Netflix recently released the trailer for the upcoming Korean comedy series Chicken Nugget, which boasts an outlandish premise based on the webtoon Fried Chicken by Park Ji-dok. The creator is quite well-known for his imaginative and goofy fabrications, as he is also the author and artist behind Potato Village, Murder Case, Killer Farts, and Herbal Village.
In this tale of boy meets girl, the girl hops into a machine that mysteriously turns her into a chicken nugget. And now, her father and love interest must team up to prevent her from becoming lunch.
The trailer opens with Min-ah (Kim Yoo-jung) stepping into a tall purple cabinet, closing the door, and meeting an unpredictable fate. Lights of various colors emanate from the small window as smoke escapes from the crevices. When the machine finally powers down, Baek-joong (Ahn Jae-hong) opens the door to discover that Min-ah is gone and, in her place, is a juicy Dakgangjeong — a sweet & sour nugget. As her father, Seon-man (Ryu Seung-ryong) yells her name into the nugget, he receives no reply (in all frankness, the nugget talking would not have shocked us given the events up to this point).
The trailer then goes down a rabbit hole of ridiculousness as we look at chicken nuggets in a fridge or spilled on the floor and wonder — “Are those all humans turned crispy snacks?” There’s then a blink-and-you-miss-it-moment during which Baek-joong seems to be applying a glaze to a head-sized chicken nugget resting atop a suit-clad body. (I guess he’s keeping her from drying out? Did she develop arms and legs at some point? How did she get full-sized? Is this a dream?) Oh, and there appears to be a high-octane action sequence with some robot dogs on the attack… Chicken Nugget seems to have everything you could want from a comedy — unpredictable laughs, a little bit of romance, some combat sequences, and sci-fi silliness.
The Netflix series is directed by Lee Byeong-heon, who is a writer, director, and producer well known for his work on Honey Sweet, Dream, Ultimate Weapon Alice, and Against My Life.
As for the talented ensemble, Jae-hong, who is portraying the series’ primary protagonist, has starred in The King of Jokgu, Fight For My Way, and The Sunshine Boys. Kim Yoo-jung has played primary characters in Love in the Moonlight and My Demon. And, Seung-ryong, playing the protective father, is an established South Korean actor who has starred in Kingdom, Extreme Job, Moving, Miracle in Cell No. 7, and All About My Wife.
Chicken Nugget premiered March 15 on Netflix.
