What a view | When the Camellia Blooms – not your average South Korean romantic-comedy drama
- Now showing on Netflix, the series centres on out-of-towner Dongbaek and the local policeman who falls for her
- Plus, HBO’s Watchmen updates Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ comic with contemporary demons – neo-fascism and white supremacy
Heard the one about the serial killer, the kleptomaniac, the police officer, the potential governor, the bitchy neighbourhood gossips and the watering hole boss who’s also a single mother?
As bar proprietresses go, Dongbaek (Gong Hyo-jin) is hardly Mistress Quickly of Eastcheap. Nevertheless, although she appears deferential to even the most boorish customers and is well-mannered in the most impeccable Korean tradition, Dongbaek has an inner steel that helps her navigate the societal booby traps of the small town in which she arrives to open Camellia, a saloon.
Welcome to When the Camellia Blooms and the backwater of Ongsan, where Dongbaek must rise to the challenge thrown down by said gossips; street stallholders jealous of her beauty and fearful of losing sales. Until her arrival, the big local attraction was marinated crab.
Still, Dongbaek toughs it out, her bar proving popular with the menfolk despite the habits of its waitress, who’s also a thief, and regardless of the personal attentions of dedicated customer and supreme dork Hwang Yong-sik (Kang Ha-neul). Pre-Dongbaek, Yong-sik’s goal was Seoul, but so bedazzled is he that he becomes stuck fast in Ongsan in a puddle of his own sentimental goo.
Early appreciation of Yong-sik by Dongbaek runs from “pervert” to “what a complete weirdo”, thoughts she fortunately keeps to herself, because there’s a serial killer serpent in this sub-Eden, back to terrorise the town after years of silence. And soppy Yong-sik happens to be a police officer and a gallant hero-in-waiting for his “Princess Diana”.
Despite initial appearances, When the Camellia Blooms, the first series of which is now streaming on Netflix, is more than a standard romantic comedy-drama; for one thing, the women call most of the shots.
Laments one male menial: “When your wife is your boss you basically have to work 24-7.”