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Pierce Conran

This article contains mild spoilers.
Lead cast: Kim Tae-ri, Shin Ye-eun, Ra Mi-ran, Jung Eun-chae, Kim Yoon-hye
Latest Nielsen rating: 12.85 per cent
Yoon Jeong-nyeon, a spirited singing sensation from the southwestern Korean city of Mokpo, is portrayed by Kim Tae-ri in the period musical drama Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born. She occupies a curious middle ground between her rustic rural roots and the classy, cultural clique she is trying the break into.


Jeong-nyeon is blessed with a prodigious voice that gets her noticed by superstar stage performer Moon Ok-gyeong (Jung Eun-chae) while crooning for enraptured customers in a fish market. This catapults her from seaside fishmonger to a trainee in the illustrious Maeran Theatre Company overnight.
Everyone around her has gone through years of gruelling training to even get an audition and, at one point, her arch-rival Heo Young-seo (Shin Ye-eun) openly proclaims her envy of her “genius talent”.
Young-seo has worked much harder than Jeong-nyeon to get where she is, and although she is the belle among the trainees, she recognises it is only a matter of time before Jeong-nyeon, with her natural gift, outshines her.
Jeong-nyeon may be special, but it is not by chance. Her mother was an equally brilliant singer of pansori – a form of traditional Korean music – in her youth who pushed herself too hard and burned out. Jeong-nyeon does not become aware of this until after she runs away from home to join Maeran.

While Jeong-nyeon has a stunning voice, what makes her special is the emotion that fuels it. The depth of her singing is also a product of her difficult upbringing and her traumatic experience during the Korean war when she lost her father.
This is the part of her that allows her to move people. From customers at a fish market she ascends to bigger stages, and the audiences she captivates continue to grow.
What has also been growing is Jeong-nyeon’s ego. Her confidence in her abilities has a tendency to get the better of her.
She lands a supporting part in one of Maeran’s productions and is excellent in it, but that is the problem – she cannot help herself when on stage.
Not only does she throw herself into the part and outshine everyone around her, she also allows her memories of the war to overwhelm her on stage and goes completely off script, launching into a stirring rendition of a wartime lament.

The audience is enraptured, but Kang So-bok (Ra Mi-ran), the director of Maeran watching everything from the side, is enraged.
Jeong-nyeon is booted from the show and demoted to cleaning duty, but her next shot at the stage comes quickly.
When her friend Hong Joo-ran (Woo Da-vi) is sidelined after spraining her ankle, Jeong-nyeon steps into the main role of “Princess” since she is the only person who has learned all the lines and songs of the play.
Jeong-nyeon puts her own spin on the part and is excellent, but she throws off her co-star Young-seo with her intense performance to once again put the show in danger.
This time her quick thinking gets things back on track, but it shows just how easy it is for Jeong-nyeon to jeopardise a production.

For the next show, trainees are forced to audition in pairs and the pressure is on when So-buk announces to the press that junior members who score lead roles this time will become the de facto successors of Maeran’s top stars.
Those are Ok-gyeong, who has grown bored at the top and welcomes new blood, and the haughty Seo Hye-rang (Kim Yoon-hye), who is terrified of losing her status and has been secretly sabotaging Jeong-nyeon.
When Joo-ran partners up with Young-seo instead of her, Jeong-nyeon is forced to pair up with a less talented trainee. She pushes herself far too hard preparing for the audition, singing herself hoarse up in a mountain cave.
Jeong-nyeon takes to the audition stage with a fever and a broken voice and even coughs up blood. She begs to continue the audition and somehow pushes through her medical crisis to finally hit the notes she had been striving for.

Jeong-nyeon’s almost magical ability to overcome hardship is slightly far-fetched. However, it is only a slight smudge on what has so far been top-flight entertainment. A few middling side plots aside – such as one featuring Maeran’s crooked accountant – Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born has been a breeze to watch.
Naturally, the show’s highlights have been its stunning stage performances, with the extended sequences of Maeran’s staging of Chunhyang – one of Korea’s most beloved pansori repertoires – in episode three proving especially stirring.
Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born is streaming on Disney+.


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Kim Tae-ri as prodigious singer Yoon Jeong-nyeon in a still from Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born.

Jung Eun-chae as Moon Ok-gyeong, the superstar stage performer who notices Jeong-nyeon singing in a fish market, in a still from Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born.

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Woo Da-vi (left) as Jeong-nyeon’s friend Hong Joo-ran, and Shin Ye-eun as Jeong-nyeon’s arch-rival Heo Young-seo, in a still from Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born.

Kim Tae-ri as Jeong-nyeon in a still from Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born.

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Kim (right) as Han Jung-sook with her colleagues, struggling mother Seo Young-bok (Kim Sun-young), frustrated housewife Oh Geum-hui (Kim Sung-ryung) and perky hairdresser Lee Ju-ri ( Lee Se-hee), in a still from A Virtuous Business.

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Kim Tae-ri’s troubled stage singer outshines her rival, played by Shin Ye-eun, in stunning performances. There is the odd far-fetched moment


Kim Tae-ri’s troubled stage singer outshines her rival, played by Shin Ye-eun, in stunning performances. There is the odd far-fetched moment.
