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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Lee Jung-jae, Lim Ji-yeon, Kim Ji-hoon, Seo Ji-hye
Latest Nielsen rating: 4.8 per cent
Following three zeitgeist-grabbing seasons of Squid Game and a Hollywood foray via the Star Wars series Acolyte, Korean superstar Lee Jung-jae scales things back in romcom Nice to Not Meet You, a far cry from the hard-nosed roles that have defined his screen persona over the past decade.
Lee is joined by Lim Ji-yeon, who has gone from strength to strength in recent years, appearing as the villainess of The Glory and the titular protagonist of The Tale of Lady Ok.


A light and playful story of a thin-skinned actor and a thick-skinned reporter who get under each other’s skin, Nice to Not Meet You is standard K-drama fare that sticks a little too faithfully to formula.
At the outset, Lee’s character Lim Hyun-joon works in a small print shop down a winding alleyway, where he and his partner Hwang Ji-sun (Choi Gwi-hwa, The Murky Stream) print out screenplay booklets for film and drama productions.
Hyun-joon used to be a budding actor and Ji-sun was once his manager, but after a bad experience with an aspiring actress girlfriend – played in a cameo role by Oh Yeon-seo – who threw him under the bus when their relationship was found out, he left the industry.
One day, a picky rookie director drops by the shop to nitpick about the design quality of their scriptbooks, but he finds more than he bargained for when he recognises Hyun-joon from an independent film he once appeared in and realises that he is the perfect person to play the lead in his film, Good Detective Kang Pil-gu.

The film proves a smash hit, and the series fast-forwards to years later when Lim is a major star.
The film was spun off into a television series that has been notching ratings records year after year, but Lim has grown frustrated with being typecast and longs to act in a melodrama, inviting us to imagine that Lee himself has grown tired of his celebrated role as Seong Gi-hun – aka Player 456 in Squid Game.
Less successful in her career choices is Lim’s protagonist Wi Jeong-sin, a political reporter with a strong nose for corruption.
While doggedly pursuing an assemblyman involved in a redevelopment scheme, she crosses the wrong people and is soon bounced from her political news beat to a culture desk at a different newspaper.
Naturally, she soon bumps into Hyun-joon during her new assignments, but this is not the first time they have met – it is not even the second or the third.

Before his new-found fame, Hyun-joon once delivered scriptbooks to a high-end karaoke bar, where he bumped into his actress ex.
In another room, Jeong-sin hits a dead end in her corruption case. She is presented with a payoff, which she proceeds to dunk into an ice bucket along with the contents of a champagne bottle and a whisky bottle.
Jeong-sin wakes up dead drunk in the back of Hyun-joon’s car. She accuses him of kidnapping her, and the pair wind up in a police precinct.
Years later, while still investigating the corruption case, Jeong-sin sneaks into another karaoke bar as an undercover hostess, where she winds up in the same bathroom stall as a bewildered Hyun-joon while trying to make her escape.

A third meet-cute takes place when Jeong-sin tries to confront the owner of her paper on a red carpet, also being walked by Hyun-joon. They also briefly cross paths at Incheon Airport.
Their first real meeting takes place when Jeong-sin is assigned to interview Hyun-joon, who finally recognises her.
This fifth meeting is once again a meet-cute filled with misunderstandings, and by now it is clear how the series intends to pad out a simple romantic comedy premise into 16 episodes, an increasingly rare long season order. Of late, 12 episodes seem to be the sweet spot.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Nice to Not Meet You, and the tongue-in-cheek premise, slyly alluding to Lee’s penchant for appearing in hard-boiled fare – this is his first leading role in a comedy since the late 2000s – is not without its attractions.

Lee is loose and carefree, clearly relishing the change of pace, all the while playfully sending up his own image. For her part, Lim is sharp and in control as Jeong-sin, a character desperately trying to wrest back control of her life.
The show is deliberately understated and easy-going, but the breezy high jinks lack a creative spark and the repetitive clichés begin to wear thin after a while.
It also suffers from some awkward plotting as the story mostly plods along slowly, only to gloss over the milestones that determine the fates of its main characters.
Easy to watch and diverting, Nice to Not Meet You is passable entertainment. It does not pretend to be more than it is, and viewers would be wise not to expect anything more from it.
Nice to Not Meet You is streaming on Prime Video.


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Prime Video K-drama Nice to Not Meet You: Lee Jung-jae switches gears for a breezy romcom

Lee Jung-jae as star actor Lim Hyun-joon in a still from Nice to Not Meet You.

Lim Ji-yeon as reporter Wi Jeong-sin in a still from Nice to Not Meet You.

Lee Jung-jae in a still from Nice to Not Meet You.

Lim Ji-yeon in a still from Nice to Not Meet You.

Lim Ji-yeon and Lee Jung-jae in a still from Nice to Not Meet You.

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Lee Jung-jae in a still from Nice to Not Meet You, one of a host of new K-dramas to watch in November.

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K-drama casting news about Lim Ji-yeon, Han Suk-kyu, Kim Min-ju and more

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Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

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Lee cheekily plays a superstar actor sick of being typecast opposite Lim Ji-yeon’s reporter in this understated, easy-going romantic comedy


Lee cheekily plays a superstar actor sick of being typecast opposite Lim Ji-yeon’s reporter in this understated, easy-going romantic comedy.


Prime Video K-drama Nice to Not Meet You: Lee Jung-jae switches gears for a breezy romcom

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lee cheekily plays a superstar actor sick of being typecast opposite Lim Ji-yeon’s reporter in this understated, easy-going romantic comedy

Lee cheekily plays a superstar actor sick of being typecast opposite Lim Ji-yeon’s reporter in this understated, easy-going romantic comedy