A hopeless romantic vampire aspiring to become a human is a delightful pitch by new KBS drama Heartbeat!
Perfectly combined with comical notes and an interesting revamp on the nature of typical vampires, this new KBS drama dropped a solid opening week!
Misty Karrot and abbyinhallyuland watch Heartbeat on Prime Video
Opening Week Rating:
Heartbeat Opening Week Story
In the past, there were immortals who lived alongside humans. The humans wanted to gain immortality and could do so by drinking the immortals’ blood. Seon Woo-hyeol (Ok Taecyeon) and Hae-sun (Yoon So Hee) were being chased by a group of people who had arrows specially made with silver and hawthorn in order to hunt down Woo-hyeol.
Woo-hyeol gets hit by an arrow while flying with Hae-sun, and so he decides to take on the group. He successfully takes them down, but as he lowers his guard, the hunter with the silver arrow shoots at him. Hae-sun protects him, takes the arrow to her chest, and slowly dies in Woo-hyeol’s arms.
“I want to know what love that makes your heart beat feels like. Since then, I’ve tried everything to become a human.”
Life goes on for immortal Woo-hyeol. Eager to become a human in early 19th century Korea, he is found lying in a coffin, surrounded by his fellow vampires and his butler. But before he lies in the coffin once again, he gives the house key to Butler Joo, who says that once he dies, his descendants will take care of the house as he sleeps.
It then cuts to a description of how the vampires live, explaining they only need a small amount of blood to survive, but would occasionally need more if they are exposed to sunlight. Their lifespan would also extend the less they drank blood. They are also able to fly, which “makes cleaning easier”. However, they are unable to see their own reflection, as it is only visible to humans.
Woo-hyeol arrives at Shaded Oasis, which is similar to a club. Butler Joo mentions that ‘that person’ could arrive today. He spends his time waiting for the person to appear, but as time passed, he chooses to go outside. He sees a fellow vampire drinking from a human, which leads to Woo-hyeol scolding him and telling Ki-sook not to drink human blood in the Shaded Oasis.
“If you sleep inside a hawthorn coffin for 100 years, you will become a human.”
As he sits atop the roof, he sees a couple in love and wishes that his heart would beat so that he could feel the love that makes his heart race. He tried different ways to become human, only for them to fail.
But then, he sees a black cat. He decides to feed it, but it suddenly speaks. “Do you have makgeoli?” It asks. Suddenly, the cat transforms into a human and introduces himself as Ko Yang-Nam. Woo-hyeol treats Mr. Ko to some makgeolli, hoping that he could tell him how to become a human.
Yang-nam asks Woo-hyeol for his reason, and he decides to help him after hearing it. He tells Woo-hyeol to sleep in a hawthorn coffin for 100 years. Woo-hyeol questions Mr. Ko, saying that hawthorn is as fatal as silver to vampires. But Mr. Ko simply replies that those who are ready to die can start a new life.
It cuts back to Woo-hyeol getting ready to enter the coffin as the other two vampires question him about this decision. He assures them before finally entering the coffin to sleep for 100 years.
We are then introduced to Butler Joo’s descendant, Joo In-hae (Won Ji An) in the present. She wakes up freezing, seeing that the heater is still broken. She gets ready for work and before she leaves, she asks her landlord to fix the heater as it is broken for days. He says he has work to do and gives In-hae a crumpled bill.
Once In-hae arrives at work, she is attacked by a student’s mother. Ordered by the principal to apologize, she explains that the student was being bullied that’s why she cut her hair so that it would not be noticed by her mother. The mother is embarrassed by the misunderstanding and also feels worried that her daughter was bullied.
“It has not been 100 years then. I’m one day short.”
As In-hae struggles with her life, the story shows Woo-hyeol’s friends Sang-hae and Dong-seob who are also trying to make ends meet. The latter’s snack shop isn’t attracting any customers, while the former spent most, if not all the money on gambling, leaving them unable to pay the rent.
They are also unable to drink fresh blood anymore due to CCTVs. Nevertheless, they are excited about Woo-hyeol’s return.
In-hae returns to her apartment only to find her landlord seemingly running away. When she asked him, the landlord simply replies he was going out of town for work. He also says that a handyman will visit tomorrow and fix In-hae’s heater.
Unfortunately for In-hae, it wasn’t a handyman that arrived. It turns out that the houses will be demolished, leaving her and many others without a home. She tries to find a way not to become homeless, and to make matters worse, she finds out that her father is declared dead as he has been missing for five years.
A glimmer of luck at least happened for In-hae as she inherits all her father’s assets that include some money and a mansion. She visits the mansion that turns out to be the one where Woo-hyeol’s sleeping self is. She notices the basement and discovers his coffin.
Out of curiosity, In-hae opens the coffin and sees Woo-hyeol sleeping inside. He suddenly wakes up and scares In-hae, causing her to move away from him. He assumes that she knows him because she is Butler Joo’s descendant, only for her to become more confused.
Woo-hyeol says that he will grant her a wish to celebrate his becoming human, to which In-hae responds coldly to leave. He starts to wonder if he actually became human, looking at the bloody bandage on In-hae’s arm.
She slaps him, and he grabs the mirror in his coffin to confirm his thoughts. He sees that his reflection is foggy in the mirror, and asks her what’s the date that day. Hearing her response, he realizes that he is one day early.
“Where is he in this dangerous world?”
Woo-hyeol looks at In-hae, saying that she broke the promise and that she will pay for it. He motions to bite her only for In-hae to bite him instead, surprising him and making him faint as well.
He is brought to the hospital by her but because his heart does not beat, he was declared dead. But he suddenly wakes up and surprises everyone.
The two argue once again as he convinces her that he really is the true owner of the mansion, resulting in her leaving him alone.
Confused and can’t find a way back to his home, Woo-hyeol takes this as a chance to look at his surroundings, seeing how much things had changed.
Meanwhile, Sang-Hae and Dong-Seob visit the mansion only to find that Woo-hyeol wasn’t inside the coffin. They wonder where he is, saying that it’s a dangerous world. In-hae goes to her apartment packs up her stuff and heads to the mansion.
Woo-hyeol finds a black cat and follows it, thinking it’s Mr. Ko. He ends up getting directions for the tailor shop near the mansion when a couple of ajummas assumed he was mistreating the stray cat.
Finding his way back to his mansion, he plans to enter the coffin again, but it turned into charcoal. In-hae arrives at the mansion and they start arguing again.
“I see myself in your eyes.”
Woo-hyeol confesses his powers and tries to prove them to no avail. it turns out, he has lost his powers as a vampire but he hasn’t turned into a human either. Interestingly, when he stared at In-hae’s eyes, he was able to see his reflection.
He gets kicked out by In-hae and ends up finding Mr. Ko. The latter tells him that In-hae is not an ordinary human because she managed to open the coffin, and that he should always protect and be with her. She might be his last and only hope to become a complete human.
Learning that her place is about to be demolished, In -hae rushes to stop it but her things were just thrown mindlessly. She also reunites with her college sunbae Do-sik (Park Kang Hyun) who offered help to her to which she declined politely.
Woo-hyeol returns to the mansion to meet In-hae, who was out chasing the landlord who scammed her when she accidentally found him doing business on a street. Woo-hyeol starts hearing In-hae’s voice and eventually finds her after drinking the blood that Mr. Ko gave him.
He saves her from being attacked by the landlord and proves his powers to her. Woo-hyeol lends a hand to In-hae, saying that they should go back home.
Heartbeat Opening Week Musings
Well-drawn story meets engrossing characters in Heartbeat. Inescapably, it is impossible not to make you smile as a viewer for its quirky premise.
Entertaining to watch, with plot twists reinventing vampire-themed narrative, it draws excitement to the development of the tangled lives shared by Woo-hyeol and In-hae.
It’s particularly nice to see humanized vampires and how they will navigate their way to survive in modern times. Fascinatingly adorable, the vampires we will meet in the story are tamed and most likely bring fun scenes than expected violent creepy ones.
Right off the bat, Ok Taecyeon made such an endearing character as a vampire who longs to feel the love that beats in his heart. Much as we want to root for his mission, we also can’t wait to see him grope his way to living in an unfamiliar time without money. Imagining how he would curb his fashionista tendencies is already a delightful sight to anticipate.
Humor perfectly rendered by the committed cast also made Heartbeat such a mood-making K-Drama worth adding to your plate.
Early on, it is hinted there may be some sort of connection between Woo-hyeol and In-hae. We can assume they will inevitably warm up to each other soon since cohabitation is on the horizon.
Support Woo-hyeol’s dream to become a human who can fall in love in Heartbeat on KBS2 TV every Monday and Tuesday!
Photos: KBS Drama
