“The Midnight Romance In Hagwon” Episodes 1 And 2 Review- Not As Captivating As Anticipated
“The Midnight Romance In Hagwon” takes over the very huge gap of its predecessor “Queen of Tears,” so how was its highly anticipated premiere?
I was originally super excited about the drama because it would mark Wi Ha Joon’s first romance drama in some time and probably his 1st ever leading role in a romance if I am not mistaken.
Note: this article is a first-impression review, it doesn’t mean this is the writer’s final thoughts on the drama. This is a spoiler review.
Since we’ve seen his characters either die or go through severe trauma recently, this was already welcomed by his fans who wanted him to simply chill. The combination between him and Jung Ryeo-Won, who is 10 years old in real life, also garnered a lot of attention.
So how was the premiere?
In one word, I’d describe it as ‘fine.’
I won’t lie, I had higher expectations going in, I expected to be more drawn to the drama and its topics than what actually happened. I mean, I know director An Pan-Seok is known for slower dramas, but I still expected I’d find myself swoon by the drama a lot more than what actually happened.
I was mildly entertained but the premiere was a bit too chill for me. The best moments were when Jun Ho was on screen or interacting with Hye-Jin, his former teacher. He has so much charisma and usually just throws her off guard with some of his witty comebacks/responses.
However, I didn’t find myself particularly intrigued by the topic of schools or its politics or how overbearing parents can be. I didn’t want drama, but I did expect a bit more.
This drama is also extremely reminiscent of director An Pan-Seok’s previous works which include One Spring Night and Something in the Rain. In fact, a lot of the supporting cast members of those two dramas are in this one too.
He has a very distinct style to his works, and you can immediately feel you’ve seen some of his work previously, but this time, it almost feels like he’s just swapping leads but keeping everything else intact similar to his previous works, which I found to be a bit tedious.
Usually, directing styles don’t evoke a reaction from me but this time because I wasn’t so into the drama’s subjects, I found myself concentrating more on everything else which made what I said above clearer in my mind.
Generally, his dramas also tend to gain steam as time goes by since they’re slow-paced. However, I don’t really find myself as excited for next week’s episodes as I had hoped I would, because honestly, I really want to see our Ha Joon happy for once and not covered in blood, so I don’t want to give up just yet. I also know that Kdramas do need more episodes to bloom to their fullest potential, too. [duh!]
I can tell how it will go and we have a total of 14 more episodes of this, I will be keeping my eyes on how it performs, and when more episodes pile on, I plan on binge-watching them.
So have you guys seen the premiere yet? did you like it?
I mean…this is typical Ahn Pan Seok drama – the same style of directing as in One Spring Night and Something in the Rain – the same lighting, the same music style (who remembers Carla Bruni playing the guitar ? )), the same cinematography. If you remember these two previous dramas – a lot of shoots inside the apartments and office spaces, a lot of dialogues between the main leads, slow slow pace. Those who are nostalgic of Something in the Rain and OSN will love the Midnight Romance in Hagwon too. This drama will have its own audience, more mature one, who prefers the real life situations and real life problems. It is not Queen of tears with its dystopian world of riches driving Mercedes and where you jump from scene to scene and where within 10 minutes you have seen 10 characters. This drama is different. I watched 3 episodes and I liked it. There is a slow unfolding intrigue around ordinary people next door facing day-to-day struggles and in the middle of it there is a love story a la Ahn Pan Seok – older but beautiful women ready to risk a lot for her love and younger lover who is ready to sacrifice everything. I am here for it.