Lauded screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung is finally ready to come back with a new drama, and has got A-lister Jung Woo-sung (Athena) in place as the leading man. The series is Padam Padam…The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats; the title refers to the French song by chanteuse Edith Piaf.

The story centers around a man, Yang Kang-chil, a tough guy who’s lived a rough life and served some hard time as a result of a friend’s scheme. Let’s hope that guy’s no longer a friend. He meets a bright veterinarian, Jung Ji-nah, and thus begins their love story.

Jung said, “I decided on this drama because I was drawn to the way Noh Hee-kyung writes ‘family drama.’ Whether mother-son or father-son, the love and pain experienced by families is something I’d like to try portraying in a realistic way.”

Noh Hee-kyung is certainly one of the more talented drama scriptwriters working these days, and has a particularly keen ear for dialogue and a thoughtful sensibility. She gets into her characters and makes them realistic, not just cliche-filled, hollow shells of familiar character types. If I have a complaint about her writing, it’s that she can veer into overly precious, which is the issue I had with her last drama, The World They Live In — but you can’t accuse her of being fluffy, shallow, or careless. But when she’s really on, I love her (see: Goodbye Solo); she has a way of stating something you thought you already knew, but discover afresh when expressed in her witty words.

If this heralds Jung’s renewed interest in dramaland, following last year’s spy drama Athena — he’d been off doing movies for a number of years — then I’m all for it. Too often stars hit it big with a drama, then make the leap to film careers and never look back. (Ah, the ones we’ve lost to the big screen: Jang Dong-gun, Lee Jung-jae, Won Bin, Ha Jung-woo, Lee Min-ki…) While it’s undoubtedly a great move for their careers, I do miss seeing them in dramas, which is really the better platform for cultivating rapport with audiences. (I fear that Lee Min-ho will soon join the ranks of the big film stars who leave their television days behind them, which makes me happy for him, but also sad at our loss as drama-lovers.)

Kim Kyu-tae directs, having previously worked on IRIS and A Love To Kill. Now we await news of his leading lady… With Noh attached, there’ll be no shortage of actresses dying for a chance to try something thoughtful and meaty. And, yeah, having to romance Jung Woo-sung onscreen doesn’t hurt either.

Credit:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2011/08/jung-woo-sung-returns-in-new-drama/