Kim Hyun-joo inherits a grave in The Bequeathed

by solstices

Promotional materials are out for Netflix’s upcoming thriller The Bequeathed, teasing a harrowing tale and featuring a Trolley reunion between our leads Kim Hyun-joo and Park Hee-soon. At just six episodes, I’m anticipating brisk pacing and a tightly-woven mystery, because the teaser already has my heart in my throat.

When her uncle’s passing bequeaths her an ancestral grave, Yoon Seo-ha (Kim Hyun-joo) finds herself plagued by ominous occurrences. First, it seems an autopsy has been performed on her uncle. Then, she’s accosted at her uncle’s funeral by a scruffy man claiming to be her half-brother.

He’s Kim Young-ho — played by Ryu Kyung-soo (Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938) — and he’s come to stake his claim to the inheritance. What Young-ho wants out of the family burial site isn’t yet clear, but given his penchant for burning talismans, he’s likely harboring ulterior motives that may cross over into the realm beyond.

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Meanwhile, the detective Choi Sung-joon (Park Hee-soon) has cottoned on to the suspicious incidents surrounding the ancestral grave and the village it’s located in. If the bloody body being dragged through a field is anything to go by, people are dying, and the trails lead back to none other than the burial site.

Hyun-joo and Young-ho are in danger, since their proximity to the ancestral grave means it may just claim them next. If Sung-joon wants to investigate further, though, he’ll first need to contend with his jealous team leader Park Sang-min — played by Park Byung-eun (Moving) — who harbors an inferiority complex towards him due to a past case.

In addition, that brief glimpse of Kim Jae-beom (Shadow Detective) wearing an eerily gleeful grin is stoking my excitement, especially given his chillingly compelling performance in Under the Queen’s Umbrella. It seems he may have something to do with that blood-streaked door, and I’m eager to find out what ties he has to the burial site. Do these macabre phenomena have a paranormal origin, or are they the product of human desires? What secrets lie buried beneath the grave?

Helmed by PD Min Hong-nam (Peninsula) with scripts written by Yeon Sang-ho (Monstrous, Hellbound), The Bequeathed is slated for a January 19 release on Netflix.