Jeongnyeon: A Star Is Born, Then the Story Loses Its Nerve

Lede

A drama about women claiming the stage becomes strangely nervous whenever those women claim too much of the story.

Words used

• Yeoseong gukgeuk: Korean musical theatre performed entirely by women, who sing, dance, act and play both male and female roles. The form began in 1948 and became popular during the 1950s.
• Pansori: Korean musical storytelling usually performed by one vocalist and one drummer, combining singing, speech, gesture and narration.

Hermit Off Script

Jeongnyeon annoys me because it comes so close to being fearless. The stage performances are magnificent. The singing, movement and rivalry have weight. Kim Tae-ri and Shin Ye-eun make rehearsing look like a matter of life, death and reliable breath control. The cast carries an art form that many international viewers had probably never heard of, then makes a long traditional performance feel more urgent than most modern thrillers. That should have been enough courage for one television production. Unfortunately, someone backstage appears to have found a pair of scissors. Bu-yong, Jeongnyeon’s first fan, playwright, creative partner and love interest in the original webtoon, disappears from the adaptation. Mr Go, another woman who challenged gender rules and helped Jeongnyeon understand male roles, also disappears. The director said Bu-yong’s essence was divided among other characters. In ordinary language, that means a whole person was turned into seasoning and sprinkled over the remaining cast. The final episodes then become a parade of beautifully acted defeat. Joo-ran is pushed towards marriage. The Maeran troupe dissolves. Its home is sold and destined to become a yojeong, an expensive establishment associated with hostess entertainment. Jeongnyeon reaches the spotlight while much of the female world that produced her is dismantled around her. Historical decline is a fair subject, but the original webtoon deliberately offered its women fictional justice. The drama takes that hope, folds it neatly, and stores it somewhere beside Bu-yong. The 12-episode structure creates another problem. Jeongnyeon loses her voice, returns home, rebuilds herself, returns to Seoul and competes for the leading role with the speed of someone trying to catch the last train. The actors give every crisis room to breathe. The plot keeps checking its watch. I admire the series, its cast and its recovery of gukgeuk, but I don’t admire the adaptation’s retreat from the source material that gave the story its sharpest purpose. The star is born. The world around her is quietly buried.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born | Official Trailer | Kim Tae Ri | Shin Ye Eun | Jung Eun Chae {ENG SUB}

Spoilers follow. The series follows a gifted young singer from Mokpo who enters Seoul’s Maeran gukgeuk troupe and competes to become its next leading performer.

Cast and credits

Director: Jung Ji-in
Writers: Choi Hyo-bi, based on the webtoon by Seo Ireh and Namon
Genre: Drama, coming of age, music
Main cast: Kim Tae-ri, Shin Ye-eun, Ra Mi-ran, Jung Eun-chae, Kim Yoon-hye, Woo Da-bi
Composer: Jang Young-gyu
Production companies/studios: Studio Dragon, Studio N, Management MMM and NPIO Entertainment
Runtime: 12 episodes, approximately 70 minutes each
Release year and platform: 2024; tvN and TVING in South Korea, with Disney+ distribution in selected regions

What does not make sense

• The series presents all-female theatre as daring, then removes the original story’s clearest queer relationship and 2 women who challenged gender rules.
• It spends hours praising solidarity, then gives several women conclusions built around separation, marriage or institutional collapse.
• Jeongnyeon’s damaged voice is treated as a life-changing catastrophe until the 12-episode timetable needs her back onstage.
• The programme restores a collective art form, but its ending places individual stardom above the troupe, writers, teachers and performers who created it.
• It uses the webtoon’s name, characters and existing audience while reversing the hopeful conclusion that its creator designed as justice for forgotten female artists.
• The stage scenes trust viewers to follow demanding traditional theatre. The adaptation apparently doesn’t trust the same viewers with an openly queer creative partner.

Sense check / The numbers

1. The series contains 12 episodes and ran from 12 October to 17 November 2024, with episodes lasting about 70 minutes. [Studio Dragon, AsianWiki, Apple TV]
2. The premiere recorded 4.8 per cent nationwide viewership. The finale averaged 16.5 per cent and peaked at 18.2 per cent, an increase of about 244 per cent between the premiere and finale averages. [CJ Newsroom, Korea Times]
3. By 5 November 2024, it ranked 6th in Disney+’s global television chart and reached number 1 in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. It later topped a Korean television and streaming topicality chart for 6 consecutive weeks. [CJ Newsroom]
4. At least 2 named characters with strong feminist or gender-related roles in the webtoon, Bu-yong and Mr Go, were removed from the television adaptation. Bu-yong had also been Jeongnyeon’s first fan, playwright, creative partner and love interest. [Korea Times]
5. IMDb displayed an audience rating of 8.3 out of 10 when checked on 16 July 2026, while the South China Morning Post review awarded the series 3.5 out of 5. The performances won admiration even where the writing did not. [IMDb, South China Morning Post]

The sketch

Scene 1: The fearless adaptation
An executive holds the original webtoon above a shredder while an all-female theatre troupe waits in costume.
Dialogue:
Director: “Keep the courage?”
Executive: “Keep the costumes.”

Scene 2: Essence distribution
An empty chair labelled “Bu-yong” stands beside 3 performers holding separate pieces of one torn script.
Dialogue:
Performer: “Where is she?”
Producer: “Distributed across the cast.”

Scene 3: The star is born
Jeongnyeon bows alone under a spotlight while the troupe carries boxes from a theatre bearing a large “SOLD” notice.
Dialogue:
Jeongnyeon: “I became the future.”
Accountant: “We sold the building.”

What to watch, not the show

• Whether adaptations use an existing feminist or queer audience to secure attention, then remove the material that created that audience.
• How the 12-episode prestige format favours fast individual success over slow ensemble development.
• Whether renewed interest in gukgeuk creates lasting work for living practitioners or merely supplies another month of streaming content.
• How much control original webtoon creators retain when television producers change characters, relationships and endings.
• The habit of treating bleak conclusions as more serious than hopeful ones, even when hope was the source material’s considered artistic choice.
• Whether international streaming platforms make Korean cultural history more accessible while keeping the work restricted to selected regions.

The Hermit take

The cast performs with the courage the adaptation keeps misplacing.
Keep the stage. Roast the retreat.

Keep or toss

Verdict: Keep / Toss.
Keep the cast, music, performances and recovered theatre history.
Toss the missing spine, the rushed ending and the nervous retreat from the source.

Sources

• IMDb series page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28197611/
• Disney+ official series page: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-kr/browse/entity-ad06e18a-8afa-4271-9643-ab9f00dc36c1
• Studio Dragon programme page: https://www.studiodragon.net/en/works/portfolio/jeongnyeon-the-star-is-born/
• CJ Newsroom ratings and international performance: https://newsroom.cj.net/jeongnyeon-the-star-is-born-hits-the-global-stage/
• Korea Times report on adaptation criticism: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/shows-dramas/20241123/jeongnyeon-finale-sparks-criticism-for-departing-from-original-webtoon
• South China Morning Post review: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/k-drama/article/3287512/disney-k-drama-jeongnyeon-star-born-review-soaring-performances-save-show
• Korea.net guide to yeoseong gukgeuk: https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=263186
• UNESCO guide to pansori: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/pansori-epic-chant-00070
• Apple TV series listing: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/jeongnyeon-the-star-is-born/umc.cmc.6rrcf3k2brl33y0hr7de5qo4e