Earlier this week, entertainer Byun Woo-min made a surprise appearance on "The Penthouse". While Byun Woo-min is best known for his musical work, particular in regards to trot music, he fit in surprisingly well with the intense environment of the drama. What's more, Byun Woo-min's character was quickly revealed to be at the epicenter of the drama's key mystery.
Byun Woo-min's character is known as Jo Sang-heon. In the drama's continuity, Jo Sang-heon is a corrupt city legislator who has led a double life. Despite his strong reputation as a moral pillar of the community Jo Sang-heon is shown to be messing around on his wife. What's more, though Jo Sang-heon makes much of his moral virtue as coming from his work with orphans, he is in fact embezzling these funds intended for the less fortunate.
Jo Sang-heon's involvement with the story centers around his business dealings with the major lead character played by Uhm Ki-joon. He was also involved with this character's scheme to murder the husband of the lead character played by Lee Ji-ah. Jo Sang-heon also dealt with the infant daughter of Lee Ji-ah's character, sending her to the United States to be adopted.
This is all backstory. More recently in the fifth episode, Jo Sang-heon took advantage of his knowledge of these past schemes to try and blackmail the character played by Eugene as he had realized that the fire leading to the death of the now teenage daughter was actually an attempted cover up. Ironically, the cover up was unrelated to the backstory.
Following a cliffhanger as to the outcome of these events in the fifth episode Jo Sang-heon is revealed to have been killed in the sixth episode, with this mystery further driving the plot. But as far as Byun Woo-min's appearance was concerned, fans were impressed by the normally affable Byun Woo-min's ability to so effectively communicate such an evil character, especially since his sinister nature was hidden until the fifth episode. "The Penthouse" will air its seventh episode on November 16th.
Written by William Schwartz
Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea since 2011. Started out in Gyeongju, then to Daegu, then to Ansan, then to Yeongju, then to Seoul, lived on the road for HanCinema's travel diaries series in the summer of 2016, and is currently settled in Anyang. Has good tips for utilizing South Korea's public bus system. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net. He also has a substack at williamschwartz.substack.com where he discusses the South Korean film industry in broader terms and takes suggestions for future movies to review.
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