The upcoming K-drama Call It Love on Disney+ is hoping the enemies-to-lovers trope will continue to prove its popularity among audiences.
AsiaOne was at a virtual media conference for the show on Tuesday (Feb 21) morning, which stars Kim Young-kwang, Lee Sung-kyung, Sung Jun, Ahn Hee-yeon (also known as Hani from EXID) and Kim Ye-won.
At the conference, Sung-kyung and Young-kwang, who are close friends in real life, talked about how they had to deliberately distance themselves from each other as emotional depth was needed to play their characters.
“At the beginning [of filming], we were already close friends, so we felt that that might hinder our characters,” Sung-kyung elaborated.
“Sometimes, we chat and have fun like we normally do, but we kept a deliberate distance from each other so that we can get into character more.”
In Call It Love, Sung-kyung plays Sim Woo-joo, whose life gets turned upside down when she finds out that her father has cheated on her mum with another woman, which results in her wanting to exact revenge on the latter.
When her father dies years later, Woo-joo and her siblings are kicked out of the house by the mistress.
In the process of getting the house back, she approaches her enemy’s son Han Dong-jin (Young-kwang) and works for him, but slowly she finds out that she may have developed feelings for him. The drama premieres on Disney+ tomorrow (Feb 22).
PHOTO: Disney+
In order to keep the girl-meets-boy premise alive while avoiding derivative cliches, scriptwriters have turned to craft more unusual situations for K-drama couples.
Here are five other times where the two main leads shouldn’t have fallen in love, but alas, you can’t control who you love.
The One and Only
In this 2021 drama series, Pyo In-sook (Ahn Eun-jin) plays an emotionless woman who, upon hearing that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, still feels nothing.
She receives care at a hospice, where she meets two very different women also preparing for the end of their lives: Seong Mi-do (Red Velvet’s Joy) and Kang Se-yeon (Kang Ye-won).
The trio then choose to end the life of one person who has done them wrong before their time runs out. Things change when they meet Min Woo-cheon (Kim Kyung-nam), a prolific hitman who works at a private detective office.
Slowly, In-sook and Woo-cheon fall for each other, which forces them to rethink their plan.
Crash Landing on You
In South Korea, political tensions with the North remain sensitive, but that didn’t faze writers from writing a forbidden love story about it.
In Crash Landing on You, South Korean chaebol heiress Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) finds herself crash-landing in the North Korean part of the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) after a tornado blows her off-course while paragliding.
Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), a captain of the Korea People’s Army in the North and a member of the elite, meets and saves her while patrolling. While helping her to return to the South, they spend time together and slowly fall in love with each other.
Snowdrop
Another political romance drama, Snowdrop was set in November and December 1987, when South Korea was experiencing political turmoil from mass protests which eventually toppled the ruling authoritarian regime.
Snowdrop follows Lim Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in), a graduate student who was found covered in blood by female university student Eun Yeong-ro (Blackpink’s Jisoo).
It is later revealed that Soo-ho is actually a North Korean spy, while Yeong-ro is the daughter of the director of the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) – the central intelligence agency back then. However, they still fall for each other against all odds.
Hotel del Luna
When humans enter the supernatural realm, they should definitely expect the unexpected.
Hotel del Luna is about a supernatural hotel where the staff and clients are ghosts who are settling there before they move on to the afterlife and reincarnation. The only mortal being there is the hotel’s general manager as they have to interact with the real world.
Jang Man-wol (Lee Ji-eun/IU), owner of the hotel, is cursed to run the hotel for eternity for a sin she committed 1,000 years ago. In a deal, Man-wol meets Gu Chan-sung’s father (Oh Ji-ho) and in exchange for his life, his son (Yeo Jin-goo) will have to work for her 20 years later.
However, upon Chan-sung’s arrival, things change and the two start to develop feelings for each other.
Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo
It seems like IU isn’t a stranger to this trope.
Adapted from the Chinese novel Startling By Each Step which also spurred its own television series in the mainland, this 2016 series follows Ha-jin (Lee Ji-eun/IU), who travels 1,000 years back in time during a total eclipse to the Goryeo Dynasty into the body of a young woman named Hae-soo.
However, she slowly becomes a pawn in the succession game, as many princes start to set their eyes on her. Slowly, she falls in love with the problematic Fourth Prince Wang So (Lee Joon-gi).
Call It Love premieres on Disney+ on Feb 22.
