K-drama midseason recap: High Class – illogical high-society tale apes better Korean dramas and films, including Parasite in which its star Cho Yeo-jeong had a similar role

Korean dramas don’t need to be logical to succeed, but they do need to throw up surprises to keep us engaged. High Class hasn’t managed any yet

Its surface similarities to Oscar winner Parasite turn out to be no coincidence – and not in a good way. While it’s not outright bad, High Class must do better

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Cho Yeo-jeong in a still from High Class.

Published: 4:45pm, 9 Oct 2021

This article contains spoilers.

Over its first few episodes, Korean drama High Class neatly set up its characters and story against the idyllic backdrop of Jeju Island, but it felt like it was missing something. That something turned out to be an element of surprise, and with only a few weeks left, we’re still waiting.

With its education-obsessed and secretive rich mothers backstabbing each other in slick locales, the show is modelled to emulate the success of prior hits such as SKY Castle, The Penthouse and Mine. Rather than build on those successes, High Class has merely mimicked these earlier shows, but without the cool class of SKY Castle, the theatrical melodrama of The Penthouse or the compelling solidarity of Mine.

What’s more, surface similarities with the Academy Award-winning film Parasite – they both star Cho Yeo-jeong as a well-off and slightly ditzy mother living in a stylish home – prove to be no mere coincidence.

Song Yeo-wool (Cho) sought to escape the pain of her husband’s death and the suggestion that she might have killed him by moving to Jeju with her son Yi-chan (Jang Sun-yool), where she enrolled him at the prestigious HSC International School.

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