High School Return of a Gangster

Body Swap, the Next Generation

I liked this drama High School Return of a Gangster—Science Fantasy Revenge Tragedy Drama. It is about a man in his 40s who through happenstance finds himself in the body of a teen boy who attempted suicide. The story is about bullying and depression, therefore parents may take note. However, the drama is lighthearted fare, covering the good that can be found in each individual. It has comedic moments, as this adult gangster in a teen’s body navigates teen life in the next generation.

Some have mistakenly said that High School Return of a Gangster is a Boy Love drama series. It is not. At best, this drama is a bromance, as several of the teens are drawn to this teen who is “wise beyond his years”. There are conflicts and challenges along the way. At times I thought that the drama did not know what type of drama it wanted to be. Was it just a body swap or a gangster drama? Nonetheless, I loved the story and it has a most satisfying, but maybe controversial ending.

Where did he come from?


With his deep bellowing lower register voice, child actor Yoon Chan-Young has grown up before my eyes over the past five years to become a great Korean drama actor with Male Leads. I never once saw a teen in this complex role. Yoon Chan-Young was so believable as a gangster in the body of a teen. I have seen him in the following dramas. I picked Yoon Chan-Young up early as one to watch and for which to look out.

Doctor Romantic

The King in Love

Still 17

Nobody Knows

Do You Like Brahms?

High School Return of a Gangster on Hulu


Yoon Chan-Young was in All of Us Are Dead too, but I did not see this drama. Disney + Hulu has snatched up Yoon Chan-Young again for another drama coming in 2025, Hyper Knife starring Park Eun-Bin (Extraordinary Attorney Woo).

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The Meaning of Youth

What does youth really mean? Is it about making the most of your time, or maximizing your investment for the future? This drama depicts the weight of the choices we have in life. What I love about this drama is the sheer world-building it has. The characters and relationships that exist in this drama is entertaining enough for me to get hyped every single week and feel tons of emotions while watching it. No boring scenes, just pure entertainment. Yoon Chan Young’s acting is soooooo sooo damn good!!!! His eyes tell a lot!!! Damn those eyes!!!! Undeniably, school kdramas are really my fave genre in dramas and movies!!!!!

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ITS A MUST WATCH ?!!!

I don’t even know how to start off, but this was literally one of my favorite out there. It is so amazing that I was literally like what is the next episode gonna come out and hear me out. I’m the type of person that doesn’t start watching a K drama or any kind of series unless they’re complete but this one had me on a hook like a fish that gets hooked on a fish whatever it is I was hooked, and it was something that I asked for for like it had everything that I needed in a K drama the cast were amazing. They played the role so amazing like what amazing zing zing fr. and the storyline wow like it made me cry so many times and I wouldn’t say I never cried in a series, but this one Made me cry so much like I never did. I don’t know why, but it was so emotional and somehow I can relate to yi heon bully Situation. Guys y’all better watch this it was one of the most amazing one. I don’t care what people say about it, but this is literally the best one out there. It’s a must watch amazing.

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Interesting story line & Friendship

High School Return of a Gangster tells the story of a gangster who 'wants to go to college' and possesses the body of a 19 year old outcast high school student
It certainly has interesting characters and exciting storyline.

Awesome characters, great story, great balance between drama and action, love the humour in the series.

In My opinion it must watch drama

All actor play as role beautifully,its catch in the eye.
Once you start watching drama you will get excited as well as curiosity what will happen next .
There is little bit of flirty .
It's show Friendship between boys
There will be mother's love .
Gang member loyalty

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The end was good BUT felt plain at the same time…

Before I start, huge shoutout to the writers for not making feminine characters cringey or ´useless ´ !

****

I enjoyed it so much ! I would totally recommend though they are little flaws but first let me give my thoughts on the characters !

The body swapping thing was done in a good way and benefited the character that needed the most in this show : Yi Heon. BUT people not noticing how it could have no longer been yi heon in that body at some point, making too much mistakes (on the honorifics, on his culture and on the way he has of speaking) even deuk pal’s best friends was quite concerning. Especially when he even stopped talking to them like he was yi heon and kept relating things only him could know and that even if you tell to someone else you wouldn’t give those extremely precise details (like the price of the suyuk). In episode 6, after more revelations, they still stuck with the idea he was their boss’ son, he tried at the beggining (a few minutes lol) to not drop honorifics but he quickly did and nobody seemed to notice…I mean it could have been credible at some point because he was an outcast and no one really heard him talking ´properly’ but this became unrealistic at some point. At least Se kyung noticed from the beggining something was off.

Talking about him (Se kyung), I loved his character so much because he had depth,and a lore/ background. If the series wasn’t censored, I feel like with his family situation, he is quite closeted and that’s understandable honestly seeing how abusive his father is.
Then his father is such a garbage ! Even when confronted to what he did, what scars he left on his son, he decided to stay blind… Using a track app, spying on him through camera, through his ´friends’, or even telling a little child he should be strong and to watch the dead corpse of his beloved dog is just beyond EVIL!!!

And se kyung’s mom was at the beggining a hope for me, I thought she would save him from his father (after the call she gave the father, saying she’s gonna come back after the end of the business trip she was on) but judging by how long and violent the abuse (verbal and physical) has been and by the fact that she was never near him even in the flashbacks, I quickly lost every hope…

Jae min had the best character developpement to me. He took the time to start even realizing how bad he was being bullying others but what I liked was that he was receptive to the punishment at some point. I appreciated seeing the process from realization to regret and remorses. He, contrary to his ´friends’ actually learnt from their excuses.

He even had trust in his friends when they started lowkey bullying him and wanting to hand him to gangsters because he considered them as his friends. But as it’s often said, in a group of bullies, each of them is susceptible of turning their backs and ending up bullying on of their ´friends’ and that’s what jae min’s ´friends’ showed.

I loved how he became a better version lf himself and even got closer to his young sister !

Deuk Pal’s pals (pun intended !) will always have a special place in my heart because of how close they’ve always been and even after his death never stopped trying to avenge the person who represented their family at this point. For this they will always have my respect !

Yi Heon and his family (his mother) deserves happiness they suffered so much as well. The chairman was never showed but I hate him with all my guts as I hate se-kyung’s father. He never actually cared about him. He shouldn’t have has an affair with yi heon’s mother if he wasn’t able to take responsabilities and act like the father he is ugh ! Giving cars, money etc.. doesn’t replace love !
The secretary, Lee Mi Kyung will always have my hatred because she was a big part of the abuse yi heon underwent…

The staff of yi heon (the driver and the housekeeper) also are such good supportive characters!

The class of yi heon turned their vests as soon as he ´changed’ a bit. I didn’t expect he would accept/ forgive them that quick smh but they turned out to be quite nice especially the group of girls and the guy he started hanging out with afterwards (expect when they started doubting him after the bullying allegations tho… Fortunately, the doubting part didn’t really last).

- LOVED THE AESPA AND NCT (IU as well) REFERENCES BTW!! -

Before I finish by something that REALLY bothered me, Jae hoon was a character that was annoying. I will always remember the moment se kyung told him politely to f*ck off !

Once again as many pointed out censoring the gay romance in here was a mistake since you could sense they had a background together, especially by the way se-kyung was always looking at yi-heon, taking care of him (don’t get me wrong many close friends do that) BUT they had the chemistry and I can’t help but feel it was still implied. Also at the beginning when deuk pal was reading yi heon’s diary, the way yi-heon was talking about wanting ´to be se-kyung’s friend’ was giving crush (also friend crush smh- yk when you wanna be friends with someone so bad-). I know I proved it could be just a close friendship representation but knowing they were supposed to be dating in the webtoon but that it was changed (because of the korean society I assume) just makes it feels quite off…

Something doesn’t really click, wasn’t the tablet supposed to be broken since the beginning ??? I mean he was frustrated reading yi heon’s diary and he broke the tablet with his hands so how come he could access the same diary on the tablet (end of episode 7) ? ?


The cast is incredible as well as their acting. The OSTs are completely accurate and fit in the mood of the series !

I honestly don’t get why people are mad at the end because it was a greag closire to both yi heon and deuk pal.
Deuk pal got to bid real goodbyes to his relatives (dongsoo, jeoncheol and the boss) but also se kyung. On his side Yi heon got to have an explanation session with se kyung. Everything was so emotional in that last episode ! I mean yes I hated the fact yi heon actually left tho because this felt plain to me, he deserved some happiness as well… 😭😭😭. I’m bawling my eyes out rn.
I MEAN I FELT LIKE I WAS GETTING PREPARED (BY THE WRITERS) THE WHOLE TIME FOR THE RETURN OF YI HEON FOR HIM TO ACTUALLY LIVE BUT ENDED UP HAVING DEUK PAL (I LOVE HIM THO) LIVING IN HIS PLACE. IT WAS KINDA OFF CONSIDERING HE ´LIVED ´ (EXPERIENCED) MORE THAN YI HEON.

Jae hoon being sincere and regretting his actions was not on my wishes yet I appreciated it. He’s gaining more of my sympathy smh

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Mental Health Awareness and Bullying Film, but with Supernatural Solutions

High School Return of a Gangster's story revolves around Song Yiheon, a high school student, who's being bullied by his classmates. Meanwhile, Kim Deokpal is the head of a gang. They met each other when Deokpal was standing under an overpass, while Yiheon jumped from it. When Deokpal woke up, he was shockingly in the body of Yiheon already. When he read Yiheon's letter, he took the opportunity of being in that body to fix Yiheon's life. He worked-out to get physically fit and fight the bullies. Basically, the story revolves around Deokpal fixing Yiheon's life while he is in that body.

Plot/Story - 9/10
First of all, I like the whole story. I liked where the story might lead you and the ending of it. But along the way, I felt like there is nothing new with the story. Yes, the main character's soul was changed and he is now in the body of a high schooler with the purpose of establishing a better life for the owner of his body, but what's more of it? What's something more to the story that viewers might get interested in? Yes, I am happy that the bullied main character is now getting his revenge on the bullies and that his life is now better but I felt uninterested at some point, because I was not intrigued already on what might happen in the next episodes. Nevertheless, the plot was concise and understandable, but I felt like the story is only going through a straight line instead of a line with zigzags of it.

The novel was considered as BL, but this series was tagged as bromance, yet I appreciate the fact that the script still gives hints of flirting in it and how the characters' actions and lines are to each other.

Characters - 10/10
Chanyoung did great in portraying a contrasting character; him as Yiheon and as Deokpal. The way he managed to give different emotions out of the two characters really did make me feel proud of him. His acting of Deokpal's mannerisms as an older age is really something that must be highlighted.

Yiheon's character is really the main plot of this story. I just can't imagine the battles that he needs to go through to the point that he needs to make that decision to himself. In the end, I believed that his decision was a good decision. As someone who experienced going through that state (Not bullied), I felt him when he said that he is tired already. I understand his decision and I always understand people who are experiencing that kind of mental health disorder.

Yiheon's Parents
I actually do not just understand the fact that he is a chairman of a company's son, yet he was not recognized by him. I mean, knowing the culture of South Korea, they value more if their child is a son. With her mother who has been an addict for her whole life, it is so funny to see that she is okay already that fast. I mean, addiction is not something that you can cure in just one day, it is a long process.

Choi Sekyung - I know that in the moment that he met the new Yiheon and he was surprised, there is something going on between the two of them. I felt emotional with his character because of how mentally pressured he was to abide by his abusive father, no children must experience that kind of maltreatment. On the other hand, I hate him for not helping the abused when Yiheon needed him. I always believe that if you are not doing anything against the oppressor, then you're also siding with the oppressor. Nevertheless, his character development gave him a redeeming moment.

Hong Jaemin - I actually thought that he is one of the main characters, but I understand how he is just a side character. I hate him, his way of thinking, and the actions he did. I will never forgive his character for that. But can I talk about how Joo Yoonchan portrayed this character? The anger that I feel towards this motherfucker bully suddenly becomes so cute in my eyes whenever he appears on my screen. His incorrect English words and cute actions made his character adorable. I still hate him as a bully, but once again a character with a development and redeeming moment in the end.

Lee Seojin - Even if he only appeared in one episode, he became remarkable. The way that his aura shifted from a student who is bad at Math, then suddenly showing his charismatic and manly aura when the gang opened the door. That scene was so funny to me.

Each and everyone of the casts did amazing on their respective roles. Some made me love them, some made me irritated, but that just means that they did great in portraying their characters.

In totality, High School Return of a Gangster did well and I loved watching it. This film used it platform to raise awareness about Mental Health Disorders and Bullying, but the solution used cannot be used in real life situations. The ending made me satisfied, the bullies going to jail and Kim Deokpal remains on Earth with Yiheon's body. I just wish an entirely and everlasting happiness for Yiheon in the afterlife.

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