Son Hyun-joo Brings His 47% Legacy to a Body-Swap Chaebol Thriller

In 2005, Son Hyun-joo starred in a KBS drama that became one of the most-watched television events in modern South Korean history. Rosy Life peaked at 47 percent viewership — a number that belongs to a different era of television, before streaming fragmented audiences and before forty-seven percent of anything agreeing on the same program became nearly impossible to imagine. He has been working consistently since, but nothing has quite echoed that cultural moment.

Now Son Hyun-joo is about to try something different. JTBC's upcoming Saturday-Sunday drama New Employee Chairman Kang premieres May 30 at 10:40 PM KST, and it comes with a setup so layered that the simple phrase "chaebol drama" doesn't come close to capturing it.

The Setup: A Chairman Trapped in a Soccer Player's Body

Son Hyun-joo plays Kang Yong-ho, the formidable chairman of Choisung Group — described as the country's largest conglomerate. Kang Yong-ho is, by all accounts, a man who has sacrificed everything for his company. In the drama's first teaser, he states it plainly: "I can give up a hundred times more if it means protecting Choisung."

Then something happens. Through what the production describes as an unspecified "incident," Kang Yong-ho's soul leaves his body and inhabits that of Hwang Jun-hyun — a soccer player played by Lee Jun-young. The two men could not be more different. Where the chairman wants to preserve the company he built, Hwang Jun-hyun is working against it. His counter-declaration in the teaser: "If I fight to destroy Choisung till the end, what are you going to do about it?"

The result is a drama in which the soul and body of the same entity are in direct opposition — the chairman's consciousness locked inside a young man who wants to tear down everything the chairman has built. It is, to put it gently, a complicated position.

Lee Jun-young's Career-Defining Dual Role

Lee Jun-young carries the double weight of this premise. Playing Hwang Jun-hyun means playing two characters simultaneously — his own character's personality and goals, and the chairman's soul that now shares his body. It is what Korean productions call a 1인 2역 performance (one actor, two roles), and it's one of the most technically demanding challenges in drama acting.

"I'm playing two roles for the first time," Lee Jun-young said in a recent interview. "It's a challenge, but I'm also grateful for the opportunity." The actor, who has been steadily building his career across multiple platforms, is scheduled to begin mandatory military service later this year — making New Employee Chairman Kang one of the most significant projects of his pre-enlistment period. Fans are well aware of the timing.

Opposite him, Lee Joo-myung plays Kang Bang-geul — a character whose origin story carries significant dramatic weight. Bang-geul is Chairman Kang Yong-ho's secret child, a fact she has kept hidden as she infiltrates Choisung Group as an intern. Her presence inside the company, combined with her hidden bloodline, makes her a wildcard in the succession battle. When Bang-geul and the Hwang Jun-hyun/Chairman Kang hybrid begin working together against the same enemies, the show promises the kind of satisfying David-versus-Goliath dynamic that Korean drama audiences tend to find irresistible.

The Siblings Fighting Over a Corporate Empire

No chaebol drama is complete without the family dynamics that make corporate succession stories so compelling, and New Employee Chairman Kang has them in abundance. Jeon Hye-jin plays Kang Jae-kyung, the chairman's daughter, who makes no secret of her ambitions. "Choisung is mine," she states, without apparent concern for how that sounds.

Jin Gu plays her brother Kang Jae-seong, the eldest son who believes his claim to the company is settled by birth order and tradition. The two siblings, each convinced of their own right to lead Choisung Group, provide the drama's central antagonist structure — a two-front conflict that the Hwang Jun-hyun and Bang-geul alliance will have to navigate.

Jeon Hye-jin, known for strong performances in Juvenile Justice and Moving, brings credibility to a character type that can easily tip into caricature. Jin Gu, a veteran of period dramas including Six Flying Dragons, similarly keeps the material grounded. Together, they ensure the siblings feel like real threats rather than plot obstacles.

Kim Soon-ok's Hand in the Project

One detail in the production credits that fans of Korean drama will immediately note: the show lists Kim Soon-ok as creator. Kim is one of Korean television's most commercially successful writers, responsible for runaway hits including Temptation, Penthouse, and most recently Doctor Slump. Her name on a project carries its own set of expectations — high production values, audience-baiting plot twists, and a willingness to push storylines into genuinely surprising territory.

The screenplay itself is credited to Hyun Ji-min, with direction by Go Hye-jin. The production company is SLL, JTBC's production arm, which has been behind a string of the network's most-discussed recent dramas. The combination suggests a show with real institutional backing and the creative resources to match its ambitions.

Why It's Already Generating Buzz

Script readings were held in April, with cast photos released on April 21 showing the full ensemble in their first formal gathering. The first teaser dropped April 30, immediately circulating widely online. Several factors drive the pre-premiere excitement: the soul-swap premise is unusual enough to stand out in a crowded market, the cast combines proven veterans with highly anticipated younger performers, and Son Hyun-joo's return to a major Saturday drama slot feels like an occasion in itself.

There is also the simple fact that body-swap and second-chance narrative structures have been consistent performers in Korean drama over the past decade — they work because they let writers explore the same character from radically different angles without losing the emotional core. New Employee Chairman Kang puts that structure in service of a corporate power story, which adds a layer of genre tension that purely romantic takes on the same premise don't have.

New Employee Chairman Kang premieres Saturday, May 30 at 10:40 PM KST on JTBC.