If you love K-dramas, don’t miss “A Shop for Killers” on Disney+. The six-part series is based on the novel “The Killer's Shopping Mall”, written by Kang Ji-young.
As an added incentive, it stars the dreamy Lee Dong-wook in a role unlike anything we’ve seen him play in recent years.
The series opens with a grief-stricken Jeong Ji-an (Kim Hye-jun), who is burying her uncle, Jeong Jin-man (Dong-wook), who raised her since she was a little girl after her parents were killed.
While the series opens on a sombre note, it is overtaken by chaos not long after as their home is invaded by drones, armed with lots of fire-power.
Trapped in the home with her tech-savvy best friend, Bae Jeong-min (Park Ji-bin), Jeong Ji-an uncovers a few shocking truths about her uncle, who has built a high-tech underground shop with ammunition that he sells to hitmen.
As she tries to avoid death, the backstory of the events that led to the current situation is also revealed.
Once the leader of a covert group of contract killers, Jeong Jin-man struggled to accept one of the men assigned to his team.
Bale (Jo Han-sun) fed off the violence and had no qualms about collateral damage. Defiant about not killing innocent people, his actions left him at a dangerous crossroads where Jeong Jin-man was forced to make a judgment call that went against their code.
In a bit to save an innocent woman, he leaves Bale for dead after their face-off on the mission.
Unfortunately, while it weighed heavily on him, he decided to walk away from everything and return to his family.
While his brother is angry at him for leaving without so much as a call for several years, his mother, who has cancer, is happy to welcome him home.
And Jeong Jin-man gets to meet his niece as well.
Sadly, his past (aka Bale) comes back to haunt him, and it starts with the death of his ailing mother, followed by his brother and sister-in-law.
As such, Jeong Jin-man does what he must to keep his niece and him safe. But his truce is short-lived as Bale’s vengeance is unrelenting.
“A Shop for Killers” is an action-packed underdog story, filled with deception and danger and underpinned with love, loyalty and family.