A sharp satire filled with Han Ji-min’s despair in a flashy world that only looks for hip places (‘Hip-Hope’) < Drama < Entertainment < Text of article

[엔터미디어=정덕현] The title of JTBC’s Saturday-Sunday drama seems to refer to a witty image like ‘hip-hop’, but the drama turns this into a comedy. In other words, the title contains the psychometric ability that Bong Ye-bun (Han Ji-min) gained when he went to a cow farm one day and touched a cow’s butt when a shooting star fell. The psychometric ability gives a somewhat ‘hip’ feeling, but this does not apply to Bong Ye-bun, whose ability can only be displayed by touching someone’s butt. Rather than being hip, Bong Ye-bun’s psychometry is his ability to appear somewhat quirky and sometimes even sleazy.

The word “hip”, taken from the drama , has been deeply embedded in our daily lives for some time. We talk about hip places, hip places, and hip things, and people try to go there or have them. This word, which is probably synonymous with ‘trendy,’ was probably used as “popular” in the past. The expression, “They say that place is popular these days,” can be used as “They say that place is hip these days.”

Why did have a title like this, depicting a tacky and boring situation that is completely opposite to the title? It contains the meaning of a sharp satire on a world that only looks for hip things and hip places. Why on earth is hip being good and old-fashioned being bad? Why do people only flock to hip things and ignore things that are out of date, and are even on the verge of extinction? When we think of the region that is experiencing anxiety about the so-called ‘regional disappearance’, we can understand again why was set in Mujin City, a village that is quite different from the title.

also unfolds the story of the people of Mujin City, which does not fit the title. Those who speak the sly Chungcheong dialect are more humorous and humorous than hip. Each character shows an unexpectedness that is the opposite of ‘hip’, and this appears as a code of laughter. Bae Ok-hee (Ju Min-kyung), Ye-bun’s best friend, is from an Iljin family and was once a wealthy person, but what she does to help Ye-bun is to gather her juniors and put them to work on strange projects.

The same goes for Na Mi-ran (Jeong Yi-rang), who is a police officer but uses her public power to track down her husband’s affair, and Bae Deok-hee (Cho Min-guk), who interprets the true meaning of the Chungcheong-do dialect for her like a translator. The same goes for Park Jong-bae (Park Hyuk-kwon), a shaman who can’t even have a conversation with his son. The same goes for the romantic relationship between Jeong Hyeon-ok (Park Seong-yeon), Ye-bun’s aunt, and Won Jong-mook (Kim Hee-won), head of the Mujin Police Station’s homicide squad. The romance between the two unfolds over the pictures and music of , but its aspects are depicted in the scenery of ‘Fifty-Five and Fifty-One’.

is filled with the stories (and even superpowers) of Mujin City people, who are quite the opposite of being hip and are full of rustic folk. And from the middle onwards, viewers are drawn into the story of trying to figure out who the serial killer is. It made people suspect that Seon-woo (Su-ho), who came from out of town and works part-time at a convenience store, might be the culprit, and made people think that Rep. Cha Joo-man (Lee Seung-jun) might be the culprit by revealing that he had plunged many people into the abyss of despair due to redevelopment issues in the past. Suddenly, Yebun’s grandfather Jeong Eui-hwan (Yang Jae-seong) and Cha Ju-man are stabbed to death and fall to the ground, dragging the case into limbo.

Ye-bun’s psychometric ability, which appears somewhat odd and unsophisticated, is used in a way to track down a serial killer with Detective Moon Mun-yeol (Lee Min-ki), but this ability actually has a different target in the drama. It is a search for truth and sincerity. That is the truth surrounding his mother’s death and the truth of Cha Joo-man, a member of the National Assembly who put on a good face but actually drove the villagers to despair, and the other is Bae Ok-hee, who appears to not care at all on the outside but actually shows a strong affection, and Jeon Gwang-sik ( This is the sincerity of the people of Mujin City, such as Park No-sik), and especially of his grandfather Jeong Eui-hwan, who had extraordinary affection for him even though he thought he did not think of him as family because he always treated him bluntly.

And the two faces of Rep. Cha Joo-man, learned while investigating the case, and the painful wounds that remain deep in the hearts of the villagers as a result, clearly establish the confrontation between ‘hip’ and ‘unfashionable’ depicted in . The ugliness of politicians like Rep. Cha Joo-man, who ultimately pushed the people of Mujin City into the abyss with sweet lies about revitalizing the area by turning Mujin City into a hip place through urban redevelopment, and Mujin City, where even after suffering such hardships, the ties between local residents remain. That’s the contrast between people’s friendliness. What is truly hip? Is it a lie disguised as being ‘hip’, or is it a friendly feeling of human warmth even though it looks old-fashioned?

In reality, it is a vain lie, but the world that is obsessed with the idea that it is hip leaves a shadow like someone’s despair behind the glamour. is a work that brings out that very point through comedy and shows sharp satire. Even if it feels a bit old and undeveloped and unsophisticated, this drama is portrayed through deep pathos that ends in laughter, hoping that a place with a human touch will become a truly ‘hip place’.

Columnist Jeong Deok-hyun [email protected]

[사진=JTBC]