appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Lee Jung-eun, Jung Eun-ji, Choi Jin-hyuk
Latest Nielsen rating: 3.6 per cent
“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” Wise words, even though they appear on an oily con artist’s business card early on in the fantasy comedy Miss Night and Day.
The adage will surely apply to the poor woman the man is trying to scam, although it may take her some time to realise it.


The woman in question is Lee Mi-jin, the character alternately played by leads Lee Jung-eun (Parasite) and Jung Eun-ji (Work Later, Drink Now).
Mi-jin as played by the younger Jung is a desperate jobseeker who has been trying to land decent employment for seven years. She lives with her working-class parents and her mother’s patience has long worn thin.
Owing to a snafu at her latest failed job interview, during which another woman called Lee Mi-jin was a successful applicant, her mother now believes that the search is finally over. Bereft, Mi-jin does not have the heart or courage to tell her the truth.
Now even more desperate, she turns to the man who gave her the business card, who promises her he can get her a good job for a fee. She forks over the cash and the man gets up to leave.
Fortunately for Mi-jin, prosecutor Gye Ji-ung (Choi Jin-hyuk, Rugal), sitting at another table, has overheard the exchange.

He chases down and catches the man, but this does not solve Mi-jin’s latest problem, as the money, which she secretly took out of her mother’s savings, has already been transferred elsewhere.
Mi-jin’s guilt intensifies when she returns home to congratulatory gifts from her parents. That night, she bares her soul in the yard to a stray cat. When the cat jumps into one of her mother’s large clay pots, she hops in after it and loses consciousness.
In the cold light of day, she wakes up in bed and begins her morning routine, which includes squeezing herself between her parents on the couch to watch television. There is only one problem – Mi-jin now looks like a middle-aged woman (played by Lee).
Confusion and shenanigans naturally ensue but once the chaos settles, Mi-jin starts to learn the contours of her condition.

During the daytime, her body transforms into this older-looking woman. The moment night falls, she returns to her normal self. It is a difficult reality to hide from the parents with whom she lives, but with no other recourse available to her, she finds a way.
She does discover one advantage of her condition, in that it allows her to enter a special programme for older jobseekers. After acing the interview, she gets a job at the prosecutor’s office in her town, working under the alias Im Soon.
Before long, Ji-ung transfers to her town from Seoul, as he secretly tries to solve a series of disappearances, which happens to include that of Mi-jin’s long-lost aunt.
Miss Night and Day is in many ways a spin on Miss Granny, the fantasy comedy sensation from Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk which inspired a slew of international remakes.

But where Miss Granny, which features an elderly woman magically returning to her youth in the present day, playfully blurs the lines between social divides, this show is obsessed with sticking to binaries.
The show constantly explores black-and-white divides, whether they are between night and day, young and old, right and wrong or, in the case of workaholic Ji-ung, Jekyll and Hyde, and frequently illustrates them through split-screen editing.
This is a world which has no room for nuance. Day turns instantly to night, as we see when Soon runs into a cafe. Once the police officer chasing her has arrived, darkness has fully descended on the city.
Admittedly, this is reflective of a society built upon rigid foundations that people find difficult to navigate.

Since this is a 16-episode prime-time K-drama, the workplace body-transformation fantasy concept is paired with a few other common tropes to keep things moving along.
The presence of the hunky Choi Jin-hyuk suggests some Cinderella-style romance may be on the cards, while the prosecutors’ office setting means good old-fashioned crime.
Sadly, Miss Night and Day goes for the most conventional kind of K-drama criminal there is: a serial killer.
It may have been more fitting for the show to dive into fraud in a more comprehensive fashion, much like this year’s surprisingly effective South Korean crime film Citizen of a Kind. But, given the show’s broad strokes and stark binaries, perhaps that was too much to hope for.
Miss Night and Day is streaming on Netflix.


Disney+ K-drama Doctor on the Edge: Lee Jae-wook, Shin Ye-eun lead island medical romcom

K-drama Reborn Rookie: Lee Jun-young’s corporate body-swap fantasy hums with melodrama

HBO Max K-drama Fifties Professionals: Shin Ha-kyun action comedy revisits hits of old

Netflix K-drama The Wonderfools review: Park Eun-bin lifts fun but flawed superhero romp

Korean drama reviews

Netflix K-drama Miss Night and Day: Lee Jung-eun, Jung Eun-ji lead fantasy comedy

Jung Eun-ji as Lee Mi-jin in a still from Miss Night and Day.

Jung Eun-ji as Lee Mi-jin in a still from Miss Night and Day, a fantasy comedy that sees a woman magically flitting between youth and middle age. 

Choi Jin-hyuk as prosecutor Gye Ji-ung in a still from Miss Night and Day.

Lee Jung-eun as Lee Mi-jin/Im Soon in a still from Miss Night and Day.

6 of the best new K-dramas to watch in June 2024, including, on Netflix, Hierarchy with Lee Chae-min and The Whirlwind

Roh Jeong-eui in a still from Hierarchy, a K-drama series launching in June on Netflix. Photo: Netflix

Roh Jeong-eui in a still from Hierarchy on Netflix. Lee Chae-min and Kim Jae-won co-star. It’s one of the six best K-drama series debuting in June. Look out, too, for political thriller The Whirlwind on Netflix, and The Player 2: Master of Swindlers. Photo: Netflix

Who is Lee Je-hoon, versatile star of K-dramas Taxi Driver and Chief Detective 1958?

Lee Je-hoon in a still from Chief Detective 1958. Photo: MBC TV

Korean actor Lee Je-hoon, best known for his role in K-drama Taxi Driver, made his name by challenging himself with whatever role was on offer. Photo: Instagram/@leejehoon_official

Lee Je-hoon in a still from Chief Detective 1958.

Yeon Woo-jin (left) and Lee Je-hoon in a still from Just Friends? (2009).

Lee Je-hoon in a still from Bleak Night (2010).

Lee Je-hoon (left) and Bae Suzy in a still from Architecture 101 (2012).

Kim Hye-soo (left) and Lee Je-hoon in a still from Signal (2016).

Lee Je-hoon in a still from Taxi Driver season one (2021).

Lee Je-hoon in a still from Phantom Detective (2016).

K-drama Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale: Cinderella gets a grating update in new romcom

Pyo Ye-jin (left) as main character Shin Jae-rim and Lee Jun-young as chaebol heir Moon Chae-min in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

Pyo Ye-jin (left) as Cinderella character Shin Jae-rim and Lee Jun-young as chaebol heir Moon Chae-min in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale, an update of the well-known fairy tale.

Lee Jun-young as chaebol heir Moon Chae-min in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

Lee Jun-young (left) as chaebol heir Moon Chae-min and Pyo Ye-jin as Cinderella character Shin Jae-rim in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

Pyo Ye-jin as Cinderella character Shin Jae-rim in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

Pyo Ye-jin (left) as Cinderella character Shin Jae-rim and Lee Jun-young as chaebol heir Moon Chae-min in a still from Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale.

Netflix K-drama review: The Atypical Family – Jang Ki-yong, Chun Woo-hee in moving finale

Jang Ki-yong as Bok Gwi-ju in a still from The Atypical Family. Chun Woo-hee, Go Doo-shim, and Claudia Kim co-star.

Chun Woo-hee as Do Da-hee in a still from The Atypical Family.

Park So-yi as In-a in a still from The Atypical Family.

Jang Ki-yong as Bok Gwi-ju (left) and Chun Woo-hee as Do Da-hee in a still from The Atypical Family.

Netflix K-drama review: Hierarchy – vacuous high school drama combines revenge and romance

Roh Jeong-eui as heiress Jae-i in a still from Hierarchy, a Netflix K-drama that fails to provide the commentary and social upheaval it promised. Photo: Netflix

Lee Chae-min as new scholarship student Kang Ha in a still from Hierarchy. Photo: Netflix

Ji Hye-won (left) as Yoon He-ra and Lee Won-jung as Lee Woo-jin in a still from Hierarchy. Photo: Netflix

Kim Jae-won as chaebol heir Kim Ri-an in a still from Hierarchy. Photo: Netflix

Lee Chae-min (left) as scholarship student Kang Ha and Roh Jeong-eui as chaebol heiress Jae-i in a still from Hierarchy. Photo: Netflix

Lifestyle

K-drama

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

K-Pop

A woman magically switches between her twentysomething self and middle age in this comedy K-drama that sadly has no room for nuance


Lee Jung-eun and Jung Eun-ji play the same character in this fantasy comedy that sees a woman grappling with a condition that has her magically flitting between her twenties and middle age.


Netflix K-drama Miss Night and Day: Lee Jung-eun, Jung Eun-ji lead fantasy comedy

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}A woman magically switches between her twentysomething self and middle age in this comedy K-drama that sadly has no room for nuance

A woman magically switches between her twentysomething self and middle age in this comedy K-drama that sadly has no room for nuance