Meet the Warmest Vampire In the World: Seon Woo-hyeol in HeartBeat

Issue #12 Heartbeat (some spoilers)

HeartBeat doesn’t sweep you off your feet from the very first scene, or even in the first few weeks. What it does do is silently laugh as it tells the story of a vampire straight out of 19th century lore (everything but the Transylvanian accent) who fell in love with a human woman and then tried for centuries to become human so they could have an ordinary love when she reincarnated again.

How would he time his own transformation to happen exactly when his Joseon era lady love reincarnates? Hush now, why ask silly questions.

The far more important question is how would he recognise his lady love when she does reincarnate? What if she looks entirely different and has a surly, combative personality in place of the soft genteel femininity he remembers? And then what if some one else turns up who does look like his first love and seems to feel a special connection with him? How would he know which one is the real one?

Engrossed in solving these very interesting questions, HeartBeat has no time for more modern tropes of vampire romance.

Our male lead wakes up after a hundred years in a coffin to find that all his fortune has been stolen, so now he has to take up a janitorial gig (at which he quite excels), while our female lead is too broke and disenchanted to be fazed by a supernatural being surfacing in the old mansion her father left her. Joo In-hae, played by Won Ji-an, needs to find a way to pay the inheritance tax and has no time for a spendthrift vampire who solves his existential crisis by going on a shopping spree with her precious credit card.

There is not much space for awe or obsession in their relationship. From the moment the two meet, they have many hurdles to cross. There is debt, there is mortality, there are long lost loves to find, and real estate to protect.

Taecyeon plays Seon Woo-hyeol, a gentleman vampire who is inherently a decent man. His empathy, optimism, and willingness to self reflect with humility also puts him many heads above every vampire hero to emerge since the early 90s.

After one brief, aborted attempt at intimidating In-hae during their first meeting, Woo-hyeol is careful never to abuse his strength against her again. Not even for “her own good”.

There are also very few scenes where Woo-hyeol flexes his magical side. For most of the story, the vampires (Woo-hyeol has friends!) are far too busy making ends meet and complaining about how hard it is to survive in a human world (“they suck us dry!”).

HeartBeat delights in gentle subversions. Wise, magical beings turn out to be utterly fallible. The man with money, power, and willingness to use it all for In-hae’s benefit is firmly made the second lead. In-hae and Woo-hyeol’s vampire friends are more active about finding solutions, while the Woo-hyeol mostly grapples with the peculiarities of being a half vampire half human, who keeps getting drunk on human food.

There is no brooding in HeartBeat.

Feelings are sincerely expressed, sadness is honestly felt, confessions are sweetly embraced.

---