Just as the fanged supernatural beings themselves can live for centuries, vampire stories in pop culture refuse to die. Heartbeat, a new K-drama from KBS starring 2PM’s Ok Taecyeon and D.P.’s Won Ji-an, centres around the toothy creatures but instead of pulling from the same tired playbook, it tries to create something fresh around the blood-sucking entities.
Seon Woo-yeol (Taecyeon) is a vampire who’s spent 400 years moving with the times as Korea went from Confucian times to modernity. He’s spent much of that time longing for his old human companion Hae-sun (Yoon So-hee), who sacrificed herself for him when he was under threat by a group of vampire hunters. His time with her was eye-opening – not least because he learned that humans often feel their hearts flutter when they fall in love.
After years (and years and years and years) of waiting for Hae-sun to come back to him in a reincarnated body, Woo-yeol decides it’s time to do what he’s always wanted – become human and feel those palpitating feelings of true romance. So, he seeks advice from Ko Yang-nam (Kim In-kwon), a man who can turn himself into a cat, and resolves to sleep in a hawthorn coffin for 100 years to achieve his goal. It’s a plan…
