Beethoven Virus was not on my priority list for some reason. I got it because I like classical music and the two male leads (Jang Geun Seok and Kim Myung Min) but I was kind of afraid that it will be similar to Nodame Cantabile (seriously that one was a turn off) but luckily despite the umped up quirky factor, it is nowhere near the -unwanted by me- quirkiness of Nodame Cantabile.
Our main leads have the same name Kang Gun Woo. One is a perfectionist maestro who had to leave Korea because he stopped a concert during performance because orchestra was not very good - to be fair he didn't want to conduct it the first place-. Sadly for him Korean President and First Lady was not very understanding of his undue caprice.
The other Kang Gun Woo is a musical genius but was turned off from classical music (fuelled by an unfortunate interaction with older Kang Gun Woo) and now works as a traffic police but he recently got suspended (it was not really his fault).
Our female lead is Du Ru Mi (I think this is a sad attempt at a pun) and she works for the city hall art department. She is a good violinist however and wants to play at a concert hall with a real orchestra. So she proposed a concert to advertise the town as a musical city and manages to get City Hall sponsor it. The sad news is that her conductor embezzled the fund a month before the concert leaving her with no money, no musicians and a bad debt. She is not a quitter though so she thinks to give a chance to amateurs who like to play classical music.
So in episode 1 she gathers a team of musicians and we are introduced to them. Kang Gun Woo's choice of instrument is trumpet and despite claiming to hate classical music he is very talented and seem to be willing to play it.
But of course every orchestra need a conductor and we are introduced to ours at the end of first episode. Kang Gun Woo has a bad reputation as being an orchestra killer and this seems to be well deserved. He is arrogant and unreasonable. He bullies himself (and his dog) into Young Kang's house and forces him to live in a small room upstairs. Well Young Kang would not let him do so but he started to like Du Ru Mi and suffers all to help her out. She realises this and does seem happy with it so far. But Old Kang who was an utter asshole turned out to be a wimp when it comes to his dog Thoven -heh- and we see Du Ru Mi softening when she sees how he cries over his dog - who luckily got better-.
Now Old Kang starts work and immediately gives up but Young Kang while trying to organise things sorts a problem out simply due to his musical talent. And this gets Old Kang's nerves since even though he is talented enough, he is not at genius level and has to work harder to obtain the same things that comes natural to his more talented peers. And when he finds out that his alumni and nemesis (so far we only see that he is more naturally talented and enjoys the music but we do not know of his personality) will also attend this patethic concert, he starts to take thing seriously. He is nasty to performers and we leave episode two Du RuMi trying to set him right.
I'm loving this. Jang Geun Seok is adorable, Kim Myun Min a power house of an actor and despite the fact that Lee Ji Ah does not measure up, at least she is inoffensive (but so far her performance is below average).
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