My Strange Hero – I’m Going Back to School (For Revenge?)

“My Strange Hero” is a 2018 Korean drama series with 32 episodes, categorized as High School or Youth, Romance, and Comedy (Rom-Com); and streaming on Viki and KOCOWA+.

SUMMARY: A teenager is falsely accused of attacking another student and is unfairly expelled from high school. Years later the school needs to clean up their repuation so he is asked to enroll again and get his diploma. Even though it’s been 9 years and he’s now an adult, he went back to school. But was it to get his diploma or to get revenge?

♦ I’m Going Back to School (For Revenge?)

In “My Strange Hero”, Kang Bok-Su runs his own business and it’s profitable. Considering that he was expelled from high school and never got his diploma, he was very creative and came up with a way to make money. When they were in high school together, he and two friends who work in the business with him were ranked the lowest in the class for scores. What kind of business is it? He serves as a “substitute”. Here are a few examples.

• You don’t want to get married but you can’t get away from your fiancé. For a fee, Kang Bok-Su will show up at your wedding and just like the guy in the movie “The Graduate”, he’ll grab the bride and escape the wedding. The bewildered fiancé will be left at the altar.

• You would love to eat everything! But you can’t! For obvious reasons, mainly it would make you fat and very unattractive. For a fee, Kang Bok-Su will show up at your dinner table and devour all the food you can’t eat, while you watch!

• You want to break up with your girlfriend but you’re too much of a coward to say it to her face. For a fee, Kang Bok-Su will show up in front of your girlfriend and deliver the message for you.

On the day, Kang Bok-Su delivered a break-up message, two people fell off the Han River Bridge. Sadly, even though the bridge is a major tourist attraction, it’s where many people go to commit suicide. A teacher and her student supposedly met there to die together. But the teacher went there to try to talk the student out of his death wish. She accidentally fell over the rail, the student tried to save her, and they both fell in the water. Kang Bok-Su dived in and saved the teacher. The teacher turned out to be Son Soo-Jeong.

Son Soo-Jeong and Kang Bok-Su attended high school together. Their teacher paired them up so that she could help Kang Bok-Su improve his grades. She helped but they also developed a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. At least … Kang Bok-Su thought she was his girlfriend until she betrayed him. It seems there was kind of a love triangle. There was a fight between Kang Bok-Su and Oh Se-Ho over Son Soo-Jeong. In the scuffle, Oh Se-Ho was injured but he survived. According to his story, Kang Bok-Su attacked him and intentionally tried to kill him.

Son Soo-Jeong backed up Oh Se-Ho’s story … even though it was a lie. WHY? Kang Bok-Su doesn’t know why. Although he was heartbroken, he managed to carry on. The last thing he expected was to cross paths with his ex-girlfriend, Son Soo-Jeong, and find out that she was trying to commit suicide. It’s true that Son Soo-Jeong had suffered hardship and was thinking about ending it all. But instead, she tried to save her student because his life was more important than her problems.

The student was depressed because of unfair and discriminatory treatment at the high school. It’s the same high school that Kang Bok-Su, Oh Se-Ho, and Son Soo-Jeong attended. Only Son Soo-Jeong is now a teacher there and Oh Se-Ho became the chairman because his mother stepped down from the position. Yes. Oh Se-Ho has a silver spoon in his mouth which is probably why everybody was more willing to believe his lie about Kang Bok-Su attacking him.

The student’s attempted suicide painted the high school in a bad light and damaged their reputation. Coincidentally, Kang Bok-Su, a former student, saved the life of a former student, now teacher, Son Soo-Jeong, and that true story went over well with the public. Oh Se-Ho tried to seize this opportunity for PR (public relations) and to rebuild the school’s reputation. Someone just needed to persuade Kang Bok-Su to come back to school and graduate. A kid who was expelled gets a second chance to “make things right”. It’s a great story! That story should distract the public from the other story about the student who wanted to kill himself. Kang Bok-Su agreed to come back to school and get his diploma. But WHY?

Kang Bok-Su is an adult running his own profitable business. Also, South Korea has a program known as the 검정고시 (Geomjeong Gosi). Individuals who did not complete formal schooling can get a high school diploma equivalent. There was no need to physically go back to his old high school to graduate. So why did he go back?

Main Characters:

• Kang Bok-Su (played by Yoo Seung-Ho, “The Magician”, “The Deal”, “Moonshine”, “Memorist”, “I’m Not a Robot”, “Remember: War of Son”, “The Emperor: Owner Of The Mask”)
• Son Soo-Jeong (played by Jo Bo-Ah, “Knock Off”, “Destined with You”, “Military Prosecutor Doberman”, “Tale of the Nine Tailed”, “The King’s Doctor”, “Forest”)
• Oh Se-Ho (played by Kwak Dong-Yeon, “Queen Of Tears”, “Big Mouth”, “Vincenzo”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.3 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8 out of 10 stars
• Drambeans: 8.3 out of 10 stars
• Google users shared a public rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
• Amazon customers rated this series: 4.4 out of 5 stars
• Viki viewers rated this series 9.4 out of 10 stars

My personal rating is the same as the Viki viewing audience.

“My Strange Hero” has been on my watchlist for a while. What can I say? Whenever I feel down or bummed out, I watch a movie or series with Yoo Seung-Ho because … I like his smile. Not all reviewers were happy. But I enjoyed it!

LINKS OF INTEREST:

My Strange Hero Korean Drama Review | Kdrama Kisses

Review: My Strange Hero | K-Drama Addicts Corner

KDrama Review: My Strange Hero | K&J Reviews

Good Ol’ Review: Tonal Imbalance and Plot-Driven Story Undermine the Potential in “My Strange Hero” | DryedMangoez.com

TRAILER/TEASER:

KOCOWA TV. “You Know It Wasn’t Me. Why Are You Lying? [My Strange HeroㅣTeaser Trailer Ver 2].” YouTube, 9 Dec. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re2RcpPidz0.

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