The Open Thread is here: Love Next Door: Eps 1 & 2 Open Thread
To me, the story begins slowly but finds its rhythm 26 minutes into the show when the two main characters, Bae Seok Ryu (SR) and Choi SeungHyo (SH) cross path again after 10 years and start squabbling.
1. “Chemistry”
As much as I dislike using that word that rhymes with podiatry, I must give kdramas like this sort a special name: chemical romance or chemrom.It’s the synergy, cuteness factor, and “couple goals” (in quotation marks) generated by the lead characters that drive the story. This drama isn’t plot-driven as it is aegyo-driven. Viewers will no doubt stick around to watch Jung SoMin (who plays SR) and Jung HaeIn (who plays SH) first bicker, then blunder through love, and finally exchange googly eyes with each other.
Note: We’ve seen plenty of chemical romance, namely, like “Hometown Cha Cha Cha,” “King of the Land,” “A Good Day to Be a Dog” and “Serendipity’s Embrace.” An example of a plot-driven kdrama is “A Shop for Killers” (2024) starring Lee Dong Wook and Kim HyeJun. Lee dies, bequeathing an online shop to his only surviving relative, his niece. Ostensibly, the shop sells garden hoses, but the niece quickly finds out that its true nefarious business when hired assassins come after her. The series – all eight episodes of it – is like peeling an onion. Every time she uncovers a shocking revelation about her uncle, she discovers a new mystery.
I don’t expect any deep mystery in this drama. The whole goal of the story is to wed two childhood friends who can’t stand each other but equally can’t stand to be apart from each other.
2. “Dr Slump” clone
We’ve also seen the concept of burned-out professionals before in “Dr. Slump” (2024) where two career-driven doctors crashed and burned.
In this drama, the female lead SR says she’s burned out. A successful computer programmer working in the US, she quits her job, breaks of her engagement, and hightails it back to her family in Seoul.
As for male lead SH, it’s not yet known if he’s also suffering from burn-out but I suspect he is. He seems oddly preoccupied with death. An architect, he plans to design a memorial park for his next project. Then, he designed his office space with a ceiling inspired by Goguryeo mural tombs.
And the 17 million won sculpture that dropped on his back? It looked like those Japsang statues lining the roofs of traditional buildings in Seoul used to ward off prowling evil spirits. Lol.
Note: I do like that he claims to respect the “cultural and historical contexts of a space” he’s designing that he even brings a feng shui compass with him. However, didn’t he have any misgivings at all about buying the sauna where he and SR used to take baths together as little kids and converting it into his office building? Didn’t he worry that it would bring him bad juju? Lol.
3. “Umchina” concept
Back when I watched Lee Seunggi in “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” (2010), he was touted as the Nation’s “Umchina,” or “your mother’s friend’s brilliant/perfect/nonpareil son.” I thought that this image was such a heavy burden to bear, especially in a nation with ridiculously high expectations of their youth.
In this kdrama, SeungHyo (SH) is the “umchina.”
“Um” is derived from eomma or mother.
“Chin” is derived from chinggu or friend.
“A” is from adeul or son.
The female equivalent is “umchinttal.” “Ttal” means daughter.
While SeokRyu is no slacker herself and can be considered an “umchinttal” in her own right, I think there’s more demand from SH to put up with pressure stoically, indifferently because he’s a man.
He and his mother have a weird tension going on.
4. The second couple
They look interesting but I hope they don’t turn out to be like that icky second couple in “Business Proposal.” Remember them? They had the drunken sex.
SR’s best friend is a paramedic, and she attracts the attention of a roaming journalist. The journalist is played by Yun Ji On. He was the ex-boyfriend in “Serendipity’s Embrace” and the gay boss/murderer in “Lovely Liar” (2023). He chooses memorable roles and isn’t afraid to play the bad guy. I hope he’ll land a leading role in a romcom in the future.
5. The beating x 2
This scene is supposedly comedic:
To discipline SR, her mom swings a bundle of leeks right and left to give her a beating. But since SR hides behind SH, it’s SH who takes all the blows for SR.
To me, this scene is cringe for several reasons.
One, SR is a grown woman; her decisions and her mistakes are her own.
Two, they’re disturbing the peace, making a loud ruckus out in the street in the middle of the night.
Three, physical abuse is unfunny.
SR and SeungHyo flee from her mother. They have a quiet moment to themselves when SR confesses the trouble she’s in. Then SR’s mom calls SeungHyo to order him to bring SR back home. They do so after SeungHyo convinces SR that the worst is over. But once they get home, the mom isn’t finish and begins to discipline SR. A wooden backscratcher takes the place of the bundle of leeks. This time around, SeungHyo assists the mom by barring the front door to prevent SR’s escape.
Thanks to him, SR gets beaten. Outside, he hangs around long enough to hear her protest, “You already hit me there, Mom! Hit me somewhere else!”
Of course, the whole scene is performed as a comedy. Perhaps I’m missing a funny bone, but I didn’t find it hilarious.
Moreover, this time around, I can’t ignore SH’s betrayal. Like Judas, he hands SR over to her mom. And he has audacity to smile smugly as he walks away.
Seriously, with friends like him, who needs enemies?
What happened to them? When they were young, SeungHyo got picked on by other kids for speaking a foreign language (I’m assuming it’s French because his mom said something like “C’est bon” and “Oh la la.”) SR came to his rescue and threatened to kill anybody who messed around with her “baby.” I expected him to repay her protection back then with a bit of loyalty now. Oh well….
6. The child actors
Kudos especially to the little girl playing the young SR. They brought authenticity to their roles.
I will update this after I watch Episode 2 tomorrow.
@pacemaker, general comment-only criticism of K Dramas in general is the amount of physical punishment shown in scenes of child discipline, bullying, slapping, throwing water in one’s face. I guess these are cultural references but I find them disturbing. They are jarring in otherwise enjoyable and many times addicting K Dramas. I totally love the leads in this drama. As they say in these”,they look good together”. I also like Jung Hae in He is continuing to mature in his roles as he did in DP. He was once in a reality program where he visited New York and it was memorable to see him in an Air B and B in Chelsea, attending his friend’s drama class at the famed Actors Studio at Pace University and eating Shake Shack burgers. I would have loved to encounter him in my home city just to quickly say I am a fan(an ahjumma fan at that). I think his mother should be proud. Am looking forward to the second episode.And although leeks were used as a weapon, I look forward to watching all the eating scenes. K Dramas are also filled with food. Shout out to Jinny’s Kitchen in Iceland on Amazon Prime (oh to be served by that crew). Lee Seojin actually is an NYU grad. Choi Woo shik, Park Seojoon and Jung Yumi are in that crew. I,’d know these actors. This show is a successor to Young’s Kitchen. Just imagine being served by a multiple award winner including the Oscar, Youn Yih-jung- wow!
Thanks, @packmule3. I’ll tune in to see how it develops. I think it sounds like fairly standard romcom fare, but some humour (minus the normalised beatings) and a happy ending are good medicine.
@OldAmericanLady. I see that the autocorrect strikes again. Lol. That’s okay. I know I’m the “@pacemaker” you were writing to.
Yes, the beating scenes were jarring. In that Cdrama “Snow Fall”, the 18 year old heroine was also being beaten up by her mother in Episode 1. The Vampire hero then stepped in from the shadows to put a swift end to it. He stabbed the mother’s hand with a matchstick.
Bam!
Just like that, the viewers are also taught a swift lesson that corporal punishment is not to be tolerated. The viewers cheered for the hero because he took action.
Here, in this drama, we see the reverse. The corporal punishment is used as a running gag, a joke.
The 30 something year old SR is being beaten up by her mother and the viewers are supposed to find it amusing. Hahahahahaha…nope!
If the beating scene in “Snow Fall” is indefensible, then why is it acceptable — even, comedic — in “Love Next Door”?
The first time around, the hero unwittingly stood in the way so he took the brunt of the beating. He protested, pointing out that he shouldn’t be the one receiving the blow but SR. The second time, he personally delivered SR to her mom. He saw the wooden backscratcher. He could hear her pleading with her mom, but he walked away with a smile. And that smile was everything: for the viewers cheered for the hero, not because he took action to save the girl, mind you, but because he smiled that sweet smile of his.
An aside: What a menace this screenwriter is! She has this silly fascination for actors with smiley, butter-can’t-melt-in-his-mouth faces (see the actor in “Hometown Cha Cha Cha”).
In SeongHyu’s mind, SR deserved this corporal punishment. In fact, earlier he advised her to just face her mom’s wrath and be done with it. “It” would only last 24 hours anyway.
You know, we all watch the food we eat. We do this to be healthy and to avoid obesity, diabetes, cancer, coronary disease, and so on. In the same way we’re careful about the food we eat, we must be careful about the shows that we watch. Remember: that’s the reason I opened a blog of my own. I was getting frustrated with the dumb comments on other drama sites that talked about “muh feeeeeels” and “oppa is handsome!” I wanted critical analyses and discussions. I didn’t want to hear what people “felt” about the show, but what they “thought” about the show and to tell me WHY they thought that way.
To me, chemical romances or chem-roms is like junk food. The misrepresentations and false values (like that drunken sex in “Business Proposal” that horny fangirls just raved about) are easily ingested and absorbed into our system because they feel good. Sure, we can periodically use some mindless entertainment. But if I’m going to allocate 16 hours of my life to this kdrama, I have to make it make sense…to me, at least.
I am curious about the ML’s obsession with tombs. I am not super invested in this drama yet, but I will give it another episode.
Hmmm… have watched the first 2 episodes and I’m not wowed. I can’t stand the physical violence, not only from the mom but the “friends” choking and pushing each other. I only tuned in because I’m a Jung Hae In fan, but he doesn’t seem settled in the part, especially in the first episode. It felt like he was performing in a play while everyone around him was being a real character. I usually like the projects he picks (I even liked Snowdrop), but the fact that the director and writer are connected to HCCC is keeping my expectations low. I only watched the first 2 episodes of HCCC before I gave up on it—not even curious about how it ended. Really don’t know if I’ll tune in for this next week.
The one thing that slightly intrigues me about this drama is that the actresses playing the moms usually play near-villains, so the casting is interesting.
I tried to like HTCCC And persisted for many episodes But I was gradually disillusioned By the characterizations and the plot and did not make it to the end. I remember now thinking at the time that it had the set up to be a better show but that The writer let me down.
I have been hesitant to start any of the current wrong(rom) coms, Korean ones anyway, Other than my
Sweet mobster which is more like a snack
Yes, @BethB. When SR started putting in a chokehold, I couldn’t help thinking, “Well, well, well. Where could she have learned that from?” Like mother, like daughter.
In the real world, her actions would be a red flag. If I see my sons’ girlfriends roughhousing them, I’d be concerned.
To SR’s credit though, she was attuned to SH’s money woes. His parents probably are still in the dark about it but she guessed right that something was wrong.
Have to write my Ep 2 update before I move on.
Hi @PM3, I saw you an email notification on Ep 2 on Maeum but I cannot see it in the site. I clicked on the email Lin and “cannot be found”. FYI, there might be a site glitch?
I’m skeptical on this kdrama as well given Doctor Slump (back to childhood or teenhood and how the story will be treated and acted) and of course, HTCCC. Ep 1 is a bit childish though. I was more leisurely watching so will go to the bitches for the critical eye. Both leads look gorgeous so it’s definitely easy on the eyes.
I forgot to mention the other positive thing about this drama was that the mom already had an epiphany by the end of episode 2 about how hard she had driven her daughter, and how much she counted on her daughter’s success to make her look successful. Renovating her daughter’s old bedroom, back from being a utility/storage room, was part of this recognition and, hopefully, healing. This is the one character arc/storyline that gave me any hope for this drama.
Sorry, @Janey.
It’s back on.
Thanks @PM3, saw it now!