| (From top) Jun Ji-hyun from the movie 'The Thieves' (2012) and Ju Ji-hoon from 'Kingdom' on Netflix |
By Ko Dong-hwan
| Sylvester Stallone and Janine Turner in 'Cliffhanger.' |
It is the first time a TV drama has been filmed in the country's first national park, designated in 1967.
The Korea National Park Service, under the Ministry of Environment, on Monday signed an agreement with A Story, the drama production company, to support the upcoming TV drama's shooting and promote the park as tourism venue.
Kwon Kyeong-eop, the park service president, said the drama would “hopefully improve public awareness of the importance of preserving the national park as well as national policies on protecting Korean mountains and national parks.”
Titled “Jirisan,” meaning Mount Jiri, the mystery-thriller starring flamboyant actors Jun Ji-hyun and Ju Ji-hoon, depicts mountain rescuers and other employees of the park service trying to rescue lost trekkers.
Kim Eun-hee, the writer behind Netflix's ongoing zombie-horror periodic series “Kingdom” and the Korean hit TV detective fantasy drama “Signal” (2016), is in charge of the new drama's scripts. Director Lee Eung-bok, who directed popular K-drama hits “Mr. Sunshine” (2018) and “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God” (2016), takes the megaphone.
| The location of Mount Jiri. Capture from Google Map |
The show, which starts shooting in September and is due for completion next June, has not decided which TV network will air it.
Mount Jiri and its surrounding national park cover more than 483 square meters with four peaks towering over 1,000 meters in South Gyeongsang, South Jeolla and North Jeolla provinces. More than 8,600 species, including eight endangered species (Class I) and 41 near-endangered species (Class II), inhabit the park.