Don’t Mess with the Nerds.
If most parents would want their kids to be the top scorer in their school, Yun Gamin’s mom is satisfied enough if her son could graduate safely even if he’s at the bottom. Yun Gamin had always been the permanent resident of the bottom 5 in all the schools he attended so far, and although his future seems bleak, he decides to enrol into Yusung Technical High School as his last resort to enter college through special admittance lane. He diligently try to recruit students to join his study group to improve his exam score, and finally manages to gather four seemingly hopeless kids through blood and sweat. But then he faces yet another stumbling block, Yusung’s #1 student, son of a feared chaebol in the district, Pi Hanul would not let any of those kids to study and would try every means necessary to tear them apart even if it means to kill.
I was so excited to see Seo Yul from Alchemy of Soul playing the ML here. His looks is as gentle and harmless looking like he did in AoS, and fits the nerdy Yun Gamin perfectly well. Yun Gamin looks like a super nerdy loser just waiting to be bullied with his big ass glasses of his, but this character packed some serious punches once provoked. Little that people know, ML spends every morning training martial art. Although his physique fits more for an athlete instead of a nerd, he was adamant on studying instead, despite always occupying the bottom 5, because he felt a kind of fullfilment when he manages to answer questions right, no matter how low his overall score turned out to be. It’s an attitude that every parent would dream of to have in their kids, diligence and perseverence.
I really liked how the writer string in each kid into ML’s study group through such uncanny encounters and circumstances. Each character is very different from each other, although they all do share the same goal, which is to study for college and that they would not give in to the gangster’s pressure to quit. A special note on the one who played Pi Hanul, he looked exactly like chinese actor Ding Yuxi, it’s like seeing a younger version of him.
It is rather sad to see how the adults failed these children though. I am not sure if this is the reality in Korea, but for adults to enable this fear of school while promoting hopelessness is the absolute violation of kids’ rights for education. These enabler kids, parents and teachers really needed some ample slaps from Teach You a Lesson’s Inspector Na Hwajin.
That aside, watching the show also made me feel like I was watching a superhero show, cuz these kids fight like they have superpowers - smashing thick windows and sliding doors, crashing through walls, kicking through reinforced locked doors and jumping off high floors. Even broken/dislocated knee could not stop the ML from teaching those bullies (that look more like criminals than students) a lesson. I love it each time Uncle’s Ultimate Move makes its debut. No matter how outworldly unrealitistic the fights looked, i thoroughly enjoyed myself cuz the satisfaction of seeing the villains bleed and knocked out is very fullfilling.
I was so excited to see Seo Yul from Alchemy of Soul playing the ML here. His looks is as gentle and harmless looking like he did in AoS, and fits the nerdy Yun Gamin perfectly well. Yun Gamin looks like a super nerdy loser just waiting to be bullied with his big ass glasses of his, but this character packed some serious punches once provoked. Little that people know, ML spends every morning training martial art. Although his physique fits more for an athlete instead of a nerd, he was adamant on studying instead, despite always occupying the bottom 5, because he felt a kind of fullfilment when he manages to answer questions right, no matter how low his overall score turned out to be. It’s an attitude that every parent would dream of to have in their kids, diligence and perseverence.
I really liked how the writer string in each kid into ML’s study group through such uncanny encounters and circumstances. Each character is very different from each other, although they all do share the same goal, which is to study for college and that they would not give in to the gangster’s pressure to quit. A special note on the one who played Pi Hanul, he looked exactly like chinese actor Ding Yuxi, it’s like seeing a younger version of him.
It is rather sad to see how the adults failed these children though. I am not sure if this is the reality in Korea, but for adults to enable this fear of school while promoting hopelessness is the absolute violation of kids’ rights for education. These enabler kids, parents and teachers really needed some ample slaps from Teach You a Lesson’s Inspector Na Hwajin.
That aside, watching the show also made me feel like I was watching a superhero show, cuz these kids fight like they have superpowers - smashing thick windows and sliding doors, crashing through walls, kicking through reinforced locked doors and jumping off high floors. Even broken/dislocated knee could not stop the ML from teaching those bullies (that look more like criminals than students) a lesson. I love it each time Uncle’s Ultimate Move makes its debut. No matter how outworldly unrealitistic the fights looked, i thoroughly enjoyed myself cuz the satisfaction of seeing the villains bleed and knocked out is very fullfilling.
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