New tvN drama “Pandora: Beneath the Paradise,” starring Lee Ji-ah, Lee Sang-yoon and Jang Hee-jin will air on Saturdays and Sundays, the main cast and producers of the series said during an online press conference Tuesday.

“Pandora: Beneath the Paradise” will center on Lee Ji-ah’s character Hong Tae-ra, who is trained as an assassin before losing her memory and becoming the first lady of Korea. Lee Sang-yoon plays Tae-ra’s husband Pyo Jae-hyun, an IT company mogul and politically ambitious egomaniac.

The series’ story will unfurl as Tae-ra begins to regain her memory and realizes that there were forces behind her past that tried to control her life and are out for revenge.

“Tae-ra was raised as a mass murder weapon and lived as a killer, before losing all of that and living happily with a family that is almost too perfect to be true,” said Lee Ji-ah during the online press conference. “She seeks revenge on the people who orchestrated her life course and also wants to protect those dear to her.”

“Pandora: Beneath the Paradise” was created by screenwriter and producer Kim Sun-ok, who wrote a number of hit dramas including “Temptation of Wife” (2008-2009), “My Daughter, Geum Sa-wol” (2015-2016), “The Last Empress” (2018-2019) and most recently “The Penthouse: War in Life” (2020-2021) series.

The producers and main cast of “Pandora: Beneath the Paradise” focused on extracting the signature intensity and rapid pace of Kim’s previous works into this new series, according to director Choi Hyeon-hun.

“You can think of our drama as a genre-bending series that is hard to define,” said Choi. “I think audiences will be confused, but also pleasantly surprised.”

“Pandora: Beneath the Paradise” will air for the first time on March. 11 at 9:10 p.m. on tvN.


BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]