Produced by ‘Drama House’ and ‘SLL’, “Cleaning Up (클리닝)” is the Korean adaptation of the 2019 British TV show of the same title. Written by Choi Kyung Mi and directed by Yoon Seung Sik, the show was broadcasted on JTBC.

The story revolves around Eo Young Mi (Yeom Jung Ah) who works as a cleaning lady at a brokerage company and a single mother to two daughters, while she struggles to meet the ends. As she learns about a possible insider-trading happening at the company, in secret, she joins hands with her closest colleague An In Kyung (Jein So Min) to spy on those involved and acquire informations in order to be able to invest and make big.

Catching up with their plan, later joins the team Maeng Soo Ja (Kim Jae Hwa) who has bears her toxic family despite living miserably. As the three work together, they get into contact with Lee Young Shin (Lee Moo Saeng), a lawyer and Geum Jan Di (Jang Shin Young), the Audit team chief at the company, who lead them to this influential person known as captain. Eventually they find themselves in a mess that might ruin their lives and do every possible thing get out of it. Amidst all of this Lee Do Yeong (Na In Woo) is the cutest and most charming in the drama.

Other familiar faces in major roles are: Young Gyung Ho, Kil Hae Yeon, Song Young Chang, Kim Tae Woo, Song Jae Hee, Go In Beom, etc. The two child actresses, Kim Si Ha and Gal So Won, playing the two daughters of Young Mi also did great.

Plot development is upto par. The start was smooth with a gradual buildup of seriousness and with the furtherance, it keeps getting excited. The more the ladies put their steps fowrad, the more thrilling and entertaining it was become. There were, admittedly, few instances where I was on edge. Also, probably it was the 7th episode or 8th where there were rough points that I didn’t like and the screenplay felt a lil boring, but it went back to track very soon with a major incident, that changed things for everyone.

As a rookie writer, Choi K yung Mi jakka-nim does a good job in translating and screenwriting the English show while including things according to the Korean environment and adding the taste of Kdramas to it. I’d say the portrayal of the characters and their complexions have been done better here. There is definitely a bit of dragging of the original show to make it a 16 ep drama but I guess it was still enjoyable and not really boring.

Master Director Yoon Seung Sik PDnim surely manages to bring a decent show out of an average script with no extraordinary feature to look out for. The set-up, the editing, the sound production and screenplay execution have been well-handled. The urban-office backdrop and suburb housing scenes were aptly utilized.

There are 5 OSTs in total…
# ”For You” by Sam Kim
# ”Hug” by Sondia
# ”The Queen” by SURAN
# ”Faith” by Lee Joon Hwa
# ”Times Like This” by Josh Daniel

The performance by Yeom Jung Ah is fantastic as always, the lady can literally do anything. Worth watching on screen acting every time. She as a mother, being rich or poor, has been a fierce character and she is so gorgeous I swear. Jeon So Min did a decent delivery in the drama and I am happy that she is trying out different roles. Kim Jae Hwa is also a favourite. Lee Moo Saeng is undoubtedly a very good actor.

The drama had 2 spectrums of romance: one that bloomed subtly and turned crazy for a cute couple, i. e. Doo Yeong and In Kyung and Young Mi and Young Shin whose development was angsty and serious. The latter shared an amazing chemistry on screen and this is the kind of adult romance I’d like to see often I was looking forward to some more uwu.

The writer has done a good job in portraying various social issues related to poverty and family issues through the three central character. Be it Young Mi’s struggle to give her daughters a good life or Soo Ja’s efforts to get acknowledged by her family or In Kyung’s dreams to get a coffee truck of her own; we witnessed relatable characters and their happiness & sadness together.

The show was super thrilling, ngl. The scenes involving the ladies trying to steal information or the long chases or their efforts to escape from situations or the serious scenes with the antagonists, it was fun to watch.

Final Remarks… Well, in overall, this is a good remake I would say. Even though it’s not something grand, it’s pretty enjoyable and entertaining with a decent production value and satisfying delivery I could not really find any visible flaws and I would say it was a casual and light watch for me.