ONE High School Heroes: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions) » Dramabeans Korean drama recaps

ONE High School Heroes: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

by starrygazer

ONE High School Heroes introduces us to two teenage boys who have an affinity for fighting. Our protagonist seems more anti-hero than hero so far though, and with immense pressures in his home life, he’s drawn to fighting as a way to release his pent-up anger and inflict pain. Our second protagonist starts out as a fighting “coach,” but are his motives for helping as straightforward as they appear to be?

 
EPISODES 1-2

Our hero KIM EUI-GYEOM (Lee Jung-ha) is transferring to a new school that’s not as good as his previous school, because his dad KIM SEOK-TAE (Kim Sang-ho) wants him to graduate high school at the top of his class. Getting high scores isn’t enough — Eui-gyeom has to be the best. Eui-gyeom has a strained relationship with his parents; his dad stands over him every night, watching him study, and pokes him in the head if he gets an answer wrong, calling him stupid. (Nice.) And Eui-gyeom’s coping mechanism for his father’s bullying is to choke himself nearly to the point of passing out. (It is pretty dark and a weird way to cope, but I’m sure there will be a reason for this.)

Eui-gyeom’s mum, MYUNG DA-BIN (Kim Joo-ryung), seems to carry the same blank stare that Eui-gyeom has, and is struggling greatly with the death of Eui-gyeom’s older brother. Eui-gyeom’s parents rarely talk and sit on opposite ends of the room like two bookends. Even though no one talks about Eui-gyeom’s older brother’s death, it weighs heavily on the family. Eui-gyeom sometimes hallucinates seeing his brother. Everywhere he goes, he carries his brother’s broken Walkman around. It’s Eui-gyeom’s last link to his brother and so he always wears the earphones even though there is no music.

The Walkman is the most important thing in the world to Eui-gyeom, who wields it like a barrier; he wants to stay disconnected from his peers so he can study religiously. When class bully CHOI HONG-IL (Im Hyun-tae) is terrorising a pupil in class, Eui-gyeom walks by ignoring the incident — until his Walkman gets knocked off his desk. Because Eui-gyeom yells at Hong-il, he receives a beating from him for speaking. After the beating, Hong-il pressures Eui-gyeom for money, which Eui-gyeom gives him, he doesn’t really care about being threatened. Hong-il is not getting the rise out of Eui-gyeom that he wants.

To me, Eui-gyeom is like a pressure cooker, and I’m not sure I would be prodding at him, wanting him to explode. But Hong-il does just that and steals Eui-gyeom’s Walkman and drops it just to wind him up. It’s impressive to see the red mist descend over Eui-gyeom’s face, and his glare could shoot lasers. A brutal fight ensues between the two: chairs are thrown, there’s stomping and choking, all amongst flurries of fists and feet. (It was a brilliant fight scene that kept me on the edge of my seat.)

During this fight, we meet KANG YOON-KI (Kim Do-wan), an amused bystander to the brawl, who stops Hong-il’s little sidekick from stepping in when Hong-il loses to Eui-gyeom. It was a fair, one-on-one fight after all and the better fighter one. As soon as it’s over, Eui-gyeom picks up his Walkman and sits down at his desk like nothing happened, and Yoon-ki is in awe. Yoon-ki starts following Eui-gyeom around and asking to be his coach. Eui-gyeom has no formal training in fighting; he is fueled by rage, logic, and natural talent so Yoon-ki is impressed by him. At one point, Yoon-ki visits a friend in hospital who’s on a ventilator, telling him he has met someone just like him. Was this friend also a fighter before he was in a hospital bed? This makes Yoon-ki’s pleas to coach Eui-gyeom as a champion fighter make a little more sense.

The day after the fight, Hong-il makes it clear he is not going to let bygones be bygones. But Eui-gyeom has gone back to his apathetic self, even ignoring Yoon-ki’s warnings that a first-year senior will now get involved. Yoon-ki explains that the senior KIM SEUNG-JOON (Im Sung-kyun) knows a little boxing, and when Eui-gyeom fights him, he needs to stay out of his reach and grapple to win. Eui-gyeom is adamant he’s not going to be fighting anyone, but he doesn’t seem to realise that he won’t have a choice.

In an attempt to corner Eui-gyeom, Seung-joon, alongside Hong-il and his sidekick, follow Eui-gyeom to the bathroom. Seung-joon punches Eui-gyeom for beating up Hong-il, but the dispute is abruptly ended when a teacher intervenes and breaks it up. To lure Eui-gyeom out to fight Seung-joon, Hong-il steals his Walkman. Incensed, Eui-gyeom starts to sprint after them but Yoon-ki stops him. Yoon-ki warns him not to run because he’ll need to preserve his energy for the fight ahead.

When Eui-gyeom arrives, he receives a threat from Seung-joon that he will break the Walkman, and receiving a few well-placed hooks is enough to make the red mist descend, and now Eui-gyeom is ready to fight. (Round two!) While standing within Seung-joon’s reach, Eui-gyeom is trying different strategies to land a punch. Eui-gyeom thinks through his moves before every punch. Am I too slow? Too close? Nope, it’s timing – and with that, he lures Seung-joon in and lands a heavy punch on him. Then Eui-gyeom remembers Yoon-ki’s advice and grapples with Seung-joon, causing them both to topple down some concrete steps.

This tumble gives Eui-gyeom the advantage, and he brutally finishes the fight and reclaims his Walkman. Covered in blood, Eui-gyeom walks off leaving the bullies silent in the aftermath of it all. Eui-gyeom doesn’t even revel in his victory, he has bigger things to worry about. He can’t show up to his after school academy with bloody clothes so he asks Yoon-ki to swap clothes with him. Yoon-ki is more than happy to oblige and promises to get the blood out of Eui-gyeom’s uniform. Yoon-ki tells Eui-gyeom that he’s curious about him and is the only one to recognise his talent, which is why he’s helping him; he wants to coach him. Yoon-ki’s delight in Eui-gyeom’s fighting skills and his lightheartedness provide a nice balance to Eui-gyeom’s apathetic yet angry persona.

It would seem the older bullies in this school run the younger bullies like a criminal enterprise. Seung-joon, Hong-il, and his sidekick answer to a senior bully, CHOI JI-HYUK (Lee Se-ho), who carries a bamboo sword with him and uses violence while “suggesting” Seung-joon bash Eui-gyeom’s head in for his disrespect. (What a lovely little gangster he is.) For the first time, we see Seung-joon waver. I don’t think this kid wants to be a bully, but because he can box, he may have been targeted and brought into the fold.

As far as Eui-gyeom’s concerned, he won’t be fighting anymore, but Yoon-ki reminds him again that it won’t stop here. As the two walk along an alleyway, Seung-joon rides by on his bike from behind them and smashes Eui-gyeom in the back of the head with a plank of wood. Before Eui-gyeom passes out, he tells Yoon-ki not to call an ambulance because he doesn’t want his parents to find out. But of course, Yoon-ki has no choice, and Eui-gyeom ends up in the hospital. At the hospital even Eui-gyeom’s dad is worried about him, which surprises me a little, given how he treats his son.

Yoon-ki picks up on dad’s intense demeanour and lies about what happened. He over-explains how Eui-gyeom was running for his bus and fell down some concrete steps. In response, Dad asks Yoon-ki what his ranking is at school. Yoon-ki answers but sees this as his cue to leave. (Just how obsessed with grades is Dad?) Seung-joon is worried he may have seriously hurt Eui-gyeom and goes into the hospital to see how he is, bumping into Eui-gyeom’s mum, who is having a mild panic attack by the entrance remembering the death of her oldest son.

Mum pulls herself together and assumes Seung-joon is a friend as he is wearing the same uniform as Eui-gyeom. She tells him that Eui-gyeom is fine, it’s just a bump on the head, and then she shows concern for Seung-joon, who has a cut on his face. That maternal concern piques his guilt, and he swiftly apologises and leaves. (I am feeling bad for Seung-joon now, as he didn’t want to attack Eui-gyeom in the first place.)

At school, both Eui-gyeom and Seung-joon come to a prickly ceasefire; both are in agreement that they should end things now before they spiral even more out of control. However, Ji-hyuk, our bully with the bamboo sword, is not happy with this arrangement and insists everyone meet on the rooftop at lunchtime. Eui-gyeom tells Ji-hyuk he will take whatever punishment he wants to dish out because he’s not interested in fighting, as long as he leaves Yoon-ki alone (which he does).

Ji-hyuk tells Eui-gyeom to repeat after him, and Eui-gyeom respectfully does so, apologising for “messing with the bullies.” In Eui-gyeom’s mind, this should be enough, but oh no, Ji-hyuk doesn’t stop there. Ji-hyuk instructs Seung-joon to beat Eui-gyeom up to the point he pisses himself every time he sees him in the future, for good measure he instructs Seung-joon to beat him up right now. And to everyone’s surprise, Seung-joon has had enough and refuses. Ji-hyuk doesn’t take kindly to this and starts beating Seung-joon. (These bullies are very scary people.)

The red mist descends over Eui-gyeom, and he stops Ji-hyuk mid-hit, asking Yoon-ki how many are left once he’s finished with this bully. Yoon-ki laughs and tells him two more. Eui-gyeom clarifies that once he beats two more, the fighting is over, and Yoon-ki confirms. The last thing we see is Eui-gyeom punching Ji-hyuk in the face. Nooo! I want to see the fight don’t end there!

In all honesty, I was not expecting to like this show as much as I do. Eui-gyeom is under stress from his dad, who bullies him, and from the pressure of getting perfect grades to please his dad. Now, he’s challenging all the bullies in school one by one – not through choice, but circumstance. There is a camaraderie building between Eui-gyeon and Yoon-ki, which is giving Eui-gyeon something to care about, and when he looks back on his fights fondly, I think it’s giving him a sense of purpose.

Don’t misunderstand me, Eui-gyeom isn’t fighting these bullies for the victims – he’s fighting them for himself. To release his anger, maybe anger towards his dad, maybe towards his brother’s death. Either way, Eui-gyeom is slowly coming alive, and being a vigilante (to a degree) is an added bonus. And when his temper is triggered, he fights with every bit of grit he’s got. I’d be interested to see what would happen if Yoon-ki were ever in danger.

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