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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
2.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Yoo Yeon-seok, Chae Soo-bin
Latest Nielsen rating: 8.6 per cent
While fantasy romance is a popular genre in the Korean entertainment industry, it must be noted that even normal romantic K-dramas without supernatural elements tend to be pretty fantastical.
The recently concluded romantic mystery-thriller When the Phone Rings, starring Yoo Yeon-seok (Hospital Playlist) and Chae Soo-bin (The Fabulous), is a pretty good example of this.


With their clumsiness, demanding jobs and messy family lives, female leads in K-dramas are often designed to be recognisably imperfect. On the other hand, male leads are little more than contemporary Disney princes – handsome, rich and perfect in almost every way.
The K-dramas that stick to this tried-and-true binary sell a romantic dream that does not exist in reality. This may cause some domestic grumbling when partnerships do not match the expectations set on screen, but, for the most part, viewers accept that these tales are exercises in escapism.
When the Phone Rings hews pretty close to this formula, save for a few perplexing differences.
In many ways, Baek Sa-eon (Yoo) is the typical male. He is dashing, grew up in luxury and is fabulously accomplished, working as South Korea’s youngest presidential spokesperson, beloved by citizens and the media alike.
He also has a tortured backstory that allows us to empathise with him and forgive his aloof behaviour early on – another classic K-drama trope.

Likewise, Hong Hee-joo (Chae) is a hard worker, acting as a sign-language interpreter in the fast-paced world of prime-time news. Though shy and lonely to begin with, she builds confidence throughout the series.
Owing to her family circumstances, including a greedy mother, Hee-joo has also pretended to be mute for all of her adult life.
Sa-eon and Hee-joo have been locked in a loveless arranged marriage for years, but true love steadily blossoms between them after they find themselves at the mercy of a mysterious blackmailer.
After being kidnapped, Hee-joo manages to escape and keeps the voice-modulated phone of her attacker. She then poses as her kidnapper and “speaks” with her husband for the first time during a series of increasingly ludicrous late-night conversations.

Given the personal nature of their conversations, which revolve around Hee-joo, and the fact that she sometimes cries on the phone, it is hard to imagine how the brilliant Sa-eon would be unable to figure out who this mysterious caller is.
However, since this is the unlikely concept that the show centres on, this pretence is kept up for an extremely long time.
During that time, Sa-eon’s character softens and it is revealed that he has always cared for Hee-joo. The story also gives him plenty of opportunities to save Hee-joo, but once the danger is out of the way and no more obstacles exist to keep them apart, he disappears.
Months later, Hee-joo discovers that Sa-eon has gone to a war-torn foreign country to help rebels, dangerous work that he is taking on as a way of punishing himself for what Hee-joo has been through all these years because of his aloof behaviour.
In his own words: “I need time to punish myself.”

However, there is a difference between brooding stoicism and self-flagellatory bloody-mindedness. Since they have now become an official item, surely his unexplained disappearance causes Hee-joo even more distress?
It may cue a dramatic reunion in a dangerous foreign land – with another opportunity for Sa-eon and Hee-joo to play hero and damsel in distress – but is this the kind of behaviour anyone would want from a romantic partner?
Beyond its wonky romantic acrobatics, When the Phone Rings also lands itself in hot water thanks to a thoroughly unnecessary allusion to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
During a news broadcast, the fictional country of “Paltima” is revealed to have launched air strikes on “Izmael” and taken Korean hostages.
It does not take much guess work to connect the fictional names to Palestine and Israel, but what is harder to fathom is why this was included at all in the story.

Then again, K-dramas have a poor track record of insensitively wading into global and historical events – even good ones, like Twenty-Five Twenty-One, which was criticised for staging its finale during the September 11 attacks.
Realism and political correctness can be overlooked in the realm of prime-time romantic melodrama, since romance is the driving factor.
However, given that its complicated family backstories and corporate, political and media narratives all tangle together into a bigger and bigger knot throughout 12 episodes, the romance in When the Phone Rings, despite its flaws, often struggles to be in the spotlight.
But the good thing about a call that is dragging on is that you can always hang up.
When the Phone Rings is streaming on Netflix.


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Yoo Yeon-seok (left) as politician Baek Sa-eon and Chae Soo-bin as interpreter Hong Hee-joo in a still from Netflix K-drama When the Phone Rings.

Yoo Yeon-seok (left) as politician Baek Sa-eon and Chae Soo-bin as interpreter Hong Hee-joo in a still from When the Phone Rings.

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This Netflix series slavishly sticks to Korean-drama stereotypes while including a clumsy, unnecessary allusion to the Israel-Gaza war


This Netflix series slavishly sticks to Korean-drama stereotypes while including a clumsy, unnecessary allusion to the Israel-Gaza war.


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Review | Netflix K-drama When the Phone Rings review: mystery-thriller doesn’t know when to hang up

This Netflix series slavishly sticks to Korean-drama stereotypes while including a clumsy, unnecessary allusion to the Israel-Gaza war