Racket Boys (Initial Thoughts)

I've seen all kinds of K-dramas over the years. Crime, romcoms, melodramas, you name it, I've probably watched at least one of each genre (except period dramas, will probably never touch those). One area that I've rarely gone into is sports, with Run On being the only one I've seen off the top of my head. That's why Racket Boys felt like a real breath of fresh air to get into, partially because of entertaining premise but also because of the sport at hand. Starring Kim Sang-kyung (The Crowned Clown, Miss Lee) as male lead YOON HYEON-JONG and Oh Na-ra (Sky Castle, Woman of 9.9 Billion) as female lead RA YEONG-JA, this Netflix Original revolves around a countryside middle school badminton team that fights for survival and how two badminton coaches do their best to turn these young players into better athletes. Without further ado, let's dive in. 

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS (SPOILER ALERT)

The episode begins by introducing us to Hyeon-jong, a badminton coach who struggles to provide for his family. Having to juggle rent, his asthmatic daughter Hae-in's (Ahn Se-bin) medical fees and payment for his son YOON HAE-KANG's [Tang Joon-sang (Crash Landing on You, Move to Heaven)] baseball training camp. Hae-kang is a rising star in his club and is initially selected as the last player to attend the camp but because of his father's inability to pay the fees, he's removed from the lineup. As the bills pile up, Hyeon-jong decides to relocate from Seoul to the countryside county of Haenam, taking on a higher-paying job as Haenam Seo Middle School's badminton coach. Much to Hae-kang's chagrin, their new house, while big, lacks many of the creature comforts from their city life, including a Wi-Fi router. Most importantly, he can't play baseball anymore, a sport that he has a great love for. 

Hyeon-jong isn't having an easier time at his job either since his team only consists of 3 players when the minimum to compete is 4. Unable to enter any competitions because of this lack of manpower, the team is on the verge of getting their funding cut and disbanded. Despite their small numbers, the trio of boys aren't lacking in skills, with captain BANG YOON-DAM [Son Sang-yeon (Level Up, Failing in Love)] being an award-winning junior athlete. Alongside him are the calm NA WOO-CHAN [Choi Hyun-wook (Real:Time:Love, Taxi Driver)] and maknae LEE YONG-TAE [Kim Kang-hoon (When the Camellia Blooms, Mouse)], all of whom are fairly proficient in badminton but if they don't get a 4th player fast, their team is done for. To make matters worse, the school's dormitory closes because of a lack of occupants, forcing Hyeon-jong to move his 3 players into his house, which really grinds Hae-kang's gears. 

With nowhere else to turn to, Hyeon-jong begs his unwilling son to join the team but of course the boy says no, only wanting to play baseball rather than a lame sport like badminton (in his eyes). In a scene that can only be described as a perfect example of manipulation, Yoon-dam provokes Hae-kang into playing against him in a singles match, betting that if the former won, Hae-kang would've to join the team for an upcoming competition. It seems like an easy match, the team captain scoring 14 points without breaking a sweat while Hae-kang flounders trying to score even a single point. Considering how he's introduced as a baseball player, it's easy to see why he's getting destroyed in a sport he has no experience in. We're speaking too soon because once Hae-kang switches hands, he matches Yoon-dam almost perfectly and actually smashes the shuttlecock so hard and fast that the other players can't even follow its movement. Despite losing the bet, Yoon-dam and the other boys gang up and declare Hae-kang as having lost, thereby recruiting him into their team. 

Turns out, Hae-kang was a badminton child prodigy, winning a grand slam in elementary school tournaments but left the sport for unknown reasons. After a couple days of training, the team head to their first competition in many years, with Hae-kang leading their lineup. There, he crosses paths with a female team led by HAN SE-YOON [Lee Jae-in (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, Undercover)], an ace who's setting her sights on the national team, and unfortunately he offends her by triggering all her pet peeves. He mistakes her for a guy because of her short hair and accidentally interrupts her skipping rope warmup, immediately entering her bad books and riling up her team, especially her younger teammate LEE HAN-SOL [Lee Ji-won (Romance Is a Bonus Book, The Uncanny Counter)]. In general, the girls seem to be quite skilled, with Se-yoon of course being their best player, and they're coached by elite coach Ra Yeong-ja, who's known as "Ranos" (incoming Marvel copyright strike) by Yoon-dam and gang because of her by-the-books attitude.

Unfortunately, Hae-kang loses his long-awaited return match and instead of going back to baseball like his teammates thought he would, his competitive nature reignites and he decides to carry on playing badminton, if only to thrash the player who beat him. That competition, the entire team loses all their matches but aren't disheartened at all, which annoys Hae-kang to no end. As the boys celebrate their first competition participation that night, Yeong-ja, Se-yoon and Han-sol show up at the Yoon household, needing a place to stay since their dormitory is undergoing renovation. While the boys are recovering from their shock, the audience is in for another surprise as we find out that Yeong-ja is really Hae-kang's mother. Discussing their son's return to badminton together, Hyeon-jong and Yeong-ja decide that because of the former's financial woes, their son can't continue baseball for the time being. The episode ends with Hyeon-jong revealing to the team that they've entered the upcoming spring regional competition and much to their horror, they're up against far more skilled teams, causing Woo-chan and Yong-tae to chase after their captain in annoyance. 

This is looking to be a very lighthearted drama that's easy to watch and probably heartwarming. Badminton is a sport that I played for a really long time so seeing it become a central plot point in a drama is quite interesting, especially considering that I don't think we've ever seen a drama like this before. As you've probably realised by now, there're a ton of main characters in this series, 8 to be exact, so I'm intrigued to see how the drama handles and develops such a large ensemble cast like this. Kim Sang-kyung and Oh Na-ra are industry veterans so although I haven't seen any of their past performances, they should continue to give stellar portrayals here but the star of this show is bound to be Tang Joon-sang. In recent months, 18-year-old Tang was excellent in Move to Heaven, where he played a youth with Asperger's and definitely cemented himself as an up-and-coming young actor. I'm really looking forward to his performance as Hae-kang here. 

In fact, most of the main cast are very young, the oldest being 19-years-old (Son Sang-yeon and Choi Hyun-wook) and the youngest being 12-years-old (Kim Kang-hoon, who has given a ton of wonderful performances over the years). If there's one thing I've learnt from K-dramas, it's that South Korean child actors are way better than my country's adult actors so I'm very confident that this youthful cast will be able to carry this drama. With all that said, this drama is still airing, with the final episode airing a couple weeks from now so I hope you'll join me as we get ourselves caught up to the journey of our Racket Boys.