After the massive success of Moving, acclaimed webtoon writer Kang Full returns to Disney+ with the star-studded The Light Shop. But the two shows couldn’t be more different. The Light Shop offers no superheroes or familiar warmth —only terrifying creatures lurking in the shadowy corners of the human psyche and the weight of our deepest mortal fears.
The Plot of the First Four Episodes
*Warning: Mild spoilers ahead
Like Moving and its seven-episode premiere, The Light Shop lands four episodes to establish the show's strange dark universe while introducing us to the many characters who live and struggle there.
Instead of a dramatic bang, the show begins with a haunting whimper. In the still of a foggy, dreamlike night, a striking woman with flowing black hair waits alone at a deserted bus stop. She’s waiting for someone—a man (Uhm Tae-goo, My Sweet Mobster) who steps off the same bus every night. One evening, as rain drenches the streets, she asks him to take her home. Reluctantly, he agrees, offering her a dry towel and shelter. It’s a decision he doesn’t live to regret—because he doesn’t live at all.
Over the next three episodes, we encounter a gallery of haunted souls. Hyun-joo (Shin Eun-soo, Twinkling Watermelon), a high schooler, must traverse a shadowy alley every night to get home. A man shivers alone in his freezing apartment. Another complains about a dog’s incessant barking that no one else seems to hear. Then there’s Kwon Young-ji (Park Bo-young), a dedicated ICU nurse plagued by eerie hallucinations and ghostly apparitions. We also meet Seon-ha (Kim Min-ha, Pachinko), a weary, middle-aged woman who just moved into a dingy apartment tucked away at the end of another dark alley whose light bulbs keep burning out.
The mystery deepens. The once-lifeless alleys are revealed to teem with sinister figures—ghastly creatures lurking just out of sight. Who, or what, are they? Why does this city seem abandoned, its streets shrouded in silence and gloom?
Amid this tangled web of horror and enigma, a curious light shop stands out as an anomaly. Illuminated and warm, it’s a beacon in the perpetual darkness. Inside, a mysterious man named Won-young (Ju Ji-hoon) works, surrounded by a hundred glowing lamps. Clad in a jacket, with eyes hidden by sunglasses, he attends to an odd mix of strangers and wary customers all night. But who is Won-young? And why is his shop the sole sanctuary of light in this shadowy city?
Hyun-joo, our high schooler, eventually finds her way to the shop, seeking a new bulb. She confides in Wonyoung about the strange visions haunting her, only to be told she’s been seeing the “strangers.” But who—or what—are these strangers? And what do they want from Hyun-joo and the others?
The mystery further deepens as we meet Yang Sung-sik (Bae Sung-woo), a grizzled detective investigating the grim death of an elderly man in his apartment. Sung-sik’s search for answers leads him straight to the light shop, where more unsettling truths await.
With each episode, the threads of these stories weave tighter, drawing us deeper into a world where light is precious, darkness conceals dreadful secrets, and cries for help remain unheeded.
Our Initial Impressions
The first four episodes of The Light Shop unfold slowly and deliberately, like a sweater unraveling one dark thread at a time. At moments, the series feels scattered, almost disjointed, testing your patience—particularly when the pacing drags in the third episode. But stick with it. By the end of the fourth episode, your perseverance will pay off as the puzzle pieces finally fall into place. Yet even then, the show still leaves plenty of questions unanswered, ensuring you’ll be just as hooked as the rest of us, counting down the days until the next four episodes.
Kang Full masterfully manipulates this suspense, keeping us too close to the horror to look away but too far from the answers to feel at ease. The show manages to dazzle in true K-drama style with its top-tier visuals and production. Its haunting cinematography and eerie, discordant music craft an atmosphere so surreal that it feels like a waking nightmare. The result is a show that’s not just spooky but deeply immersive, pulling you into its strange and sinister world.
Riddled with secrets, eccentric characters, and an abundance of things that go bump in the night, The Light Shop doesn’t even move or feel like your typical K-drama. Its tone and pacing evoke the wonderfully odd, Twilight Zone-esque vibes of a BBC thriller more than a high-octane mystery drama like Moving. This slower, more measured approach may alienate fans used to fast-paced revelations and tidy resolutions by the second episode. Instead, it keeps viewers in the dark—both literally and figuratively. Even by the third episode, you’ll still find yourself on the edge of your seat, screaming internally (or aloud), “What the @$#%#$ is gooooooooooing oooooooooon?!”
However, The Light Shop sometimes feels uneven, even frustrating, as it veers off-kilter before delivering part of the Big Explanation. But that’s part of its charm. This isn’t a show trying to please everyone—it’s a strange, almost experimental piece that carves its own freaky path. It is clear that writer Kang Full is unapologetically in control, weaving his story with precision and patience, leaving viewers with no choice but to trust him—and the payoff, so far, makes the wait worthwhile.
For this reviewer, it’s a path worth following. Despite its quirks and bumps, The Light Shop has captured my heart and now I’m all in for the next four episodes (scheduled to drop over the next two weeks). It's a rare treat to let a writer go their own way, and when it’s Kang Full steering the ghastly ship, you gladly buckle up and see where his haunted imagination takes you.
When and Where to Watch: Wednesdays, exclusively on Disney+
