The WONDERfools (Netflix, 2026) is an absolutely delightful, thrilling science fiction comedy-drama about a group of social misfits who mysteriously develop supernatural powers while living in the year 1999, a time when many people around the world believed the world would soon come to an end in the following year 2000. The WONDERfools re-teams the major star Park Eun Bin from the worldwide hit Netflix drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo with the same director Yu In Sik, in a remarkable, original concoction penned by newbie drama scriptwriter Heo Da Joong. This K-drama was so addictive that I literally watched all eight episodes in one day, unable to tear myself away from my television screen for those eight+ hours! I can't even remember the last time I marathoned a Korean drama so passionately! I am sure it's been years!

Park Eun Bin's cast-mates were just as spectacular as she was in this drama. They included sweet and handsome Cha Eun Woo (Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung, Wonderful World); the amazing prolific character actor Choi Dae Hoon (Pro Bono, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Curtain Call, Crash Landing On You), who stole so many scenes the K-drama fan sites were praising him to the skies; and the hilarious Im Sung Jae (Law And The City, When The Stars Gossip) whose character was a perfect bumbling complement to his older cast-mate Choi Dae Hoon's character in the story (in real life he is also a prize-winning pro-golfer! Wow!). Both actors, Choi Dae Hoon and Im Sung Jae, had also worked with Park Eun Bin in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, so they all had that comfortable familiarity going on that made their scenes together even more memorable and adorable.

In addition, so many favorite veteran K-drama actor faces popped up in this drama that I broke into huge grins whenever they appeared in scenes. Especially actress Kim Hae Sook, with 50 years of acting experience, including all classic Four Seasons' dramas, who played Park Eun Bin's Grandma; and Son Hyun Joo (Sandglass, My Rosy Life, Love Letter, Empire Of Gold) who played the main villain in the story, a corrupt doctor. I always love to see that casting set-up: the Korean entertainment world honoring its older actors with great support parts even as they become senior citizens! It makes the dramas feel like "Ye Olde Home Week" to long term K-drama fans like myself.

The Story:

It is the year 1999 in the (fictitious) Korean town of Haeseong. A 27 year old maiden, Eun Chae Ni (Park Eun Bin), lives with her Grandmother Kim Jeon Bok (Kim Hae Sook) who runs a popular, successful restaurant in the city, and she helps her prepare food every day -- particularly peeling and chopping onions incessantly (or at least it seems that way to her!).

Chae Ni longs to escape and travel to special places around the world, and she often begs Grandma to loan her money so she can take some trips. Grandma, of course, says no. If she wants to travel she will need to earn more money than Grandma can pay her for chopping onions! Chae Ni continues to investigate places around the world she would love to visit, once she does have the money!

Then, unfortunately, Chae Ni also gets some very disturbing medical news: she has serious heart failure and could die at any time! She is angry and wants to at least live until Y2K occurs when she suspects everyone else might die too and she wouldn't be alone in dying!

Because of this disturbing medical news (which she hides from Grandma) Chae Ni acts out a lot and gets a local reputation as an overly emotional troublemaker, especially when she confronts the dramatic parishioners of a nearby mega church called The Church Of Eternal Salvation (which is really a giant cult preaching the wrong gospel!). This church claims if you don't join their congregation you will die a miserable death in the year 2000 and end up in hell. Only the gullible townspeople join the cult. Chae Ni tells them off repeatedly, which does not endear her to the main elder of that "church" named Yoon (Park Sung Geun). Talk about a real troublemaker!

Chae Ni only has two friends because of her weird disposition, a nearby adult neighbor named Song Gyeong Hun (Choi Dae Hoon) whose wife Moon Mi Hui (Jung Yeon) runs a flower shop while taking care of their young daughter Son Cheong (Park Ye Rin), and comical, single guy Kang Ro Bin (Im Sung Jae) who is in massive debt because he had to replace a leaking roof in his home because insurance wouldn't pay for it, and who makes a meager salary while helping Chae Ni's Grandma with the running of her restaurant.

Chae Ni also begins to have frequent run-ins with a new civil servant in town, working for the Haeseong City Civil Complaints Department, named Lee Un Jeong (Cha Eun Woo). He is curious about her since she behaves so strangely in public. When they actually come to blows one evening he becomes even more intrigued by her. In addition, Chae Ni's friend Song Gyeong Hun has had some unpleasant dealings with civil servant Un Jeong as well because he had gone to city hall to complain about a nearby garbage dump giving off terrible odors near his wife's floral shop, which was negatively affecting the flower shop's financial bottom line, but Un Jeong had not seemed concerned enough about it to please Gyeong Hun.

Then Chae Ni comes up with a rather desperate plan to stage her own fake kidnapping in the hopes that it will inspire her Grandma to send money to the "kidnappers" so she can skip out of town and enjoy a vacation somewhere before her heart gives out and / or Y2K hits. Of course the two friends she enlists in this endeavor are financially struggling Gyeong Hun and Kang Ro Bin who would be posing as the "kidnappers". She promises them some of the money once she receives it and both men are desperate for money so they agree.

However, when they try and pull it off some things go horribly wrong and Chae Ni ends up having a heart attack and dying! Scared, the two "kidnappers" roll her body down a hill into a small body of black soot "water" but who should witness this bizarre sequence of events but civil servant Lee Un Jeong! He ends up rescuing her and she comes back to life! Obviously something strange in that "water" had life saving properties! How did this happen?

Soon another bizarre event occurs and gives the friends supernatural powers: Chae Ni can disappear in a split second, visit different locations, and then shortly thereafter return to her original spot (hey! she can finally travel without spending money!); Gyeong Hun can make things stick to him no matter what their size; Ro Bin temporarily can display superhuman strength but then changes back to his normal self; Un Jeong can experience telekinesis, the ability to move or manipulate objects at a distance using only mental power!

Then when certain people begin to disappear in the town all four of them, Chae Ni, Gyeong Hun, Kang Ro Bin, and civil servant Un Jeong end up combining their superhuman talents to try and figure out what is going on. Are these people being murdered, or just kidnapped and need to be rescued? Lee Un Jeong begins to suspect the disappearances might have something to do with a mysterious doctor in town named Ha Won Do (Son Hyun Joo) who had once gone to jail for secretive corrupt medical experimentation on children which he had called The Wonderkinder Project.

His aim was to find ways to prevent a person from ever dying and he used children's blood and body fluids to illegally work on this goal. Many of these children are now grown up in 1999 and involved with the cult Church Of Eternal Salvation. Turns out this "doctor" has lots of control over Elder Yoon in the church as well. Then he turns his sights on Chae Ni. Definitely alarming!

What an amazing series of events occur in our four friends' lives in an attempt to right all the things that have gone wrong with the townspeople of Haeseong!

The drama is filled with exciting twists and turns and has great cliffhangers in each episode. A little bit of romance even shows up at times. Many amusing incidents happen, along with more serious events. Will our four friends be able to solve all the mysteries and help heal the people traumatized by these macabre events? Including maybe ... themselves?

Do not miss The WONDERfools! It is fantastic! Especially if you love the remarkable actress Park Eun Bin it's a not to be missed EXPERIENCE! Enjoy!

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