Jang Dong-yoon enters the ring as ENA’s Sand Flower

by tccolb

The first teaser and poster have dropped for ENA’s new coming-of-age romance The Sand Flower, shining the spotlight on our hero Kim Baek-du – played by Jang Dong-yoon (Daily Dose of Sunshine) – as he takes us for a stroll onto the sandy ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling) ring.

In his younger days, Baek-du had once been hailed as a ssireum prodigy on the road to stardom, boasting both passion and talent in spades. Giving us a glimpse into his childhood, the teaser opens on a sweet flashback of when his friend had told Baek-du to one day become the strongest man.

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My heart breaks for Baek-du, though — when we re-meet our ssireum athlete in the present, his career hasn’t taken off as hoped. With no winning titles under his belt, Baek-du is now seen as decent at best.

But our hero is not yet ready to give up his dreams, and he faces a crossroads when his ssireum team ends up on the chopping block, in danger of being disbanded. With his fire refueled, we watch as Baek-du enters the arena and the teaser closes as he mentally prepares himself: “This tournament today could very well become the last one in my life.”

Although we haven’t seen much of them yet, our story also stars Lee Joo-myung (Twenty Five Twenty One), Yoon Jong-seok (Our Blooming Youth), and Kim Bora (Finland Papa), fleshing out the world along with Lee Jae-joon (So Not Worth It) and Lee Joo-seung (Black Knight) among others.

With production led by PD Kim Jin-woo (A Model Family, Suits) and writer Won Yoo-jung (The Lies Within), ENA’s The Sand Flower premieres on December 20 in the Wednesday-Thursday slot.