Over the past few days, I watched 7 episodes of Korean drama “The Penthouse : War In Life” which is really very interesting. It centres around the ultra-rich and privileged residents of luxury condominium building, Hera Palace. There are several couples who indulge their teenage kids, all of whom are vying for slots in an arts school. All of the spoilt brats are aspiring classical singers under the tutelage of super glam tutor, Cheon Seo-jin who is married to Ha Yoon-cheol, head surgeon of the VIP unit of a hospital.
Cheon Seo-jin is having an affair with Joo Dan-tae, real estate genius and ostensibly richest resident of Hera Palace. He has twins, a teenage boy and girl who he abuses physically and psychologically. He is married to Shim Soo-ryeon who is not the mother of the twins.
The other main (adult) characters in Hera Palace are Kang Ma-ri whose husband works in Dubai and Bong Tae-kyu, a lawyer who is under his mother’s thumb. The children of these people bully those whom they deem inferior to them in status. The teenagers who are bullied are Bae Ro-na who is also vying for a place in the famous arts school the rich kids want to attend and Anna Lee/Min Seol-ah who tutored the kids in maths but ends up being severely bullied by them when they discover that she lied about her credentials.
Each episode is over an hour long but because there is so much drama in every episode and is not slow moving like some other Korean dramas, it’s not torturous to watch. The main characters are dressed in what looks like designer clothing, very stylish and elegant. The bad behaviour from adults and their kids is quite horrible and you wonder if it mirrors the attitude of real uber-rich people. The characters in this drama are truly the crazy rich Asians.
