‘The Interest of Love’ Review: Love and Finances Mix in a Very Standard Korean Drama
Netflix is ready for the release of a new Korean drama right on the heels of Christmas Eve. The South Korean content machine has no time to rest, and the result is more and more content to watch. The South Korean industry has really known how to create and distribute content that can be enjoyed by people from all around the world. The demand is high, and Netflix is ready to meet the demand and offer some of the best titles in the industry, day to day, with their releases in Asian countries. The Interest of Love is just the latest one.
The Interest of Love is a TV series developed by JTBC and distributed by Netflix to the international market. The series is based on the novel written by Lee Hyeok-jin, titled Sarangui Yihae. The series stars Yoo Yeon-seok, Mun Ka-Young, Keum Sae-rok, and Jung Ga-ram. The series tells the story of a group of workers at the KCU Bank and how they deal with the pressures of work and their own particular lives. The series also focuses on a particular couple of characters as they fall in love with each other while working at the bank.
Once you have seen as many Korean dramas as I have, you start seeing that the formula among all of them is the same. Not only are we talking about the story and how the characters interact with each other, but we are also talking about all the stylistic elements that compose the images, tone, and atmosphere of the piece. All of these elements have been calculated and interpreted into a series of values that make them easy to replicate. This is why it doesn’t matter who is in the director’s chair; every Korean drama looks exactly like the other dozen before it and after it.
The Interest of Love follows all these parameters, and the result is another Korean drama that looks and feels exactly like the rest. There is a comfort in always getting exactly what you expect. However, when that is just the only thing you receive from a genre and, in this case, an entire industry. Then it feels like these studios and creators could be doing a lot better stuff with the money and time they have at their disposal when creating shows like these.
For all intents and purposes, the show is very watchable and tells the story of two people who at first seem to be perfect for each other but then are not, but then yes, they are, once again. This back and forth between will they or will they not? It can become a bit annoying as the story progresses, but there is a part of the audience that will definitely eat up this classic story, and this is the part of the audience the series is made for. If you are not already a fan of the genre, then The Interest of Love will not make you a new fan, that is for sure.
The cast is great. South Korean television really knows who has and who doesn’t have the ability to be charming. In the Korean drama genre, being personable and charming can basically make you an international star, even if your acting abilities are not the best. We can’t say that the acting on the show is marvelous. Sometimes it can feel very stiff and boring. You can also see the actors reading lines from beyond the screen. However, this matters very little because they are all quite charming, and you just want to see them succeed.
Visually, the series really manages to hit this corporate aesthetic that is so prevalent in the lives of Korean and Asian office workers. The bank office, where a lot of the action takes place, ends up becoming a familiar place. It has all those little details that can only be found in a place that is designed to be as cozy and sterile as possible at the same time. We all have been or worked in a space like that, and the show really creates this aesthetic to the teeth.
However, while everything seems to be working on a surface level, we can say that the characters themselves, a problem with the writing, not the actors, can feel a bit frustrating. Our leading man, for example, can be annoying to watch as he tries to navigate the waters of love, and our leading lady defaults into a beautiful girl with a heart of ice. The mission is to melt her heart and make her act like a human being. 16 episodes of that can be a bit too much, especially when each of the episodes is longer than an hour.
In the end, The Interest of Love feels just like every other Korean drama available on Netflix or on any other platform. The actors are all charming and attractive, but their characters are shallow at best. There is fun to be had while watching. However, the series is clearly designed for people who are already fans of the genre and don’t care if they have to see another 16 episodes of a story they have already seen countless times before.
