Actors Ji Chang Wook and Ryu Seung Ryong are rumoured to play the main characters of the drama “Pine.”

[NOTE:  An official from Ji Chang Wook’s agency Spring Company told OSEN, “It is true that Ji Chang Wook was offered to appear from the production team of ‘Pine.’ However, at the moment, it is only one of many proposed works, and we are carefully reviewing it with other works.”  Ryu Seung Ryong’s agency Prain TPC also announced to Newsen that “Pine” was “one of the proposed works that the actor was reviewing.”]

An entertainment official told JTBC Entertainment News on 28 July, “Ji Chang Wook and Ryu Seung Ryong will appear in ‘Pine’, which dramatizes the original work of webtoon writer Yoon Tae Ho (the author of the original manhwa that the drama “Misaeng” was based upon).”

“Pine” will be based off a manhwa published by Kakao Webtoon from 2014 to 2015.  It depicts the dangerous stories of rough people who are obsessed with shameless greed and logic who have gathered to find seabed relics off the coast of the Shinan Islands.  In the drama, Ji Chang Wook and Ryu Seung Ryong will play Hee-dong and Gwan-seok, respectively, as nephew and uncle. 

The work is based on a true story that caused a stir in the world when a 200-ton trade ship carrying a huge amount of artifacts, including 7 million Chinese currency and 22,000 Song and Yuan ceramics, was found off Shinan-gun, Jeollanam-do in 1975.  The Shinan vessel was a 14th-century Chinese ship that sank (near what are today the Shinan Islands) around the year 1323, and was discovered in 1975.  It was likely to have been part of a trade fleet between Port Ningbo of the Yuan Dynasty of China, and Port Hakata of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan.

Against the backdrop of the 1970s, the two gentlemen jump into the excavation of antiquities from the Yellow Sea in order to escape from their mundane life of selling fake goods.  As the number of people looking for treasures increase, the process of obsession becomes madness, and both nephew and uncle are forced to make choices based on desire and humanity.  The bromance chemistry between the two based on their solid acting skills raises expectations.

“Pine” is expected to be a total of 10 episodes produced by YWorks Entertainment, and PD Kang Yoon Sung, the director of season 1 of the movie “The Outlaws” and Disney+ “Casino,” will take the megaphone.  Filming will begin in the second half of 2023, and aims to be released at the end of 2024 through an as-yet unnamed OTT (online video streaming service).

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Translated from Korean to English by cherkell; there may be slight inaccuracies. PLEASE DO NOT REPRINT, REPURPOSE, SCREENCAP OR OTHERWISE COPY OUR CONTENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION. 

Credits:  JTBC; Newsen.com; OSEN