Presentation
Korean Title: 바람피면 죽는다
Aired in: 2021 (16 episodes)
Channel: KBS2
Grade: 10/10
Actors: Cho Yeo Jeong and Go Joon
For more…
Cho Yeo Jeong:
– Woman of 9.9 Billion
– Ms Perfect
– Parasite (Movie)
Go Joon:
– Oh My Baby
– The Fiery Priest
– Misty
Kim Young Dae:
– Extraordinary You
– The Penthouse (1, 2, 3)
Analysis
Synopsis
Kang Yeo Joo is famous for her murder novels. She is also full of mysteries and often regarded as a crazy woman, constantly thinking about how to murder people. She is married to lawyer Han Woo Sung. He is seen as the perfect husband. Yet, he also seems to hide a lot from his wife.
My Opinion (No Spoiler)
Cheat on Me if You Can is a very interesting and well-made mystery drama. I liked how each episode managed to get me closer to the truth and more importantly to the understanding of the title! Cho Yeo Jeong’s character is really intriguing and Go Joon’s a breath of fresh air in this unsettling atmosphere.
Moreover, I really think that the underlying humor perfectly compensated the main focus of the drama: to solve a murder case.
If you want to play Sherlock Holmes for 16 episodes, I can only recommend that drama! It is full of secrets!
Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
Characters:
Kang Yeo Joo (Cho Yeo Jeong) is the epitome of the modern Sherlock Holmes. She has all the necessary qualities: shrewd, observant, always a step ahead of everyone. Moreover, she has quite the atypical personality, allowing her to conceal her thoughts and emotions. She doesn’t give away any clues and probably has the best poker face in Dramaland. The scene with Ma Dong Kyun (Oh Min Suk) is proof of it! Finally, Yeo Joo has the wits and intelligence of a detective, though she uses her skills for a different line of work: she writes murder novels.
I really felt that she was a complex character. By the end of the drama, we finally get to know more about her encounter with her husband, but also her past. It is undeniable that Yeo Joo has been through a lot, especially because of her “insane” father Assemblyman Park Jae Geun (Choi Jung Woo). Indeed, she was kidnapped by NIS agents led by Mr. Ma. Even though she was supposed to be left for dead in a burning warehouse, the Assemblyman had a change of heart and asked Mr. Ma to rescue her. Eventually, Yeo Joo’s abductor became her savior without her knowing. He got most of his body burnt, his fiancée left him and he then boiled with revenge. Mr. Ma, just like any other character of the drama, has a whole lot of secrets and a mysterious aura.
His goal at the beginning of the drama seems pretty unclear. Indeed, he sends NIS agent Cha Soo Ho (Kim Young Dae) to keep an eye on Yeo Joo. That’s the reason why Soo Ho becomes her writing assistant. As such, he is able to learn more about Yeo Joo and to understand that, apart from her eccentric personality, there is more than meets the eye. Although Yeo Joo is considered as a threat by Mr. Ma, Soo Ho rapidly understands that this opinion is just the tip of the iceberg and that below the surface lies the ugly truth: their weird past entanglement in the warehouse.
Sherlock-Watson duo: If Soo Ho’s presence was not enough to introduce some laughter in the drama (he was literally the witness of Yeo Joo’s eccentricity, as she researches her future characters), he was not a passive character nor a stereotypical second lead. Not only did he allow viewers to better understand Yeo Joo’s personality (we almost discover at the same time past events), but he also actively participated in the solving of Baek Soo Jung’s (Hong Soo Hyun) murder. He was more than a writing assistant to Yeo Joo: he became her Watson. This driving duo was really the reflection of the dynamics in play in an actual Sherlock-Watson series. Their trust in each other is feeble but both aim at discovering the truth, which is more important than the rest. Soo Ho also has Watson’s qualities: rational, calm, always questioning everything and everyone. Though he is not a doctor in that version, he is still an authoritarian figure: a NIS agent.
Contrary to his wife, Han Woo Sung (Go Joon) appears to be an open book. Yet, that drama teaches viewers quite rapidly not to judge a book by its cover. Woo Sung, though named the perfect husband by the entire nation, also has some secrets. Under his kind and sweet, loyal and faithful mask, hides a real womanizer. He has become a master at concealing his affairs. His techniques are sometimes far-fetched but seem to be working. I laughed so much in the first scenes, when Woo Sung actually opened his car trunk and showed us tools and devices, that would make him pass for a real CSI agent. Unfortunately, they were all used for the wrong reasons.
In his affairs, Woo Sung is helped by his Son Jin Ho (Jung Sang Hoon), who also works at his law firm. This funny “Dumb and Dumber” pair actually compensates the seriousness and gravity brought by the Sherlock-Watson duo. Thanks to them, the drama not only revolves around murder cases, but also marital issues like affairs. As if the universe was warning Woo Sung, it looks as if all his affairs become little by little a pebble in his shoe, if I may say so. First, there is his lawyer colleague, who ends up turning against him and threatening him to tell everything to his wife. Then, there is Baek Soo Jung herself. This risky affair turned Woo Sung into the prime suspect in Soo Jung’s murder case. It is even more ironic as the drama goes on, because Yeo Joo helps on the solving of the crime. Third, Ko Mi Rae’s (Yeon Woo) attachment to Woo Sung puts him in an even more difficult place. Woo Sung refuses the affair, fearing his wife would find out everything, he pushes Mi Rae away. Still, the young heiress insists, implicating Woo Sung against his will in her familial and romantic problems (her fiancé abuses her).
Therefore, Han Woo Sung spends the majority of the drama trying to clean after himself (ironically). He lies, hides and creates alibis for fear of his wife. Fear is actually quite a euphemism. Woo Sung, just like his fellow colleague Jin Ho, is terrified by his wife. Indeed, both signed an agreement before their marriage, in which Woo Sung agreed to let Yeo Joo do whatever she wants to him if he was caught cheating. The memo is short but impactful: “Cheat on me and you’ll die”. Despite that, Woo Sung is determined and bold. He decides to keep up with his bad behaviors and deceives his own wife. However, this doesn’t mean that Woo Sung doesn’t question his actions at some point in the drama. Indeed, the more he learns about Yeo Joo and her past, the more attached he becomes. I am not going to say that he fully repents for what he did, but he wants to make things right (or “righter”) in his marriage. This of course starts with him putting an end to his affairs.
The couple dynamic is also very useful to the drama. On the one side, there is the mystery, while on the other there seems to be another narrative: the affair and its consequences. For that reason, I loved the plot! It was really complex and well-written and allowed for a great number of narratives, developing progressively.
Last but not least, it is clear that all characters are hiding something: For example Yeom Jin Ok (Song Ok Suk), Yeo Joo’s most trusted person in the world and her housekeeper, is acting strangely all the time. She goes to the basement, finds blood, hides tools in the garden. All in all, she is as suspicious as the others, forcing us (viewers) to be on our guards.
A detective drama: As soon as the drama starts, we are immersed in a mysterious, creepy and unsettling atmosphere. The first scenes reveal a very scared Han Woo Sung surrounded by gangsters. As the rain pours outside, he is kneeling in a warehouse, asking these gangsters to kill his wife. Then, the drama goes back in time and creates suspense and anticipation. Many questions then emerge: Why would Woo Sung kill his wife? Why has he been captured by gangsters? Who are they? How did they meet? And the list goes on. To this personal matter, Cheat on Me if You Can also adds more mystery surrounding Soo Jung’s murder and Yeo Joo’s past. Revenge is (to me) one of the main themes of this dark comedy as well.
All the elements are there to make us want to follow Yeo Joo’s adventures and discoveries. Moreover, Woo Sung’s political narrative and the police duo played by Lee Si Eon and Kim Ye Won bring originality and lightheartedness to the intrigue and overall grave atmosphere.
The title: Cheat on Me if You Can or better translated from the Korean title: “If you cheat on me you die” is the red thread of the plot. As I said, the plot is intricate and complex, and this starts with the title. It actually connects many parts of the global story: for instance, when Yeo Joo and Woo Sung got married, Yeo Joo made him promise to never cheat on her, or she would literally kill him. Being a successful writer of murder cases, she would clearly have the capacities and intelligence to get rid of him silently if she wanted to. More than that, the title also refers to a clause on Woo Sung’s body disclaimer he signed before getting married. Finally, the warning directly gives away chills, preparing viewers for the eerie ambiance and the upcoming suspense, while raising many questions: Who cheats on whom? With whom? Is the warning serious or not? How will the cheater be killed? Will (s)he really be killed?
The title acts therefore as a catalyst introducing the action, the intrigue and leading to the inevitable ending of the drama.
The Russian Dolls dynamic: The plot is amazingly written, like I insisted on before. But there is one incredible process that really wowed me throughout the drama: what I decided to call the “Russian Dolls dynamic”. Let me briefly explain: In many dramas, you usually are confronted with different levels of understanding. For example, you have an actual actor playing the role of an actor/a celebrity/singer. In the drama itself a sort of play-within-the-play occurs, meaning that a drama, a concert or anything else occurs within the world of the drama you are watching as a viewer. Well, it is exactly what happens in Cheat on Me if You Can, except that there are multiple (4 in my opinion) levels of understanding. Each level is important and has an important role to play in the plot. Moreover, they are linked with main themes, pieces of the puzzle in the drama, but more importantly writing and mysteries. Let’s dive into them!
Level 1: Kang Yeo Joo’s book. Kang Yeo Joo is a writer working on a book called Cheat on Me if You Can. The narrative in which Yeo Joo is searching for the right characters and plot for her future book leads to some entertaining moments between her and her Watson. Meanwhile, it also creates a first “bubble” depicting Yeo Joo as the puppeteer of this intrigue. No wonder, the drama has the same name! Indeed, by the end of it, we can see Yeo Joo printing the pages of her novel, now finished. At the same time, her husband comes into the room and finds the pages on the ground. In the book, we suspect the main character to have discovered that her husband was cheating on her and to have assassinated her husband. Rings some bells!?
Level 2: Is the book connected to Baek Soo Jung’s death? Or to another character? In the drama, we progressively find out that Soo Jung was also hiding a lot of secrets. Among them, her affair with the President, which eventually led to her demise. She was sent to the US and came back later to have her revenge. Still, she was killed in the process. Is her story the one Yeo Joo is trying to tell in her book? Or is it maybe related to her own father’s, whose bad behavior led to the tragic death of her mother? Considering that second level of interpretation, I really had the impression that the book was being told before our eyes. Yeo Joo is writing a story, but one that is associated with real life events of the drama. That’s when the dynamic of the Russian Doll starts: The story of the book is translated in the “real life” of the drama.
Level 3: Is Yeo Joo and Woo Sung’s marriage the main narrative? Based on the previous hypothesis, it is also clearly possible to think that the book Yeo Joo is writing, which has the exact same name as the memo Woo Sung wrote for his wife (body disclaimer), is a recap of their lives. Thus, the book creates a dynamic that the murder case amplifies to lead the way to the final intrigue of the drama: Will Yeo Joo punish her husband’s affair as promised before? Baek Soo Jung’s murder is a puzzle piece in Woo Sung and Yeo Woo’s marriage, viewed here as the main plot. Soo Jung used to be part of the main trio in level 2 (wife, husband, mistress), but in this level, Mi Rae can be seen as the unwanted mistress. This is even more relevant that the drama dedicates many scenes to the romantic interest between Woo Sung and Mi Rae.
Level 4: Is the drama itself the book? The last level of the Russian Dolls unfolds with the peculiar ending, connecting both 1st and 4th levels together. Thus, the entire narrative of the drama (Baek Soo Jung’s murder case, Yeo Joo’s past, the involvement of the NIS, Woo Sung’s affairs and political career…) is simply a way to turn the viewer into the detective and reader of the book constituted by the drama. Plus, there is no doubt that all the clues and mysteries are organized exactly the same way as the plot of a detective novel: The suspense in the opening scene and the flashback, the presentation of characters, stories and consequently the open ending. Everything from A to Z reminded me of a novel, making me thing that the last printed page Woo Sung got to lift up from the floor is actually the last scene of the drama.
The ending: The drama wraps up all loose ends in the closing act. Viewers get to know the behind-the-scenes, as Yeo Joo’s tricks are revealed (just like in a Sherlock Holmes story). She protected her husband by making him a politician, she lied and tricked Mr. Ma because she had discovered the truth about the warehouse incident, she confesses she knew Soo Ho’s real identity and she solves Soo Jung’s murder. The only uncertainty is related to her husband’s affair(s). It is pretty sure that Yeo Joo knows, the question now is: Will she punish or forgive him? An answer that only viewers/readers of Yeo Joo’s book can guess. Indeed, at the end of the drama Yeo Joo stabs her husband. However, the scene had already occurred before and the knife used was a prop. So was it a real knife this time? Who knows?
What are the themes tackled?
Rapidly, following themes are present in the drama:
– Cheating and its consequences
– Revenge
– Dating violence (Ko Mi Rae’s story)
– Misunderstandings in a relationship (Jin Ho’s wife thinks he has an affair, the police duo is considered as a married couple when they are just partners, Woo Sung and Mi Rae’s non-affair…)
– Marital life (being a housewife, taking of children, not wanting them…)
P.S.: Did you listen to the OST of the drama from Suran? Amazing!
Once Upon a Drama 