Train to Busan Director's K-Drama Lands on Netflix With a Rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score

Summary

• Yeon Sang-ho, the director of Train to Busan, has been working with Netflix for several years now.
• Recently, his new series The Bequeathed was released.
• Just a few days after its premiere, the project received high ratings.

The Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho brought us the acclaimed zombie apocalypse horror Train to Busan. Although the film is based on the webtoon of the same name, it was Yeon's masterful direction that popularized the dramatic story.

Despite the setting, it is essentially an allusion to South Korean society, exposing both the inaction of the authorities in the face of tragedy and disaster, and the blatant growth of individualism that alienates people from compassion and mutual aid.

Yeon Sang-ho has been working with Netflix for several years now, and on January 19, 2024, his latest attempt at adapting the webtoon, The Bequeathed, hit the small screen. Combining elements of horror and crime thriller, the new series is as full of crazy twists as Train to Busan, and its electric cinematography only adds to the harrowing suspense.

It's no surprise that Yeon's new project has become one of the most watched shows on the streaming service in less than two weeks, earning a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

A Spine-Chilling Thriller by Yeon Sang-ho

Yeon Sang-ho has been working under the Netflix umbrella for several years now. In 2021, he released another webtoon adaptation, the incredibly popular dark fantasy series Hellbound, and in 2023, the feature-length sci-fi film Jung_E was added to the Netflix library. And now the long-awaited release of The Bequeathed has arrived, with Yeon as showrunner and Min Hong-nam, who was his assistant on Train to Busan, as director.

By the way, this isn't the only person Yeon Sang-ho has brought along for the new project after other collaborations. The lead role in the new thriller was played by Kim Hyun-joo, who starred in both Hellbound and Jung_E. Another of the lead roles was played by Korean TV star Ryu Kyung-soo, who has appeared in both of these projects as well as another popular Netflix series, Itaewon Class.

But back to The Bequeathed itself, whose story is based on a webtoon written by Kang Tae-kyung and illustrated by Jonoon and Leedo. The story revolves around a woman (Kim Hyun-joo) who learns of the death of her previously unknown uncle. She inherits a piece of land that is being used as a gravesite, a fact that quickly becomes the subject of growing questions when the protagonist's half-brother suddenly shows up with his own claim to the land.

And no, this is not a courtroom drama involving a family feud, it's a gripping thriller, as the protagonist comes under suspicion when mysterious murders, possibly related to the occult, begin to occur nearby.

The Series Has Garnered Rave Reviews from the Audience

One day after its release on Netflix, the series has been gaining a lot of views, and according to the streaming service, The Bequeathed ranked fourth in the Top 10 most popular non-English series for the week of January 15-21, with a total of 2,500,000 views.

Viewers have embraced Yeon Sang-ho's new project with great enthusiasm, leaving only positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, giving the series a rare 100% score. Many who have had the chance to watch the series have commented on how Yeon keeps you guessing as almost every character comes under suspicion, thus providing an effectively suspenseful story.

Not many critics have reviewed the series yet, but everyone who has seen it has been pleasantly surprised by its style and storytelling, comparing it to Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder and Na Hong-jin's The Wailing. More and more people will probably become familiar with the series in the coming days, which will surely help The Bequeathed's rating.