What happens when you place a martial arts prodigy in the Korean education system? You get TVING’s upcoming action comedy Study Group. Based on the webtoon of the same name, the drama stars Hwang Min-hyun (My Lovely Liar) as a student who only wants to do one thing: study.
Meet Yoo Ga-min (Hwang Min-hyun). On the outside, he is a bespectacled high school boy who wakes up at five in the morning and gets ready to study. He diligently exercises in the park and fills every page in his notebook with highlighted notes. While his peers sleep through class, Ga-min dutifully listens to every word, but despite the hours he devotes to his studies, he ranks 279 out of 280 students. In other words, his grades are abysmal.
This lovable idiot, though, holds onto his academic dreams even though the world tells him otherwise, and while attending the worst possible high school in Korea, Ga-min somehow finds a beacon of hope in the form of the studious Kim Se-hyun played by Lee Jong-hyun (Duty After School). Ga-min opens up a study group to look for more like-minded students, but alas, in this school where strength determines status, mostly troublemakers come to his doorsteps to challenge him in a fight.
As Ga-min defends his study group from unwanted pests, he dodges, deflects, and drop kicks interlopers who get in his way. While he may not be book smart, he is blessed with incredible fighting skills, and Ga-min invests all that into his desire to study and recruit fellow classmates who are also hoping to hit the books rather than each other.
Directed by PDs Lee Jang-hoon (Miracle) and Yoo Beom-sang (Twinkling Watermelon) with scripts by Uhm Seon-ho and Oh Bo-hyun (Daily Dose of Sunshine), Study Group is slated for ten episodes and premieres January 23.