Yet more stills are out from Padam Padam: The Sound of His and Her Heartbeats, the upcoming cable drama starring Jung Woo-sung, who is the focus of this batch of images.

Jung plays Kang-chil, a man wrongly accused of murder who serves 16 years in prison, whose innocent nature is protected in part by his younger buddy and “guardian angel” Kook-soo (Kim Bum). Kang-chil at one point experiences a near-death experience, surviving thanks to a miracle. He falls in a “fateful love” with a woman described primarily as “selfish,” played by Han Ji-min. Due to his past, he’s awkward in the romance arena and turns shy around her, bringing out his innocent, cute nature, while also contrasting with his tough side. (See: tattoos and skill with mechanics.)

So that explains Jung’s clean-cut, aw-shucks appearance in the show. Yet I can’t help feeling that Jung’s character is starting to veer past “pure” and “good-hearted” and into simpleton territory, based on the way he’s depicted here. He’s supposed to be a good boy, not Forrest Gump. And the Dumb and Dumber hair certainly doesn’t help.

I feel like we’ve been hearing about this drama forever, with photo dumps occurring on a regular basis, and yet we don’t actually know any more about it. With a respected writer like Noh Hee-kyung (The World They Live In, Goodbye Solo, More Beautiful Than a Flower) penning scripts, you’d think they’d put a bit more emphasis on the story, but other than “fateful love between an innocent man, a selfish woman, protected by a guardian angel,” we’re not getting much. It’s all the same old. How ’bout some story with that story, hmm?

Padam Padam premieres on jTBC on December 5, and will run as a Monday-Tuesday drama.

Credit:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2011/11/jung-woo-sungs-image-transformation-in-padam-padam/

I know Padam Padam is all about Jung Woo-sung (Athena) and Han Ji-min (Cain & Abel)…but can we talk about how much Kim Bum has grown up the the past year? Yowsa.

I know all boys have to age sometime, and Kim Bum has been gradually growing out of his boyish looks with every role he takes, but still…I feel like he’s turned into an adult overnight, and it’s both amazing (those cheekbones! those eyes!) and sad (bye-bye, pinchy-cheeks).

Now he actually looks like he might suit the role of Padam Padam’s street-smart prison inmate who watches over the pure-hearted and wrongly convicted Jung Woo-sung while they’re serving time in the clink together. Jung’s character spends 16 years in prison, gets out and meets the self-centered Han Ji-min, leading to romance. Kim Bum is his buddy’s guardian angel who watches his back in and out of prison, while new face Lee Jae-woo takes a role in the supporting cast.

The cable drama premieres on jTBC on December 5.

Credit:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2011/10/character-stills-from-padam-padam/

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/