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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Ju Ji-hoon, Park Bo-young, Kim Min-ha, Bae Sung-woo
The supernatural drama Light Shop has built its many stories around a simple but intriguing conceit.
However compelling it may be, the secret to the light shop has such a strong pull that it shapes the show’s narrative into two distinct halves – an ethereal and mysterious opening and a sentimental and expository ending.
Following four episodes of brooding horror and dense intrigue, Moving mastermind Kang Full spills the beans during the show’s four final episodes, unveiled on Disney+ this week.


The various confused characters who have been frequenting the bright and mysterious light shop run by Jung Won-young (Ju Ji-hoon, currently also on screens in another Disney+ offering, Love Your Enemy), are all connected to a bus crash.
Many, but not all, of them lie in comas in a hospital ward overseen by nurse Kwon Young-ji, played by Park Bo-young (Daily Dose of Sunshine). The hospital ward is in the real world but the ethereal light shop is not.
The new episodes open with Young-ji expounding on near-death experiences via voice-over. She talks about research on people who have been at death’s door and returned.
These people often claim to have seen a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel and to have been reunited with their loved ones before waking up.
The light shop is the bright light at the end of the dark tunnel, although Kang’s show swaps out the tunnel for a pitch-black alleyway.

The protagonists are drawn to the store as they slowly piece together where they are and what happened to them. Some of them go on to discover a glowing bulb within. If they approach it, they will wake up from their comas.
If they choose not to go to the light, they will remain in the world of the light shop. Therein lies the second twist to the show: the light shop does not exist in a kind of purgatory, as many viewers (including this writer) may have assumed – it is the afterlife.
This bit of subterfuge was cleverly handled by Kang, who misdirected us early on when Won-young pointed out the customers with unusual attributes, prompting us to think that they were ghosts as opposed to the rest of his clientele.
It is actually his normal patrons who are the dead; the ones afflicted with wobbly eyes or deathly cold are people fighting for their lives in the real world.

Some of these characters are hobbling around this afterlife alone, including the perpetually drenched Oh Seung-won (Park Hyuk-kwon) who drove the bus that crashed, and the sullen detective Yang Sung-sik (Bae Sung-woo).
But most of the characters have entered this world in pairs, although they don’t realise it. Kim Hyun-min (Uhm Tae-goo), the man constantly getting off a bus, and Lee Ji-young (Kim Seol-hyun), the woman at the bus stop, were a couple in the real world.
Ji-young, who is deaf and mute, was contemplating suicide even before Hyun-min boarded his bus. After mistakenly believing that he has died, thanks to a cruel text from his mother, she takes her own life.
In the afterlife, she begs Hyun-min to recognise her before her cremation takes place. In a recurring image, Ji-young drags Hyun-min’s body around, moving to various locations where she aggressively yanks stitches through his chest – a motion that may be keeping his heart beating in the hospital ward.

Kim Min-ha (Pachinko) is Yoon Seon-hae, who was apartment hunting with her much older girlfriend Park Hye-won (Kim Sun-hwa). Facing pressure because of the social stigma attached to their relationship, the couple were fighting as they boarded the bus.
Joo Hyun-joo (Shin Eun-soo), the girl who keeps dropping by the store on an errand, was on the bus with her mother Jung Yu-hee (Lee Jung-eun).
The backstories of these characters flood into the story very quickly after the halfway point, and along with the exposition comes a lot of mawkish sentimentality.
Kang concocts some interesting predicaments for these characters to face, but the dense emotional drive of the back half of the show applies to most of the characters, even those without much of a story to tell, which ultimately proves exhausting.

Additional reveals, including a surprise connection between two protagonists, attempt to squeeze even more emotional catharsis out of the proceedings.
The climax is then followed by a particularly long coda, which is capped off by an obligatory tease for a potential follow-up season.
Stuffed to bursting with ideas and emotions, Light Shop features a number of strong moments. However, stories need a beginning, a middle and an ending for a reason, and one of those – the midseason build-up – is crucially missing here.
Light Shop is streaming on Disney+.
If you have suicidal thoughts, or you know someone who is, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 18111 for the government-run “Mental Health Support Hotline” or +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans and +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services.
In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.


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Ju Ji-hoon in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

Ju Ji-hoon in a still from Korean drama series Light Shop, created by Kang Full. Park Bo-young, Kim Min-ha and Bae Sung-woo co-star. Photo: Disney+.

Park Bo-young as hospital nurse Kwon Young-ji in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

Kim Seol-hyun (left) as Lee Ji-young yanks stitches through the chest of Uhm Tae-goo, as her partner Kim Hyun-min, in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

Lee Jung-eun (left) as Jung Yu-hee and Shin Eun-soo as her daughter Joo Hyun-joo in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

Ju Ji-hoon as Jung Won-young, proprietor of the titular light shop, in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+.

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Lim Ji-yeon in a still from The Glory. Photo: Netflix

Korean actress Lim Ji-yeon is best known for her part in Netflix K-drama The Glory. Photo: Netflix

Lim Ji-yeon in a still from The Tale of Lady Ok.

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Park Bo-young in a still from Daily Dose of Sunshine. Photo: Netflix

Lee Je-joon (left) and Kim Min-jae in a still from Chief Detective 1958, directed by Kim Sung-hoon. 

Ju Ji-hoon as store owner Jung Won-young in a still from Light Shop, a new Korean drama series on Disney+ by Kang Full, the creator of hit series Moving. Photo: Disney+.

Kim Seol-hyun as customer Lee Ji-young in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+

Park Bo-young as nurse Kwon Young-ji in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+

Um Tae-goo as worker Kim Hyun-min in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+

Kim Min-ha as screenwriter Yoon Sun-hae in a still from Light Shop. Photo: Disney+

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Despite some clever subterfuge on the part of its creator Kang Full, and some affecting scenes, the show’s narrative lacks proper exposition


Despite some clever subterfuge on the part of its creator Kang Full, and some affecting scenes, the show’s narrative lacks proper exposition.


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Review | Disney+ K-drama Light Shop review: Ju Ji-hoon in mawkish supernatural story of two halves

Despite some clever subterfuge on the part of its creator Kang Full, and some affecting scenes, the show’s narrative lacks proper exposition