It’s like The Musical redux – my weekends are all music’ed out. However, I was definitely more excited for this drama than The Musical. And… I think my gut was right in this case.What’s Up is decidedly more quirky, more serious, and darker than its predecessors this year (Dream High, You’ve Fallen for Me and The Musical). But I think that’s what’s so great about it – I like that it starts off in a haunting way. The cast is like Dream High, if the students were older; You’ve Fallen for Me, if the drama was set in winter rather than sunny summer.
Plus, it starts off with a great soundtrack. Les Choristes, anyone?
[Watch the series at DramaFever]
SONG OF THE DAY
“Lunatic” by Daesung – What’s Up OST Part 1 [download]
The series starts off with a montage of our main characters all dressed in black, looking mournful and wistful. Someone died, from the looks of it. The question is, who?
But let’s start with the characters. With a big cast, there’s plenty of story threads to keep track of. In the first two episodes, we build a foundation for these characters, and understand more of who they are (or were). All it does is get us to the school, where all of them enter the theater department.
JANG JAE HUN (Im Joo Hwan) is a bit of a slacker. Or more like a productive slacker; rather than going to school, he and his two friends pickpocket drunk guys around Hongdae. Taking advantage of the fact that the drunkards stumble around a lot, Jae Hun “accidentally gets bumped into” by these fellows, and then creates a ruckus over the drunkard’s behavior. While he grabs the attention of onlookers, his guy friend palms the wallet, and drops it into the hands of their female friend pretending to be a passerby.
They go around to different neighborhoods, but in one street, Jae Hun spots some cops in the distance. He quickly calls up his friends and tells them to run, rather than go through with the scam, because if they cause a ruckus the cops will come running. Unfortunately, they get that message a little too late, when they’re already in the midst of robbing the guy. The police come running with a detective who happens to be on the scene, and his male friend is caught.
Jae Hun assumes the air of a fellow detective and says that he’ll take care of his friend the “criminal” since he’s been chasing him for a while. The detective is skeptical over Jae Hun’s credentials and reasonings, but before he can probe further, Jae Hun distracts him, and they run off. They split up, and Jae Hun steals a motorbike along the way.
In the meanwhile, a father (Kim Chang Wan) and receives some photos and an address from a private investigator; he’s searching for someone. As he leaves the office, he walks into Jae Hun’s oncoming bike. Jae Hun swerves to avoid hitting the father, and crashes into some nearby boxes. The father falls backwards on to the street… and right into an oncoming truck.
Shocked, Jae Hun gets up and sees the father looking up at him, still holding on to his life. Jae Hun picks up the piece of paper with the address and clutches it. Then, instead of helping the father, he runs away, and lets the truck driver and other bystanders take care of him.
As this is all going on, it’s also the night of Hades’ concert. Hades, or HA DO SUNG (Daesung) is one of those pop idols whose mystique lies in the fact that no one has ever seen his face. But behind his mask is a weak, insecure guy. Do Sung is managed by his uncle, and his main worry is about his mother. It appears she abandoned him when he was younger, claiming that she needed to keep him hidden for her to continue living. HMM… Nevertheless his mother also can’t find out that he’s Hades.
Getting ready for his next act, Do Sung takes off his mask in the safety of his dressing room, and in a way releases himself from suffocation. But then, a photographer who was hiding behind his clothing rack starts taking pictures, and he catches the true face of Hades.
The photographer runs out of the dressing room and bumps into the uncle. Security grabs the guy, but the photographer is quick. He removes the film from his camera and throws it out into the crowds of screaming fans. A mysterious hand catches it and walks off.
The jig is up, and there’s no way Do Sung can continue with his act. He calls up his mother, and she’s surprised to hear from him since it’s not their scheduled day for a call. She promises to help him and clear up this mess this one time, but if he does something as dangerous as this again, she’ll never see him again. I get this feeling she’s the wife of a powerful man and he’s a bastard child that can’t be ever discovered.
For his encore, Do Sung returns onstage and sings a final song. He then announces to his fans: “Hades is dead.”
Jae Hun wanders around the streets in shock, and he finds himself wandering around. But he sees the police, still on his tail, and joins a couple of movers to help transport a set piece. He hitches a ride with them, and ends up in a theater. Onstage, a young woman sings “The Phantom of the Opera” in a haunting voice. It stirs up memories of the accident, and he grips on the address even more tightly. Tears stream down his face, and he doesn’t let go of his breath until the soprano lets out her final note.
Jae Hun returns to the scene of the accident, and asks if the store keeper heard anything about the man who was hit by a truck. She doesn’t have any information for him, or which hospital the man could have gone to, as she’s more engrossed by a news report about how “Hades is now dead.”
He leaves, unsatisfied, and another store keeper comes out from the back room to announce that the victim – the father – died. No one knows how or why he ended up in the middle of the road, so everyone else thinks it was a suicide. Too bad Jae Hun doesn’t know this yet, and he’s going to share a sad fate with another student.
Jae Hun later raises the topic of reentering college to his mother. But not just any college – how about an arts college? A college where he can be a musical star?
Time to do the *rolls eyes*. Or as his mother does it, shove a large piece of fish cake in her mouth and pretend she heard nothing. Of course she’s not going to agree. Why does he want to be a musical actor of all things? Jae Hun admits that when he saw an actress practice her song, he felt his heart pound, and he was so moved by her performance that he wanted to do the same.
Mom doesn’t look convinced. Jae Hun tells her to forget about it. Then Mom surprises him by giving him some money to pay for the school. And with the money, he goes and asks his friend to write his admissions paper and take the test for him. Screw the fact that he’s never auditioned before. He’s going to Haneul Arts College.
Now we go to PARK TAE HEE (Kim Ji Won), a lovably naive girl who also wants to audition for . She gets on the train, and being a non-Seoulite, she’s unfamiliar with the directions on going. But that’s fine – because she has her trusty father to talk to her in spirit, and encourage her. Yes, it’s the father whom Jae Hun accidentally and indirectly killed.
Audition time!
KIM BYEONG GUN (Jo Jung Seok) is nervous like heck, but he’s not the only one, as a bunch of other students are terrified to be standing before the department head, YANG SOO JEONG (an imperious Kim Mi Sook). Meanwhile Tae Hee and Jae Hun are having difficulty finding the location of the audition place. Jae Hun demands to know the audition location from a security guard, but he wryly replies that if Jae Hun did the application himself and knew where he was applying to, he would have known where the audition room was. Poor Tae Hee – she gets so lost and confused that when she finally faces the same security guard, she nearly breaks down into sobs. Security officer’s face: *blink blink*.
EUN CHAE YOUNG (Jang Hee Jin in a surprising turn from her vacuous Spy Myung Wolperformance) enters the audition room, and she is actually a well known actress already. Rather than watching her audition, we see her trying to convince Professor Yang that she is worthy to enter the musical department, that she wants to learn the basics of a musical and star in a role that is suited for her.
Finally it’s Byeong Gun’s turn. He enters the audition room… and completely bombs. Singing? Flat, weak, totally nervous. Acting? Monotone. But to his credit he did manage to memorize the entire monologue piece. Honestly, he’s just wasting the time of the panel of judges. It’s a miracle that he even gets in to the school. But despite this achievement, his family of boring business executives are nonplussed.
And then OH DOO RI (Im Joo Eun) comes in with her overbearing mother (Yang Hee Kyung); her mother is like a show mother where she wants to make sure Doo Ri will perform her best and reminds her on her breathing, etc. For her audition, Doo Ri does an acting piece. It starts off quite typical – super dramatic, full of gestures – but as she progresses in her monologue, she becomes matter-of-fact, more blunt, and more angry. She even stalks towards Professor Yang’s table, scaring the professor, as she demands that she live her own life the way that she wants. She definitely has range. And some mommy issues?
Tae Hee finally makes it to the audition room, and she quickly latches on to Do Sung, who’s lurking in the corner. She’s so bright and bubbly to his “leave me alone” attitude. Jae Hun joins them as well, and he has a more pressing issue to ask these two: “What’s a musical?” Crows squawk in the distance. Dude – what the hell are you doing here?
Tae Hee does her audition – which is a monologue – and we can see from the way she acts that she’s like a fairy. Next up is Jae Hun. He goes in and announces that he’ll do a song. However, the guy who’s managing the songs for each audition can’t find Jae Hun’s tape. Jae Hun goes over, and then he pretends that the guy, Ahn Jeong Dae, lost his tape. He keeps muttering random things to Jeong Dae, which makes Professor Yang think that the two know each other. Poor Jeong Dae – he’s utterly lost. Professor Yang calls them out on their games, and Jeong Dae insists on not knowing Jae Hun at all.
Jae Hun: “I thought we were close. Very close. We loved each other.”
WHAT THE HELL!?
Har har – Jae Hun laughs it all off and says that he was actually acting for them. Improvising. Do they like?
Next up: Do Sung. Do Sung starts off practically whispering the first two lines of “This is My Moment.” Pathetic coming from Hades. But he closes his eyes, and gains confidence in his voice. His voice becomes stronger, and he starts belting out all the notes. He impresses Professor Yang so much so that she takes off her glasses. He sings so powerfully that he falls to his knees and becomes out of breath.
From: Dramabeans
Video
BONUS - Jang Jae Hun in Ep 01
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