by Michael McCarthy
I recently finished watching two of the latest Korean dramas to hit Netflix, Our Sticky Love and The Apartment Job. I’m also currently watching Spooky in Love but the final episodes of that one haven’t been released yet. What all three of these shows have in common is that they blend different genres together. Our Sticky Love and The Apartment Job are both a mix of light-hearted comedy and crime drama. Spooky in Love mixes supernatural story elements with classic Kdrama style romance. But each of these shows blends genres together differently and with varying results. Please note that this review contains spoilers and should ideally be read by people who’ve already watched these shows.
Out of these three series, I think The Apartment Job is my favorite. It stars
Ji Sung as Park Hae-gang, who’s essentially become a crime boss since the actual leader of the organization he belongs to has taken ill and ended up becoming hospitalized longterm. But being hospitalized isn’t the crime boss’s only problem: he’s also under arrest. In order to get his boss freed and treated at the hospital, Ji Sung needs millions of won, mostly to bribe someone to get him released. At first, Ji Sung has no idea how he could ever possibly raise that kind of money but then a guy with a mountain of gambling debts tells him how you can steal money from apartment buildings. Essentially, residents pay to contribute to a fund that is supposed to be for longterm building repairs and such but instead of using the money for that you basically empty out the account and disappear with the money. And that’s basically what Ji Sung wants to do: free his boss and vanish with millions of won. Unfortunately for him, Park Byeong-eun’s sometimes scary, often hilarious character Lee Chung-won is already stealing the money from that fund. Ultimately, the series is like a cat and mouse game with Ji Sung and Lee Chung-won constantly conspiring against each other to steal the money. Who has the money at any given time is something that changes several times throughout the series. It’s kind of ridiculous but the reason it works is that the show is a lighthearted comedy throughout. Even though there are characters who are criminals, the show only allows itself to get moderately dark. It maintains its lighthearted, comedic tone throughout all 12 episodes. On the other hand, the 12 episode drama Our Sticky Love starts off like a fluffy romantic comedy but the crime element gets very, very dark during the later episodes. You think you’re watching a lighthearted romance but then later episodes are extremely dark, twisted and violent and it’s quite shocking.
Normally, I actually prefer crime thrillers over romantic comedies. But since I was enjoying Our Sticky Love as a romantic comedy, I was caught completely off guard when it suddenly turned creepy. It feels like you were watching one show and you’ve switched to another show entirely. All of a sudden the romance is essentially cast aside and you have crime boss Baek Sang-gil – played brilliantly by a frightening Heo Sung-tae – going around slicing up people’s achilles tendons. I’ve seen hundreds of violent shows and movies over the years and the scene where he’s cutting those guys’ tendons was truly harrowing and difficult to watch. I actually had to look away for several seconds at a time a couple of times. I’ve never had my tendons sliced up with a knife but the bloody scene had me feeling a bit sick to my stomach, certainly not something I had ever thought I would feel from watching what starts off as a lovey dovey romantic comedy.
All of that being said, I really enjoyed Our Sticky Love over all. I guess if there was one thing I could change about it, I would actually make the earlier episodes a bit darker to suggest that the show will become quite dark later on. I’m not saying they should’ve added a mountain of violence to the first few episodes but they certainly could have better foreshadowed that the show would get much darker in later episodes. If you’re just looking for a lighthearted romance, I would tell you to avoid Our Sticky Love and watch Spooky in Love instead. I’ve watched the first several episodes of Spooky in Love now and it’s a pretty lighthearted romantic comedy throughout. There are some mildly scary moments with the supernatural element of the story early on when Kim Do-wan’s charming character Park Seung-jae starts seeing ghosts for the first time after touching a hilarious Park Eun-bin’s Cheon Yeo-ri. The short version is that touching the skin of Cheon Yeo-ri will cause the average person to see ghosts for 30 days. And that’s what happens to Park Seung-jae after he grabs Yeo-ri by the hand early in the series. But soon Seung-jae is pining for Yeo-ri and he stops caring if touching her will make him see ghosts.
Even though there’s a supernatural element to the story, Spooky in Love never quite turns into a suspense thriller and it certainly doesn’t delve into the horror genre either. It essentially remains a lighthearted romantic comedy throughout. You might find the ghosts a bit scary but the show doesn’t suddenly get super dark and violent like Our Sticky Love. So viewers who are just looking for a nice romantic story should appreciate Spooky in Love. And if you’re someone who gags at the sight of violence, then I would highly suggest that you avoid Our Sticky Love.
You may have noticed that I didn’t say anything about The Apartment Job being a romantic comedy. That’s because it isn’t one. There are definitely romantic vibes between Ji Sung’s
Park Hae-gang and Ha Yoon-kyung’s Kang Ha-ri but the show never quite turns into a romance. And since I’ve given you a spoiler alert with this review, I will tell you that the two characters never become a couple by the time the series is over. Thus, if you’re one of those people who want a romantic happily ever after, then The Apartment Job may leave you feeling disappointed. But Ji Sung and Ha Yoon-kyung actually have excellent chemistry. If you watch it, you’re bound to keep wishing their characters would finally kiss. To that end, I was slightly disappointed that the series didn’t turn them into a couple by the end but that was a minor disappointment and I highly enjoyed the series otherwise.
If my comments about Our Sticky Love haven’t made you vow to never watch it yet and you are one of those people who love romantic happily ever afters then I would actually suggest it. Interestingly, episode ten feels like it could be the series finale because the lead characters are together as a couple by the end and the crime boss is in custody but… then it goes on for two more episodes. And let me tell you, I was quite nervous watching those last two episodes. Because episode ten felt like a happily ever after ending and often when Kdramas give you a happy ending in episode ten then the following episodes end up getting dark and you wind up with a tragic ending. So I was quite fearful that one of the main characters was going to end up being killed by the end of the series. Thankfully, the lead characters are both still alive and happily in love together when the series ends. I suppose it’s kind of ironic that the series that gets the most dark and disturbing here also turns out to be the series that has the happiest, romantic ending.
So, there you have it, three different Kdramas, all of which blend different genres, with different results. I can honestly say that I would recommend all three but I would definitely advise people who don’t like dark, violent shows to avoid Our Sticky Love like the plague.
Finally, I have to say a word about Ha Young, the actress who stars in Our Sticky Love. First, I want to say that she’s completely adorable in this role. I had previously loved her in other shows like The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call and Doona!, but Our Sticky Love is her first role as a leading lady if I understand correctly and it’s certainly her biggest role to date. And she totally rises to the occasion and makes you fall in love with her. Unfortunately, Ha Young has become quite controversial after she praised her great grandfather in a recent interview and people investigated him and found out that he may have collaborated with the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. Not only are some fans saying that Ha Young should be canceled for praising him, there have been many “fans” online stating that Ha Young should kill herself, which makes me very angry to be entirely honest with you. Now, I totally understand why the people of Korea still have negative feelings about the Japanese occupation. That was horrible and the Korean people suffered greatly. And they’re entitled to feel the way they do about that. I am absolutely NOT defending Ha Young’s grandfather. Not at all. However, I do not think that Ha Young was aware of his alleged collaboration with the Japanese at the time that she praised him. Chances are, he’s just someone Ha Young saw photos of and heard family stories about. She was probably raised to admire this elder, who she never even met. My guess is that she thought she was simply telling a nice family story when she praised him. I’m sure if she knew that he’d possibly collaborated with the Japanese she would not have risked career suicide by doing that. It’s unfortunate that she did but she’s apologized for that repeatedly now. Yet the “netizens” still won’t leave the poor girl alone. And I think that’s wrong to be entirely honest. Fortunately, Our Sticky Love went to number one on Netflix Korea and it’s performing quite well on a global scale as well so, hopefully, Ha Young’s career survives this. I just find it really heart-breaking to see people saying such negative things about her, especially after watching Our Sticky Love where she plays such a sweet and adorable character. I know I can’t really comment on Ha Young as a person just from watching her act, but she just seems like the sort of person who radiates warmth and kindness.
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