bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Ju Ji-hoon, Han Hyo-joo
Disney+ action-sci-fi Blood Free is the latest Korean series to dip its toes into dystopia.
Leading the show is Moving star Han Hyo-joo as the entrepreneur behind a cultured meat corporation that revolutionises global food production, and Ju Ji-hoon (Kingdom) as her tough-as-nails bodyguard.
The series opens with a product launch presentation put on by Blood Free, a corporation that has successfully developed a lab-cultured meat product that does not require the slaughter of animals and has managed to capture a 72 per cent share of the meat market in a short time.


Following a holographic presentation of their exploits to date, CEO Yun Ja-yu (Han) takes to the stage to present their latest innovation. The side doors of the conference room open and servers wheel in meals of cultured fish. She also makes that bold claim that they will successfully create cultured grain products within the next six months.
Shareholders in the room are delighted but it is a different story outside, where protesters are split into two groups: the environmentalists supporting Blood Free and the agricultural workers against it.
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in April 2024
On her way back to the office, while Ja-yu’s car is stuck in traffic, a body lands on her roof. She escapes with only minor bruises, but the dead man is revealed to have been an agricultural worker negatively affected by Blood Free’s innovations who intended to do her harm.
This is not the first time Ja-yu’s life has been put in danger, and soon her company is put in jeopardy when it is hacked by a group known as Citizen X, which demands a ransom of 80 billion won (US$58 million).
Given all these troubles, Ja-yu’s team feels that she needs a full-time bodyguard, and the top applicant for that post is Woo Chae-woon (Ju), a former soldier with extensive skills and experience.

Chae-woon passes all the interview tests, which include several elaborate VR stages, with flying colours, but what Blood Free does not know is that he has ulterior motives for getting close to Ja-yu.
He used to be the bodyguard for former South Korean President Lee Mun-gyu (Jeon Kuk-hwan), who lost his grip on power when he lost his legs during a terrorist attack. He believes that someone within a small group of powerful figures is responsible, and Ja-yu is one of those suspects.
Like much other Korean sci-fi screen content, Blood Free puts its social and scientific themes out front and centre as the series begins. But once the aggressive exposition is out of the way and the story takes over, those themes are quickly relegated to the sidelines.

This will be disappointing for viewers who are drawn in by the show’s sci-fi concept. We do live in a world in which a growing population is putting more pressure on available arable land, and in which people are increasingly grappling with the moral and environmental implications of killing animals for food.
While certain scientific advances could alleviate some of these problems, they would also give rise to other issues, namely economic ones, as the countless people involved in global food production would have their livelihoods greatly affected.
Blood Free touches on all of this within its first few minutes, but throughout the rest of its opening pair of episodes, the show does not seem terribly interested in expanding on these themes or threading them in a more compelling way to the narrative that unfolds.

Furthermore, the show also falls into the disappointing pattern of Korean sci-fi series that open with grand ideas only to quickly boil down into insular stories.
The threat to Blood Free is initially shown to be a global one, but by episode two it becomes clear that not only is it domestic, it is probably coming from within the small group of confidantes that form the core of Ja-yu’s company. Suddenly, a big story begins to feel very small.
From writer Lee Soo-yeon, the show is an improvement over her previous Disney+ sci-fi series Grid, but it falls well short of the charms of her signature show Stranger. So far the characterisations are dry, the narrative lacks a compelling hook, and the sci-fi and social concepts feel like they are only there for show.

Even if Blood Free is not going to be an epic tale about where humanity may find itself in a few years’ time, at the very least it should be a bit more fun than this.
Blood Free is streaming on Disney+.


The 15 best K-dramas of 2024 ranked, from Queen of Tears to LTNS and Squid Game season 2

Disney+ K-drama Light Shop review: Ju Ji-hoon in mawkish supernatural story of two halves

Disney+ K-drama Light Shop: Ju Ji-hoon leads supernatural drama from Moving mastermind

Disney+ K-drama The Fiery Priest 2 midseason recap: Kim Nam-gil in comedy overload

Korean drama reviews

Disney+ K-drama Blood Free: Ju Ji-hoon, Han Hyo-joo lead sci-fi series that looks like it’s dumping its big ideas already

Han Hyo-joo in a still from Blood Free. Photo: Disney+.

Ju Ji-hoon as bodyguard Woo Chae-woon in a still from Blood Free. Ju and Han Hyo-joo star in the sci-fi action series by writer Lee Soo-yeon. Photo: Disney+

Han Hyo-joo as Blood Free CEO Yun Ja-yu in a still from Blood Free. Photo: Disney+

Ju Ji-hoon as bodyguard Woo Chae-woon in a still from Blood Free. Photo: Disney+

Jeon Kuk-hwan (left) as former South Korean President Lee Mun-gyu and Ju Ji-hoon as bodyguard Woo Chae-woon in a still from Blood Free. Photo: Disney+.

Who is Kim Hye-yoon, hard-working K-drama star of Lovely Runner, SKY Castle and Extraordinary You?

Kim Hye-yoon in a still from Lovely Runner.

Korean actress Kim Hye-yoon, who is back on screens in April in drama series Lovely Runner. A hard worker, she has had roles in more than 50 productions since 2013, some while still at university and including hit series SKY Castle. Photo: Instagram/@hye_yoon1110.

Kim Hye-yoon as Im Sol in a still from Lovely Runner.

Kim as Kang Ye-seo in a still from SKY Castle.

Kim as Eun Dan-oh in a still from Extraordinary You.

Kim as Gye Bun-ok in a still from Snowdrop.

Kim as Goo Hye-young in a still from The Girl on a Bulldozer.

Kim as Seo Han-sol in a still from Ditto (2022).

K-drama Lovely Runner: frothy fantasy romance with Kim Hye-yoon and Byeon Woo-seok bursts out of the blocks

Lovely Runner, streaming on Viu, stars Kim Hye-yoon and Byeon Woo-seok as a woman confined to a wheelchair and a K-pop idol who inspires her.  

Byeon Woo-seok as Ryu Sun-jae (left) and Kim Hye-yoon as Im Sol in a still from Lovely Runner.

Byeon Woo-seok as Ryu Sun-jae in a still from Lovely Runner.

Kim Hye-yoon as Im Sol (left) and Song Geon-hee as Kim Tae -sung in a still from Lovely Runner.

Kim Hye-yoon as Im Sol (left) and Byeon Woo-seok as Ryu Sun-jae in a still from Lovely Runner.

Netflix K-drama midseason recap: Queen of Tears – Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Ji-won capture hearts in hit romance

Kim Soo-hyun in a still from Queen of Tears.

Queen of Tears stars Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won (above) as country boy Baek Hyun-woo, and his wife Hong Hae-in, an heiress who is diagnosed with a brain tumour. 

Kim Soo-hyun as Baek Hyun-woo (left) and Kim Ji-won as Hong Hae-in in a still from Queen of Tears.

Park Sung-hoon as investor Yoon Eun-sung in a still from Queen of Tears.

Kim Kap-soo as Queen Group chairman Hong Man-dae (left) and Lee Mi-sook as his girlfriend Moh Seul-hee in a still from Queen of Tears.

The Glory star Song Hye-kyo weighs period K-drama role; Jun Ji-hyun drama Polaris shooting – Korean drama casting latest

Song Hye-kyo as Moon Dong-eun in a still from The Glory. Photo: Graphyoda/Netflix

Song Hye-kyo recently starred in the hit drama The Glory. She is in talks to appear in an as yet untitled period drama about the birth of the Korean broadcasting industry. Photo: Netflix

Ahn Bo-hyun in a still from Flex X Cop.

Lee Sung-min in a still from Shadow Detective.

Jun Ji-hyun in a still from Jirisan.

Park Hyung-sik in a still from Doctor Slump.

Disney+ K-drama review: The Impossible Heir – Lee Jae-wook, Lee Jun-young wrestle for power in clunky drama

Lee Jae-wook as Han Tae-o in a still from The Impossible Heir. Photo: Disney+

Lee Jae-wook as Han Tae-o in a still from Disney+ K-drama The Impossible Heir. Lee Jun-young and Hong Su-zu co-star. Photo: Disney+

Hong Su-zu as Na Hye-won in a still from The Impossible Heir. Photo: Disney+

Lee Jun-young as Kang In-ha in a still from The Impossible Heir. Photo: Disney+

Lifestyle

K-Pop

K-drama

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

This new series from writer Lee Soo-yeon sets out with an interesting premise involving revolutionary lab-cultured meat and global food production
The characterisations are dry, the narrative lacks a compelling hook and the sci-fi and social concepts feel like they are only there for show – can it improve?


Ju Ji-hoon and Han Hyo-joo star in Blood Free on Disney+, a sci-fi series by writer Lee Soo-yeon that looks set to drop its interesting premise involving lab-cultured meat and global food production.
