[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Adult Trainee" Episodes 6-7
By William Schwartz | Published on
Na-eun (played by Kwon Young-eun) is our final protagonist. The high school student is a bit on the heftier side, but has a genuine talent in song and dance. She also obsesses, as teenage girls often do, on romance. Her hyperactive fantasies get a boost when a mysterious figure named J leaves her candies and a love note. There are two logical candidates- Jin-beom (played by Jo Sung-joon) is bright and cheerful, always doing high fives. Kang-joon (played by Kim Min-gi-I) is an extremely cute member of a flash-in-the-pan since disbanded boy band.
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More relevant than either of these characters is Da-yeon (played by Park Se-hyun), a mean girl who torments Na-eun to various degrees of effectiveness. Da-yeon is more conventionally attractive than Na-eun. Da-yeon is also somewhat sociopathic, in a way that's depicted with surprising nuance. Da-yeon isn't a monster. She's just tremendously petty, and a nasty gossip who doesn't seem to grasp that outside her immediate circle of friends no one really likes her. Even boys only really tolerate her because...well, you can guess.
The grounded interpretation of Da-yeon is interesting because most depictions of high school mean girls go hard one direction or another. Either they're powerful divas with the whole school wrapped around their fingers, or completely isolated from the cooler, more well-grounded main characters. I was honestly surprised when the final confrontation between Na-eun and Da-yeon resulted in both girls being chastised for bad behavior. Their climactic fight is presented as a mutual escalation that is easily grasped as such by the school's authority figures.
This is relevant to Na-eun's own character journey in that it explains why Na-eun has confidence against Da-yeon's feminine wiles. Na-eun has a much better personality than Da-yeon just because she doesn't act manipulative. Boys are, contrary to popular belief, often smart enough to tell the difference. Hence why Jin-beom and Kang-joon both act deliberately nice to Na-eun right in front of Da-yeon, to the latter girl's disgust.
Beyond the element of Da-yeon the final story of the "Adult Training" omnibus doesn't do anything too dynamic. Despite the story opening up with a sex education class, all there really here is the mystery of who sent Na-eun the love note and candy, with Na-eun struggling to try and figure out whether Jin-beom and Kang-joon's statements have intentional double meanings. The answer being...not really. Don't overthink things kids. Otherwise you'll end up like Da-yeon.
Review by William Schwartz
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"Adult Trainee" is directed by Jeong Hyeong-geon, Yoo Hak-chan, written by Bang So-min, Jin Yoon-joo, Kim Hyun-min, and features Ryoo Ui-hyun, MIYEON, Jo Yoo-jung, Ryeoun, Kwon Young-eun, Kim Min-gi-I. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/11/12~Now airing, Fri on TVING.
William Schwartz
Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea from 2011 to 2021. He is currently located in the Portland metropolitan area. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net, and is open to requests for content in future articles.