Jeon Do-yeon and Ryu Joon-yeol brought together by sadness in new promos for Human Disqualification
by tccolb
New posters and a video teaser have been released for JTBC’s upcoming melodrama Human Disqualification, featuring lead actors Jeon Do-yeon (Beasts Clawing at Straws, The Good Wife) and Ryu Joon-yeol (The Battle: Roar to Victory, Lucky Romance).
In a story about people who are special because they’re ordinary, the drama explores the very real and human struggle of determining our own self-worth. Despite working hard towards our dreams, it’s easy to spiral downwards into the feeling that you haven’t accomplished anything in life, or that you haven’t made yourself into someone worthwhile.
In Human Disqualification, we find Jeon Do-yeon as someone at her breaking point. Having only worked as a ghostwriter, she has yet to see her own name in print; she’s reached a point where she feels like all her years of hard work were for nothing. Throughout her career, she internalized even trivial grievances and she’s now overwhelmed by conflicting emotions of grief, failure, anxiety, emptiness, and loneliness. As a defense mechanism, she finds herself shutting down, and doesn’t know how to move forward in life.
Enter Ryu Joon-yeol who meets Jeon Do-yeon by chance when both are experiencing dark moments in their lives. Age-wise, he’s reaching the end of his young adult years, and is scared that he hasn’t yet made a name for himself in a significant way. His dream had simply been to be rich, and he now runs a service company. However, he took on many risks to try to reach greater success, and he’s still not anywhere near his goals. Although no longer young, he’s not quite old; though he can be cynical about people, he also desires to be someone who’s needed by others.
In supportive roles, Park Byung-eun (Kingdom: Ashin of the North) plays Jeon Do-yeon’s husband, a man whose heart is being swayed back to his first love Kim Hyo-jin (Private Lives).
Secretive actress Park Ji-young (You Have Driven Off Course) has a complicated relationship with Jeon Do-yeon, while nurse Yang Dong-geun (365: Repeat the Year) is one of Jeon’s old friends.
In the newly released teaser, we get a nice parallel through the switch between Jeon Do-yeon and Ryu Joon-yeol, and we see how their struggles are similar despite coming from different places.
The teaser starts with the camera following Jeon Do-yeon as she confesses in voice-over, “Dad, I’ve lived more than 40 years and I haven’t become anything in life.” Cut to Ryu Joon-yeol who we see burying his father and he narrates, “I miss you, Dad. Although we’re all born into the world the same way, I don’t think I’ll ever become somebody.” We see both of them crying alone, and Jeon asks, “What is it that I’m afraid of?” The appearing text screen explains, “A story about ordinary people who ‘haven’t yet become anything.'”
Returning to the two leads, we see Jeon Do-yeon with Ryu Joon-yeol on a rooftop as they share a quiet moment. Ryu asks her in a serious tone, “If we happen to meet again somewhere… do you want to die together?” Cut to the next chance encounter that Ryu Joon-yeol had hypothesized, and they look at each other in surprise.
The text screen introduces the director, Heo Jin-ho, creator of Christmas in August and One Fine Spring Day. As we see footage of the two leads again, the captions introduce their names: Jeon Do-yeon and Ryu Joon-yeol. The video comes to a close with the two actors together, sleeping separately but on the same bed.
As introduced in the teaser, the production for Human Disqualification will be led by film director Heo Jin-ho (Princess Deokhye, One Fine Spring Day) with writer Kim Ji-hye (Hope, Architecture 101) penning the scripts.
JTBC’s new melodrama is currently set to premiere this September and will also be available on South Korean streaming platform TVING.
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Tags: Human Disqualification, Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Hyo-jin, Park Byung-eun, Park Ji-young, Ryu Joon-yeol, Yang Dong-geun
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1 missvictrix
July 16, 2021 at 5:31 PM
START THE COUNTDOWN @_@
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mindy
July 16, 2021 at 5:45 PM
@sc325 probably already has
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2 ladynightshade wants her own ryu sunjae
July 16, 2021 at 6:38 PM
HE STILL HAS HIS LONG HAIR HERE!!! Sorry, I swear I’m really excited about this drama as well. The hair just does something to me.
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missvictrix
July 16, 2021 at 7:37 PM
Saaaaame
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tsutsuloo
July 16, 2021 at 8:35 PM
Comment was deleted
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tsutsuloo
July 16, 2021 at 8:36 PM
Yessss. Long hair is a great way to stand out amongst all the kdrama men. For example, Kim Ji Hoon (Flower of Evil) is bite-my-pillow stunning with long hair.
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mindy
July 17, 2021 at 3:02 AM
I would say most actors can't pull it off but RJY definitely can
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3 Kafiyah Bello
July 16, 2021 at 7:44 PM
Ryu Joon Yeol looks fantastic with long hair, it really suits him.
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4 thedramaaddict
July 16, 2021 at 8:19 PM
Jeon Do Yeon and Ryu Jun Yeol look great together on screen. The atmosphere in the trailer is already so intense, aaaah. Hyped!!
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5 tsutsuloo
July 16, 2021 at 8:39 PM
I didn't recognize Jeon Do-yeon here. She's a magnificent, A-level amazing actress. Looking forward to this. (Will have to balance it something fluffy, for sure.)
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6 javinne
July 16, 2021 at 8:40 PM
I also feel like such an ordinary person. Lived this long and haven't become anything but a dreamer with high values.
Sometimes I even feel I am close to my own end. This type of drama could really break my heart.
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7 frabbycrabsis loves KBS Drama Specials
July 16, 2021 at 9:23 PM
I feel like I SHOULDN'T be so giddily excited for a bleak nihilistic melodrama... but I am.
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mindy
July 17, 2021 at 3:04 AM
It gives me My Ajusshi vibes so I'm 100% ready to be broken (and maybe put back together again...?)
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ladynightshade wants her own ryu sunjae
July 17, 2021 at 6:30 PM
Same here. I’m ready to be heartbroken and depressed.
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8 knewbie
July 16, 2021 at 10:50 PM
It's a great cast, and Jeon Do-yeon and Yang Dong-geun as close friends sounds fascinating, but most importantly: HEO JIN-HO HAS MADE A DRAMA?!?!? Count me in!
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9 Jezz
July 17, 2021 at 12:16 AM
@missvictrix I am so excited in this melodrama too. I love the beautiful background music from this teaser sounded great to me. I can't believe how Jeon Do-yeon's car of doom (CoM) scene was fantastic because she knew how to manage to survive from Car-of-Doom scene and also she will be putting one of the greatest Korean actresses of all time. Also, our PD Hur Jin-ho was one of the greatest Korean film directors of all time because he began popularized his own Korean films in the 1990s. His 1998 film Christmas in August became one of the Korean box-office hits of 1998 and that was marked the beginning of Hur Jin-ho's popularity.
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10 LT is Irresistibly Indifferent, Dame Judi
July 17, 2021 at 12:39 AM
*rendered nonverbal*
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11 spazmo
July 17, 2021 at 1:08 AM
the hair on joon yeol....... i'm all in.
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12 pickleddragon
July 17, 2021 at 1:19 AM
Heck yeah I'll be watching this.
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13 miss h
July 17, 2021 at 2:02 AM
Ryu Joon-yeol usually doesn't do anything for me but the hair...
Sign me up.
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14 am1993
July 17, 2021 at 4:51 AM
If it's going to be on TVING, I guess I should stop hoping that it will be on Netflix or Viki right?
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15 PYC
July 17, 2021 at 5:50 AM
This is intriguing, to say the least.
Christmas in August is among my all time favorite K movies that I can rewatch and rewatch (and Han Suk-Kyu!!). Then April Snow is another one. Director Hur Jin-Ho was one of those movie directors that induced me to Korean movies in those earlier years.
Translating his style, characters and ethos into a drama is a totally different thing though. Do we know how many episodes this will have as I can’t find it anywhere? Will certainly check it out but I’m just wondering towards which spectrum it’d be like - My Ajusshi or Alone in Love or A Wife’s Credential - but probably none of what we’ve seen before. I just don’t want it to be a sad-fest.
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am1993
July 17, 2021 at 3:25 PM
Mydramalist has the episode count at 16 but that's an unofficial source.
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knewbie
July 17, 2021 at 11:55 PM
Perhaps Heo Jin-ho's films have already influenced K-drama, especially on cable. Sometimes I think there would have been no My Ahjusshi, A Wife's Credentials or One Spring Night without HJH's One Fine Spring Day or April Snow. (Alone in Love, on the other hand, seems to be in a different register.)
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16 Kelly-k
July 17, 2021 at 6:59 AM
That header feels like what a jdrama poster designer would give me and say take it or leave it... And the vibe too tells me with my love of slice of life jdramas I would love this.. Plus that hair...
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