Actors Im Ji-yeon and Heo Nam-jun have had a thrilling first encounter!
The premiere of SBS’s new Friday-Saturday drama ‘Wonderful New World’ has officially begun. Set in the Joseon era during a plague, Kang Dan-shim (Im Ji-yeon) receives a royal order to eliminate Royal Concubine Kang. Despite the situation, Dan-shim remains poised and confident. She throws away the royal poison, shouting, “What on earth is my crime?” and refuses to drink it, insisting she has something to say to the King, but she is eventually forced to drink it and passes away.
The moment Dan-shim leaves this world, strange phenomena occur, such as frost falling in midsummer and the sun disappearing. When she opens her eyes, she finds herself in a similar situation, receiving poison again. Surprisingly, she is actually on the set of a historical drama. After her unfair death, Dan-shim has fallen into an “other world,” modern-day South Korea. Now an unknown actress named Shin Seo-ri, she takes on the role of a stand-in for Jang Hui-bin. As soon as the “cue” is given, she performs “method acting,” believing the scene is real, which brings a lot of laughs.
Meanwhile, the world is buzzing with a power-trip controversy involving third-generation chaebol Cha Se-gye (Heo Nam-jun). Known as a cruel M&A butcher and a “capitalist monster,” malicious videos of him have spread everywhere, though they were actually deepfakes. However, he has no intention of clearing his name; instead, he is focused on acquiring the talented deepfake company.
Meanwhile, Dan-shim remembers being told by someone named Hwang that she is “someone who must die to live” before her death, and she falls into a panic upon realizing her body has changed. While wandering, she is shocked by the wondrous world outside the palace. While walking aimlessly, she almost gets hit by Cha Se-gye’s car. Unfamiliar with traffic laws, she runs into the middle of the road and nearly causes an accident. After Cha Se-gye saves her, he assumes she is trying to frame him because he is a chaebol. During their argument, she slaps and attacks him. As citizens start taking photos, Cha Se-gye becomes convinced she is a scammer and hurriedly leaves after throwing her his business card.
Later, while passing by a museum, Dan-shim is shocked to see a painting she created attributed to Queen Onjeong. She is further devastated to discover that in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, Kang Dan-shim is falsely described as a villainess who was stripped of her status after receiving royal poison. Three hundred years later, all that remains of her in Joseon is a stain on her name that cannot be washed away.
While caught in a sudden sunshower, Dan-shim decides that “surviving, even if it’s pathetic, is the way” and sets out to find Cha Se-gye using his business card. She resolves to use the sophisticated Cha Se-gye as her own “spear and shield.” Upon entering Cha Se-gye’s company, she happens upon an audition hall and spots him. As she chases after him, a solar eclipse occurs, and she senses the murderous intent of an assassin. Dan-shim saves Cha Se-gye from a mannequin falling toward his car. With both realizing they need each other, anticipation is building for the kind of cooperation the two will share.
SBS’s ‘Wonderful New World’ is a romance drama featuring a high-tension war between Shin Seo-ri, an unknown actress who becomes “wicked” after being possessed by the soul of a legendary Joseon villainess, and Cha Se-gye, a wicked chaebol known as a capitalist monster.
