Asian Drama Schools from Hell

Hey, if you're a student, read this: you've been in your current school for several months now, assuming you started school in the middle of the year. You're not happy. There is no handsome and genius desk mate who has his eyes only on you and tutor you in every subject. No classmate who pinky-swears with you to go through hellish school years together. No teacher who goes the extra mile teaching and preaching to make you a better student. 

But I warn you: there are schools out there that you don't want to go to! There are shady, spooky, or scary things going on in those schools! They can injure and even kill students! Please remember that when you enroll in one of these schools, you won't be the hero or heroine who will save the school. They are already destined by the drama gods (aka scriptwriter). You're just a student supporting role, so there is a possibility you may get injured, or die. After reading this article, you may realize that your current school is actually okay, and you will graduate unscathed!

If you're not a student anymore, you still know kids at school age around you. Don't let them enroll in these schools below!

The schools mentioned below are secretive in terms of location or mission. It makes you wonder what are they hiding from, or what are their intentions? You ought to suspect everything and everyone in these schools: administrators, teachers, even your fellow schoolmates!

Xing Xing Academy (Super Star Academy)

If you visit China, you may stumble upon this mysterious university. Yes, I wrote 'stumble' because the location is not on the map. It's in the parallel world. Besides the secretive location, so is the mission. This school is called Super Star Academy not because there are high-profile and extremely successful performers or athletes, but the students are trained to excel in supernatural skills gained based on their zodiacs. Each zodiac has its own superpower. Can you gain other zodiac's powers? Nope. That's what Fang Tian Ze (Xiao Zhan) finds out. You will have to compete with others using your superpower. Another bad thing is the majority of students are rich kids and heirs of their family business. So if you're a poor kid like Cheng Zi Er (Uvin Wang), you're subject to bullying. There are two competing groups at school that are always at odds with each other, and if you don't side with any group, you'll be crushed. The worst thing, you might be on their black list: Death Note!

The good thing is when you enrolled in this school you won't have to wear that ugly tracksuit uniform Chinese students wear! In this school you wear an expensive gray uniform with a fancy cape.

Institute of Moorim (Moorim School)

There is another hidden university, this one is in South Korea. The enrollment is by invitation only. You need to hike the mystical Mt Moorim through thick forest to find the secretive entrance. Once you found the path that leads to school premises, the forest behind you closes. The location is secretive, since this school is built by the UN Peacekeeping Organization to protect and uphold world peace, and there are parties that want to disrupt the peace by infiltrating the school. Students come from all over the world, so you'll get equal treatment. Whether you're a Kpop star like Shi Woo (Lee Hyun Woo), a chaebol heir like Chi Ang (Hong Bin), or a dumpling seller like Soon Duk (Seo Yea Ji), everyone has to cook and clean.

So what do you learn at this school anyway? Martial arts. Sounds cool, right? Yes, but you're bound to competitions. The Dean administers tests randomly, at different time and place, which stresses everyone out. The lowest in rank has to clean bathrooms, and the penalty for breaking rules can be going out into the forest full of wild beasts. Though you become friends with others, but with competition to be the best, friends can turn to foes.

Ritdha High School (The Gifted)

Thank goodness there is one school that is not hidden, unlike the two above, so maybe you want to enroll? This one is in Thailand. It seems like a regular high school, but don't be fooled with the external look! Although there are normal kids, but there are also super kids, or what they call it 'the gifted'. How does the school find them? Through administering a special exam with an additional hidden question. So if you have a super ability, you can see the question. A special teacher then finds and places you in a class with other super kids and gives special classes. You still need to discover your superpower, though. That's not a simple task for someone who seems normal, like Pang (Nanon Korapat Kirdpan) finds out. Once found, you need to cultivate and maintain the gift. For what reason, though?

So it's cool if you're a gifted student, right? Yes, you are not only exclusive, you also get a badge that serves like a privilege pass in boarding, meals, and student service. Teachers treat you differently, and normal students envy you. However, you bear responsibility for your superpower, too. If not taken care properly, it gives negative side effect to you and other students. So if you're an ordinary student, don't think you can just study normally at this school. An example of the gifted student's negative effect can put you into a zombie-like trance that can attack and kill people, as seen in GIF below.

Now, about the schools that are really from hell, or have things that come out from hell: monsters and dead spirits! If you want to see the wondrous unseen world, people who possess the ability may not think the same thing, as you will soon find out below!

Monglyeon High School (The School Nurse Files)

This is a private high school in South Korea with cute ducks roaming around the school. You think it's a safe place to go to school, unlike the shady school in the above section, right? Yes, you may be happy studying here, although the happiness seems forced. Every morning before class starts, students have to practice laughing following the exercise video conducted by the late school founder. Sounds like a cult, right? Not only that, in a scary event you may be found laughing and running zombie-like into the school rooftop, pulled by unseen monstrous force as seen in the GIF below. Whatever the monster is, it seems to burst into pretty heart-shaped jellies, subdued by school nurse Ahn Eun Young (Jung Yu Mi) and the school founder's grandson Hong In Pyo (Nam Joo Hyuk).

Speaking about school nurse Ahn, having possessed the ability to see monsters and dead spirits, she is a weirdo. You are either dying to meet or avoid her medical care, because her office is full of a world collection of every religious and superstitious paraphernalia to see! She also owns a toy lightsaber and BB gun she claims can fight against monsters. Unfortunately, you have to gain an ability to see dead spirits, a supernatural power you don't want to have, no matter how cute the monsters look like!

Songyoung High School (The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim)

South Korea has another spooky high school called Songyoung. Being a student at this prestigious high school means that you have to study hard like your life depends on it. If not, you're going to die. That sounds good on paper. As a student, you need to study hard, anyway. But what about this 'die' thing? There is an evil spirit at this school that kills failed students. If you are at the bottom in class, it possesses you and drives you to commit suicide by jumping down the rooftop. So no more students with the lowest grade, right? Wrong. Here's the thing. There will be always students at the bottom of the class who fail their exams. Not only lazy students, but an unfortunate life event can happen to anyone, including you, that drops your motivation to study.

Not only this school has an evil spirit, but also an axe-carrying student Doo Shim (Kim Sae Ron). She is a reluctant shaman, having transferred to Songyoung by her money hungry mother. You basically should fear her, since not only she can see dead spirits, she can also make you see them! Ask her classmates, including Woo Soo (Nam Da Reum) who is a straight-A student, until he is pulled together with Doo Shim on a mission to fight the evil spirit. Definitely, your life changes after you gain the ability to see the world of the dead!

Have you heard the saying that humans are scarier than ghosts? If you think the schools mentioned above, with their monsters and evil spirits, are frightening enough, wait until you read about these schools below! 

Sinhwa High School (Boys Over Flowers)

This is yet another prestigious high school in South Korea (dang, that country has so many of them!). Built by the conglomerate group Sinhwa, this palace-like private school definitely attracts other chaebols and the wanna-be rich families to send their kids to. However rich the students are, they have this unhealthy adoration towards the four school male gods called F4, led by none other than the Sinhwa heir Goo Joon Pyo (Lee Min Ho) himself. F4 boys are rarely seen as they have their own classroom with private tutors and an exclusive lounge. When they appear, the whole school worships the ground they walk on!

So, if you are rich or wanna-be rich, you probably should enroll in this school. But if you think you don't need to care for F4 and just want to benefit from the extravagant facility and top-class education, you're wrong! These boys make students their servants by doing anything they want. If you refuse or even oppose them, eventually you will get the red F4 card. As the skull symbolizes, it means you're dead meat! No, F4 will not personally come bullying you, they want to keep their clothes clean and their hair neat. Their minions will do the bullying, kidnapping, assault, etc. in their favor. Like what happens to the scholarship-recipient student Jan Di (Gu Hye Seon), a commoner who crosses path with F4. As shown in the GIF below, not only she's a victim to mass bullying, but they also burnt down her one and only bike.

Kaio High School (Class 3A - All of You Are Hostages From Now On)

I know you are still wondering about the GIF at the beginning of the article, right? Now we're at the end of the article, and I present you Kaio High in Japan. A regular public high school, as you see in the picture. No fancy building, no hidden agenda, no rich or super kids, and no ghosts. However, the home room teacher Mr Hiiragi Ibuki (Suda Masaki) holds hostage of his students 10 days before they graduate! He does look psycho in the picture! He explodes the school building to kick out the entire school, but his students are locked inside. Their access towards exit is blocked by rubbles from the explosion. They can only access the art supply room and bathroom. He also changes the regular class windows to fixed, shatterproof, and one-way windows. He confiscates their mobile phones and potential weapons!  

So what's his intention? As shown in the first GIF, he has some goals to achieve using the students. If they cannot answer him, one by one will die. It turns out that the problems are bigger than just a psycho teacher with his own agenda. A talented and popular classmate killed herself in the past (or was she killed?). The previous home room teacher quit with a mental breakdown. It seems the hostage is triggered by bigger problems that happened in the school. Would you still want to study there now?

I have warned you of these shady, spooky, and scary schools you may refuse or don't want people you know to attend. However, if you have to enroll in one of these schools, which school will you go to? Are you okay with the unknown secretive things that can harm you? Or are you simply not believing ghostly stuff and paranormal activity? Or, do you dare to face human madness? What is your choice?

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Acknowledgement and credits: Thank you to the editors who edited this article. I do not own any of the images; credits go to their respective owners. The images are from drama stills and screenshots. GIFs are self-made from drama scenes.

^{Edited by: Tine (1st editor)}