“Remarriage & Desires” (블랙의 신부)

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
December 29, 2022

Seo Hye-seung (played by Kim Hee-sun)
Lee Hyeong-joo (played by Lee Hyun-wook)
Jin Yoo-hee (played by Jung Yoo-jin)
Cha Seok-jin (played by Park Hoon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“Remarriage & Desires” started off with so much promise, before heading into more mundane soap opera territory. Still, it’s entertaining enough in the same manner as not great — but still fun-to-watch — shows like “Flack, “Emily in Paris” and the “Bridgerton” franchise.

This series is a revenge drama that focuses on a woman whose husband is cheating on her. He learns that his mistress embezzled money and set him up as the fall guy — and falsely accused him of sexual assault to further incriminate him. Though he denies it all, the damage has been done. After he ends his life, Hye-seung vows to destroy Yoo-hee’s.

Yoo-hee is a high-powered and successful attorney, but she wants more. She wants to marry the richest, most eligible man in South Korea: Hyeong-joo. (Kudos to Jung Yoo-jin, who portrays her. She has the best resting bitch face in the business.)

Hye-seung had a promising career in academics, but took time off after marrying and raising her daughter. She teaches at a hagwon and, after her husband’s death, is struggling for money. (Many life insurance policies do not pay beneficiaries if the account holder dies by suicide.)

Her mother signs her up for REX, which is an elite matchmaking service run by the manipulative Yoo-seon (Cha Ji-yeon). When Hye-seung goes there to try to get back the $20,000 her mother paid (!!) for the membership, she sees Yoo-hee there.

Both women are invited to a goofy masquerade party where women will mingle with the rich eligible men. But to protect their anonymity, they’ll all wear masks. Yoo-hee knows Hyeong-joo is a REX member and plans to snag him, because he fits all the qualifications for her perfect man: rich, handsome, powerful and not old. Meanwhile, Hye-seung’s goal for attending the soiree is to tell all the highrollers there that Yoo-hee is an unscrupulous bitch who’s responsible for her husband’s death.

At the party, she draws the attention of Hyeong-joo and Seok-jin, who was her college boyfriend. But neither recognizes each other’s faces or voices because … masks. And yes, this will be Hye-seung’s love triangle, with each handsome man being the second lead at various points.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how I cringed on behalf of the two actresses who had to try to dance seductively (a la Eyes Wide Shut) to capture Hyeong-joo’s heart (or libido). As a horrible dancer myself, I know bad dancing when I see it … and I saw too much of it here.

But one of the things I appreciated about this show was that while Hyeong-joo had dated his share of beautiful women, he noticed how tender Hye-seung was with his son (who she would later tutor in Korean literature). He fell for her brains and kindness, as well as her physical attractiveness.

Though the plot is silly and often predictable, one of the refreshing aspects of this K-drama is having both highly attractive men simping over a woman in her 40s who’s raising a teenage child. In fact, all the matches at REX were men with women in their mid-30s and older.

If you’d like to watch a superior revenge series, check out “Mine,” where Lee Hyun-wook gets to play a meatier role than here as the sought-after Hyeong-joo.

Cameo: Park Ji-hoon (of Wanna One and “Weak Hero Class 1” fame) makes a cameo appearance in the finale as a potential REX client.

Airdates: Eight episodes — each between 55- and 71-minutes long  — released on Netflix on July 15, 2022.

Spoiler Alert: There is a happily ever after with a wedding. Hye-seung begrudgingly had agreed to marry Seok-jin. As they’re about to say their vows, he says he wants nothing more than for her to be happy. You can see the pain in his eyes, as he looks towards the real groom, Hyeong-joo, walking towards her in his tuxedo.

Now, that’s romantic, I guess. But the men didn’t tell Hye-seung about their plans. She had every right to know who she was getting married to before the wedding. I mean, hello, patriarchy!

I get what the writers were going for, but that’s a wacky way to find out who you’re marrying. Maybe she wanted to marry him, maybe she didn’t. Remember, this marriage is happening not long after her husband’s death.

Hyeong-joo’s mother, who had wanted a better match for him, and his son appeared at the church shortly after Hyeong-joo. Both looked happy.

I think I’m one of the few people who likes the more realistic endings, even if they’re a bit of a downer. For me, the perfect finale wouldn’t have ended with a wedding, but with Hye-seung getting her life in order and telling both men that she needs time to grieve her husband’s death and spend time on her life and career — which she had put on hold when she married.

With all that said, both potential grooms and the bride looked beautiful.

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