South Korean online streaming service Tving’s latest original crime drama series, Bargain, is set for its first global opening via the American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owning subscription video-on-demand service, Paramount+. The crime-thriller series will launch on Paramount+ in all countries outside of South Korea, as announced by the company earlier this Friday.
The six-part thriller directed by Jun Woo-sung, widely renowned for his teenage cult gangster movie, Beat, is the second K-drama premiering on the streaming platform as a part of the collaboration between Paramount and Seoul-based content authority CJ ENM, as revealed earlier this year.
Bargain, a 2015 award-winning short film by filmmaker Lee Chung-Hyun, stars actors Jun Jong-Seo (Money Heist: Korea) and Jin Seon-kyu (Extreme Job). Director Jun Woo-sung, who was a member of the original short film production crew, adapted the story into a six-part television series for CJ ENM's primary streaming platform Tving.
The plot of Bargain centres on a group of strangers who come together at a secluded motel with the intention of bartering. In contrast to the first movie, the series continues with the characters after an unanticipated earthquake seals them inside the structure. They have to find a means to survive since they cannot rely on anyone.
In other K-drama developments, Under The Queen's Umbrella is one of the top 10 non-English series on the site for the most recent week of viewing. Netflix's most recent K-drama release, which received 8.01 million hours of viewing, landed in the tenth position in the non-English category of the streaming service's Global Top 10. Since its platform debut last month, the series has not made an appearance in the top 10 list, before.
Senior VP and head of streaming at Paramount's Asia division, Catherine Park, discusses the series' engaging storytelling style. She says, “Bargain is an incredible example of the phenomenal creative, compelling stories coming out of Korea, and out of our strategic partnership with CJ ENM and Tving. We are confident our audiences will love this series and Yonder when the two titles debut on our platform next year." The series is available in Korea on Tving at the moment. It will get going on Paramount + in 2023.
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