Review | Netflix K-drama review: Remarriage & Desires – matchmaking melodrama starring Kim Hee-seon and Lee Hyun-wook is slick enough, but lacks fireworks
- This new Netflix melodrama about matchmaking with wealthy bachelors is slow to start, and only finds its groove in the final two episodes
- The similarities with K-drama The Penthouse are striking, but whereas Penthouse embraces its absurdity, Remarriage tries too hard to exude poise and falls flat
2.5/5 stars
Matchmaking is big business in South Korea. Arranged marriages were long common practice, and while that has changed, even today blind dates arranged by friends, family and colleagues are a big part of the country’s social tapestry.
Finding a partner can be tricky with the busy Korean lifestyle, but the purpose of matchmaking is really to find someone with the right family, job and academic background.
Netflix is known for mining fantasy and dystopia for its original Korean offerings, but its latest title finds it diving into the soapy depths of high-society melodrama, long the bastion of terrestrial Korean broadcasters.
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Servicing only the most exclusive single clients in the country, Rex is a matchmaking company operated under the imperious gaze of Choi Yoo-sun (Cha Ji-yeon), the company’s elegant and respected CEO. The cheapest consultation at Rex will cost you 10 million won (US$7,600), but if you want to get into the upper tiers, you’ll need to fork out a lot more than that.
The top class is the Black Tier, which comprises only the country’s wealthiest bachelors. These are the top prizes for the most ambitious women in society, and you won’t find anyone more ambitious than Jin Yoo-hui (Jung Eugene), a lawyer who has set her sights on Lee Hyung-ju (Lee Hyun-wook), the CEO of video game powerhouse Hibull and the 30th richest person in the country.
On the other hand we have single widow and teacher Seo Hye-seung (Kim Hee-seon), whose mother has signed her up at Rex against her wishes – she has no intention of getting remarried. Also forced to become a client at Rex is professor Cha Seok-jin (Park Hoon), son of the ailing Rex chairman, Cha Yong-hwan (Jang Gwang), Yoo-sung’s husband of 15 years.
The deepest and darkest of those connections belongs to polar opposites Hye-seung and Yoo-hui.
Hye-seung’s lawyer husband, Kang Nam-sik (Kwon Hyuk), has had an affair with Yoo-hui, his colleague. He walks out on Hye-seung, asking for a divorce, but before he knows it Yoo-hui has used him to cover up her embezzlement and accuses him of rape. At the end of his tether, Nam-sik ends his life, leaving a bereaved family behind.
Yoo-hui’s extraordinary villainy is also her Achilles’ heel. She not only commits terrible acts to sate her greed, but she also revels in inflicting personal pain.
Hye-seung goes to Rex to get a refund for her expensive consultation, but when she bumps into Yoo-hui, her still burning anger causes her to suddenly change her mind, setting the pair on a destructive path.
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For a show that’s less than half the length of other primetime soaps, what’s immediately apparent about Remarriage & Desires is how slow the build-up of the story is and how listless it remains until the final couple of episodes, where it finally finds its groove.
Many Korean soaps tend to drive towards explosive climaxes but that usually doesn’t preclude fireworks earlier on. In Remarriage & Desires though, all we get is a fancy masquerade ball.
The rivalry between the perpetually victimised Hye-seung and vicious Yoo-hui recalls the legendary battles between Oh Yoon-hee and Cheon Seo-jin in that series.
The big difference between the two is that while The Penthouse was deliberately operatic and ridiculous, Remarriage & Desires tries to be more slick and serious. But the mechanics of the story remain ludicrous, so until it embraces accelerated soap opera chaos in its final stretch, the show isn’t anywhere near as fun as it should be.
No doubt Remarriage & Desires has its pleasures, but its half-baked second season tease is unlikely to have many dreaming of another trip down the aisle.
Remarriage & Desires is streaming on Netflix.
