Toronto 2021: Netflix K-drama Hellbound – Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s thrilling new series is a dark and unforgiving affair
- Yeon Sang-ho’s TV debut marries social commentary with a dread-inducing story that shows humanity at its most craven
- The K-drama world has seen plenty of other dystopias featuring hordes of bloodthirsty citizens this year, but Hellbound surpasses them all
Korean film director Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) is back with his first television drama series, Hellbound, which debuted three of its six episodes at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.
Yeon’s project – adapted from the webcomic The Hell penned by Yeon and illustrated by Choi Gyu-seok, who created the show together – is a dark and unforgiving affair that starts off slow until a palpable sense of dread emerges and builds, driving the story into tense and unpredictable territory.
Equal parts procedural thriller, mystery and horror, the series begins with a man in a cafe, sweating profusely and awaiting something as other patrons go about their day. The clock on his phone turns to 1.20pm and a sound reverberates in the distance. Three black creatures emerge from nowhere and make a beeline for him.
The man tries to escape into traffic – but before long his blood is spattered over dented cars, and all that remains of him is a charred corpse as the creatures vanish.
Footage of the incident goes viral, shocking the nation and perplexing the detectives assigned to this unexplainable case. These include Detective Jin Kyung-hoon (Yang Ik-june), the bitter widower of a murdered spouse who has been left to raise a rebellious teenage daughter on his own.
