Ji Chang Wook and Imada Mio Lead New Korean-Japanese Rom-Com Merry Berry Love

Ji Chang Wook and Imada Mio are set to headline Merry Berry Love, a new Korean-Japanese romantic comedy that will bring an island-set love story to viewers this October. The project pairs two major screen stars from Korea and Japan in a series designed for both domestic broadcast and global streaming, underlining how cross-border drama production continues to expand across Asia’s entertainment market.

The series centers on Lee Yu Bin, played by Ji Chang Wook, a Korean spatial designer whose career success collapses suddenly. After losing what he has built in Korea, Yu Bin travels to a Japanese island in search of a new direction. The premise places him far from the polished professional world that once defined him, creating a classic romantic comedy setup built around reinvention, culture shock, and an unexpected emotional reset.

Imada Mio stars opposite him as Karin Shirahama, a young strawberry farmer who has committed herself to the demanding work of growing fruit on the island. Karin’s grounded daily life contrasts with Yu Bin’s disrupted career, giving the story a clear emotional divide between ambition, loss, routine, and renewal. The first details suggest that the drama will use its rural island environment as more than a scenic backdrop, making the farm and community part of the characters’ changing outlooks.

A Romance Built Around Reinvention

For Ji Chang Wook, Merry Berry Love adds another romantic lead to a career that has balanced action, melodrama, and lighter relationship-driven projects. His character’s fall from professional success gives the drama a route into vulnerability rather than simple wish fulfillment. Yu Bin arrives on the island not as a visitor with everything figured out, but as someone forced to reconsider what stability and happiness mean after a personal and professional reversal.

Imada Mio’s Karin appears positioned as the emotional anchor of the story. A strawberry farmer who has devoted herself to her craft, she brings a different kind of determination to the romance. Instead of framing love only through grand gestures, the setup points toward a slower contrast between city experience and rural endurance, with Karin’s work offering Yu Bin a different rhythm of life.

The supporting cast broadens that island community. Nam Yoon Su plays Park Gu Nam, a devoted part-time worker who carries a long-standing crush on Mari. Kumada Rinka plays Mizuno Mari, Karin’s best friend and a tarot reader focused on romance. Their storyline is expected to add a younger romantic thread alongside the central pairing, giving the drama room for lighter ensemble moments and a second emotional track.

A Cross-Border Production With Global Ambitions

The production is also significant beyond its plot. Merry Berry Love is described as the first series jointly produced by Japan’s Nippon TV and Korean entertainment company CJ ENM. That partnership places the drama within a growing wave of projects built to move across language, broadcast, and streaming markets from the start, rather than being adapted for international audiences only after a domestic run.

The release plan reflects that strategy. The series is scheduled to stream worldwide on Disney+ in October, while also airing weekly on Nippon TV in Japan. That dual path gives Merry Berry Love access to a broad international audience while maintaining a traditional Japanese television presence, a combination increasingly important for dramas with multinational casts and production teams.

For fans of Korean drama, the project offers a familiar romance structure with a fresh production angle: a Korean lead character rebuilding his life in Japan, a Japanese heroine rooted in local agricultural life, and a setting designed to emphasize emotional recovery. For Japanese viewers, the involvement of Imada Mio, Kumada Rinka, and Nippon TV gives the series a strong local anchor even as it aims for global reach.

With its October premiere window confirmed, Merry Berry Love now enters the fall drama conversation as both a star-led romance and a test case for deeper Korean-Japanese television collaboration. Its success will likely depend on whether it can balance the charm of an island rom-com with the cultural specificity that makes its setting and partnership meaningful.