Netflix's New 12-Part K-Drama Is Officially A Full-Circle Moment

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Published Aug 31, 2026, 9:30 PM EDT

Shealyn Scott is a Senior Writer at Screen Rant. She has been writing for the site since 2024, focused on network, reality, streaming, and classic television.
A creative writer, journalist, and lover of the written word in all its forms, Shealyn enjoys deconstructing scenes from her favorite shows, using context clues and historical precedent to predict major plot points (which, due to her successful track record, has sparked rumors of clairvoyance).
As an award-winning student journalist, Shealyn spent her college years advocating for the humanities while studying English Literature. Her love of storytelling propelled her to expand her degree with minors in Writing and History, believing life to be a mere collection of stories that can be framed in as many ways as a movie scene.
As a Senior member of the TV Team, Shealyn treats the series she covers like books, analyzing every line, camera angle, and lighting choice. Thankfully, her personal mission statement lines up perfectly with Screen Rant: every creative work deserves just as much thought from the viewer as it received from its creator.

One of Netflix's most highly-anticipated K-dramas of the year ties back to its top star's greatest role. Nowadays, K-dramas on Netflix are a dime a dozen, and every competing streaming service has invested years in the same market. Nevertheless, the Korean film industry existed decades before it landed on Netflix's radar, and South Korean television actors became international ambassadors of culture thanks to so-called "Hallyu" waves of popularity. Even in the modern age, however, icons can be born overnight and reach international stardom with a single standout role.

Without question, Song Kang is one of the most beloved actors in the industry, despite his youth. Since his 2017 debut, the fan-favorite male lead has helmed legendary series, including supernatural romance My Demon, zombie horror drama Sweet Home, and irreverent rom-com Nevertheless. Considering how many Netflix originals he's starred in, it's unsurprising that Song Kang's comeback K-drama is also streaming exclusively on the world's leading streaming service. Yet, what has caught fans by surprise is how Song Kang's newest role in Four Hands, Two Sonatas harkens back to the actor's best work to date.

Four Hands, Two Sonatas Feels Like A Spiritual Successor To Song Kang's Best K-Drama

Two men play piano in the Netflix K-drama Four Hands, Two Sonatas.

Admittedly, Four Hands, Two Sonatas has only released two of its scheduled 12 entries, but from the moment the K-drama's first episode begins, it's abundantly clear that Netflix has something special on its hands. The coming-of-age drama opens on Song Kang's Kang Bi-o at a piano competition in Prague. Though he brings the house down with a rousing performance that leaves numerous audience members misty-eyed, the phenom has little cause for celebration, as his family is cruelly underwhelmed and critical of his playing.

Whereas Kang Bi-o is technically flawless but lacks passion, he finds himself suddenly rivaled by Choi Jeong-yo (Lee Jun-young), a young prodigy who has been forced to ignore his musical inclinations in order to handle his father's crushing debt. When Jeong-yo abruptly transfers to Korea Arts High School, Bi-o is forced to confront the harsh truth that someone appears to be naturally better than him, exposing the protagonist's deep-seated insecurity.

With such high stakes and emotional turmoil right off the bat, Four Hands, Two Sonatas leaves the viewer itching for the next weekly installment. Furthermore, while Song Kang's performance hits all the right notes, it's impossible to ignore how similar in tone the Netflix original feels to his true magnum opus: Navillera. In the 2021 drama, Song Kang portrays a similarly creative yet haunted young man with a fading love of ballet. Just as he begins to give up on his career, an elderly would-be ballerino begs the protagonist to make his lifelong dream come true.

To an extent, Song Kang's role in Navillera feels like a Frankenstein-esque fusion of Four Hands, Two Sonatas' two leads. Of course, there are still major narrative points of divergence that keep the K-dramas distinctive in their own right. Navillera's focus is mainly on mortality and the many introspective lessons to be learned in old age, while Four Hands, Two Sonatas seems like a classic coming-of-age romance stretched taut with interpersonal and familial conflicts.

Could Netflix's New K-Drama Be Even Better Than Navillera?

From the young love subplot to the high school setting, there's an obvious argument to be made that Four Hands, Two Sonatas is more palatable for mainstream popularity. K-dramas rarely shy away from devastating twists, tear-jerking endings, and brutally honest depictions of death, but that doesn't mean viewers actively seek out stories that will make them sob. To be clear, Netflix's new K-drama is far from a breezy viewing experience, but the darkest aspects of the first two episodes don't permeate the soul in the same way Navillera does.

Regardless of its relative obscurity, Navillera is a near-perfect K-drama, and any viewer who writes the series off is doing themselves a grave disservice. Whether you love Song Kang or have never seen him act, Navillera is the kind of show that immerses the audience in the story such that you forget the characters aren't living, breathing people. Four Hands, Two Sonatas is off to a superb start, but the series irrefutably has big shoes to fill if it hopes to claim the title as Song Kang's best K-drama.