Suspenseful chases and love proclamations in Lady Durian

by solstices

A new teaser has just dropped for TV Chosun’s Lady Durian, giving us a clearer look at our characters and their complex relationships. The time-slip fantasy melodrama balances both a Joseon timeline and a modern one, with our two leading ladies transcending time.

The teaser opens with one of our protagonists, Baek Do-yi — played by Choi Myung-gil (Red Shoes) — looking regal atop a horse. She’s accompanied by Kim Min-joon (Was it Love?) as Dan Chi-gam, her second son. When they pass by the eldest son Dan Chi-gang, played by Jeon No-min (Law Cafe), Chi-gam compliments him on taking a “nice approach” to his golf shot.

As the matriarch of a chaebol family, the world is Do-yi’s oyster. Reclining in her opulent living room, surrounded by her sons and daughters-in-law, Do-yi claims that heaven doesn’t exist elsewhere — rather, heaven is right here, where they are.

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That is, until Do-yi’s picture-perfect utopia is shattered by unexpected events. Yoon Hae-young (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce 2) plays the eldest daughter-in-law Jang Se-mi, who’s poised and serene — until she plunges the whole family into chaos by making a bold declaration to Do-yi. She loves her. Not merely as a daughter-in-law, but as a woman. To prove it, we see Se-mi leaning over a sleeping Do-yi, moving closer as if to kiss her.

Over in the Joseon timeline, our characters are in a state of disarray, too. Kim So-jeo, played by Lee Da-yeon (Thirty-Nine), falls to her knees in front of her mother-in-law, voice trembling in despair. Concerned, our titular protagonist Du Ri-ahn — played by Park Joo-mi (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce) — gently asks her daughter-in-law what has brought her to tears.

We aren’t shown the exact reason, but from So-jeo’s voiceover, it seems corruption and moral depravity are at play. Every effort to fight it has proved useless thus far — until our Joseon pair accidentally stumble upon a mysterious chest during a late-night chase. Presumably, that’ll serve as their portal between the present and the future.

This teaser doesn’t give us a peek into the time travel turmoil (you can take a look at the first teaser for that), but it certainly sets the tone for the drama — elegant and suspenseful, with the drama meter turned up to the maximum.

Helmed by PD Shin Woo-chul (Melting Me Softly) with scripts penned by Im Sung-han (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce), Lady Durian premieres in June.