‘Light Shop’ Stars Ju Ji-hoon, Park Bo-Young & Creator Kangfull Talk Disney+’s Upcoming Cerebral, Otherworldly Korean Series

Sara Merican
·2-min read

Premiering on December 4, Light Shop was marked as one of Disney+’s tentpole Korean series for 2024 when the streamer’s slate was first announced earlier this year.

Created and written by Kangfull, the mastermind behind Disney+ hit series Moving, Light Shop tells the story of a light shop, its shopkeeper, and a group of strangers who are mysteriously drawn into the shop.

More from Deadline

Light Shop is based on a webtoon that Kangfull published in 2011.

Ju Ji-hoon (Kingdom, The Spy Gone North), who plays shopkeeper Jung Won-young, said that finding the right tone for his seemingly aloof, brooding character was the key challenge for him while filming Light Shop.

“The easy part was, I don’t have to use emotions,” Ju told Deadline. “But the difficult part to express is that there’s a reason why I don’t have these emotions. Later on in the series, I have to show why I’m so unexpressive.”

Park Bo-young (Daily Dose of Sunshine) plays Kwon Young-ji, a nurse who also enters the light shop.

“This is the third time that I am playing the role of a nurse onscreen, but the genre of the show is totally different from others that I have done,” said Park. “The specialty of the nurse is also different.”

An eight-part series, the first four episodes of Light Shop will be released on December 4, followed by two episodes premiering each week after that.

Kangfull worked as a comic and webtoon artist for the first 20 years of his career, but he has focused on screenwriting, film adaptations and television projects in the last few years.

“I haven’t worked on a webtoon for quite long,” said Kang. “It was four years ago that I worked on my last webtoon and I did sometimes have reservations about choosing between being a webtoon creator or a scriptwriter. But now, I think they are similar, just a different medium of work. I’m still a creator.”

Kim Hee-won, a veteran actor across film and television, is making his directorial debut with Light Shop, after acting in Disney+’s Moving last year.

Kim said that he was extremely nervous on his first day on the set of Light Shop and that he felt humbled by his first foray into directing.

“When interpreting the story with Kangfull, I was amazed by the level of detail,” said Kim. “When it came to directing, everyone here helped me to do it. It wasn’t my own work. When Kangfull first suggested that I direct, I didn’t know what he saw in me, but I always had a passion for directing and this was a great opportunity.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Latest stories