-jae, in a still from Nothing Uncovered.

Lifestyle

K-drama

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

K-Pop

Kim Nam-joo’s Soo-hyun reconnects with the people she used to be close with after her release from prison, but her peace is disrupted by an anonymous letter
Wonderful World is not without its faults, but the pieces are falling into place for what will hopefully be a satisfying finish to this Disney+ K-drama


The pieces are falling into place for Kim Nam-woo and Cha Eun-woo by midseason in the Disney+ K-drama Wonderful World, which deals with how people approach grief and how it can affect them.
