A nice but short Korean web drama of twelve episodes, lasting about thirty minutes long each, Revenge Note (2017) featured a young actress whom I like a lot from the film A Werewolf Boy and the K-drama The Queen's Classroom, petite Kim Hyang Gi, who is growing up to be quite pretty as she matures physically and as an actress with each succeeding work I see her in. One of the best things about being a long time K-drama fan is being able to watch Korea's superb child actors grow up. Hyang Gi is no exception!

The Story:

Freshman high school student Ho Gu Hui (Kim Hyang Gi) is a bright student but also filled with compassion for others, which sometimes gets her in trouble and makes her prone to bullying by other, meaner students. She has a nice family who runs a fried chicken restaurant, both parents (Park Mi Sun, Lee Doo Il) work hard to put her and their son, Gu Hui's brother (Ji Geon Woo) through school and to pay off a debt. She has a best friend named Jung Deok Hee (Kim Kwan Hee) who has a big crush on famous boy idol Cha Eun Woo from Astro, but Gu Hui neglects to tell Deok Hee that she knows Cha Eun Woo personally because he's a good friend of her brother's. Gu Hui doesn't feel like this is her secret to keep, but rather Cha Eun Woo's, because he is so famous, but eventually when Deok Hee finds out the truth it causes friction in their relationship as friends. Will they be able to forgive each other eventually?

When we first meet Gu Hui she thinks she has a boyfriend, but soon finds out he's cheating on her with another girl. Suddenly, with no warning, a new app appears on her cell phone called Revenge Note, and the recipient can put in the name of the person who has betrayed them, or is harassing them, and a series of revenge events will take place in the perpetrator's life that will pay them back for their duplicity and / or their bullying. At first Gu Hui hesitates, not feeling good about it, but eventually her curiosity gets the best of her and she puts the name of the ex-boyfriend into the app, and the next day the cheating boyfriend somehow eats food that makes him have diarrhea in front of all his classmates and his prior sophisticated standing in the school is completely ruined. Justice has been served, and in quite an embarrassing way!

Then one night when her overworked father is making chicken deliveries he is targeted by a group of older high school bullies from Gu Hui's school and is beaten up by them. This mean group of boys and girls call themselves the Zombies. Gu Hui puts their names in the Revenge Note app, and soon enough all of the members of the Zombies start suffering embarrassing events that ruin their reputations, all of them caught on tape and spread around through the community on social media. They are even arrested eventually for hurting her father. What a relief! but just who is doing all this for her?

Then Gu Hui becomes aware that a fellow girl student is being targeted sexually by one of the teachers, who is assumed to be nice and is a favorite of the students. She puts his name in the Revenge Note app and suddenly he begins to be exposed for harassing the female student and is even arrested. The same thing happens for a school custodian / home room teacher who sneaks peeks under the girl students' skirts and secretly watches porn in the classroom. Gu Hui becomes aware of his bad behavior, puts the custodian's name in Revenge Note, and he too has his cover blown with the school administrator and is fired.

Through all these events Gu Hui becomes stronger and stronger and doesn't meekly accept teasing and bullying anymore. She finds an unlikely ally in a boy student named Ji Hoon (Park Solomon) who begins to admire her tenacity and comes to her rescue on several occasions, at first a bit reluctantly but then because he starts to care about her welfare. It becomes obvious soon to the whole school that he likes her; will that cause jealousy to erupt in Gu Hui's fellow girl students, many of whom seem to have crushes on him because he's well to do and handsome?

Will Both Boys Become Love Interests for Go Hee?
Park Solomon (Left) & Cha Eun Woo (Right)

So far the Revenge Note app has been used to expose bad people, but what happens if someone else puts Gu Hui's name in the app, and SHE becomes the target of revenge? Who could it be who would have found out about her secret activities on the app and want revenge? Will she be attacked physically, and her innocent family even more so as well? Will boy idol Cha Eun Woo be caught up in the web of this revenge activity, and could it hurt his successful music career, or even his idol group Astro as well?

This series seems to remain quite popular with young people. Usually I tend to avoid series that are focused primarily on teenagers, but I really wanted to see Kim Hyang Gi again and I was not disappointed in her performance. That girl is going places in her career: mark my words! :) Enjoy the series.

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