It’s possible that talented rookie actor Lee Do-hyun (Beyond Evil, Sweet Home) will be pairing up with veteran actress Im Soo-jung (Search Query: WWW) in an upcoming drama project called Melancholia. It’s about a teacher and a student that are caught up in an illicit love affair and create a scandal at a prestigious private high school.
Lee Do-hyun has been offered the part of Bae Seung-yoo, a student who is so apathetic and uncommunicative to the point where others misunderstand him to have a language disability. He’s a regular loner who prefers silently taking DSLR pictures over playing with his smartphone camera.
He’s also a math prodigy that was solving complicated problems on a national quiz show at age 5, beating Korean Ivy League college students. He entered MIT at their invitation at age 10, but he dropped out at age 12 and cleaned up his trail so no one could find him afterwards.
If she confirms, Im Soo-jung will be playing the part of Bae Seung-yoo’s math teacher, Ji Yoon-soo. Despite her refreshing smile and warm appearance, she’s a strong character that firmly pursues things that she’s set her mind on. She gets dragged into the scandal when she encounters her former student, four years after their first meeting when he was eighteen (Note: An eighteen-year-old is still a minor in Korea because nineteen is the official age of majority.)
The pairing between a female teacher and a student prodigy reminds of Secret Love Affair, so hopefully this drama will be as successful at conveying subtle nuance and delicately handling the subject matter. For now, both Im Soo-jung and Lee Do-hyun are in the stages of reviewing the script, and their casting has not been confirmed.
Written by Kim Ji-woon, Melancholia has not yet found a broadcasting station or secured an air date, but given the controversial topic material, I’m banking on a cable channel like JTBC.
