Shin Hyun-Soo Teaches Students To Fight Aliens In ‘Duty After School

The students at Seongjin High School are engaged in an ongoing battle to improve their grades and get into the best colleges. Then aliens invade and academic skills become secondary. The students must learn real battle skills if they want to survive long enough to attend college.

In the Korean drama Duty After School actor Shin Hyun-soo plays Lee Chun-ho. He’s a lieutenant and the platoon commander training students how to kill and not be killed. Given the serious consequences Chun-ho must remain firm with his difficult often whiny recruits. Yet he can’t help but care for them and regret the innocence they’ve lost. Chun-ho’s sincerity toward his students was part of the role’s appeal for Shin.

“I was attracted to Lee Chun-ho because Chun-ho was the only adult that the high school third year students of the No. 2 Platoon relied on,” said Shin. “I wanted to feel Chun-ho’s sincere heart toward the children and how much he wanted to protect them. I was certain I could express him best and this is why I chose this project.”

At the start of this drama mysterious alien spheres have been a presence in the sky for more than a year. Initially they prompted worldwide chaos and fear. However, attacking the orbs only resulted in their multiplying. So, people decided to live with their fear and the uncertainty. They learned to co-exist with the hovering threat. Hey, even if the aliens invade, says one student, we still have to take tests.

Chun-ho’s mission is to help the students recognize the severity of the threat and to teach them survival skills.

“He must help them recognize this absurd situation and teach them to acknowledge and accept that they must be trained in order to survive,” said Shin. “However, the process of children not wanting to acknowledge and Chun-ho trying to convince them creates conflicts. How they will be able to resolve the conflict and how they will move on as one is something I insist the watchers look forward to.”

Battling voracious aliens means the high school students must grow up in a hurry. They must also evaluate their classmates by new criteria. When students’ only previous military experience is in video games, will the academically gifted students be the ones to thwart an alien attack or will it be those with a high kill score on the latest battle game? Will popular students naturally assume leadership roles? The students will have to look at each other in a new way. Shin describes the series as a moving coming of age story.

“Viewers should watch because it is an amazing story of high school kids who are in a special situation of war, facing the horror of death, experiencing sadness and frustration and standing up and growing through that pain.”

Do aliens really exist? Why not, says Shin. It’s possible.“Since there are various species of lifeforms on earth,” he said. “I tend to think about the possibility of other life forms elsewhere.”

Fortunately, a real-life invasion is not imminent because Shin is really enjoying his acting career. According to Shin each character that he plays teaches him something interesting and their experiences often stay with him. The stoic yet sensitive Chun-woo is no exception.

“After I experience a range of emotions and situations as a character that I, Shin Hyun-soo have never encountered, the memories settle within me because although it is not real life, it is still my body that goes through them. These numerous experiences refine and reflect Shin Hyun-soo, so I am grateful for the characters I get to play in each work.”

Shin began his acting career by appearing in a short film in 2013 and he’s also worked in musical theater. He’s appeared in over a dozen dramas, most notably playing Kook Ki-Bong in Welcome To Wakiki 2 and Lee Dae-yeob in the historical drama Bossam: Steal The Fate.

“Approaching and getting to know new characters in new situations and becoming that character makes acting like a job of studying, knowing, and understanding human beings, and this is what I love and enjoy most.”

Duty After School, a TVING original drama, produced by Studio Dragon, is based on the web novel of the same name by Ha Il-kwon, which was published as a webtoon on Naver Webtoon.

The series also stars Lee Soon-won, Im Se-mi, Kim Ki-hae, Choi Moon-hee, Kim Su-gyeom, Lee Yeon, Kwon Eun-bin, Moon Sang-min, and Woo Min-gyu. The first part of the series premiered in Korea on March 31 and is available for streaming on Viki and Viu in selected regions. The second part of the series will air April 28.