Man, kids are scary. There’s a new teaser out for JTBC’s upcoming A Beautiful World, which reveals a little more about Nam Da-reum (Fox Bride Star) and his tormentors, as well as the pain that school violence can bring to the students’ families, for both the victims and the perpetrators. I always knew this was going to be a hard watch, but there’s a sliver of hope in that our tragic hero has some fierce protectors in the women of his family.
The teaser gets into the central plotline with no time to waste, with Nam Da-reum being beaten up by a trio of his fellow classmates, as his mother, played by Chu Ja-hyun (Rules of the Game, Temptation of Wife) desperately says that her son “wasn’t trying to die. Someone is making it look as if he tried to commit suicide.” The dazed and yet panicked tone of voice is heartbreaking, as is the brief moment we see of Nam Da-reum’s father, played by Park Hee-soon (Missing Noir M), who is sobbing next to a hospital bed.
The captions in the teaser read, “Evil is nourished by lies.” We see some seemingly innocent glimpses of students at Nam Da-reum’s middle school, made all the more ominous by a man haltingly saying offscreen, “I just can’t imagine that middle schoolers could hide or destroy evidence.” But of course, what do the grownups know, and a girl says as much offscreen: “I know how demon-like students act.” Thankfully, Nam Da-reum will have a strong ally in his sister, played by Kim Hwan-hee (Miracle That We Met), who throws herself headfirst into hair-grabbing fights in the bathroom and who fearlessly kicks the shin of a bully while screaming, “I hope you get the death penalty and die!”
And of course, we can’t forget that this isn’t solely an issue between the students, and I’m sure some parents are complicit in “hiding the truth,” as written in the captions in the teaser. Oh Man-seok (Investigator Couple) and Jo Yeo-jung (Perfect Wife) also feature prominently in the show as the parents to one of Nam Da-reum’s bullies, and while Jo Yeo-jung looks appropriately horrified in several shots of her in the teaser, Oh Man-seok definitely gives off a nastier vibe. The teaser ends as a male student asks someone, “That night Sun-woo (Nam Da-reum) fell, you didn’t meet him?” That last close-up of Nam Da-reum’s face is goosebump-worthy.
A Beautiful World will premiere on April 5 and air on JTBC’s Friday-Saturday slot.
