Disney+ has premiered its newest Kdrama, the first of 2024, today. Let us discuss “A Shop For Killers”!
Note: this article is a first-impression review, it doesn’t mean this is the writer’s final thoughts on the drama. This is a spoiler review.
I was initially very excited about the drama, its premise seemed intriguing.
“A Shop For Killers” is a drama adaptation of a novel and tells the story of a young woman who finds out one day that her distant uncle who had raised her after her parents passing has died. She returns to oversee the funeral and finds out her uncle sold weapons to people, hence, the English title of this drama, it is a shop for killers. She then is chased by people who also want her dead.
First things first, the premiere of “A Shop For Killers” was TENSE. You had to pay attention and things seemed to move at a fast pace. The transitions between the present and past events were done very meticulously, just enough to keep you tuned in without giving too much away.
The topics of the drama itself are tense, and its weird ‘someone’ wants Jeong Ji-An dead after her uncle was killed, it doesn’t seem to make sense to me thus far, but I am guessing the person who ordered the hit either really hates the bloodline of Jeong Jin-Man or is under the impression that Jeong Ji-An knows more than she does. Either way, it’s a horrible situation to be in.
Its weird that Lee Dong Wook would essentially accept a ‘guest’ or ‘key cameo’ role in the drama like that, so I am inclined to believe the uncle is still alive. Lee Dong Wook is being pushed hard for promotions to this series and his face is prominently everywhere in every aspect of this production’s marketing, so it would be hella bold to actually just feature him sporadically throughout the drama.
I loved his performance in the small screen time he had, Jeong Jin-Man looks miserable and as if he had seen some horrible days. He’s jaded but deep down has empathy for the people he cares for. Loved his performance and really hope to see more of it soon.
The hacker dude seems to know more than he’s letting on and I highly doubt someone as smart as him wouldn’t figure something is wrong with the site or that such design or back-coding would pass him by, it would surprise me if he truly turned out to be a clueless young man.
I mean, if the uncle ordered him to do the site, I highly doubt he could have done it himself and inserted those codes that led to a dark web site.
Back to talking about the writing and production, its not often that we get novel adaptations, and making it into 8 episodes is definitely a choice, can a novel fill 8 episodes? Theoretically, it should but it does depend on how long and interesting the novel in question is. Its not always easy to do it successfully.
The drama is being co-directed by two people who had worked in the past on projects that are mostly forgotten, so its also interesting the choice in directors Disney made. One of the directors is also responsible for writing the script adaptation too.
Disney+ projects quality for their kdrama division has generally gone up and I have high hopes for this one.
have you guys seen the premiere of “A Shop For Killers”? did you like it?
