Kdrama Review: What’s Up

K-Dramas
korean drama What's Up

 Episodes: 20
Air Date: December 3, 2011 — February 5, 2012
Main Cast: Lim Ju-hwan, Kang Daesung, Kim Ji-Won, Oh Man Seok, Lim Ju Eun, Jang Hee Jin, Jo Jung Suk


Let me start by stating, as if you don’t already know, that I love Kang Daesung. Seriously. I know I’m too old to have biases and what not but if I were young enough…Kang Daesung would be my ultimate bias. I was thrilled to find out he was going to be in a musical drama and waited with baited breath (which means on the edge of my seat) for it to debut. Unfortunately, Daesung’s accident occurred which delayed the start.  I’m sad to say that I forgot about it and satisfied myself by watching other dramas and Family Outing (미안 해). Anyway after like a year, it finally debuted! Oh, happy day!

Important story line first (at least in my eyes) Kang Daesung plays Hades, a singer who hides his face with a mask and has a large following. 

During his performance, he tells the crowd that Hades is dead & won’t be performing anymore. This is because a photographer took his picture without his mask on. Normally photographs are no problem to idols, right? Well turns out Hades, whose real name is Ha Do Sung, is the secret son of a famous person. I can’t remember why she’s famous (it’s been a while since I’ve watched the drama) but suffice it to say that his mother is a grade A bitch.  Now before you start ragging on me saying: Oh that’s too harsh,  Ajummah. She couldn’t be that bad… stop it.  Watch the drama before you go crazy on me.  The few times you see this woman and how she interacts with Daesung Do sung…its incredible.  She treats him like crap and that’s no way to treat your child. I’m a mom so I have extensive knowledge on this matter.

Daesung’s individual story line doesn’t go very far which is unfortunate in my eyes. Maybe he was busy promoting with Big Bang. His line dabbles in love, friendship and a few other things, so you see him throughout the whole drama but just not as much as I wanted. Oh well.

The main character in this drama is Jang Jae Hun (a hottie and my oppa).

He starts out in the drama as a drifter and small time thug. While running from the cops, he steals a scooter and accidentally crashes into a man. The man falls into the street AND IN TRUE K-DRAMA FASHION gets hit by a damn truck.  0_o Jae Hun gets away but the accident has really hurt his soul. He winds up at a concert hall, hears a woman singing and decides to go to college for acting. He asks his friend to sign him up and she does…but as a music major. At the auditions he meets Tae-Yi, the daughter of the man that was killed due to Jae Hun’s accident.  This girl is the poster child for the term “country bumpkin”. 

 

Seriously, her character had me screaming at the screen: “Are you really this stupid?!?!” *sigh* Good thing about Tae Yi is that the girl can sing. I mean if she couldn’t she wouldn’t be at that college.  As you can imagine, there is a love connection between Tae Yi and Jae Hun though Do Sung likes her also. So we’ve got those three characters.

Then we have Oh Doo Ri (love her), Kim Byung Gun (who can sing but has stage fright), and Eun Chae Young (a washed up actress).  Doo Ri has an overbearing mother that has been making her perform since she was little. As a way to get back at her, she chops all her hair off and starts dressing like a tomboy a la f(x)’s Amber.

Chae Young was a top actress but due to her terrible attitude and younger actress hot on her heels, she’s losing her spotlight. She decides to enter college as a way to get back to the top.

Byung Gun enters music college unbeknownst by his family. He is an excellent singer who knows a lot about musicals and movies but has terrible stage fright.

They all try to figure out there lives as freshman while doing these awesome numbers that made me want to get up on several occasions and sing along (and I did).  I loved how this drama tackled some really tough issues and I mean REALLY. I cried. To the point of where I thought my eyeballs were going to fall out. Normally I spoil things but on this particular topic, I’ll refrain from doing it because it’s really to heart wrenching for me to talk about.

It’s a touchy subject from my past, perhaps that’s why it hit me so bad.

Anyways while I knew the ending was going to happen the way it did, I was mad that they didn’t do the final musical number they were gearing up to do. I’m also mad that they let Daesung’s Do Sung’s story line drop off (as mentioned above). I’m mad that Doo Ri didn’t beat the crap out of Chae Young (but that’s my personal hang up that had nothing to do with the drama)… I guess a lot of the drama made me mad, lol. But I’m telling you the music, wow. The music made up for a lot of which was lacking in the drama.

 

So if you haven’t seen this wonderful drama, watch it. You won’t be disappointed.You can watch What’s Up on Dramafever or Hulu . Also check out my review on What’s Up’s OST here.

 

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1 Comment

Reply GMUOracleDBA March 20, 2013 at 18:14

I dropped Dream High to watch this and boy was I glad!! So much better! Better story that I could understand as am just too old for HS 😀 And the singing? Out of this world. As I had never heard of Daesung (don't curse me) when I first watched it, let's just say, Lunatic has been on my iPhone since I heard it!! Great drama. Okay ending; not the greatest but the rest was GOLD!!

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