Jung Eun-ji
Lee Won-keun
Cha Hak-yeon
Ji Soo
Chae Soo-bin
Network
Korean Broadcasting System
Genres
Teen film, Romance Film, Drama
Cast
Jung Eun‑ji, Lee Won‑keun, Ji Soo, Chae Soo‑bin
Similar
Sassy Girl Chun‑hyang, Who Are You: School 2, Oh My Venus, Angry Mom, Moorim School
Cheer Up! (Hangul: 발칙하게 고고; RR: Balchikhage Gogo; lit. Sassy, Go Go) is a 2015 South Korean television series starring Jung Eun-ji, Lee Won-keun, Cha Hak-yeon, Ji Soo and Chae Soo-bin. It aired from October 5, 2015 until November 10, 2015 on KBS2 every Monday and Tuesday at 22:00 KST for 12 episodes.
Set at the elite Sevit High School in Seoul, the drama follows the lives of five students as they attempt to survive in a vicious environment where academic elitism takes place. Kang Yeon-doo (Jung Eun-ji) is the leader of outcast street dance club "Real King", a group of students who band together because of their poor academic performance, whereas Kim Yeol (Lee Won-keun) is the President of "Baek Ho", an elite club composed of students from the top 5 percent. When the two clubs are forcibly merged to create a cheerleading squad, the two put their differences aside for the benefit of their clubs. As they go on with their misadventures, many things happen that result in a strong and unbreakable bond. Cheer Up! is a story that aims at ordinary high school students' misadventures including love, heartbreak, pain and friendship.
Main Characters
Jung Eun-ji as Kang Yeon-doo
Having positioned 196th out of the 200 students at her school, Yeon-doo is at the bottom of the food chain at her high school and her only friends are her childhood friend Dong-jae and the members of her street dance club "Real King." She dislikes the arrogant and self-centered students at the top percentiles of the school, namely the members of "Baek Ho," but she becomes friends with them after joining the Cheerleading Club and went through things with them. She is loyal, sassy, strong-willed, brave and is willing to put herself at risk to fight against the corruption present in her school.
Lee Won-keun as Kim Yeol
The President of the "Baek Ho" club and the highest ranking student at Sevit, Yeol is the son of a wealthy father from whom he is estranged. His intelligence also makes him cynical and arrogant. His wit and cleverness allows him to see through the tactics of the scheming adults around him as he exposes them. He begins to like Kang Yeon-doo since she is the person who makes him believe in other people again.
Chae Soo-bin as Kwon Soo-ah
Ranked second place in school and a member of the "Baek Ho" club, her mother pressures her to become first place in her school and get into an Ivy League university. She is focused solely on succeeding in her academia (this is shown when she joins a cheerleading club as an add-on to her academic profile), but fails to realize the importance of friendship and personal bonds between people. This causes her to become lonely, depressed and isolated and it eventually leads her to resort to manipulating the people around her in order to live up to her mother's unreachable expectations.
Cha Hak-yeon as Ha Dong-jae
Yeon-doo's childhood friend and one of her best friends at Sevit High, Dong-jae is a talented basketball player. Due to a traumatic childhood experience (which involves in hurting Yeon-doo), he developed a physical contact phobia. However, after getting kicked out of the basketball team, he joined the cheerleading club as well to accompany Yeon-doo. Albeit having a child-like mentality, Dong-jae becomes the first person who truly understands Soo-ah's emotional pain.
Ji Soo as Seo Ha-joon
Although he is in the top 5 percent at his school, Ha-joon has an abusive father who constantly puts pressure on him to do well and resorts to violence when his son is unable to meet his expectations. As a result, he has attempted suicide on more than one occasion. Ha-joon also has anger management issues and considers Kim Yeol his only true friend, but he, too, begins to regard Kang Yeon-doo as his true friend after he received help from her, and he even developed feelings for her.
