K-drama Jirisan: Jun Ji-hyun’s mountaineering action drama, featuring Kingdom co-star Ju Ji-hoon, gets off on the wrong foot
- Jirisan jumps straight into the action as a missing student kicks off a search and rescue by a legendary local ranger, Jun Ji-hyun, and a rookie (Ju Ji-hoon)
- Save for some cheeky comedy between Jun and Ju’s characters near the end, the opening episode lacks levity – but hopefully some will find its way into the show
Korean dramas have always had a tendency to be earnest. As the industry has matured, storytellers have injected a tongue-in-cheek sense of fun into shows, which can help temper this tendency.
At the start of Jirisan, one of the most anticipated series of the year, we are presented with a very earnest video extolling the virtues of Jirisan, the tallest mountain on the Korean mainland and long a symbol of pride for the country.
The video, narrated by a voice that some will immediately recognise, is cheesy and patriotic. It feels like a government-produced cultural ad and, while establishing the venerable nature of the backdrop to the series – one from which it draws its name – is no doubt important, we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for a gag to deflate the pomposity.
It never arrives. Instead, after seeing the face of the cameo narrator, we jump right into the story of Jirisan, which sees Jun Ji-hyun return as a drama series lead for the first time since 2016’s The Legend of the Blue Sea.