The Frog (South Korean TV series)

The Frog (Korean: 아무도 없는 숲속에서) is a 2024 South Korean mystery crime thriller television series written by Son Ho-young, directed by Mo Wan-il [ko], and starring Kim Yoon-seok, Yoon Kye-sang, Go Min-si, and Lee Jung-eun. The series depicts how a suspicious visitor disrupted the normal lives of ordinary people in the middle of summer. It was released on Netflix on August 23, 2024.
The Frog unfolds in a secluded forest town, a few hours' drive from Seoul, where Jeon Yeong-ha has spent the last several years. Following his beloved wife's terminal illness, Yeong-ha moved to this tranquil location, fulfilling her dream of living in a beautiful, remote house surrounded by nature. After she died, he chose to remain in the town, residing in a modest home adjacent to the villa he now operates as a holiday rental. His daughter, Ui-seon, frequently urges him to return to Seoul to live with her and her fiancé, but Yeong-ha finds solace in managing the rental alongside his best friend, Yong-chae. However, Yeong-ha lacks the drive to fully commit to the business, relying on Yong-chae to encourage him to promote the property online to attract more guests.
Amidst this backdrop, a young woman named Seong-a arrives at the rental with her son, Si-hyeon. Though she carries an air of mystery and reserve, Yeong-ha welcomes them without hesitation. His sense of unease grows when Seong-a departs early the next morning, leaving behind disturbing blood stains and an overpowering scent of bleach, most alarmingly without her son in tow.
The narrative also weaves in a chilling incident from over twenty years ago at the Lake View Motel, run by Gu Sang-jun and his wife, Eun-gyeong. In the early 2000s, Sang-jun's hospitality took a dark turn when he invited a serious-looking man, later identified as the serial killer Hyang-cheol, to stay the night. Despite being off-season and desperate for business, Sang-jun offered the guest the best room at a nominal fee. This fateful decision shattered Sang-jun's life when Hyang-cheol committed a brutal murder within the motel's walls. Though the killer was apprehended swiftly, the motel's reputation suffered irreparable damage.
As the specter of crime looms over both timelines, a singular thread connects them: Officer Yoon Bo-min. With an innate talent for solving crimes, Bo-min began her career at the Hosu police station just days before Hyang-cheol's horrific act. She witnessed the motel's decline and the profound impact of the murder on Sang-jun and his family. Now, as a high-ranking officer returning to the same station, she begins to observe unsettling behavior from Yeong-ha and his enigmatic guest, Seong-a, hinting at a deeper, intertwining mystery waiting to be unraveled.
The series, which consists of eight episodes, is a collaboration between writer Son Ho-young, who won the Excellence Award in the Series category of the 2021 JTBC New Writers Playwriting Contest, and director Mo Wan-il [ko], who directed Misty (2018) and The World of the Married (2020). It is co-produced by SLL and Studio Flow and released on Netflix in more than 190 countries.
Kim Yoon-seok, Yoon Kye-sang, and Go Min-si were reportedly cast for the series in 2022. Lee Jung-eun, Park Ji-hwan, and Ha Yoon-kyung were reportedly cast for the series in 2023. Chanyeol was reportedly cast in 2024.
On February 20, 2023, Kim, Yoon, Go, and Lee were confirmed as the lead actors of the series.
Netflix confirmed The Frog to be released in the third quarter of 2024 after they announced the list of the annual Korean Slate of Films and Series on February 6, 2024.
The series was released on August 23, 2024.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 43% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.
Writing in the Korea Times, cultural critic and scholar David Tizzard described the drama as having great promise but ultimately failing to deliver on its early psychological explorations. Despite aiming to emulate things like The Shining or Parasite, it ended up as "Disney level morality dressed up in miniskirts and trying to be sexy for Netflix...a Tarantino soundtrack (something else it plays with) without the dialogue, wit, or tension." Tizzard did, however, acknowledge the influence the drama might have had on domestic Korean influences for the similarities the plot had with the case of Koh Yuh-jeong.