GIFT Korean Drama: Kim Woo-bin Release Date, Cast, Teaser
tvN released a new teaser Monday for "GIFT," the Kim Woo-bin baseball drama that premieres Dec. 5 at 9:10 p.m. KST, which is 7:10 a.m. ET the same day. The clip is built on one question: does a game get won by talent or by effort?
Kim plays Jung Min-yong, a former professional pitching coach who gains a special ability after an unexpected accident. He ends up as head coach of the lowest-ranked high school team in the country. Seo Eun-soo plays Yoon Seo-jin, a physical education teacher at the school who heads its baseball club. In the teaser, Jung lays out two ways to win: innate baseball talent, or detailed stats, meaning acquired effort. Yoon asks which of the two has the higher probability of winning. The setup puts a coach who already knows the professional level in charge of the weakest roster in the country, so the talent-versus-effort debate in the clip is the series' stated premise. Soompi's earlier preview described the two leaders as taking different approaches to the same team, with Yoon valuing the process of growth.
"GIFT" is adapted from the baseball webtoon of the same name by Jeong Iriiri, serialized on Kakao Webtoon. It is directed by Kim Kyu-tae and Ham Seung-hoon and written by Min-jeong, Hae-joo and Seong-eun, and it airs on tvN's Saturday-Sunday slot. The supporting cast announced so far includes Seo Hyun-woo, Kim Won-hae, Yang Hyun-min, Hyun Bong-sik, Park Sang-nam, Lee Bong-ryeon and Park Ji-a, plus newcomers Cha Bin, Han Si-hyun, Park Seong-hyun, Han Tae-ha and Kim Geon-woo, according to Sports Kyunghyang.
At the first script reading, released in October, Seo said that while reading the script she felt "he was Jung Min Yong himself," talking about Kim. Kim said the cast would bring a lot of positive energy to make an enjoyable drama.
The drama is the first of what Korean outlets expect to be a run of baseball dramas timed to the end of the Korean Series and the approach of spring training, according to Sports Kyunghyang. That puts a Dec. 5 premiere ahead of the others and gives it the offseason to itself. For U.S. viewers, Kim is best known abroad from the film "Alienoid: Return to the Future." Kim married actress Shin Min-a last December, Starnews reported, and she stars in Disney+'s "The Remarried Empress," which streams Wednesdays.
The premiere is 26 days away. Episodes air Saturdays and Sundays on tvN starting Dec. 5.
