[recap] K-POP – The Ultimate Audition: Episode 1

Since muchadoboutlove is recapping Micky Yoo Chun’s drama, why don’t I do his little brother’s?

Episode 1:

  

This drama starts off with the MBLAQ – It’s War music video where Lee Joon gets shot, it turns out to be footage used by the news reporters to discuss the spread of k-pop to European countries. They discuss M1 (MBLAQ) and how popular they are and how they could be a global group. They show MBLAQ dancing to Mona Lisa and an animated map shows an airplane flying all over Europe.

  

The scene switches to the United Kingdom National Music School where a person is playing the piano in front of a few judges. The pianist, JI SEUNG YEON (Go Eun Ah), looks at her judges and plays the Beethoven piece without any emotion, but suddenly adds some spontaneity in it which confuses her audience. As she plays, she’s thinking about a k-pop concert and gets carried away. One of the professors yell at her to stop.  She has all her luggage with her after the committee decides to fail her for playing Beethoven in that way and she’ll have to retake the exam if she wants to enter the school. She can’t go home though because she would get punished and tries to think on the bright side: she didn’t want to go there in the first place.

  

She ends on a plane to Korea anyways and is a nuisance on the plane. Meanwhile, in first class, a flight attendant is busy hyperventilating over meeting KANG WOO HYUN (Park Yoo Hwan), a member of M2. With his better than average English skills for a Korean actor, he asks for the support of M2. Once the flight attendant is gone, the smile is gone from his face and instead, he has a moody one.

  

The manager hands him a beer in fear so he could calm down. However, Woo Hyun is still fuming after a member messed up during a performance. Anyways, Woo Hyun throws the can at the member and a girl witnesses this. So the manager covers her mouth and moves her away from first class. Woo Hyun berates the whole team and tells them that if they can’t remember some dumb dance moves than they should leave the group. When Woo Hyun leaves, the member gets up, but is stopped by a fellow member who tells him that without Woo Hyun, M2 is over. The member relents, but vows to screw up Woo Hyun one day.

  

It turns out that the M2 group has a rule in which once the members turn 23, they have to “graduate” and the fans are protesting against this in front of Sunny Entertainment. Due to this rule, four members are graduating this year including Woo Hyun. Sunny Entertainment’s CEO, JANG HYUN SUK (Hong Kyung Min) watches the protest from his office. He asks for the opinion of Team Leader Han (Park Hyo Joo) about the whole graduation theme. She calls it risky especially since on the list is Woo Hyun.  It turns out he was overdue for a graduation and CEO Jang let him stay. Team Leader Han hands him the list of people who auditioned and CEO Jang trusts her with it.

  

The plane is experiencing some turbulence so Woo Hyun and Seung Yeon are not feeling very well. Seung Yeon wants to go to the toilet, but it’s occupied so she goes the one in first  class. That one was occupied by Woo Hyun, however he opens the door and he notices her Tiger JK shirt which makes him think she’s a fangirl. He says politely that he’ll move, but she doesn’t reply since she’s about to throw up. The turbulence rocks the plane some more and she ends up throwing up on Woo Hyun. After that she rushes into the bathroom and leaves Woo Hyun to feel embarrassed when the flight attendant sees him.

  

He’s changes out of his outfit when he gets back to his seat. The girl that the manager pushed into first class is actually one of the workers and Woo Hyun tells her to throw the outfit away. His fellow members snicker at his bad luck. Seung Yeon leaves the restroom feeling better and forgets about throwing up on a person.

  

The airport is surrounded by fan girls and Woo Hyun smiles at them kindly. Once in the van and away from the public eye, he shouts at his manager to find the person who threw up on him. He describes her as a guy who looks like a girl and is wearing a Tiger JK shirt. Woo Hyun pushes the manager out of the van after telling him the description. The poor manager is stressed and wonders how he is going to do that.

  

Seung Yeon is happy to be back in Korea and decides to look for her friend Ji Woo. KWON JI WOO (Kwak Yong Hwan) doesn’t answer his phone because he’s too excited about being given an opportunity to audition for M2. Team Leader Han tells him that it’s his last chance. His happiness is short lived after he runs into some high school delinquents who demand some cash from him. Ji Woo is really meek and quietly replies that he has no money.

  

Seung Yeon steps in and defends him, pitying her “wife” for being bullied by these hood rats while she was gone. Hehe so cute how she calls him her “wife”. Seung Yeon knows how to fight and takes them down easily. She ends with a cute peace sign as the bullies run away. Ji Woo runs to give her a hug and realizes she came here too early; it’s not even the semester break.

  

Seung Yeon begs Ji Woo’s grandmother (Kim Young Ok) to let her stay with them for a few days and to keep it a secret from her parents that she’s back. Grandma asks what her plans are from now on and she replies that she wants to play the music that she wants. Grandma allows her to stay. Ji Woo cooks in the kitchen because he’s nervous about something and Grandma says to herself that those two should switch personalities.

  

Seung Yeon jokingly pulls down his pants and swipes some cream off the cake which Ji Woo says not to do since he isn’t done with the cake. Seung Yeon knows something is up since he’s baking a cake; he doesn’t tell her at first, but later does when they are in their room. If he passes, he’ll be in M2, but he’s very nervous.

Seung Yeon: Dreams will come true if you want it badly.

  

The next day, CEO Jang is talking with the four graduating members (cameo by MBLAQ). G.O. doesn’t want to go into acting however Joon says that if he’s given the chance he will (haha of course Joon would!) and lists his experience from being a ninja (reference to Ninja Assassin). Thunder asks if Joon will be an assassin in the next movie like T.O.P. (this drama really knows my biases haha).

  

Woo Hyun is the next person to come in and meeting with CEO Jang and he’s reluctant to do help with picking new M2 members, but he’s the leader so he should be there. Woo Hyun declines and just asked to be notified later.

  

Seung Yeon and Ji Woo head to the audition location. Ji Woo is nervous and wants to give up, but Seung Yeon tells him not to give it up. The word audition causes the protesting M2 fan girls to get angry and Seung Yeon tells them they’re fans of M2 also. She manages to convince them so they leave her alone. Wow, such gullible fan girls. But they make it inside the building and Seung Yeon wishes Ji Woo good luck.

  

Ji Woo meets with the other trainees and hopeful singers. DONG WOO (Jo Yoon Woo) and JANG TAE KWON (Maeng Se Changg) compliment Ji Woo and tells him how he could make it if he wasn’t so nervous. KANG CHANG MIN (Kevin)  captures their attention with his soft R&B song and KIM HYUN SEUNG (Song Se Hyun) impresses the trio with his dancing. Tae kwon grumbles about why a trainee from another company would audition at their company. Ji Woo wishes Seung Yeon was here.

  

Seung Yeon gets a stomachache and wanders around until she sees M1. She tells them that she is their fan until her stomach hurts again. Mir asks if she’s okay and she randomly brings up the fact that people say she looks a lot like Mir Oppa (haha this is so hilarious since they’re siblings in real life and she’s actually older than him). Thunder agrees about the resemblance and they could probably be related which Mir denies. G.O. says they could sign an autograph for her, but she’s in urgent need of a restroom so she asks them to wait for her which they don’t. She gets sad when they don’t and pines for Mir (hahahhaa).

  

Seung Yeon wanders aimlessly until she sees CEO Jang. She hides in  the men’s bathroom and she hears someone come in to use the urinal. She thinks it’s Ji Woo since  the person is wearing black and she sneaks up on him. She pulls down his pants and it turns out the person is Woo Hyun! Woo Hyun looks down in shock while she gloats about catching it all on cell phone camera. When she looks up, she’s shocked to find it’s not Ji Woo. Woo Hyun grabs her by the collar and calls her a perverted bastard; he recognizes her and calls for the Manager, Jang Dol. Jang Dol comes in, but covers his eyes and walks away after seeing Woo Hyun’s pants are down (*haha!). Jang Dol tells him to continue doing his “business” and he’ll keep watch on the door which causes Woo Hyun to look flustered. Seung Yeon escapes from Woo Hyun’s grasp when he releases her to pull up his pants.

  

Woo Hyun chases her up the stairs and she watches the audition for a little before running down the stairs and out the company. Woo Hyun catches up with her and demands her phone. She denies taking a picture and claims it was all a joke, but he doesn’t believe a pervert. As she tries to run, she bumps into a person and the phone goes flying. They both jump for it but Woo Hyun catches it. Seung Yeon runs away and Woo Hyun can’t open the phone since there is a password.

  

The people trying out showcase different talents from singing to piano playing to break dancing in hopes of making it in. It’s Ji Woo’s turn and he’s silent. Team Leader Han tells him he’s done this before and asks for the music to start. He doesn’t sing, so Team Leader Han asks for the music  to start all over again. This is his last chance.

  

Seung Yeon goes home and paces back and forth. He should have been back by now and Grandma tells her to settle down. Ji Woo comes home dejected and walks into the fridge for food. During the second chance, he stood there until he ended up vomiting. Seung Yeon tries to cheer him up by saying how M2 just dances and lip syncs. Grandma comments that Woo Hyun oppa is handsome though. Seung Yeon is in disbelief that Grandma is a Woo Hyun fan girl.

  

Woo Hyun tries to unlock the phone and throws it on the couch in anger. The four new members come in to greet him and he walks away without responding. Woo Hyun tells CEO Jang that the kids he picked were talentless and going on stage would be difficult. Team Leader Han thinks that CEO Jang doesn’t want Woo Hyun to graduate and that Woo Hyun is right about those new members not being at a level where they can go on the stage. Perhaps they could let the current M2 members promote for another year while the new members train.

  

Jang Dol interrupts the talk by announcing that someone filmed the audition and is spreading it on the net. The netizens are bashing on the new members and the fan girls are now voicing their protests. CEO Jang feels nostalgic as this reminds him of when his own band disbanded and the fan girls protested. CEO Jang decides to call for a press conference and will speak in it; he doesn’t want to hide behind Team Leader Han anymore. Team Leader Han leaves and comments that enough time has passed; it’s been 15 years.

  

CEO Jang thinks back to when a scandal happened between him (younger him) and Kang Hae Young from a girl group. His management denied the relationship while Hae Young’s camp did. The management blamed Hae Young for making up lies and pretty much ruined her image.

  

Seung Yeon finds Ji Woo moping in the garbage can. He calls himself trash and how he belongs in here while Seung Yeon yells at him to get out. The next day, the current M2 members are surprised to see CEO Jang actually attend a press conference. Seung Yeon and Ji Woo are also watching him on the television. CEO Jang thanks the fans for their love and announces that the M2 auditions will be open once again. The second auditions will be judged by the fans this time since M2 belongs to the fans and not Sunny Entertainment. It will be a blind audition and the four chosen will compete with the new members for a spot at M2.

  

Thus begins the ultimate auditions.

Comments:

I’m enjoying the series so far, the general concept reminds me of You’re Beautiful, but after watching episode 1, it couldn’t be any more different.

The acting is pretty good so far and I’m interested in the main three characters, not so much the others yet since they haven’t really had much lines.

Another great mystery is what happened to the girl that was involved in a scandal with CEO Jang, I wonder if she will return and get revenge?

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6 thoughts on “[recap] K-POP – The Ultimate Audition: Episode 1

  1. I started this and watched at least 15 minutes of episode one but I dropped it.

    Gaaaaad, is the boyish girl with the short hair the female lead here? She was the reason why this show failed to reel me in. Neither her face nor her acting is pleasing to the eyes! She’s like a walking nuisance on my screen.

    Hating someone right from the start is not really me. But I don’t know why . . . This is strange but I hate her with no valid reasons! Haha! 😀 *RUDEIKNOW*

    1. haha yeah the boyish girl is the female lead! yeah she was annoying at first too, but i stuck through it and to me, she got better when she met her childhood friend Ji Woo. The character gets established more as a tough tomboy and not just some girl who makes one decision and then does another lol (the whole i don’t want to go to korea because of her parents, but she ends up going anyways).
      it’s okay, it’s not rude at all! everyone has their own opinion hehe 🙂

  2. I really like this drama super. I visit this website 6 times a day. Since i watch it 6 times im up to reading it now. I wish i can read more episodes about this drama. I love your recap since i love reading. I wish you a goodluck. Thank you

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