An “ Cheesy” Drama With A Surprising Ending For Getting Out Of The “ Trap”..
Cheese In The Trap is based on the webtoon of the same name. The drama centralises upon hardworking university student Hong Seol ( Kim Go Eun), who takes a year out of education for a study break partly due to tensions arising between herself and fellow manipulative classmate Jeong ( Park Hae- Jin). After nearly a year, she returns back to school only to find more tension between Jeong and herself. With the support of her friends Jang Bo-ra ( Park Min- Ji) and Kwon Eun-taek ( Nam Joo Hyuk), Seol hopes to guide a sense of normality within her hectic life, however, the arrival of troublemakers Baek In-ho ( Seo Kang- Joon) and In- Ha ( Lee Sung- Kyung), the deceitful natures of her classmates , school life and a strange proposal from Jeong could threaten everything Jeong’s hope for normality and an easy school year.Before I begin my review, I must emphasise that my criticism does not come from like most drama reviewers, from the ending of the series. In fact, it was somewhat refreshing to break out of the escapist cliche of romance dramas in which the female lead and Male lead live happily ever after and never have to worry about anything ever again. Cheese In The Trap instead offered a reflection of reality in the series; a chance for Seol to escape her controlling and toxic relationship with Jeong and to learn a weary lesson of being cautious around those who ask too much , and for the other two main protagonists ( Jeong and In Ho), to continue onwards with their lives.
It may not have been the ending that we entirely wanted as viewers, but even after reading the original webtoon ending; it still rose to my attention that the drama series offered possibly the best outcome for Seol as an individual, rather than a plot device.
On the other hand, I’m not going to say that Cheese In The Trap was a either . Where my criticism really lies is with the events that lead up to the ending and more importantly, the cliche choices by the scriptwriters with dealing with the characters. First of all, I must comment that Kim Go Eun truly matched up to the expectations of Seol. Whilst Go Eun is memorable within her youthful looks in Goblin, Go Eun was perfectly cast not as you’d expect as a glamorous goddess , but your everyday student, something which was refreshingly portrayed by Go Eun’s stylist within her everyday clothing, her slightly roughed hair and Go Eun’s quiet mannerisms as well. Anyone who has experienced being like Seol as a hardworking , introverted or a fairly studious student in higher education at high school, college or university , can probably easily relate to the same experiences as Seol around fellow classmates and teachers .
Park Hae- Jin could seem a lacklustre at times within the show, something , which even before we got into the plot, dragged me into the gnawing suspicion that Hae- Jin had been typcasted again to play the brooding quiet type. Hae- Jin, however, did exceed my expectations at times within the show by his portrayal as Jeong; the cliche “ rich heir” ( thankfully was not induced too much in the plot, until later, however , it’s entire purpose did make me question why it hadn’t been picked up previously apart from dodgy scriptwriting), who is exceedingly disturbing and manipulative. Hae- Jin could truly make the hairs on the back of your neck stick up at time’s within his portrayal as Jeong, during his nearly sociopathic traits and manipulative nature. Undeniably, Jeong was a horrific character on all grounds especially over his control of Seol during their relationship, however, this did not take away the fact that he was additionally intriguing as a result of this.
Park Seo Joon was undeniably top-notch as In- Ho ; fairly parallel to Go Eun as Seol. He was able to portray In Ho with a surprising level of comical brilliance during his moments with Seol and his flirtatious teasing of her “ natural curls”, and levels of sincerity around his complex relationship with his sister and their abusive childhood at the hands of their aunt, Jeong’s actions and giving up the piano as a result. It was fair to say that In- Ho played upon the countless cliches of the “ nice second Male lead” ; yet he was also portrayed as an individual as well, something which was somewhat refreshing as a Korean drama. This is additionally where I point out one defence for the drama not allowing In - Ho and Seol to be together as many fans complained about within the ending of the series. Just as Jeong was manipulative, In- Ho carried a lot of emotional baggage especially in regards to what his sister In- Ha did to Seol at the ending of the series. Whilst I agree it would have been more touching for the either the drama writers to have induced more establishment of In- Ho’s feelings for Seol ( and vice versa) or simply written their relationship as a platonic friendship rather than beating around the bush, In- Ho’s relationship with Seol would have demeaning for both characters as individuals and their ability to move on with their lives, rather than stay weighted to their pasts.
This moves us onto our next female lead; Lee Sung- Kyung as In-Ha, the materialistic sister of In Ho and head over heels with a crush on Jeong. I’ve always admired Sung- Kyung as an actress after her ability to break out of the “ pretty girl role” in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo as the titular protagonist ( not forgetting the irony here that Joo- Hyuk is also in this drama) , however, I’m not going to hide that Sung- Kyung’s acting was unbearable at times within the show from overreacting and yelling moments . Of course, this is also on part of her character as well, who became questionably despicable over the course of the series. Whilst there’s no doubt that In- Ha has some moments of genuine emotional vulnerability such as her abuse at the hands of her aunt, her actions upon leeching on her brother, manipulating Seol and of course being able to walk on a light sentence despite her crimes in the series, seemed untrustworthy cruel by both the scriptwriters and the lacking lessons given to In- Ha’s characterisation. Although the show delivers a great casting selection and plot themes of relationships, education and youth problems ( including a refreshing portrayal of a gay couple), the show is often too lost certainly near the middle-point of the series upon the characters as plot devices rather than individuals and the drama between Seol and her classmates at times, grows to the point of stupidness especially in regards to some students such as Kim Sang-cheol ( Moon Ji- Yoon), who would have undeniably been a raise of concern by the teachers over some of his actions . Whilst this is naturally to add drama more than anything else, it did devalue a lot of the show as we soon became lost within tropes of trauma and romance which took away a lot of the possibility of how the drama could’ve built up this good ending without falling onto the cliches.
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Where should i start? The whole story was so dispersed and non-sense. Let's start from the main lead yo jung. The only main lead whom i disliked and eventually hated from the very first episode to last. His personality was so disturbing and so problematic. I just hated him throughout and skipped his scenes. I just didn't want to see him anymore.
Baek in Ho was such a good character. His acting was awesome too. He was the kind of person who was so loveable but i don't understand the logic why he had to go through so much for no reason. He was enduring everything even his love like a one man army. He was a perfect person,friend and brother.
Baek In Ha's acting was just too good. I felt pity for both siblings. They were used by yo jung and his father and then thrown away like a tissue paper.
The most useless thing was their love story. I couldn't understand this love story tbh. The chemistry was so weak and i just couldn't get why they was LOVE out of nowhere. It felt like a forced and dragged lovestory. Hong seol kept on being with him even after his wrong doings and she was like i get you why you did that don't worry. Like what the hell. Honestly i wanted seol to be with baek in ho.
Lastly, the story was so dispersed that i wasn't able to get what was the story actually and why there was baek in ho actually and why he had to go through so much. I don't recommend it to anyone. It's just waste of time and mood
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There is so much about this show I need to talk about, let me air my feelings out in this not strictly review but review-ish rant about this show. I have a fair bit to say about the main characters so bare with me.
Yoo Jung
Yoo Jung is the 1st male lead, he is manipulative, cold and distant at best of times, a clear psycopath at worst. He is selfish and petty to the point of cruelty and I don't know why anyone would ever fall for him or why the first female lead would find him interesting at all (unless she was studying his case for criminal profiling). He comes off as the kind of guy who would kill someone because they inconvenienced him.
I mean he actually had some guys beat his best friend up (Baek In Ho) because he told some half-hearted lie about him when he was momentarily jealous of his relationship with another friend. Those guys broke Baek In Ho's hand - thereby ruining his future as a pianist, and Yoo Jung just stood by and did nothing.
I bothers me so much that he not only ruined his relationship with his best friend forever, but he also ruined his best friend's life for a very long time.
He's continually set people up for failure and manipulated his surroundings. One of the most disturbing flashbacks from when he was a kid was when he let a little girl drink alcohol to pacify her and manipulate her into being docile and then he maliciously broke her toy - look I'm no psycologist but that screams psycopath to me.
He constantly hurts people around him and he should NOT be the romantic lead. Or at least, he's not a good rolemodel for what a romantic lead should be. The kindest thing he ever did in the entire show was to break up with Seol.
Baek In Ho
He is the second male lead and the most wonderful guy to ever exist. He's warm, kind, genuinley a good person, he's super handsome and honest. It eludes me why he isn't the 1st male lead. It genuinely astonishes me that he isn't treated better. Now, I like a punky lookin' dude with angsty problems, but it's kind of ONLY suffering for him. I feel so sorry for him that I cry almost every episode. And the real question is; why isn't this story about him?? He clearly has the most interesting backstory, certainly main protagonist-worthy.
Fuck Seol and her school problems and crush on a psycopath. I want a good happy-ever after for my boy Baek In Ho. He's so perfect, bless actor Seo Kang Joon who played him with such sensibility! My heart was stolen by him and I am just 100% watching this JUST to see if Baek In Ho will ever have a happily ever after.
Yoo Jung's dad
I will refer to him as ajusshi from now on. Yoo Jung's dad is as much of a psycopath as Yoo Jung. He's just better at hiding it. He pretty much raised the Baek siblings since their teens, them being orphans were thrilled their best friend's dad wanted them to be his kids. Turns out he never loved them at all and just used them as tools to "normalize" his son's behavior. As opposed to say, actually TALKING to his son about good moral behavior. No, he's leaving it up to a pair of grief-stricken orphans to raise his kid for him!
Again people: HE USED ORPHANS FOR HIS OWN SELFISH MEANS!!
Meanwhile he's pretending he wanted to take them in because he cared about their father as a friend. The notion that he ever cared is superficial at best. When In Ha (Baek In Ho's sister) is publicly humiliated, courtesy of Yoo Jung) he treats her less like a daughter and more like some trash in the streets.
Yes she is loud and obnoxious, but to humiliate someone like that is beyond me, and allow it to happen in front of your eyes with less consideration than a stranger when you were supposed to adopt them is unspeakably cruel.
Him telling both In Ha and In Ho at separate occations that their usefulness has reached an end and that he wants nothing more to do with them is heartbreaking.
Seol
This is supposed to be the main character, but honesly her story isn't that engaging as the people around her. She's not nearly as good a character as I thought she'd be. Yes she tells Yoo Jung off for his psycopathic behavior at first, but as soon as she turns her back he goes and does despicable things anyway - but then half way through the drama she kind of just gives up??
When Yoo Jung sets his overbearing clasmate up for failure at an interview for a job (as retaliation for pestering Seol) she hugs him and says it's ok. Like, what?? It was this kind of behavior that made her break up with him in the first place. But because it happened to someone else it's "ok"??
No to mention that his manipulations in the past led to her being stalked by a guy. And she is mad at him to the point that she puts their relationship on a break. But then eventually forgives him. I'm sorry but being stalked by a guy isn't something a woman should forgive, actually if you meet a guy who had another guy stalk you for ANY REASON, run far, far away! It's not up to him who approaches you, that's a matter that is only up to you. So, for Seol to take him back like that was really disappointing, especially since she seemed to have more moxy in the first episodes.
What really gets me though is as soon as she's back with Yoo Jung she avoids Baek In Ho (who is by now her loyal friend) - like they can't even be friends just because her boyfriend (who should have no say in the matter after the things he's done) disapproves. The look on In Ho's face when he overhears Seol say "I won't spend ANY time with him outside of studying" is frankly soul-shattering, and at that moment I was so angry and disappointed. Why can't she hang out with Baek In Ho as friends just because her boyfriend is a jealous asshole? So yeah, Seol -our supposed heroine has some problems of her own.
Baek In Ha
In Ho's sister may be vapid, inconsiderate and a drama-queen, but she's not evil. She's been treated with as much disrespect as her brother by the foul Yoo Jung and his asshole father.
All she wanted was to be ajusshi's daughter, to have a family (and yeah brag about being rich and spending money) but who doesn't, lol. She's a bit rash and her emotions tend to run hot like her brother's, but she could probably be easily directed in the right path if she had someone with a firm hand to show her he really cares, like say ajusshi. So it breaks my heart that ajusshi just used her like that and he was the one who treated her the worst. He even had her committed into an insane asylum for crying out loud!! My heart breaks for the Baek siblings. They continually face injustice and I just can't..
Summary:
My final thoughts on Cheese In The Trap are that Yoo Jung the first male lead treats Seol the first female lead like shit and she's in love with him for it??
This one is a hard abusive relationship warning!
Main romantic lead is a stalker and a psycopath and possibly a sadist and I just don't get why someone would choose him over a passionate friendly guy (like Baek In Ho) who would treat you well and respect you and love you sincerely. Seriously? What is up with that??
The ONLY reason to watch this drama is because Seo Kang Joon's performance as Baek In Ho is F A N T A S T I C <3 - honestly he's the only reason to watch this show! His character is amazing! In Ho is unfailingly kind, so freaking gorgeous, has this deeply intriguing backstory and I would have been so much happier if this entire story was just a Baek In Ho revenge story of how he got his hand back to playing piano and his road to success.
I mean, I'll give Cheese In The Trap that it at least wasn't boring. But to put a psycopath as a romantic lead is so wrong on so many levels, and then have the girl he's pursuing constantly be hurt physically or emotionally over him is a very damaging depiction of a romantic relationship.
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I honestly don't even know how I made it through this show. I despised this drama so much that I thought about dropping it after every single episode I watched. The major disappointment was definitely the storyline. I appreciated the fact that it tried to stand out from the romance genre with it's "dark" and "weird" characters, but it just didn't do the job for me. I was so confused and frustrated with them. Yoo Jung was a mix between a cold, dark and soft (but only towards Hong Seol) character. Hong Seol was simply not convincing when it came to the relationship with both her and Yoo Jung. I think it was mainly because of the fact that not many episodes went by for them to "fall in love". They went too fast in the beginning which is fine if there is a good development for the rest of the drama but that was not the case with this one. After every episode I doubted whether they were going to either continue with their relationship or breakup. They tried to explain Yoo Jung's cold and dark character with flashbacks about his high school days which I suppose were meant to make you fond of him but it was the total opposite for me. It just didn't justify his behaviour. It made me even more frustrated. I could go on about what else I didn't like about both these characters in particular but simply put, I felt like there was just no character development.
I do have to say that what made me reach the end of this drama was Baek In Ho and the relationship between Eun Taek and Bo Ra. I just fell in love with In Ho's character. After every episode I thought: "I want to know what happens to him". But at the same time, it confused the story even more. It was like a war between Yoo Jung and In Ho which made me wonder why Hong Seol wasn't convinced enough to go with the latter. I honestly appreciated the decision of putting Eun Taek and Bo Ra together. I thought there was at least some hope for love in this drama.
At the end of it, I was just so uninteresed that I didn't even care about Yoo Jung and Hong Seol's relationship.
Overall I wouldn't watching it again.
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WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? RUN!
Listen, everybody has their own preference and taste. But, in this case, I AM RIGHT when I say I rather sit nak*d on a hot grill than rewatch this drama. If I can travel back in time, I will use it to stop my past self from rewatching this. The fact that I wasted my precious time and energy to watch this is abysmal but it is what it is.WHY DO I HATE THE DRAMA?
1. The plot should've been that all the characters are in therapy rather than in college because of the fact that not one person in this damn drama is normal and that should be the first warning. At one point, the second fl attempted murder and almost killed the fl and it was brushed off just like that like???? Okay?!?!?!?! All the leads were unhinged, yes, including the second leads.
2. The ml was the worst male lead that exist in Kdrama. I don't remember much from him because I did everything in my power to forget about this drama but one thing that I remember is how creepy the main lead is. The gaslighting was tremendous in this one. And the beef between the male leads was so childish and main ml retaliation was shitty, it's insane.
All in all, if you disagree with me, you're wrong idc. Argue with a wall, no amount of explanation could make me rewatch this again. Take this as a warning and watch other kdrama (not Hwarang though), you cannot go any lower than this.
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What a strange, strange drama. Cheese in the trap started off with such a different, eary and chilly feel, which indicates brilliant acting from the leads and supporting siblings. However, you soon start to feel that the brilliant acting from the leads is downplayed because of the lack of character development. It made me really appreciate the importance of Baek InHo and Baek InHa's predicament which ended up in happiness and self-fulfilment.
They go from having growing pains to finally being able to detach themselves and start new lives in the final episode, the leads however, had an unsatisfactory ending. I usually like to be objective and don't really mind how the ending is, as long as the characters THEMSELVES find self-fulfilment at the end. This leads me to wonder what the entire point of the past 15 episodes was while watching episode 16.
So for all those complaining that the supporting Baek In Ho as a supporting character got way to much screen time, I am very satisfied with the outcome at least. My time watching his dilemmas was not wasted, because he eventually found his passion again, even his sister had a new beginning.
I've watched enough K-Dramas to figure out all the genres and what is most enjoyable or appealing to me and what genres I need to give more of a chance to because I surprisingly end up enjoying things I thought I would drop. I really wanted to get into more eary and chilly dramas, but this one just couldn't do it for me.
Shout out to everyone who liked it though, everyone is entitled to their own favorite shows!
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I am genuinely confused as to what rating is appropriate for this show. I would honestly give it a 10, if it weren't for the disturbing romance between the female lead, Hong Seol and the male lead, Yoo Jung. As the show went on, I definitely felt genuine sympathy for Yoo Jung and wanted him to learn and grow. I did not, however, appreciate how his character was validated in his unhealthy tendencies by Hong Seol. There is a difference between feeling sympathy for someone and engaging in a relationship with them. It is not Hong Seol's job to fix him! It just felt like a toxic relationship to me.
Similarly, I understood Yoo Jung's resentment towards Baek In-ho, but his sense of entitlement was out of control. Being hurt by someone does not entitle you to hurt someone the way Yoo Jung hurt Baek In-ho. By the way, Baek In-ho demonstrated a much healthier way of interacting with Hong Seol and caring for her, but for some reason Hong Seol chooses toxicity over him.
Other than these criticisms, everything was fantastic! The music was phenomenal. Every track was on point for each moment, and the songs are excellent listening in and of themselves. The characters felt three-dimensional and compelling; I loved Baek In-ho, Baek In-ha, Eun Taek, and Bo Ra! All of the actors (including Park Hae-jin) did a great job, and it was so refreshing to see such realism in a K Drama.
In summary, I believe this is an excellently crafted K Drama. It feels real and compelling. But I personally can't get over how the show rewards and exalts a toxic relationship, and this alone results in my relatively low rating of the show.
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I was really enticed with this drama up until about midway through the season...I think if it had been filmed later once the web toon had come to a conclusion it really would have been such an amazing storyline and drama. I really think that that was this drama's biggest downfall. It just seemed like they had lost their way about mid-way through as they began to shift the focus and main characters around. I don't know all of the drama and controversy that went on behind the scenes, or if there even was any.
I really liked how we were able to see the main female develop into a woman, but the ending completely spoiled it all...to say in the least I was disappointed.
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Over all disappointed
I had high expectations for this drama, but i was let down with a watered down story from the original and a lack luster ending.The story: theres really nothing wrong with the story, I quite like the story because im a big fan of the webcomic, but the execution was just bad, so many unnecessary scenes and plot points that weren't in the webtoon, they changed the structure of the whole story in a way that makes it flow awkwardly and prevents any character development from happening.
The characters: The FM is just so annoying, shes a total push over all she does is cry and stare blankly into space shes honestly so annoying to watch, a far cry from the spunky, capable, witty and intellegint Sul from the webtoon who knows how to stand up for herself. Then we have the male leads who are just completely different from how they were in the webtoon, Inho is now this sad boy with no spunk to him just more like a sad kicked puppy, nothing like in the webtoon he has an explosive temper and a "dont care" attitude. And Jung, oh Jung, hes now just a weirdo whos actions dont make sense and does just a number of stupid things, he loses his sense of humor, his youthfulness, his intelligence and over all presence. The side characters are fine, except Inha who is just 10 times more annoying in this, I honestly cant stand her, but the casting for the rest of the side characters was pretty spot on.
The only thing that I truly like about this drama is the ost, ive listened to it so many times, and I specially like to listen to it when I study, I recommend you give it a listen.
I only watched this because the webtoon its based on (its actually my fav webtoon tbh), but it just watered down the story and the characters. This is just my opinion as a fan of the webtoon, so im pretty biased, but if you enjoyed it more power to you, its just not for me, if youre a fan of the webtoon I dont recommend this, but if youre not you might like it, idk.
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I never read the webtoon so this review is for the show only. Very strong beginning and set up of the show but frankly very limited character development and limited relationship development. While the characters did grow a lot of times I'm found thinking about just how average these characters are in their personality. Hardly anything about the characters themselves made it worth watching other than how pretty the overall cast was.
The side plots are very cliche if you've ever read shoujo manga, but then again this was based on a webtoon.
The show had potential. Worth a watch if you like college setting and rich boy/poor girl tropes.
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I hated it
Without a doubt the worst drama I've ever watched. First of all, the male lead, Yu Jeong, doesn't have any sense of empathy towards anyone but the girl he "loves", and if he's had a good development, I would've changed my ratings, but he's just like a plain paper. Outraged me how he did that terrible thing to In Ho and has never shown anything but rancor against him. I got so angry at the way Jeong does whatever he wants and end up as a poor guy who was trying to do his best for the one he loves (I'm not defending what some characters did, but it annoys me how Jeong thinks he is an angel when he is doing the same — if not worse). The female lead, Hong Soul, plays dumbs and ignores a thousand things Yu does it's ridiculous. Anyways I'm not going to extend myself on this because I hated it and I don't want to get angry again.Esta resenha foi útil para você?
This drama really brings out the ugliest parts of human nature, which is dark, but okay and fun to watch for some people.
My issue is that nearly no one redeemed themselves till the end of the series. The male lead had nearly no character improvement at all and the female lead only accepted his flaws till the end.
ACTING: 9/10
Everyone played their roles well, minus point because Baek In Ha's character was so annoyingly bad I have no idea why she existed in the story. Her only role was to be a hazard to the main couple all the way to the last minute of the final episode. The way she spoke was very bizarre and loud.
MUSIC: 8/10
Nothing noteworthy but my rating is biased because I love piano music.
Rewatch value: 4/10
Probably not gonna rewatch this at all because of the nonredeemable characters that never get punished properly but just vanish after they're exposed.
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