It is not often that we get the chance to witness superhero content or speculative stories told from an Asian perspective. However, when such a project does emerge, it frequently presents a unique and entirely different viewpoint from Western media. We saw a prime example of this last year with the Japanese series The Hot Spot, which was a hilarious story about aliens who come to Earth and infiltrate a hotel as employees. Now, there is a new show from South Korea that can be described as a classic hero tale, but with the comedy cranked up a notch. Spanning eight hour-long episodes, The Wonderfools stands out as a thoroughly entertaining project. It is a superhero show dripping with Y2K nostalgia, populated by quirky characters who may be gullible, but remain deeply sincere and very likable.
Of course, a massive part of the show's appeal is that it features the adorable Park Eun-bin, who many viewers will instantly recognise from the fan-favourite Korean drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022). Remarkably, her character in this show is the complete opposite of Attorney Woo. Playing Eun Chae-ni, also known by her fitting nickname "Trainwreck", Eun-bin is incredibly spirited, energetic, and wonderfully animated.
The story is set in 1999, right at the height of the global doomsday panic. Eun Chae-ni, Son Gyeong-hun (Choi Dae-hoon), and Kang Ro-bin (Im Seong-jae) form a trio of local oddballs who unexpectedly gain superpowers after a strange, unexplainable incident. Suddenly gifted with a bizarre array of new abilities -- teleportation, ultra-powerful flypaper tracking and super strength -- the trio is immediately thrown into total chaos.
