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A cerebral hero in a brutal school drama
“Weak Hero Class 1,” an eight-episode Korean series starring Park Ji-hoon, Choi Hyun-wook and Hong Kyung, approaches the familiar school-bullying drama through an unlikely fighter: a physically slight student who relies on quick judgment, physics and whatever objects are within reach.
Park plays Yeon Si-eun, a student in the top 1% of his class who has little interest in anything beyond studying. When Jeon Young-bin, played by Kim Su-gyeom, and his group begin targeting him, Si-eun refuses to submit. His resistance draws him into escalating violence and eventually brings him together with two classmates: Ahn Su-ho, the strongest fighter in their class, and Oh Beom-seok, a transfer student carrying the scars of severe bullying.
The three boys become friends as they try to survive a school environment where violence has become routine. Their alliance also drives the series’ central question: whether strength comes from physical power, intelligence, loyalty or the ability to endure.
Three students with sharply different lives
Su-ho, played by Choi, appears detached from school but attends every day because he promised his grandmother he would graduate with perfect attendance. He works nights making deliveries for his family’s restaurant and often sleeps through class. A former mixed martial arts trainee, he is warm and loyal but quick-tempered, frequently settling conflicts with his fists.
Hong plays Beom-seok, the adopted son of a wealthy lawmaker. He transferred after being badly bullied at his previous school, but his new start is complicated by physical and emotional abuse at home. His father tells him that the adoption served a public relations purpose. After Young-bin forces Beom-seok to take part in harassing Si-eun, including disrupting an exam, guilt leads him to help Si-eun and persuade Su-ho to join him. The friendship that follows is threatened by Beom-seok’s growing sense of inferiority.
Young-bin’s resentment begins after he finishes behind Si-eun in a mathematics competition. When Si-eun defeats him in their first confrontation, Young-bin calls in his cousin Jeon Seok-dae, played by Shin Seung-ho, expanding the conflict beyond the classroom. Other threats include Kim Gil-su, played by Na Chul, who leads a group of runaway teenagers and takes money from young people through a rigged gambling app, and fighter Kang Woo-young, played by Cha Woo-min, who holds a grudge against Su-ho over an earlier defeat.
From webtoon to screen
The series is based on the popular Naver webtoon “Weak Hero,” written by Seopass and illustrated by Kim Jin-seok, also known as Razen. The comic debuted in 2018. Jaedam Media announced in May 2021 that it would jointly produce a drama adaptation with Playlist, while Studio Shortcake, co-founded by “D.P.” director and writer Han Jun-hee, later joined the production.
Yoo Soo-min directed and co-wrote the series with Kim Jin-seok and Park Dan-hee. Han served as creative director. The production also brought in action director Heo Myung-haeng, whose credits include “Vincenzo,” and art director An Ji-hye, who worked on “Squid Game.” Music producer Primary created the original soundtrack.
The first three episodes screened at the 27th Busan International Film Festival, held Oct. 5-14, 2022. All eight episodes were released Nov. 18, 2022, on the Korean streaming service Wavve.
Preparing for the violence
To develop Si-eun’s dark, cold presence, Park studied performances by Won Bin in the 2010 film “The Man from Nowhere” and Kwon Sang-woo in the 2004 film “Once Upon a Time in High School.” The climax of Episode 8 directly pays homage to the closing scene of “Once Upon a Time in High School.” Park also lost more than 10 pounds of muscle to convey Si-eun’s physical weakness.
The cast trained together at an action school for several months to perform the series’ intense fight sequences without injury.
Han said in a November 2022 media interview that he wanted performers with strong energy who could become leading figures in Korean film and television. Park, Choi, Hong, Shin and Lee Yeon were all relatively new actors at the time, and Han viewed the series as an opportunity to introduce them to a wider audience.
Park was initially suggested after Studio Shortcake CEO and co-founder Lee Myung-jin saw him in the 2021 drama “At a Distance, Spring Is Green.” Han also watched that performance and later reviewed Park’s other work and interviews, concluding that he could show multiple sides of himself, including the face of an ordinary student in his late teens. Han first noticed Choi in “Taxi Driver” and moved to cast him after seeing him in “Racket Boys,” believing the young actor would soon become difficult to book.
Supporting characters widen the conflict
Lee Yeon plays Young-yi, a runaway teenager who had become involved with a dangerous delinquent group. After the group breaks apart, she temporarily stays at Su-ho’s home and works at the family restaurant. Seok-dae appears indifferent but is especially protective of Young-yi and the group’s youngest member, Seong-chan.
The adults around the students are frequently absent or harmful. Gong Hyun-joo plays Si-eun’s mother, a busy mathematics instructor who rarely has time with her son, while Kim Sung-kyun plays his father, a national judo coach whose travel keeps him unaware of Si-eun’s life. Jo Han-chul portrays Oh Jin-won, Beom-seok’s wealthy, cruel and arrogant lawmaker father.
A global streaming life and a second season
International viewers could watch the first season through Kocowa, Viki and iQIYI, giving the series an audience beyond Wavve’s Korean subscriber base. The drama now spans two seasons and 16 episodes. Its second season, “Weak Hero Class 2,” was released April 25, 2025, as a Netflix original, making the franchise more directly available to viewers in the United States and other global markets served by the streaming company.
In the second season, Si-eun transfers to Eunjang High School while remaining haunted by his past failures. He forms new friendships with Park Hu-min, Seo Jun-tae and Go Hyun-tak, but becomes caught in a larger conflict with the Union, a criminal alliance of schools led by Na Baek-jin and Geum Seong-je. Park returns in the lead role, joined by Ryeoun, Choi Min-young, Yoo Su-bin, Bae Na-ra, Lee Min-jae and Lee Jun-young.
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