İyi Seyirler Dileriz.
Padam Padam (2012)
Padam Padam
빠담빠담... 그와 그녀의 심장박동소리 /
Padam Padam…The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats
(Dec 2011 – Feb 2012)
who’s in it
Jung Woo Sung (The Good, The Bad, The Weird-film, Athena)
Han Ji Min (Rooftop Prince)
Kim Bum (The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry)
Kim Ji Yoo (Mom Has Grown Horns)
Na Moon Hee (I Believe in Love)
Jang Hang Sun (Crime Squad)
Choi Tae Joon
Kim Joon Sung (The Lobbyist)
what’s it about
If the opportunity to hit a “do over” button was offered to you, would you—no, could you—change a singularly life changing moment for the better? Where precisely does destiny end and free will begin?
Jung WooSung plays a guy who has been in prison for 16 years and according to him, unfairly so. He was not a thug when he went in, but by the time he is freed into the real world, he has become a variation of one. He has grown into a socially stunted and frustrated man-child. He is filled with both wonder and anger at the changed world, being estranged from it and wanting to belong. However, he does have a more pressing goal on his mind: clearing his name. Unfortunately, his enemies also have a purpose: keeping him silenced forever.
Kim Bum is a fellow inmate released at the same time, and it is quite possible the young man is a certifiable nutjob, although a harmless one. He believes with all his heart that he is Jung WooSung’s guardian angel—and that’s literally, as in he wants to literally earn his wings so he can finally fly to Heaven where he rightfully belongs. He believes his purpose for existence is to make sure his best friend Jung WooSung is safe and happy.
When our hero returns to his hometown with his nutty angel sidekick tagging along (who is hell bent on kicking up some emotional dust), this ex-con’s past, present, and future collide in dangerous and wonderful new ways, including falling in love with a beautiful local vet played by Han JiMin. Even with his own personal angel fighting by his side, Jung WooSung is faced with an unlikely proposition: is it possible for a mere man to do the impossible and defy the course of his life?
commitment
20 episodes
network
jTBC
(Lately, just like the trend here in the States, it seems like all the really good shows aren’t on the major networks, but on cable!)
first impressions
Wow.
Visceral, chaotic, gritty, violent—and elegant. Very, very elegant. Padam was both ugly and beautiful at the same time...or rather, more accurately, it found beauty in the ugly? After the first few episodes, I genuinely felt that I had stumbled onto something truly unconventional, a show deftly guided by someone with a very specific vision for the show. This didn’t feel like a kdrama at all, it felt like a film. The basics of the premise had all been done before, you know the drill, a tough guy released from jail stumbles along in violence until he finds true love, which reforms his whole life. To be honest, going into Padam, I felt like I had already seen this one many times over. I did not believe that this one could surprise me or engage me in any new way.
Even after only the second episode, I knew in my gut that I had been so very wrong, this drama was different. The uniqueness wasn’t in the setup, but in the craftmanship, like the difference between products generically produced for mass consumption, and ones designer, stitched together with detail and skill. Padam seemed to understand the rules of this kdrama genre, and it knew the right threads to use, but it also clearly established from the onset that it was going to try its damnest best to be different and daring in its delivery.
My initial thought was that this kdrama was weird, confusing, and far too heartbreaking in its portrayal of life…the protagonist felt like a violent maniac, the second guy was a delusional loony who thought he was a supernatural entity…on top of that, it was littered with an ensemble cast of broken personalities that were thorny country bumpkin folk, and let’s not forget, all of them were involved in some wacky festering crime mystery, too. But, oh what the hell, even though I was afraid the story direction would only end up breaking my heart, and even though the ‘fantasy’ aspect of Padam scared the hell out of me, I could not dismiss this one.
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