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Pierce Conran

3.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Choi Woo-shik, Park Bo-young, Lee Jun-young, Jeon So-nee
Whether to see our dreams reflected back at us or to forget about our nightmares, movies are always there for us. Cinema has the power to move, inspire and shield us. It’s not for nothing that it’s often called an escape.
Netflix’s latest Korean offering takes this idea of cinema as escapism and applies it to a group of young Korean adults. Their dreams are subsumed into their daily and professional lives, giving them fuel to fire their passions and a way to mask complicated feelings that never truly go away.


Melo Movie is the second series from the young writer Lee Na-eun, who debuted to some fanfare in the winter of 2021 with the fresh and tender youth romance Our Beloved Summer, with Choi Woo-shik and Kim Da-mi.
Lee has transitioned from her twenties to her thirties, and so have her characters, with the male lead portrayed once again by Choi and Park Bo-young (Daily Dose of Sunshine) filling the other leading role.
Our Beloved Summer was about teenage lovers who were unexpectedly reunited as young professionals thanks to the sudden popularity of a documentary they took part in while they were at school.
Following that semi-autobiographical project, Lee once again combines filmed media and personal history in this story of a film buff who falls for a reluctant film industry worker.

Choi plays Ko Gyeom, a happy-go-lucky young man who was raised by his older brother and grew up on a diet of VHS tapes. His first dream is to “watch every single movie ever made” and he next aspires to “contribute to the movie industry”.
Gyeom decides to become an actor but, despite his evident passion for and knowledge of cinema, a director he auditions for decides not to put him in the picture, at least not with a speaking role.
His “contribution” is to become an extra – an amusing fate for Choi, best known for the Academy Award-winning film Parasite.
Despite his menial role, Gyeom loves being on set and everyone loves having him there. Everyone, that is, except for a member of the film crew, Kim Mu-bee (Park), whose name – a Koreanised spelling of “movie” – was given to her by her late father, a film lover who died from overwork on a film set when she was a teen.

Gyeom is instantly attracted by Mu-bee’s name and, although she gives him the cold shoulder, everywhere she turns there he is.
Mu-bee’s defences eventually crumble under Gyeom’s persistence, but around the time production ends he disappears without a word.
Fast forward to their early thirties, and Mu-bee is now a director who has just seen success with her first film. Gyeom is an online film critic who spends much of his time taking care of his brother, who was injured in a car crash just before Gyeom disappeared from Mu-bee’s life.
Gyeom pops up in front of Mu-bee’s eyes when he grabs the mic during a Q&A session after a screening of her film. She isn’t pleased to see him. She is even less pleased by his question – “Is this really a melo movie”? – a callback to a personal moment they shared at a bus stop.

Also in the picture are Gyeom’s friends Hong Si-jun (Lee Jun-young, The Impossible Heir) and Son Ju-a (Jeon So-nee, Parasyte: The Grey). Si-jun, a struggling composer, and Ju-a were sweethearts who broke up shortly after she suddenly decided to become a screenwriter and quickly drew some notice.
In the present, Ju-a has debuted as a film screenwriter and is shopping around her next project, “Melody”, which is about her time with Si-jun. A producer pairs her with Mu-bee and Ju-a tries to get Si-jun, who still has not made a name for himself, to compose the film’s music.
As a story suffused with a love of cinema and nostalgia for physical media, there is a touch of irony in the fact that Melo Movie is bankrolled by a streaming service whose success in the Korean market is partly to blame for the film industry’s current troubles.
Yet, while references to Stephen Chow Sing-chi, Alfred Hitchcock and Cinema Paradiso abound, the overarching cinematic influence here is from romantic dramas – which are called “melos” in Korean – and this segues into the show’s classic K-drama narrative.

With its cocky male lead, self-serious female lead, attractive secondary couple, cute hang-out spot – a retro bar decorated with VHS tapes – and plenty of secret family drama, the ingredients at play are extremely familiar.
Beyond its clean and vibrant style, where Melo Movie differentiates itself is in its portrait of youth. Lee imparts her characters with ambition and desires but also a wariness towards a world that offers uncertain prospects.
Cinema offers us fleeting pleasures and protection, but these characters have real lives to carry on.
Melo Movie is streaming on Netflix.


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Choi Woo-shik as Ko Gyeom in a still from Melo Movie. Photo: Ko Nam-hi/Netflix

Choi Woo-shik as film critic Ko Gyeom in a still from Korean drama series Melo Movie. Photo: Ko Nam-hi/Netflix

Park Bo-young as Kim Mu-bee in a still from Melo Movie. Photo: Ko Nam-hi/Netflix

Lee Jun-young as Ko Gyeom’s friend Hong Si-jun in a still from Melo Movie. Photo: Ko Nam-hi/Netflix

Jeon So-nee as Ko Gyeom’s friend Son Ju-a in a still from Melo Movie. Photo: Ko Nam-hi/Netflix

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A film buff, played by Choi, falls for an aspiring director (Park) who slowly warms to him in this story of love, dreams and family drama


A film buff, played by Choi, falls for an aspiring director (Park) who slowly warms to him in this story of love, dreams and family drama.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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Review | Netflix K-drama Melo Movie review: Choi Woo-shik, Park Bo-young in tender tale of youth

A film buff, played by Choi, falls for an aspiring director (Park) who slowly warms to him in this story of love, dreams and family drama