Stream Classics to Latest K-Movies & Shows at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Lover" Episode 9

The emphasis this episode shifts to moody voiceover. While I appreciate the token attempts made by "The Lover" for the sake of seriousness, these statements are increasingly getting rather out of proportion to the actual emotional seriousness of the drama. The story, to the extent "The Lover" even has a story, appears to have gotten mired in silly, petty arguments about nothing. With the right priming this can, as was the case in previous episodes, come off as amusing. Here it just seems childish.

Advertisement

The main exemplar of this is the weird verbal catfight that takes place near the end. Awkward non-arguments aren't at all fun to watch, and the way the camera fixates on the breasts of the characters in question doesn't really help matters. The scene highlights some of the worst personality traits of these people, and for that reason, mostly I just really wanted that whole bit to end sooner rather than later.

Where "The Lover" has been best at capturing the basic joys of living together with another person is when it highlights those moments that are hugely embarrassing, yet somehow become more tolerable when made in the presence of a person who really cares about you. Take the delivery of those stylish pants. It had never occurred to me that those things would look completely ridiculous on anyone who's sitting down. That's funny, and could possibly happen to anyone.

But most of the other sketches here lack any kind of urgency. Worse, they're getting to be repetitive, to the point that I'm liking the characters even less and less. Seol-eun's weird fetish obsession, as an example, only comes off as much worse when the voiceover straight up admits to the fact that to a large extent she's screwing around with Hwan-jong just to see how much of her nonsense he'll put up with. That's really not at all cool- you shouldn't "test" friends.

I can't tell whether "The Lover" is actually getting worse or if I've just gotten accustomed enough to the style of humor that the shock value has worn off. All I know for sure is that I'm not laughing anymore. And also it wasn't in my imagination- "The Lover" is definitely faking pregnancy scares and then frustratingly refusing to actually have scenes where the characters talk about it. Instead it's just the usual cycle of comedic misunderstandings and occasional tenderness that, while not necessarily bad, we've already seen far too often.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Lover" is directed by Kim Tae-eun-III, written by Kim Min-seok-II and features Oh Jung-se, Ryu Hyun-kyung, Jung Joon-young, Choi Yeo-jin, Park Jong-hwan, Ha Eun-seol, Terada Takuya and Lee Jae-joon.

Watch on Viki

❎ Try Ad-free