Jisu (TV series)

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Jisu
Genre	Coming of age
Director	Hwang Chihyon
Starring	Choi Dahyun Wang Damryeong Yunsae
Country of Origin	South Korea
Original Language	Korean
No. of Episodes	12
Network	MBS

Jisu (Korean: 지수) is a South Korean television series starring Choi Dahyun and Wang Damryeong and Yunsae based on the 2007 novel of the same name. Directed by Hwang Chihyon, it focuses on a high school girl who struggles to accept herself living with a mother who loathes her. It aired on MBS from November 19, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

The series was a commercial success and helped drive Choi Dahyun and Wang Damryeong into forces in the Korean entertainment industry.

Plot

Pre-high school

Set in Busan, the series follows the titular character Hong Ji-su (Choi Dahyun), a 15 year old high school freshman student. She lives in a household with her mother, father, older brother Ji-sung and younger sister Ji-na. Ji-su's father is constantly working far away from home, leaving the three kids under their mothers care for the majority of the time. Growing up, Ji-su is always the last option to her mother with her older and younger sibling being put before her, and as a result Ji-su favours her father over her mother and has a much closer relationship with him. Her mother only shows her conditional love, and as a result she finds herself constantly striving to impress her. When Ji-su enters middle school she begins studying harder and as a result achieves high grades, consistently ranking among in the top 5 of her classes. In her final year of middle school, Ji-su's mother and father divorce after years of disagreements and issues in their relationship. Following the divorce, Ji-su's mother begins to loathe her own daughter and blames her for the divorce as Ji-su's father constantly protested her mothers treatment towards her. By the time Ji-su enters her first year of high school, her self image has been greatly damaged as a result of her mother tearing her down since her parents split. Ji-su suffers massively with this and as a result and constantly dresses in clothes that hide her appearance.

High school

At the beginning of her high school career, Ji-su meets Kum Dong-hyeon (Wang Damryeong), a fellow freshman in her class. The two quickly become fond of each other and become close friends. They also meet Han Tam-hee (Yunsae) and form a small friendship group. Ji-su's struggle with her self image immediately becomes evident to her new friends. Ji-su builds a support system of her older brother, father and friends. Ji-su's mother's preferential treatment to her younger sister Ji-na intensifies once her older brother leaves for university, meaning the two people Ji-su relied on at home were no longer there. Ji-na begins taking side with her mother once Ji-sung has left the house, making Ji-su feel alone in her own home. As a result, Ji-su begins spending more time away from home, mainly hanging out with her friends, at Tam-hee's house, visiting Ji-sung at university or visiting her father on weekends.

Tam-hee, Dong-hyeon and Ji-su begin to adventure around Busan and even branch out into different cities. Whilst spending time with her friends, Ji-su begins to realise that there's more to life than her mothers approval and slowly stops trying to impress her constantly. She finds herself surrounded by unconditional love with her new friends, a change from what she received from her mother growing up. She begins coming out of her shell more, no longer hiding her appearance, dressing herself in what she wants to wear, not what will hide her appearance or receive praise from her mother. She even begins smiling more and is evidently happier. She begins taking her mother and sisters insults like empty words, occasionally even insulting them back, to their surprise. Her room reflects her new found happiness with her boring bedsheets and decor-less walls turning into bright coloured sheets adorned by soft animals and her walls having pictures printed of her current friends, father, brother, other family members and childhood friends. Her frowny bus rides to school turned into smiley walks to school. Her hair went from a lazy ponytail to trying different hair styles everyday. Her sadness turned into happiness.

The same overpass in the show featured in NewJeans' music video for "Attention"

By freshman year of high school, Ji-su has turned into a brand new, happier version of herself. Dong-hyeon and Ji-su begin going on dates and eventually pursue a romantic relationship together. Ji-su and Tam-hee basically become sisters with Tam-hee's mother treating the girl like her own. Ji-sung and Ji-su begin spending more time together at their fathers house during school breaks. Ji-su declares to her mother that by the time she finishes high school she will be attending school in the same city where her father works and living with or near him. The series ends its final episode with a montage of Ji-su with the people she loves, with a clip of Ji-su on Dong-hyeon's back running across an overpass.

Cast

Main

• Choi Da-hyun as Hong Ji-su
  • A high school freshman who struggles with her self image as a result of her mothers mistreatment towards her.
• Wang Dam-ryeong as Kum Dong-hyeon
• Yunsae as Han Tam-hee

Production

Development

Jisu was initially released as a novel by author Ha Mi-So in October 2007. The novel was a commercial success, becoming a best seller, and was very popular with teenagers aged 14-17 for its themes of accepting yourself. It was released as a webtoon in 2016 which would go viral, making the novel resurge in popularity. The series was conceptualised in late 2018 by 64 Productions with Hwang Chihyon.

Choi Dahyun was always a shoe-in for the titular role of Ji-su

Casting and filming

Director Hwang Chihyon immediately had Choi Da-hyun in mind for the titular role of Ji-su when developing the series as she had just made her return to acting in the drama A Door Slightly Ajar and she was around the same age of the character. Dahyun and Wang Dam-ryeong were confirmed for the roles on March 17, 2019, with Damryeong being selected after auditioning for the role of Kum Dong-hyeon. Yunsae was confirmed to play the role of Han Tam-hee on April 1, 2019. The series filmed over the summer of 2019, beginning on July 7, 2019 and ending on August 26, 2019. Stills from the set were released ahead of the shows premiere on October 31, 2019.

Release

The series premiered on November 19, 2019 on MBS, airing for 12 episodes every Tuesday and Wednesday till December 31, 2019. The series was released on Netflix on July 25, 2023, partly in honour of Choi Da-hyun's solo debut. Behind the scenes clips were posted every week from January 6, 2020 till February 17, 2020 on MBS' Youtube channel.

Soundtrack

Album

Jisu: The Music by Multiple Artists
General information
Release Date	January 1, 2020
Length	112:57
Language	Korean
Label	32 MEDIA

The soundtrack album for Jisu includes 15 songs and 18 scores. Side A consists of the songs whilst side B consists of the scores. The entire album was produced by 13, while the score was composed by Yun Chung-ho. It was digitally released on January 1, 2020 following the dramas conclusion. The album peaked at number 10 on the Gaon Album Chart and as of November 2020, over 19,600 copies have been sold.

Singles

Among the 15 songs, 11 of them were released as singles. The song "Burn The Bridge", which was heavily featured in the series throughout its run and is said to capture the shows vibe and essence, was released as a single prior to the show airing alongside the trailers and posters. The track was commercially successful in Korea, peaking at number 3 on the Gaon Digital Chart. The song resurged in 2021 on the social media app tik-tok and saw a surge in streams.

List of singles, showing year released, selected chart positions, and name of the album

Title	Year	Peak chart positions
		KOR
"Burn The Bridge" (다리를 불태우다) sung by Haku, Dahyun	2019	3