“Weak Hero Class 1” (약한영웅 Class 1)

The kids aren't alright

☆☆☆½ (out of ☆☆☆☆)

Yeon Si-eun (played by Park Ji-Hoon)
An Soo-ho (played by Choi Hyun-wook)
Oh Beom-seok (played by Hong Kyung)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

A short K-drama, “Weak Hero Class 1” is highly bingeable. It’s only eight episodes, each running for less than 60 minutes. I watched it first by myself. And then again with my family.

I had this review ready to run for about a month, but since I was reviewing it for Teen Vogue, I couldn’t release this until after that ran first:

Park Ji-hoon is almost unrecognizable from his Wanna One days. Leading this cast, which also includes Choi Hyun-wook (Twenty Five Twenty One) and Hong Kyung (D.P.), Park is so intensely good as a bullied boy who uses classical conditioning (Pavlov’s Dog) and Newton’s Laws of Motions to fight back against his tormentors.

Unlike most bullied kids, Si-eun isn’t afraid of his persecutors. He views them as aggressive blockades to academic excellence. Not one who feels the need for friends, Si-eun eventually finds himself aligned with fellow class outcast Beom-seok, and Soo-ho – who’s the school’s best fighter.

Midway through, there is a plot twist that will leave many viewers shocked and heartbroken. Be forewarned: the ending is definitive and bleak. Based on a webtoon, Weak Hero Class 1 is one of the few K-dramas where I’m hopeful for a second season. (Viki)

This series is very brutal in its depiction of violence in a boys’ high school, where there’s a social ladder based on prestige, which is based on whose parents make the most money. For Si-eun, whose parents are divorced and lower middle class, doing well in school and getting a scholarship is probably his only way into Seoul National University.

Based on the webtoon “Weak Hero” (약한영웅), the storyline ramps up with each episode. Halfway through, there is a plot twist that I don’t think many viewers will see coming.

Moreso than many shows centering on teenage angst, “Weak Hero Class One” depicts how an act of kindness and friendship can soothe an ostracized victim’s mindset. But it can also set up a disturbing scenario where the victim’s self esteem is derived from acknowledgment from their savior.

The fight scenes are over-the-top and a well-choreographed punctuation mark to the non-stop bullying. But one of the things this Korean show does extremely well is depicting how tenuous friendships can be when you’re young and impressionable — and how something as innocuous as not being followed back on social media can break a teenager’s heart.

There is a “Lord of the Flies” aspect where adults barely factor into the series. They are there at the beginning of class, but aren’t around when the fights break out. Is this for drama only? Or a parable that adults often can do very little to fix a student’s life when other kids set their sights on destroying them.

Airdates: Eight episodes — ranging from about 35 to 47 minutes each — released on Wavve on November 18, 2022. I watched this on Viki.

Spoiler Alert: When Beom-seok transfers from another high school, he becomes an easy target after the alpha bully learns he had been kicked around at his previous school. The thin, bespectacled and awkward boy befriends Si-eun and Soo-ho, who form an unspoken alliance.

It’s not spelled out, but Beom-seok is most probably gay and unable to process his desires for Soo-ho. Besides the confines of his country’s culture, he has a domineering politician father who beats him regularly and wouldn’t understand if his son wasn’t “normal.” Played by Jo Han-chul (“Vincenzo,” “Reborn Rich,” “Peppermint Candy,” “The Law Cafe“), he is a father by title only. He adopted Beom-seok not because he loves children, but because he thought the act would humanize him with his constituents.

When Soo-ho doesn’t follow him back on Instagram, Beom-seok is hurt. He could just ask his friend for a follow, but instead he internalizes it and takes his jealousy out on Young-yi (Lee Yeon, who was so convincing playing a teenage boy in “Juvenile Justice“), a girl who Soo-ho did follow back on Instagram.

Halfway through the series, Beom-seok aligns with the bullies and pays another student to beat up Soo-ho in a MMA-style fight. When the opponent cheats and Soo-ho is knocked out, Beom-seok vents his frustration by kicking Soo-ho until he’s in a coma.

When Si-eun finds out what happened, he takes vengeance on the fighter, Beom-seok, and the bullies who left Soo-ho hospitalized. Because Si-eun has video evidence of the boys attacking Soo-ho, Beom-seok’s dad says he won’t have him jailed. But he uses his political power to ensure that Si-eun can’t attend any high school in Seoul, forcing him to attend a much less prestigious school on the outskirts, which is full of the same type of bullies … who he won’t back down from.

Meanwhile, Beom-seok is sent overseas to study in the Philippines. His father tells the child that he doesn’t care what he does — drugs, attempted suicide — as long as he doesn’t tell anyone who his family is.

The finale sets the series up for a second season, which I would welcome. Many fans of the series are hoping that if there is a followup season, the writer will have Soo-ho come out of his coma. If that happened, it would veer from the webtoon storyline.

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