Relationships are currency in Remarriage & Wishes (Netflix), where a matchmaking service that mainly caters to the upper classes of Korean society becomes the battleground for a personal war between a wronged woman and the black widow who destroyed her marriage. Marriage for love is not involved here. Marry for profit? That’s more like it.
opening shot: Kang Nam-Sik is standing on the roof of his office building. Dejectedly, he lights a cigarette and looks out at the Seoul cityscape at night.
The essentials: For 15 years, Seo Hye-Seung (Kim Hee-sun) had it all. A cozy home in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district, a gleaming white Audi sedan and a daughter on her way to college. But overnight, her marriage to CEO Kang Nam-Sik, and with it the affluent life she knew, completely crumbled. He was having an affair with Jin Yoo-hui (Jung Yoo-jin), a lawyer for his company; but although Jin told him to leave Hye-Seung when Nam-Sik actually did, she said he was an ignorant fool. There is also the question of the cash he has reserved in an account in Jin’s name. she kept it And after Jin fingered Nam-Sik during a company audit and accused him of sexual assault, he finally took a swan jump from the roof of his office building. After that, Hye-Seung could only scroll through her calls and messages to her husband and wished it had been different.
Hye-Seung’s mother, who is now a teacher and is raising her daughter alone, signs her up for an exclusive matchmaking service called Rex. (They’re called marriage information companies in Korea.) Choi Yoo-Sun (Cha Ji-yeon) is Rex’s in-demand matchmaker — she’s concierge service for Korea’s one percent, and she’s very good at her job. Jin, who has sufficiently ripped up Nam-Sik’s life and marriage, has signed on to Rex to match up with one of its senior members – the CEOs, legal partners, and other success stories of Korean society who rely on Choi to find them one Dude. And to that end, she has her eye on Lee Hyung-Ju (Lee Hyun-wook), the handsome young boss of a successful video game company. Meanwhile, Hye-Seung is upset that her mother even signed her up for Rex. But she’s also had enough of the school system’s superiors and their unwanted advances.
Hye-seung thought Jin Yoo-hui was in her past. But their mutual involvement with Rex has put them on a collision course. Will Choi Yoo-Sun take on Hye-Seung with Lee Hyung-Ju, sparking Jin’s wrath and renewed personal war? Will Jin keep up with him and still destroy Hye-Seung’s life? That would not be unlike her. Remarriage & Wishes promises plenty of poignancy while enacting its own personal dramas, all in the shadow of envy, greed and class consciousness.
What shows will it remind you of? Netflix is also there mine, who has her own perspective on the life of Korea’s richest percentile. And in Association of Green Mothersa group of women who meet through their children’s school navigate mysteries and cut vendettas.
Our opinion: Luckily, Jin Yoo-hui is easily the biggest villain in Remarriage & Wishes, and Jung Yoo-Jin plays her with a narrowed side eye and a shy half-smile deliciously ready for her every vile indiscretion. But there’s so much of what’s happening here, such an eerie undercurrent, that it feels like many more of these characters justify doing horrible things to get a good result. Well, at least good for them. Remarriage & Wishes revolves around the sacrifices, acknowledgments and motivations of relationships, or at least their structural prerequisites. And Choi Yoo-sun, respected matchmaker in the highest echelons of society, is the most sober when it comes to the intangibles of the heart. “I don’t believe in innocent love,” she tells Lee Yung-ju. “Love, too, is a materialistic pursuit geared toward profit.” Who is she willing to sacrifice as long as her investment yields a handsome return?
gender and skin: Nothing too serious.
farewell shot: Hye-Sung has arrived at Rex’s headquarters, determined to get a refund for the membership her mother admitted her to. And who is leaving their own appointment at the dating agency right now? Jin Yoo Hui. Their eyes meet across the lobby and Choi Yoo-sun watches. “It was a struggle, but I thought that was the end,” Hye-Sung says offscreen, referring to the damage Jin has done to her life. “But that’s just the beginning with this woman.”
sleeping star: Jung Yoo-jin has the most fun here as Jin, especially in a scene where she pretty much tricks Kang Nam-sik into wrecking his marriage and admitting to an embezzlement scheme he had nothing to do with. Her sneaky ways have already ruined two people’s lives. What does she have planned for Rex and her possible match with Lee Hyung-ju?
Most pilot line: “Women who are too sophisticated, who have careers, who are celebrities – that’s not my type. A girl from a prestigious women’s school would suffice.” Lee Hyung-Ju’s haughty mother’s preferences, gauged before he’s even asked who he would most like to meet, is a good indicator of the affluent and isolated world in which the Rex service is active.
Our appeal: Stream it. Remarriage & Wishes builds up some cheeky, soapy storylines as it pits its characters’ personal gains against what they’re willing to do for a win. If love is a game, then these people are playing with a whole new ball.
Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @Glenganges