Dex? I was surprised to see the acting...The behind-the-scenes story of the casting revealed by the window shopping writer
Jun 26, 2025
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ENA's new Monday-Tuesday drama "I Shopping" (written by Ahn So-jung, directed by Oh Ji-hwan) is an action thriller about the desperate survival and revenge of children who barely survived the death threshold after being abandoned by their adoptive parents. The original Kakao Webtoon, which won the 「Best Creative Award」 at the 2017 Webtoon Awards in the international content market SPP and recorded 51 million views, is drawing keen attention even before the broadcast.
Writer Ahn So-jung, who is in charge of the play "I Shopping", was an interesting reader of the original webtoon, and was impressed with the shocking subject matter and sophisticated production," he said, explaining the reason for his writing. Then "I often hear about parents who consider their children as possessions or instrumentalize them. The drama is definitely fiction, but I thought something similar might actually be going on somewhere now. I hope that through the work, viewers will be able to look back on the role of parents and the meaning of family, recalling that there are no perfect parents or children in the world."
In particular, through the narrative of the protagonists who were abandoned by their adoptive parents and the character Kim Se-hee (Yeom Jung-ah), who dominated them, Ahn said, `I wanted to express the complex emotions of the character whose narcissism precedes motherhood.' In addition, Kim Ah-hyun (Won Jin-ah) and the non-blood family's narrative, which the children create by following Woo Tae-sik (Choi Young-joon), the person who saved them, was also cited as a major point and emphasized that `Even if the family's forms are different, if they are sincere to each other, they can be warm and good enough.'
Behind the scenes of the casting process were also revealed. Author Ahn wrote `Sehee was written from the beginning with actress Yeom Jeong-ah in mind. When the casting was confirmed, I got goosebumps, and the moment I saw the acting, I felt that it was more like Sehee than Sehee in the script. Actor Won Jin-ah then depicted the character of Ah-hyun, where strength and sadness coexist, in a more three-dimensional way, and the Jinyoung Kim actor was also Jeong Hyeon himself. Even though I didn't have much acting experience, I was surprised to express my emotions accurately with a single facial expression," he said, appreciating the character and actors' 's synchro-yul'.
Writer Ahn So-jung cited 'trade adoption', 'bad parents' and 'narcissist' as the main keywords of the work, adding that scenes in which parents who are perpetrators are paid back in their own way will add interest, as the key is the exhilarating revenge of abandoned children.
Finally, "It is a stimulating material, but I put my heart and soul into capturing entertainment and messages together." It is not just a genre, but a work that contains deep insights into family and humans, so please pay a lot of attention to it."
Meanwhile, ENA's new Monday-Tuesday drama 'I Shopping' will premiere at 10 p.m. on July 21st and will be released on TVing as OTT exclusive.
antahn22@sportschosun.com
