[In-Depth Look] How Romance Lives in This Era

Drama 'Please Don't Meet That Man'

At one time, the most beloved dramas on home screens were romances. Even when medical dramas, legal dramas, or crime dramas were promoted as genres, romance was recognized as an essential element for success. This is not just a domestic story. Most works that led the Korean Wave were romances. Representative examples include "Winter Sonata (KBS)," which sparked the "Yonsama" craze, "My Love from the Star (SBS)," which elevated Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun to top Hallyu stars, and "Descendants of the Sun (KBS)," which made Song Joong-ki the king of Hallyu.

The recent atmosphere has completely changed. Traditional romance has almost disappeared, and even hybrid genre romances that combine other genre elements are performing poorly. Among last year's successful dramas, "Crash Landing on You (tvN)" was the only romance. On the other hand, works that captivated domestic and international viewers through the global streaming platform Netflix, which is leading a new Korean Wave, are all genre dramas. Representative examples include "Kingdom," "Sweet Home" (both Netflix), "Itaewon Class (JTBC)," and "The Uncanny Counter (OCN)."

Several factors contribute to the decline of the romance genre. Internal factors such as clich?d developments like Cinderella stories and a focus on star casting and visual appeal at the expense of quality have long been pointed out. A more important factor lies in the change of the zeitgeist. More precisely, it is the change in the female audience, who were the main viewers of the romance genre. Due to the recent surge of feminism in the past few years, romances that depict male-female relationships hierarchically are being reevaluated. For example, scenes once considered romantic, such as surprise kisses, public confessions, and piggyback rides, are now criticized for glamorizing "dating violence," and there are objections to sexist portrayals where female characters are passive and male characters are active.

A representative case is the controversy over "The King: Eternal Monarch (SBS)." This fantasy romance by the master of the romance genre, writer Kim Eun-sook, was regarded as the most anticipated work before its premiere in April last year. However, a reversal occurred immediately upon release. Due to a lack of gender sensitivity revealed throughout the work?such as a line by the female prime minister character saying "wireless bras don't support the chest" and anachronistic scenes like the "prince on a white horse"?it led to massive complaints, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission issued an administrative guidance for violating gender equality.

In a rapidly changing era, what stories can the romance genre tell? "Please Don't Meet That Man (MBC every1)" is a work that answers this question. Judging by simple ratings, it is a commercial failure, but it can be regarded as an evolution of the genre in that it directly confronts the anxieties in male-female relationships that have been packaged under the name of love in past romances. The protagonist, Seo Ji-sung (Song Ha-yoon), is a programmer engaged in developing cutting-edge technology products. Her life, which was going smoothly in both work and romance, is completely overturned when a bug is found in the AI refrigerator she was developing.

The refrigerator’s malfunction quickly gathers personal information and reveals the hidden truths of people who appear normal on the surface. In this process, the despicable true faces of men who have mainly deceived women are exposed. Crimes are successively revealed: her fianc? illegally filming her private life and distributing it in a group chat, a colleague who spread sexist and violent rumors about Seo Ji-sung on the company’s anonymous bulletin board, and a boyfriend who repeatedly committed dating violence against Seo Ji-sung’s junior. At this point, it is not an error but a true "human detector" that separates out the "trash men" who are regressive in this era.

The drama explores questions that the romance genre can no longer overlook through Seo Ji-sung, who lost trust in men but falls in love anew. For example, Seo Ji-sung is attracted to Jung Guk-hee (Lee Jun-young), a man even AI cannot analyze, yet she constantly asks who he really is. She does not relax until she knows the answer. Romance in this era thus sheds the fantasy of "fateful connections" and first demands understanding of humans and relationships.

Kim Sun-young, Popular Culture Critic

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.