Demons are out for blood as Island concludes its run

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by Jenzy

TVING’s promotional rollout for the second half of Island has begun with a flashy teaser with shots of our returning cast: Kim Nam-gil, Lee Da-hee, Cha Eun-woo, and Sung-joon.

When we last left our demon-hunting pseudo-priest crew, we had only started to scratch the surface of the demonic underbelly of Jeju island. The concluding half of the drama promises to pick up where we left off while also delving deeper into the backstories of our three heroes: Ban (Kim Nam-gil) the demon hunter, Won Mi-ho/Won-jeong (Lee Da-hee) the high school teacher with a mysterious link to the demon realm, and Yo-han (Cha Eun-woo), everyone’s favorite hip-hop loving priest. We’ll also learn more about Ban’s connection to the Taejangjong monastery and his former co-demon hunter turned baddie Goong-tan (Sung Joon).

The teaser opens on some flashback scenes: monks clothed in white, close-ups of Ban and Goong-tan looking exhausted, and Won-jeong performing some kind of spell. We then see present-day Yo-han looking extra broody and ready for violence, and end on some interspersed shots of demon rampages, Goong-tan forcing Ban to stab someone, and a bloody Yo-han in the arms of Ban, all while Ban asks Won-jeong in the voiceover: “Did you really mean to kill us?”

Not sure yet how I feel about the drama splitting up its run like this, but streamers have recently started employing this tactic to keep people hooked on their service for longer. On one hand, it can combine the best parts of both the binge-able season drop and tension-amping serial release, but on the other hand, it can sometimes leave you with two tonally disjointed halves without much connective tissue. In this case, I’m really hoping that Island’s campier style doesn’t get erased in the second act in favor of a darker tone.

With director Park Bae-jong (Fabricated City) and writer Jang Yoon-mi (Jinxed at First) at the helm, Part 2 of Island will premiere on TVING on February 24.