K-drama My Dearest Nemesis tells the story of Su-Jeong, a young girl who works at one of the biggest corporations in South Korea and lives with her dad and younger brother. When Su-Jeong is in high school, she gets into video games and meets a sweet boy who goes by the username Black Dragon in the game. The boy claims he’s 22, and Su-Jeong essentially falls in love with him while they’re playing games. But, when they finally meet in person, she realizes the real game was being played with her heart. Su-Jeong publicly humiliates the boy, Ju-Yeon, who is in middle school, and leaves him high and dry. But, many years later, this same boy becomes her boss, and neither recognizes the other. All they know is that they don’t ever want to meet their first loves again. However, Ju-Yeon happens to be the heir to the company Su-Jeong works at, and he comes in as the director of her team. Will they get along? Will they realize who the other person is? What will the future hold for them? That’s the basic premise of this cute little 12-episode K-drama.
If you got into K-dramas around 10 years ago, it’s likely you did so with shows like Boys Over Flowers, The Heirs, or Healer. All were great shows and all extremely dramatic; however, on the other side of the spectrum were the true rom-coms. The genre that everybody believes K-drama made its mark with. To be honest, it’s not as common as you might think, and more often than not, it becomes a cringe-fest of slapstick that doesn’t give you any actual gags with little to no chemistry. The whole point of those shows is to be as criminally embarrassing as possible. While I don’t want to bring up KSH, My Love From The Star might be the most popular of this lot, and I, for one, couldn’t even sit through 5 minutes of it. But, while I personally prefer brain-rotting with horror movies that don’t make sense, I understand why comedy takes the number one spot for that. So, it only makes sense that over the years, this almost sub-genre of slapstick rom-coms has remained popular and evolved with time. This means a lot more romance and a bit less embarrassment to balance out the cringe with the sweetness. Personally, I quite like the position it’s found itself in, and that is why I would one hundred percent recommend My Dearest Nemesis.
In recent years, shows like True Beauty and Business Proposal have been considered top shelf K-dramas despite their teen-centric storylines or cringe comedy. It is the self-awareness, brilliant chemistry, and a little bit of heart that make these shows worth watching. My Dearest Nemesis falls in the same category. The show stars Moon Ga-Yeong, a seasoned actress at the young age of 28, who got hate for being “too old” for 23-year-old Choi Hyun-Wook. Ironically, the age gap in the story is 5 years, much like the duo, yet she got hate for “looking” too old. Now, we all know how Korean beauty works; there is no such thing as aging in their vocabulary, so it really made no sense to call out a 28-year-old for looking too “old” when that is what the script demands. But I digress. Soon after stills from the show came out and the trailer got everybody’s attention, it was clear that this duo was going to make us laugh and feel butterflies all the same.
And that is exactly what happened. Moon Ga-Young carries this show as the senior and more experienced actress. There’s a scene in the latter half where she breaks down in front of her dad, and it comes out of nowhere in the otherwise mostly unserious show. On the other hand, despite his young age, Choi Hyun-Wook has been rising in stardom thanks to his boyish charm and terrific acting skills. In his first-ever leading man role (no, he was basically the second lead in “Twinkling Watermelon”), he absolutely killed it and delivered the exact amount of drama, seriousness, and cuteness the show needed. The show’s also got a great cast of supporting characters that makes it worth your time. The second lead couple is also super entertaining, and their story is a bit more for an older audience than the leading couple, showing us a bit of romance in both demographics.
On the surface, the show seems like a cringe-fest about a couple that’ll never work out, with video games as the running theme of the show; however, it’s actually got quite a lot of heart to it. The message is simple yet necessary: be proud of who you are and what you like. Occasionally it might seem overdramatic too, but such is the charm of K-dramas, so if you don’t like that, I’d suggest walking away from them. The characters are all slightly flawed and have a long way to go as the show progresses, by the end of which there is a great arc for each of them.
The female lead is an independent, strong woman who wants to stay away from love as much as possible because it’s a distraction that can only ruin her life, whereas the male lead is desperate for some affection because he’s been treated like an unwanted thing all his life. The show does a good job balancing out the two leads and their personalities, making them quite perfect for each other. So, despite the surprising age gap, it somehow makes sense. The chemistry is good, and there are definitely some heart-fluttering moments. The show is well aware of its cringe-y bits and takes full advantage of that self-awareness. At the end of the day, it’s an easy, breezy watch that can brighten up a dull day. There’s some drama in between that feels a little bit unnecessary, but otherwise it’s all fun and games. I’d give My Dearest Nemesis 3.5 out of 5 stars.
