If you’ve only seen Oh Jung-se as the lovable, eccentric characters he’s known for, Climax is about to rewire your entire perception. He’s playing a chaebol heir sitting on the edge of a knife — and the new stills prove he was born for this role.
Climax Drama At a Glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Drama Title | Climax (클라이맥스) |
| Network / Stream | ENA / Disney+ (select regions) / Rakuten Viki |
| Premiere Date | March 16, 2026 |
| Air Schedule | Every Monday & Tuesday at 10:00 PM KST |
| Total Episodes | 10 |
| Finale Date | April 14, 2026 |
| Director | Lee Ji-won (Miss Baek, Baeksang New Director Award winner) |
| Genre | Political Survival Noir |
Full Cast & Characters
| Actor | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Ju Ji-hoon | Bang Tae-seop | Ambitious star prosecutor married to South Korea’s top actress |
| Ha Ji-won | Chu Sang-ah | Once-celebrated actress, now sidelined after marriage |
| Nana | Hwang Jeong-won | Secret informant holding the key to exposing the cartel |
| Oh Jung-se | Kwon Jong-wook | Chaebol eldest son fighting to inherit WR Group |
| Cha Joo-young | Lee Yang-mi | The chairman’s second wife — a rival claimant to the throne |
Oh Jung-se’s Character: The Dangerous Wildcard
Oh Jung-se plays Kwon Jong-wook — the eldest son of WR Group’s chairman and the man everyone assumed would inherit the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea without a fight. The newly released stills tell a different story.
In one image, he sits across a table holding a fork, eyes locked on his counterpart — a gaze carrying the quiet weight of a decision being calculated in real time. In another, he stands alone with arms crossed, lost in thought as the succession battle around him escalates. He is not yet a villain, not yet a hero — and that deliberate ambiguity is exactly what makes Kwon Jong-wook so compelling.
With Cha Joo-young’s Lee Yang-mi — the chairman’s second wife — aggressively positioning herself as a rival successor, Kwon Jong-wook is suddenly no longer an heir. He’s a contestant. And Oh Jung-se’s ability to portray layered, morally complex characters in subtle ways (as seen in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay) makes him the perfect actor to play a man whose ambitions surface only when his back is against the wall.
It’s also worth noting that Ju Ji-hoon and Oh Jung-se previously starred together in Jirisan (2021) — their on-screen reunion five years later, now on opposite sides of a power struggle, is already generating enormous buzz.
For more on the best K-dramas to watch in spring 2026, check out TechnoSports for our full watchlist.
Why Climax Could Be the K-Drama of 2026
Climax operates where politics, corporate power, and entertainment industry corruption collide — a trifecta of the most dramatically fertile territory in Korean storytelling. Director Lee Ji-won, who earned the Baeksang Arts Awards New Director Award for Miss Baek, brings a precise, emotionally grounded lens to what could easily have been a standard power-struggle thriller.
The tagline says it all — “The more you fall, the higher you climb; the more you desire, the closer you get to the peak.” This isn’t just about who wins. It’s about what winning costs.
Learn more about the Korean drama genre on the official Wikipedia page for Korean dramas.
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