Presentation
Korean Title: 월간 집
Aired in: 2021 (16 episodes)
Channel: JTBC
Grade: 10/10
Actors: Jung So Min and Kim Ji Seok
For more…
Jung So Min:
– Playful Kiss
– Because this is my First Life
– Soul Mechanic
– My Father is Strange
Kim Ji Seok:
– When the Camellia Blooms
– My Unfamiliar Family
– Angel Eyes
– Another Miss Oh
Dramas directed by Lee Chang Min:
– Laughter in Waikiki 1&2
– Man to Man
– Midas
– Birth of a Beauty
Analysis
Synopsis
Na Young Won is a bright young woman, who has housing issues, despite her efforts and hard work. After having been evicted from her house, she finds a job as an editor at Monthly Magazine, a company that belongs to the CEO responsible for her eviction.
CEO Yoo Ja Sung is a real estate expert who only thinks about profit, unlike Young Won who considers a house to be a home as well. They start working together and eventually fall in love with each other.
My Opinion (No Spoiler)
Monthly Magazine Home is, in my opinion, the perfect Rom Com to watch, if you’re looking for a sweet and light-hearted story! The plot couldn’t be more cliché and let’s say that the romantic involvements are nothing new. Yet, I couldn’t help being irrevocably attracted to the story (the same feeling I had while watching So I Married an Anti-Fan). We know for sure how it is going to end and all the hurdles along the way, but we still love loving the drama.
Despite that, Monthly Magazine Home is not just a romantic comedy. It also manages, with a lot of humor, to tackle one of South Korea’s main societal issues: housing. To me, the theme was brilliantly dealt with, to the point that I sometimes had the impression I was watching a real estate TV show.
All in all, I highly recommend that drama: you will swoon, laugh a lot and wander through the streets of Seoul!
Analysis (Spoiler Alert)
Characters: Na Young Won (Jung So Min) is a young woman, who has a lot of financial issues going on. When the drama starts, we discover the character is about to be evicted from her house because her building was sold to an investment company. Suddenly, she loses everything and becomes homeless. She ends up going from one place to another, until one of her friends contacts her to offer her a position as editor at the magazine she works for. That friend of hers is none other than Yeo Ui Joo (Chae Jung An) and the CEO of the company Yoo Ja Sung (Kim Ji Seok), the infamous buyer of Young Won’s apartment.
Though the meeting is quite unexpected, Young Won is a force of nature, she is resilient and never gives up. That’s the reason why she was recommended for the job in the first place and managed to survive through the hardships of life. Indeed, Yoo Ja Sung is a tough CEO to handle, who’s only interested in making profit. On the other hand, Young Won sees a house, not for its monetary value, but for the emotional bond it has with its owners. These are two different visions that often clash in the drama (at the beginning at least), bringing a lot of laughter to the table.
Though Na Young Won is despised and ill-treated by her CEO (on the outside), she remains a bright and joyful person, who is not too shaken by her personal problems. Later on in the drama, we find out that her father went bankrupt and then, abandoned both her and her mother. Together, they had to deal with loan sharks, creditors and Young Won used most of her savings and salaries to pay off the debt. Worse, her mother keeps asking her for money in order to keep her shop afloat. She is somehow desperate, which is the reason why she holds on to her job and CEO.
I think Na Young Won is very close to the stereotyped female character in dramas: she is poor (of course, it’s always a rich guy-poor girl situation), she is self-reliant and independent, hardworking and strong-willed. Moreover, she is a positive and kind person, forgiving and also selfless. And naturally, I almost forgot, she falls in love with her boss.
Yoo Ja Sung, a.k.a. the Dragon, is also quite the stereotypical character. He came from nothing and worked really hard to stand where he is today. When he was younger, he lent money to an older friend, working at a construction site with him. In the end, the man left with his savings and disappeared into thin air. Yoo Ja Sung ended up with no money and betrayed. Since then, he erected a wall around him, refusing to trust people and shutting people out. That’s why, he is so cold on the outside. Yet, on the inside, that’s another story. He is in fact a soft and kind-hearted man, very lonely and longing for connection (though he doesn’t know that yet). As mentioned earlier, he only cares about making money through houses, mostly because he has never had a house he considered a home.
I think Yoo Ja Sung is mostly misunderstood by his employees. They all treat him like an evil boss, money-thirsty and result-oriented, when in reality he can be generous, kind and helpful. There are two sides of him and interestingly, he completely transforms with Young Won. He becomes this clueless, clumsy and cheesy lover, who only wants the best for his partner.
Yoo Ja Sung is also very loyal and protective towards those he trusts, that is to say not so many people, but enough to break his relationship with Young Won at some point. Indeed, by the end of the drama, Ja Sung discovers that the man he considers like his little brother and savior Shin Gyeom (Jung Gun Joo) has a crush on Young Won. Ja Sung knew that his friend was interested in someone, but her identity was never revealed. Shin Gyeom had even decided never to talk about his crush on Young Won, after he finds out she is dating Ja Sung. Despite that, Shin Gyeom ends up at the hospital, heart-broken, and his friend Jang Chan (Yun Ji On) spills the bill. This naturally breaks Ja Sung’s heart, thinking that he is responsible. So he puts an end to his relationship with Young Won, for no reason.
Of course, this doesn’t last long and he is eventually forgiven, thanks to Shin Gyeom. By the way, I was so happy to see that the second male lead was not pushy at all. Shin Gyeom is the epitome of kindness. He is respectful towards others’ feelings and knows when to give up. That was an amazing twist for me, because in clichéd Rom Com, second leads tend to be quite annoying.
The other employees at Monthly Magazine were also quite interesting. I personally loved the love-turn-into-hate relationship (another classic cliché in Rom Coms) between Yeo Ui Joo and Nam Sang Soon (Ahn Chang Hwan). Although they seem to have nothing in common at first, they gradually realize that they are a good match. Ui Joo is a strong and independent lady, who knows what she wants, but she is also longing for affection and looking for someone who would embrace her. On the other hand, Sang Soon is a devoted and affectionate boyfriend, who tends to put his lover on a pedestal. A good thing when respect is mutual, like with Ui Joo, a bad one when your partner takes advantage of it, like Sang Soon’s ex-girlfriend.
Though we loved hating his “cutie pie”, she was still quite useful to the story. Without her breaking up with Sang Soon, he probably never would’ve noticed how close he is to Ui Joo. Indeed, she does her best to lift his spirits up after the break-up. She protects him and encourages him to get better, tries to set him up with other women, takes him out for a drink and shakes him up. All of these efforts don’t go unnoticed, as Sang Soon starts to develop feelings for Ui Joo at that time. In the end, they eventually get married. A nice happy ending for our favorite second leads.
Interestingly, third leads (if I may call them as such) also add a nice happy ending: Jang Chan and assistant writer Yook Mi Ra (Lee Hwa Kyum). Though Mi Ra had a crush on Shin Gyeom at first, she ended up falling for Chan. The latter had mistaken Mi Ra’s feelings, thinking that she was in love with him and not Shin Gyeom. This led to some laughable situations, one misunderstanding after the other.
What are the themes tackled?
Real Estate Market:
The direct and indirect perspectives: Obviously, this is the main theme of the drama! Monthly Magazine Home managed to deal with that important issue (housing) in South Korea and showed it from different perspectives. First, you have the financial one, embodied by Yoo Ja Sung. Second, you have the emotional one, represented by Na Young Won. Each character has his/her own understanding of what he house should look like, what it is meant for and its ultimate value (whether it’d be in terms of profit or feelings).
Yoo Ja Sung’s approach in the drama is illustrated by a very direct way. Indeed, he and Young Won go see different houses that would figure in their magazine. They also go on surveys and each time, the house is presented (square feet, location, interior…). That really gave me the impression to see a TV show, in which buyers look for the perfect house! In spite of that, this was quite the clever idea because the qualities of the house were assessed and justified its monetary value.
However, Na Young Won’s vision of a house was always present as well, in a more indirect manner, that is to say using house owners’ personal story. This gave more depth to the value of the house and enabled both characters’ views to eventually connect.
The societal housing issues: Moreover, the drama also mentioned several times many housing issues such as: paying rent, being scammed and not getting your deposit back, finding the right house in the right area for you, redevelopment, owning a house, designing and decorating the interior….
Matching the house with his/her owner: While doing so, Monthly Magazine Home did an excellent job at creating houses that perfectly matched characters.
For instance, Yoo Ja Sung is a solitary man, who has trust issues and learned how to fend for himself at a young age, as said earlier. This loneliness and emptiness are reflected in his house. Indeed, he only stays for a week at the same place, never settling nor decorating the interior. He only does that when Young Won comes living with him.
Na Young Won is a warm and kind person, a trait of character that is also showed in her cozy flat.
Yeo Ui Joo lives in a luxurious apartment, her estranged and wealthy father pays the rent. This matches her obsession with shopping, wearing expensive clothes and living a lavish life, but also her fear of commitment (remember she doesn’t want to get married at first, nor does she want to buy a house).
Nam Sang Soon spends most of the episodes praying for a subscription in order to get married. Yet, when he finally gets it, his girlfriend leaves him. As if the girlfriend and the subscription could not fit together, like Sang Soon and his ex-lover were not a good match.
Chief Editor Choi Go (Kim Won Hae) lives in a neighborhood, waiting for it to be re-developed. He has been waiting for years but it is not happening right now. Therefore, his wife is mad at him (he chose to stay when she wanted to leave) and he has to tiptoe, so that his children can study quietly. Choi Go also tiptoes a lot at work, fearing the dominant figure Yoo Ja Sung (just like his wife is the dominant figure at home).
Mi Ra doesn’t own a house, Kye Joo Hee (Ahn Hyun Ho) lives in a basement and Chan has a rooftop apartment. The three of them illustrate difficulties for young people to find decent housing in Korea, because it is too expensive.
Finally, just when Na Young Won has succeeded, she has also built a new personal house in the last episode of the drama.
The meaning of a house: No need to go too far to understand that a house can hold several meanings! The title of each episode of the drama is actually quite enough to give a broad understanding of what a house means to people. This, plus the actual given explanation in the drama, often disguised as lines of an article and that’s it!
FYI, here are the titles of the episodes, I let you imagine the meaning behind each of them:
#1 A Man who buys a house, a woman who lives in a house
#2 Hope for my own house
#3 Living with a Parasite
#4 If I could renovate my life…
#5 You must live in your home to know it
#6 You are in my house, you are in my heart
#7 He lives in an empty house
#8 House + Love = Home
#9 A flower blooming in a ruined heart
#10 Long-standing house, long-standing relationship
#11 A home reflects its owner
#12 Home, a container that holds life
#13 A record of youth’s home
#14 Meeting the home of your destiny
#15 Building a House, Building Love
#16 A Man who buys a house, a woman who has a home
The final goal is of course to find a house that is also a home and that corresponds you, to find your true home (including the people living in it).
Cameos, references and humor: Of course, I can’t talk about that drama without mentioning the humor. I laughed a lot thanks to the gags and messy situations characters often find themselves in. On top of that, I really have to mention the many cameos in the drama: Shim Yi Young and Kim Dong Young, playing a married couple and referring to scenes of Parasite and The World of the Married; Lee Jung Eun and her Jeju Island/Lee Hyo Ri fascination; Ha Seok Jin and Park Ha Sun from Drinking Solo, playing this lovey-dovey couple on the outside but terrifying one on the inside; Kim So Eun as Sang Soon’s “cutie pie”; Tae In Ho and Wang Ji Hye as blind dates and of course Lee Yi Kyung as a freelance editor. All of them were amazing and brought a breeze of fresh air to every episodes.
The unexpected and entangled past: While the drama deals with scam, betrayal and debt, it also manages to create a bond between main leads that is beyond their professional encounter thanks to these same elements. Indeed, Yoo Ja Sung was betrayed by Young Won’s father and lost all of his money. This leads to Young Won and Ja Sung’s break-up (the second one) and their re-encounter 3 years later. On top of that, they also had another link connecting them: the Online Café. While Young Won explained her problems and life struggles to this unknown user, Ja Sung was always there to root for her. It is also the reason why they got back together after their first break-up.
This would probably be my main criticism at that point. The unrealistic reasons why characters break up in the first place: the first time because Ja Sung wants to let Shin Gyeom be in a relationship with Young Won, well what about her opinion? The second time, because of Young Won’s father, well that was 10 years ago, can’t you let it go? It was actually quite uncomfortable to see that each time they broke up, it was because of external factors. That kind of disappointed me and made me think that I was back in a 2000-drama, in which characters split up for similar reasons.
OST: To finish that review, I have to confess that I have literally fallen in love with the OST of the drama “Story of Us” by Yuri! I highly recommend you listen to it, if you are in the mood for romance!
Once Upon a Drama 