‘Remarriage & Desires’ is a Netflix Korean drama about a woman who loses her husband to suicide after he was duped by another woman. She then proceeds on a quest to get revenge by joining a high-class marriage agency.
Story
Seo Hye-seung becomes a widow after her husband, Kang Nam-sik, commits suicide by jumping off an office building. He had had an affair with another employee, Jin Yoo-hui, but she was just using him to cover up her attempts of embezzlement.
Jin Yoo-hui is an arrogant lawyer who is manipulative and very good at getting what she wants through unfair means. She joins the REX agency to find a husband for herself who’s going to ensure she lives like a princess for the rest of her life.
Ms Choi Yoo-sun is the CEO of REX marriage agency and she’s a businesswoman that believes that marriage is purely a transactional union which is why she facilitates them based on class and net worth rather than love.
Hye-seung wants to get revenge on Yoo-hui and that means getting in her way while she tries to woo Lee Hyung-ju, the CEO of a very prominent gaming company.
Professors Jung Mi-jin and CHa Seok-jin are added to the mix as the spiderweb of connections leads to some pretty damning revelations.
Performances
Kim Hee-sun plays the lead character, a woman who has lost everything but later only has revenge on her mind. Hee-sun plays the part well but isn’t given much to work with except ‘thirst for revenge’ as a character trait.
Jung Yoo-jin is the best performer in the series. Her dastardly, despicable portrayal of Jin Yoo-hui is spot on and has you hating the character to its core.
Ji-Yeon Cha plays Ms Choi Yoo-sun, the leader of the REX agency and expert matchmaker. She performs the role with an air of superiority that comes across quite effectively. There are even a few moments of vulnerability shown, giving the character a different layer.
Lee Hyun-wook and Park Hoon are the two male leads vying for Seo Hye-seung’s heart and they do an average job of that. They’re not exactly charming as such, but they are kind and helpful which makes them quite dull.
Positives
The wardrobe department went the extra mile with some of the outfits on display and the characters looked fabulous throughout the series no matter what the setting was.
The antagonist ‘Jin Yoo-hui’ was brilliantly written. Her vindictive streak and just pure evil passion helped the performer flex her abilities on screen.
Negatives
There were far too many moving parts to the story. The characters were all connected to each other in such convoluted patterns that the permutations and combinations of who was in conflict with whom got confusing at times.
This was helped by the pacing of the series. Remarriage & Desires has a mere 8 episodes and while it is a staple to have hour-long episodes for most Korean dramas, these episodes felt so much longer.
The editing was disappointing as it contradicted the pace at which the story moved. One conversation was over and within the no time the characters were in a new location or the focus was on a different set of characters.
Even the background score was more of a nuisance. They the same 3-4 themes playing depending on the tone of the scene and after they were the kind of tunes that don’t sound better with more exposure.
Verdict
Remarriage & Desires is a Korean drama that you might as well ignore. It takes the concept of revenge, mixes it up with a love wheel with multiple spokes and has a generally pessimistic attitude towards the concept of marriage. The episodes are not engaging and will have you constantly checking your phone while it plays in the background.
Rating: 1.5/5
Also Read: Remarriage & Desires ending explained: Does Seo Hye-seung get her revenge?