Lee Hyun-woo confirms action romance drama Moorim School
by girlfriday
Now I’m torn. Lee Hyun-woo (Battle of Yeonpyeong, Scholar Who Walks the Night) was courted early on to headline KBS’s upcoming youth drama Moorim School, but after losing Yook Sung-jae and securing secondary cast members Seo Ye-ji (Last) and VIXX’s Hongbin (Feel-Good Day), I was considerably less excited for Lee Hyun-woo to confirm. But he ended up signing on to play the main character after all, which I guess means I have to watch this now?
The global youth action drama centers around four leading characters who are classmates at Moorim School, where they teach virtue, honor, and life skills instead of the usual spec-building curriculum of most schools. “Moorim” means martial arts world, and though there seems to be more of a focus on the principles of martial arts rather than the fighting, it IS called an action romance drama. So I hope to see some cool fight scenes to justify the concept.
Lee Hyun-woo will be headlining as an idol — the leader and singer-songwriter of a top idol group who experiences a sudden fall from grace and ends up having to enroll at Moorim School. He’s a musical geeeeenius, with a sensitive and prickly personality to match. He starts out thinking that the entire universe revolves around him, and will eventually learn to meaningfully coexist with others.
Hongbin plays a troublemaker rich kid who becomes Lee Hyun-woo’s roommate, and the two prickly boys will strike up a friendship. Seo Ye-ji plays the heroine, a hard-working girl who takes care of her blind father on her own and has to attend Moorim School in secret. And newbie Jung Yoo-jin (Heard It Through the Grapevine) rounds out the leading foursome as the daughter of the school’s chancellor. She’s an ace student who can’t stand to see injustice happen around her.
Directing is PD Lee So-yeon of Baby-Faced Beauty and Prime Minister and I, and writing is Kim Hyun-hee of Sincerity Moves Heaven and 21st Century Family. I really don’t expect it to live up to the grandiose paradigm-shifting global phenomenon drama that KBS is making it out to be, but I’d settle for cute coming-of-age drama, with a side of action.
Moorim School will air on Mondays and Tuesdays in January 2016.
Jung Yoo-jin
Via Osen, Star Today
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Tags: Lee Hyun-woo (2), Moorim School
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1 Riya
September 14, 2015 at 3:18 AM
I love him! But is Seo Ye ji good? Haven't seen her in anything..
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Mary Chan
September 14, 2015 at 5:30 AM
She's the second female lead in Records of a Night Watchman and I think she's also one of the leads in Last. She's okay but not remarkable
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sogazelle
September 14, 2015 at 8:07 AM
I find her acting very stiff and boring but I will have to watch it for Lee Hyun Woo whom I just simply adore!
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DL Thompson
December 29, 2015 at 6:04 PM
She was really good in Super Daddy Yul.
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pogo
September 14, 2015 at 10:48 AM
Not good but not hopelessly bad either, based on my viewing of Last.
I'd have preferred a different actress to pair with Lee Hyun-woo but she doesn't make me cringe, unlike some of her contemporaries.
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2 Beck
September 14, 2015 at 3:19 AM
YASSSS FINALLY OMG ;; I thought he decline it for VIXX Hong Bin...
Miss him in drama so much, no secondary character syndrome again this time <3
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3 jjnsa
September 14, 2015 at 3:31 AM
21st Century Family is funny. Except Hong Bin (i mean i never saw him in anything), i like all lead performance.
I think i will stay tune for first episode and decide after that
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4 Tacprio
September 14, 2015 at 3:37 AM
This some how reminds me of the volcano high film that was made 10+ years ago with jang hyuk, shin min ah, kim su ro, kwon sang woo and many more.
Having high hopes that this could turn out to be as fun as the film.
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5 Jon G.
September 14, 2015 at 3:38 AM
Lee Hyun-woo was very, very wooden in "Masters of Study", he was a bit better in "Equator Man".
Jung Yoo-jin, as a non-actress, did a reasonable job in "Grapevine", her role definitely not an easy one (it helped that Baek Ji-yeon, who played her mother and was her primary acting partner, is a non-actress too). Not sure about her range though.
Hongbin was just plain terrible in both roles I've seen him.
Seo Ye-ji, compared to the other three, might actually be the most solid actress relatively speaking. She's still very far away from being lead material. She's a schematic actress, a style that needs a lot of experience behind it to make it work, which she hasn't.
Overall: Very risky line-up, especially for a prime time show.
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pogo
September 14, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Jon, you're using Lee Hyun-woo's performance from 2010 and 2012 to judge him as an actor inferior to whatever Seo Ye-ji is doing now, in 2015. Pardon my French, but that's ridiculous - he's had close to half a dozen acting jobs since then, and has been really well-received in all of them, especially over the last few years.
I've seen the most recent one (Scholar Who Walks the Night) and there is no doubt in my mind that Lee Hyun-woo is well capable of carrying a show (and in this case, will probably have to, since Seo Ye-ji so far has been average at best and as for Hongbin, well, the less said the better). At least Jung Yoo-jin turned in a solid performance in Grapevine.
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Jon G.
September 15, 2015 at 1:28 AM
I apologise for expressing myself in the least coherent way possible. I never meant to say that Lee Hyun-woo was, in my opinion, inferior to Seo Ye-ji. I cannot make this assessment, especially when I have missed most of LHW's recent big screen work.
Jung Yoo-jin had been very promising in "Grapevine", but that was a very small and limited role. She did a very solid job there, and, despite the limited scope, it was a more challenging role than, say, Seo Ye-ji's part in "Last". Considering that this was her debut (and she's not, AFAIK, a learned actress), she did extremely well, but it's very little to predict how she will handle a lead role in a different genre.
The uncertainty towards LHW, on the other hand, is primarily my own fault. I never watched "To the beautiful you", which was ages ago anyway and he only did big screen stuff recently, except for the 10 minutes of screentime in "Scholar" (that definitely were much better than anything on the small screen I've seen before).
For Seo Ye-ji, I'm very confident to believe that she will be pretty mediocre. It would be a huge surprise for me if she did a good job, or if she utterly failed.
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Lixie
September 14, 2015 at 1:39 PM
I thought he was really good in To The Beautiful You though I doubt Jon would watch this even if somebody paid him to do it. :)
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Urnaa
September 14, 2015 at 8:43 PM
Loved him since God of study. He was amazing in To The Beautiful You.
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6 pancchi
September 14, 2015 at 4:23 AM
The show sounds good but haven't watched any of the cast's previous works. Sure, gonna check this out
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7 Clnee
September 14, 2015 at 4:38 AM
Waaa since jisoo already in sassy gogo, he cant be lee hyun woo roommate :/
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8 katshirou
September 14, 2015 at 5:05 AM
And because dramaland has finally given Hyunwoo oppa, I will forgive the inclusion of the other "actors". After all, oppa will surely shine even brighter, thanks to the other three. He is more than enough reason to watch ?????
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9 katshirou
September 14, 2015 at 5:07 AM
Congrats to his first drama as the lead ?? This would have been the best welcome to 2016 had Sungjae oppa chose this over Village, but I'm happy for both LHW and YSJ ??
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10 Java
September 14, 2015 at 5:08 AM
I can't wait
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11 alpha
September 14, 2015 at 5:13 AM
Conflicted. I dont like the lead girl but I loooooooove Hyun Woo.
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12 casso
September 14, 2015 at 5:18 AM
whos that girl??? never seen her before???
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13 jewelo
September 14, 2015 at 6:10 AM
OMG! Lee Hyun Woo!
I haven't seen any of seo ye ji's drama but at least she can kick ass.
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14 polita
September 14, 2015 at 6:13 AM
So DotS gets pushed AGAIN? Sigh...
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15 Oddgirl1996
September 14, 2015 at 6:18 AM
@polita
Its gonna be out next February sadly. I was excited since I am an Onew fan but now...
We will have to wait longer.
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16 ty
September 14, 2015 at 6:33 AM
I cannot get over how much this guy looks like Park Bo Gum, and vice versa.
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17 crazedlu
September 14, 2015 at 6:44 AM
Yup. Now I'm obligated to watch this. Lee Hyun-woo!! Don't care much for the other leads, so this is their chance to win me over. I almost feel like Yook Sung-jae made a bad decision to lead a drama so early on in his career, and should've chosen to be winning in this drama as a secondary character AGAIN first, but... we'll see. Yay for a youth drama!!
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18 midflower
September 14, 2015 at 7:31 AM
Ehhh about the cast but it's him so now we all have to check it out... mega big sigh..
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19 panshel
September 14, 2015 at 7:58 AM
I had already wrote Murim School off once they casted Seo Ye Ji and HongBin last week, but now I'm back onboard. I will watch this solely for Lee Hyun Woo and try to ignore the other talentless leads, while hoping Lee Hyun Woo ends up with Jung Yoo Jin (whom I've never seen act, but heard Heard It Through the Grapevine was an ensemble project) instead of Seo Ye Ji.
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20 Adal
September 14, 2015 at 8:38 AM
Honestly? I would like to see him in a drama other than a high school one. His past dramas were more or less about high school: "To the Beautiful You" (where he was the only good thing about it, and I wish I hadn't wasted 16 hours of my life on that drama) and "Master of Study" which I dropped after episode 5 for being gut-wrenchingly boring.
I know he's done cameos in other dramas recently and I was looking forward to watching him in another drama, but if it is about high school, I may have to pass. There have been so many high school dramas in kdramaland lately. It feels like a glut. Kind of how Time Travel flooded kdrama land in 2012.
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21 bebeswtz
September 14, 2015 at 9:38 AM
The premise for this drama is sounding more and more like a mashup of "Dream High" (with Lee Hyun Woo being the Go Hye Me of "Murim" to boot), Heirs (with Seo Ye-ji being the "Murim" version of Eun Sang), and School 2013 (with all dat bromance that will ensue) ....
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22 Mini Roo
September 14, 2015 at 10:33 AM
Don't forget Monstar "prickly, stuck up guy in top idol group"
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23 Nessie
September 14, 2015 at 1:44 PM
I'm experiencing flashbacks of him in To The Beautiful You, but that was ages ago, pretty sure he's alot better now. This casting reminds me a bit of what happened with Kill Me Heal Me where the cast kept on changing for awhile, but in the end we got a pretty decent drama. Then again we could be experiencing something like that Marmalade drama which Yeo Jin Goo hard carried, can't tell for sure.
It makes me wonder why he picked this drama, because he can always do high school dramas with his baby face. He's only 22 years old! I was reminded of recently reading an article on soompi regarding why Park Hae Jin took on the Cheese in Trap role. He mentioned that he's actually rejected the script several times, but ultimately took on the role. The reason being he's in his 30s, so it will most likely be his last chance to play a university role. I found this reason quite fitting, but it definitely doesn't apply to Hyun-woo.
I feel so torn because I love him to bits, but the drama doesn't sound promising..
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24 nana
September 14, 2015 at 2:57 PM
am i the only thinking the bromance is going to be much more interesting than the romance?
i'm pretty indifferent to the female leads.
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25 owl
September 14, 2015 at 7:26 PM
He's so adorable, just wanna pinch pull those cutie pie cheeks -
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26 yo_gabby_gabby
September 14, 2015 at 10:12 PM
Imma do it for Lee Hyun Woo..and if it's bad BYEEE
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27 Sharon Moore
February 3, 2016 at 4:11 AM
Personally, I think that all four of the main characters are great actors/actresses. Or in this case, one is a singer (Hongbin). I've only watched 5 episodes and yet I love this show already. It doesn't matter to me which ones end up getting together because they show great chemistry together. I like Hongbin(VIXX) a lot and I like Lee Hyun Woo. The two of them are so adorable when they smile it just brightens up my day.
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