Currently Watching: The Lover

Currently Watching

The Lover

This is definitely different. It’s unique, beautiful and daring.

The drama airs a weekly episode of behind-the-scenes of the lives of four couples. We don’t see them outside their flats. Their couples' lives are what matters to us only. There’s always love somewhere and that’s why they’re still together. But the drama presents a more realistic approach to their relationships, hilariously enough.

So we spend 50 minutes a week in a block of flats where four couples live, for better or worse.

First couple: Oh Do Shi & Ryu Du Ri

Oh Do Shi (the ever adorable and talented Oh Jung Se) is a voice actor. Ryu Du Ri (Ryu Hyun Kyung) is an online writer. But their jobs don’t matter to us really except for the fact that they spend almost all their time at home and together. Both are in their thirties. They’ve been dating for 5 years and co-habitating for 2.

Do Shi is an insecure man with an inferiority complex. He feels small whenever he meets Du Ri’s friends or the neighbours. He feels inferior if he sees taller, stronger or richer men. Anyone else having a better job, getting married or simply physically more attractive makes Do Shi feels insignificant. 

Though Du Ri would support him in the moments when he confesses feeling small, she’s a big reason why he does and will always do. She’s always yelling at him, ordering and pushing him around and never understanding his feelings or moods without him telling her so. She’s demanding and selfish. If he wants something she doesn’t like, she never gives it. But he has to do whatever she wants. As a character, she’s the least favourable for me so far. She has her hilarious moments though.

Second couple: Choi Jin Yeo & Jung Young Jun

This is my favourite couple, well, I’m Jung Joon Young biased so!

Choi Jin Yeo (Choi Yeo Jin) is in her early thirties. She has a side-dishes online shop. She’s pretty, clever but childish. Jung Young Jun (Jung Joon Young) is her boyfriend who’s 12 years younger. He dreams of becoming a singer when he has no potential. So Jin Yeo basically supports him and he boldly accepts that. Their fights and reconciliations are the most adorable thing ever.

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If you guys started watching this drama for Jung Joon Young, then you know how awesome a rock star he is and how funny and witty he is in real life. After I coincidentally watched Teenager as he released it, JJY became instantly my no.1 rock star and I listened and watched everything by him. But to watch him acting the foolish and  immature Young Jun mooching off his girlfriend, making fun of her and giving her a hard time is more than I can take. The daffy look in his eyes and that indifferent attitude are irresistible. After each episode, I have to go back and listen to some of his songs. Well, I don’t want to lose my mind anyway.

There are so many great performances of his. This is my latest addiction:

Third couple: Ha Seol Eun & Park Hwan Jong

We don’t know much about this couple’s jobs but we know both are in they’re twenties. They just moved in together and they still speak formally. Park Hwan Jong (Park Jong Hwan) is still intimated by his girlfriend’s supposed feminity and is spoiling her. Ha Seol Eun (Ha Eun Seol), on the other hand, tries to live up to that image. She’s unsure about her body and doesn’t want any part of her to appear imperfect so she invents ways to cover up for her flaws and she’s good at it. Wonder when she’ll be found out!

Fourth couple: Lee Joon Jae & Takuya

Lee Joon Jae (Lee Jae Joon; my new hottie discovery) is a poor loner in his twenties. He is forced to get a roommate for financial reasons and because he prefers loneliness, he seeks foreigners. The new Japanese roommate Takuya (Terada Takuya) proves to be the wrong choice. He speaks Korean really well and he’s talkative. On top of that, he proves dangerous to Joon Jae’s heart. Not knowing how and why, Joon Jae finds himself attracted emotionally and physically to Takuya and tries to push the thought aside but Takuya is of no help. Takuya keeps crossing the red line driving Joon Jae crazy. I’m excited to see what turn their relationship would take.

The best thing about these two guys is that they’re so gorgeous. My eyes are really happy.

Though the cigarettes get blurred and you don’t literally see bed scenes, the show is bawdily explicit. They allude to lots of stuff. Watching this, I realised you don’t need bed scenes or nudity to get exactly what they want to tell you! You’ll be staring at the screen waiting for a blue scene after all the lewd suggestions then it turns out to be facetiously irrelevant.

Sex and love are tackled realistically and boldly here. Put the perfectionist account of love aside. After couples move in together, things change. What these changes are is what we see here. What troubles, obstacles, arguments and secrets go between the couples is what we’re shown.

No exaggerated scenes and fairy tales. This drama shows us what the other dramas don’t.

Notice that apart from the first couple, the names of the characters are the same as the actors', they only switched the characters of the first name.

The music played in each episode is just so good. I write down all the song titles. Here’s one of them:

For the first time I love the 12-episode once-a-week drama. This drama is not to be watched for a story line or deep emotional effects. It’s a light and lovely guide to relationships. Each one of us who has or had co-habitated with someone would relate to at least one of the couples or some of the moments. It's about choices. Would you choose living alone or with someone?! And if you choose the latter, would you be able to live up to the responsibility and bear the consequences?! What do you gain from that and what do you lose?  

The drama is so funny, you won’t stop laughing and you won't regret it.

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