Korean rom-coms put their faith in cliches — but will they work forever?
Go Eun-sae (Ha Young), an elite prosecutor who wakes up in a hospital with no memory, looks into a mirror in distress in a scene from Netflix series “Our Sticky Love.” Courtesy of Netflix
A protagonist with memory loss. A dicey office love triangle. A chance encounter with a first love and a secret surrounding someone’s birth. Cliche-riddled, old-fashioned romantic comedies are back. After a series of productions loaded with elaborate worldbuilding and heavy atmospheres, broadcasters seem to have decided that trend has run its course and that viewers now need something lighthearted — an unhealthy yet familiar and addictive treat.
'You can't beat the classics'
“Our Sticky Love,” which premiered on Netlfix on Aug. 7, might be the most quintessential romantic comedy of the season. The drama revolves around a young man and woman: Go Eun-sae, played by Ha Young, an elite prosecutor who wakes up in a hospital after losing her memory and fingerprints; and Jang Tae-ha, played by Jung Hae-in, a boxing coach who claims to be her boyfriend.
Together, they begin a new life in a rural Korean village. Eun-sae’s antagonistic attitude toward Tae-ha, rooted in her deeply suspicious personality, steadily gives way to a phase of denying her attraction to the male lead before the two gradually develop feelings for each other.
Unexpectedly, or rather, expectedly, their shared history goes back much further than they realize. Add Tae-ha’s dark past and the secret surrounding his birth, and it all feels familiar and reminiscent of dramas from the 2000s. But stopping halfway is impossible because the audience knows perfectly well that the best part is still to come.
“They say you can’t beat the classics,” director Kim Jang-han said during a press conference for the production. “In that sense, I hope this will be more classic than the classics.”
Rookie employee Nam Da-reum (Kim Hye-jun) comes face to face with her favorite idol, Lee Chan (Cha Woo-min), at the company she joined in hopes of becoming a successful fan in the tvN drama “My Bias, My Boss.” Courtesy of tvN
Romantic comedies are going strong on television as well. TvN’s Monday-Tuesday drama “My Bias, My Boss” presents an office love triangle involving a rookie female employee, the company’s CEO and one of its directors, while adding an element of K-pop idol fandom culture reminiscent of the 2024 drama “Lovely Runner.”
The drama taps into what grown-up idol fans who go to work every morning fantasize about before falling asleep at night: Nam Da-reum (Kim Hye-jun), the female lead, joins a fashion platform company founded by her favorite idol. From there, she successfully builds her career while becoming entangled in romantic relationships.
The ENA Monday-Tuesday drama “Dream to You” draws on a classic romantic-comedy formula: the reunion of first loves. A woman, thwarted by reality and working as a reporter to make ends meet, comes across her first love, with whom she once dreamed of becoming a film director. Reunited, they embark on a journey to rediscover a dream they had buried and long forgotten.
Liabilities exist
Of all the Korean content exported overseas, rom-coms loaded with established genre conventions and cliches are among those drawing the largest audiences. Last year’s buzzy series “Dynamite Kiss,” for instance, ended its run with a peak domestic viewership rating of around 6 percent but broke through abroad, topping Netflix’s global chart for non-English series. “Our Sticky Love” is also off to a strong start, reaching No. 1 on the daily charts in 20 countries, including Thailand and Vietnam, according to FlixPatrol.
Factors that make Korean dramas so well received in other Asian countries include their characteristically direct expressions of emotion, narratives about overcoming class differences and other obstacles, as well as emphasis on familial bonds, experts say.
The biggest liability for rom-coms lies in their sustainability. While powerful, cliches themselves work as spoilers for what is to come, prompting audiences to drop a series midway when the storyline is not compelling enough to keep viewers glued to their screens.
Criticism has also emerged over the excessive emphasis placed on a few lead actors in an attempt to lock in their fandoms.
“Dramas that rely solely on an actor’s star power and sacrifice narrative coherence may generate one-off consumption through merchandise sales, but they are unlikely to endure as well-made works that viewers want to revisit time and again,” said Yun Seok-jin, a drama critic and professor of Korean language and literature at Chungnam National University. “Competition from Taiwanese romantic dramas will also grow increasingly fierce in the global market."
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.