Choi Sang-eun, the protagonist of the new K-drama Love in Contract, has a unique career. She works as a “single-life aide,” which means pretending to be a wife for paying clients. 

As a beautiful and poised young lady, she can be someone’s arm candy to flaunt at a high school reunion, a business partner for meetings on the golf course, or, more often than not, a presentable wife to bring to the homestead and ease any nagging family pressure. 

Sang-eun describes her employment through voice-over early in the series, screaming at one point that “marriage is a business,” a remark that appeared word for word in Netflix’s Remarriage & Desires a few months ago.

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Love in Contract exemplifies one of Korean television’s biggest ironies. Marriage to Mr. or Mrs. Perfect is the ultimate objective of many a Korean drama, yet while those unions appear fantastical, the marriages we witness on TV before these storylines conclude are also proven to be social illusions.

 

Marriage appears to be a societal construct that is frequently misused by those seeking elevation in the dramas. The contradiction is that these stories also present marriage as the ideal social situation in which we should strive. 

Sang-eun makes a good business as a “single-life helper,” earning from marriage as social currency, but her story is a romantic comedy, so she may wish to convert one of her sham weddings into a real one once her heart strings outnumber her purse strings.

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Park Min-young plays Sang-eun, who had a hit earlier this year as an equally illustrious professional in Forecasting Love and Weather. Park, dressed in a dizzying array of high-fashion clothing, laughs and sparkles her way through her different interactions with clients in her latest series. 

She also gets to shine in a bridal gown repeatedly. She is not usually required to go through the formalities of a wedding ceremony, but if the customer is ready to pay, she will sign a marriage certificate. 

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Because she can only legally marry one person at a time, she’s already been divorced 12 times by the time we meet her at the age of 33.

Jung Ji-ho, her 13th husband, has been with her for five years (Go Kyung-pyo, Private Lives). She comes to his flat for dinner every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and often sits in silence while he prepares a delectable meal. 

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But Sang-eun has chosen to call it a day. She intends to go to Quebec, Canada, with her roommate, former client Woo Gwang-nam (Kang Hyoung-suk). 

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Gwang-nam sought her assistance to conceal his sexual orientation from his parents. Rather than being motivated by parental penalties, he felt sorry for his sisters because he had been given all of the possibilities growing up as the family’s only boy.

Sang-eun only has one more tie to cut after winding up her commitments with her other minor clients: her marriage to Ji-ho. However, she discovers that severing that relationship is more difficult than she anticipated. 

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Kang Hae-jin (Kim Jae-young, Reflection of You), a Korean superstar who moves into the flat above Ji- ho’s, also complicates her escape preparations. 

Hae-jin is vain and insecure, and he is frequently embroiled in disputes, but these are mostly misunderstandings caused by all of his FaceTime conversations with his cat Jaime. 

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Hae-jin is also a secret Gangjin Group son. He maintains the relationship a secret and refuses to endorse any brands associated with the corporation since he wants to make it on his own.

He unintentionally finds himself in an embarrassing situation when he appears in an indie film that is openly critical of his family’s business. 

Sang-eun also has a hidden background regarding her relationship with the enigmatic Madam Yoo (Jin Kyung), a nefarious power broker to whom she continues to transfer 30 million won (US$21,000) every month even though they severed ties years ago.

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Because their histories are intertwined, Hae-jin and Sang-Eun will not be buried for long. Hae-jin recognizes her right instantly, but Sang-eun has yet to reveal whether or not she recognizes him. 

Meanwhile, Ji-ho is even more of a mystery, as no one knows what he does for a living. We witness him wielding a knife, looking through photos of dead women, and, at the show’s darkest moment, following a lady to her home on the same night she is murdered by a serial killer.

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Serial killers have long been popular in Korean media, but the industry appears to be overrun with them right now. They’re everywhere in thrillers like Mouse, and they’re also showing up in romantic comedies and other light genres like Link: Eat, Love, Kill.

But what value does the serial murderer subplot bring to Love in Contract? It’s quite improbable that Ji-ho is the perpetrator (he’s more likely to be researching the killings in some way), and given the show’s high concept, looming love triangle, and murky business connections, it feels like one too many ingredients in an already loaded pot. 

Love in Contract is now available on Prime Video.