[News Culture] Ji Chang-wook is heading back to romance.
The actor will lead Merry Berry Love, a new Korea-Japan series from CJ ENM and Nippon TV, opposite Japanese star Mio Imada. The project is the two companies' first drama co-production and brings together a four-member cast that also includes Nam Yoon-su and Rinka Kumada.
Set on the scenic island of Charo, the story begins after Korean spatial designer Lee Yu-bin sees his life fall apart overnight. Looking for a way back, he leaves for the island and meets Shirahama Karin, a strawberry farmer whose life could hardly be further removed from his own.
Ji takes on Yu-bin after a run of genre-heavy projects including The Worst of Evil and The Manipulated. The new series puts him back in romantic territory three years after Welcome to Samdal-ri.
Imada plays Karin, Charo's top strawberry grower and a woman who has built her life around the farm. Her meeting with Yu-bin sets the central romance in motion.
Nam Yoon-su joins the ensemble as Park Gu-nam, a Korean on a working holiday who picks up shifts at the island's Asahi Store. He has feelings for Mari, played by Rinka Kumada, Karin's best friend and a tarot reader known for giving relationship advice.
The setup gives Merry Berry Love two romantic pairings while leaning into the cultural contrast between its Korean and Japanese characters.
The series will launch globally on Disney+ in October, with a weekly Wednesday broadcast also planned on Nippon TV in Japan.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
Copyright ⓒ 뉴스컬처 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지
