Korean series, “Remarriage and Desires,” thematically explores whether an association between two people is based on love and affection or whether it is a business deal between them so that they can both flourish commercially. At the center of the conflict are two women, Seo Hye-seung and Jin Yoo-hui, who can be perceived as a potential protagonist and antagonist, respectively, as there are not many shades around their characters. Teacher Seo’s husband, Kang Nam-Sik, a lawyer in a large corporation, is tricked by an employee named Jin Yoo-hui, who not only steals the bribe money from a huge merger deal but also accuses Mr. Kang of sexually assaulting her. Mr. Kang wanted to marry Yoo-hui and was leaving his wife, Seo, for his new girlfriend. However, as Yoo-hui’s accusations and company fraud come to light, Mr. Kang kills himself to save himself from arrest and public embarrassment. It is only after his death that Seo realizes that her husband isn’t guilty, but she has no way to prove his innocence.
After Mr. Kang’s assets are confiscated by the bank, Seo Hye-seung moves from a high-class society to regular life in South Korea, where she starts teaching students in order to earn a living and support her teenage daughter, Min-ji. The two women, Seo and Yoo-hui, meet each other once again in a marriage corporation called REX, and as soon as Seo gets to know that Yoo-hui is planning to trap another rich man, she decides to stop the treacherous woman and send her to prison. “Remarriage And Desires” Season 1 makes a social commentary on the hunt for a wealthy groom where the parents are ready to invest themselves both financially, mentally, and emotionally to either get a trophy wife for their son or a rich billionaire husband for their daughter so that they can live a pleasant life after marriage. Most of the members of REX are looking for the prospects of a “remarriage,” and hence their decision goes through a lot of screening so that they don’t commit a mistake again. The entire process isn’t about finding love in a suitable partner who shares an emotional sync with a certain person; instead, it is about an intellectual deal between two adults who agree to live together and spend the rest of their lives pretending to be happy, so it builds a certain public image that will profit their profession.
However, instead of commenting or rectifying the dark shades of affluent human society, “Remarriage And Desires” majorly follows the cut-throat rivalry between Seo Hye-seung and Jin Yoo-hui, who are ready to go to any lengths to achieve their vengeance. They are ready to destroy the lives of the people around them and kill each other just to exact revenge. And thus, their choices and actions influence the lives of others, and the ripples so created just get bigger and bigger that finally transforms into a high profile scandal. So without any further ado, let’s find out the fate of its central characters.
Spoilers Ahead
What Was REX? What Happened To Choi Yoo-sun?
It was quickly established at the beginning of “Remarriage And Desires” Season 1 that REX was a marriage arranging agency that promised high-quality unions. They linked up their members as per their social and financial status and categorized them into different levels, like Black Level Tier, Secret Level, Diamond Level, and Platinum Level. Their black level members had a financial capital of more than 100 million won, and hence just by the ranks, a potential customer would get an idea of how secure and pleasurable their life will be after marriage. Most of the arrangements between a wealthy groom and a potential trophy wife were facilitated by the director of REX, Choi Yoo-sun, who took an active interest in match-making.
In the series, Choi Yoo-sun came across Lee Hyung-Ju, the CEO of the gaming corporation Hibull, who owned assets of more than two trillion won, and thus Mrs. Choi quickly categorized him as a super black level member. Mr. Lee was in his early 40s and used to live in a lavish house with his mother and a teenage son. His wife cheated on him, after which Mr. Lee gave her a divorce, and since then Mr. Lee had lost his trust in women. His mother nagged him to get remarried as she wanted her grandchild to get a caring mother. Mr. Lee’s mother contacted Mrs. Choi and asked her to find a woman in her early 30s who would become a perfect mother for her grandchild and a trophy wife for her son and would, in turn, stop all the rumors in society.
In REX, Mrs. Choi shortlisted a couple of candidates, among whom there were two prominent members: Jin Yoo-hui, the manipulating lawyer who tricked Mr. Kang, and Jung Mi-Jin, daughter of the secretary of civil affairs, Go Ae-Ran. Ae-Ran was secretly supporting an ex-congressman, Son Pil-young, who was campaigning for the upcoming presidential elections and was certain that he would win. Mrs. Choi’s husband, Chairman Cha Yong-hwan, owned a large spread of land outside the city which was under some government restriction and thus couldn’t be developed, but Ae-Ran promised Mrs. Choi that she would convince Mr. Son to lift the restriction after his election only if she would arrange a marriage between her daughter, Jung Mi-Jin, and Lee Hyung-Ju. It was for this reason that Mrs. Choi took an active interest in the entire deal, as she had personal reasons attached to it.
But Jin Yoo-hui wanted Mr. Lee for herself and got obsessed with him. She again orchestrated a vicious plan to get Mr. Lee. However, when Ms. Seo exposed Yoo-hui and her deeds to the public, all the members of REX questioned the company’s admission process and decided to leave it. REX was crumbling brick by brick each day, but Mrs. Choi had no intention of saving it. She called herself a businesswoman much more than a match-maker, and thus, in the end, after she failed to arrange an association between Mr. Lee and Jung Mi-Jin, she decided to close the REX and move into some other line of business. The other reason for abandoning REX was that the marriage agency got caught in a high-profile corruption scandal, and the media repeatedly highlighted its name, which worried Mrs. Choi more. She wanted REX to be a trustworthy secret society that would protect its members’ privacy, but once its entire affair was out in the open, Mrs. Choi decided to abandon it. However, an uninvited young customer at the end of “Remarriage And Desires” Season 1 persuaded her to reevaluate her decision.
Did Seo Hye-seung Take Her Revenge From Jin Yoo-hui?
Jin Yoo-hui was the illegitimate daughter of ex-congressman Son Pil-young, who promised Yoo-hui’s mother to marry her but ran away and married someone else to maintain a public image. In the present time, Jin Yoo-hui used this secret against her father, blackmailed him, and used his influence from time to time to get things done in her favor. For a moment, I personally believed that the creators of “Remarriage And Desires” would try to give more shades to the character of Jin Yoo-hui. However, she was depicted as a pure evil antagonist until the very end and was completely blinded by her obsession and revenge. It didn’t make sense either what exactly Jin Yoo-hui was looking for, as she had enough already and was living a comfortable life. Maybe she just got obsessed with the idea of getting the best out of the lot and a “super” black member, Lee Hyung-Ju, who was both rich and charming, fit the bill. Most of the other black members were grumpy old grandpas, and Jin Yoo-hui was looking for perfection in all areas, whether it was looks, money, or intelligence.
Nevertheless, as Jin Yoo-hui set her eyes on Mr. Lee, Seo Hye-seung, who saw Yoo-hui again at REX, decided to stop her. It hadn’t been more than a year since Mr. Kang killed himself, and Yoo-hui was already on the hunt for her next prey, and Ms. Seo wanted to expose her before she could destroy another family. Though Ms. Seo had revealed the truth about Yoo-hui to Mr. Lee, she needed more substantial evidence to put her behind bars, and it was where the ex-president of TX engineering, Choi Myeong-woo, came in. Myeong-woo was the same person who had bribed Mr. Kang with one billion won in cash, the money which Yoo-hui stole from him and put the entire blame on Mr. Kang. And while Mr. Kang committed suicide, Mr. Choi was sent to prison for financial fraud. Ms. Seo visited Mr. Choi in prison and tried to convince him to testify against Yoo-hui but he refused.
Mr. Lee finally intervened and helped Mr. Choi to come out of the prison, and during the Chateau Delouis Day Party, Mr. Choi confessed that Yoo-hui seduced him and manipulated him to give false testimony against Mr. Kang and put all the blame on him so that she could run away with the money. Soon after his confession, the police arrested Yoo-hui, but she blackmailed her father, Son Pil-young, to help her come out of prison and then paid some goons to kill Choi Myeong-woo. The goons made it look like a suicide, and the police recovered a written confession from Mr. Choi’s house, according to which he claimed that Mr. Lee forced him to give false testimony, and hence Yoo-hui was freed again from all accusations. But she crossed the line when she paid off a driver to kill Ms. Seo’s daughter, Kang Mi-jin, in order to take revenge on Ms. Seo.
While trying to get rid of Yoo-hui, Ms. Seo went through her husband’s old items once again and recovered his broken phone, which she took to a data recovery center to find out if there was any evidence inside it. In the cellphone, she found a recorded video call where Yoo-hui claimed that Son Pil-young was her biological father and that one day she would destroy him for abandoning her mother. Ms. Seo knew that Pil-young was helping Yoo-hui, and as her father, he was the only one who could stop her. However, Pil-young was blinded by some kind of remorse and couldn’t see that he was blindly supporting his daughter in her wicked plan. Instead of stopping Yoo-hui, Pil-young contacted Go Ae-Ran to get rid of Ms. Seo before she could publicly open her mouth and ruin his presidential campaign. Without wasting any moment, he contacted Ae-Ran to get rid of Ms. Seo. But even though Ae-Ran kidnapped Ms. Seo, she didn’t kill her. Ms. Seo convinced Ae-Ran that Pil-young was a sinking boat that would take her down along with him as she had already told the press and the authorities about the video. Ae-Ran knew for sure that Pil-young had literally lost his way and was a liability, and thus she conspired against him and recorded a video that framed him for an attempt to murder Ms. Seo that he planned with his wicked daughter, Yoo-hui.
After the video footage and potential evidence came to light, both Yoo-hui and Pil-young were sent to prison. At the end of “Remarriage and Desires” Season 1, Ms. Seo went to the prison to see Yoo-hui, but even though she was sitting behind bars, she had no remorse for her actions. She told Ms. Seo that as a person who was deprived of everything in life, she made her way up the ladder, and like every human being desiring what they don’t have, she has the same pursuit. She wanted Mr. Lee. She wanted to be rich and wealthy, and even though she took the wrong path to realize her dream, she felt great about it. Yoo-hui was happy that she had ultimately destroyed her father, even if it happened at the cost of her own arrest. She finally revealed to Ms. Seo that it was just the beginning of her, thus probably suggesting her return in “Remarriage And Desires” Season 2 and taking her revenge on all those who threw her into the prison.
‘Remarriage And Desires’ Season 1: Ending, Explained – Who Married Seo Hye-seung, Lee Hyung-Ju or Cha Seok-jin?
Professor Cha Seok-jin and Seo Hye-seung were dating in college, but Professor Cha abruptly left for abroad to finish his studies without disclosing the truth about his sudden decision. In the present time, he told Ms. Seo that his father, Cha Yong-hwan, a wealthy industrialist, was a tyrant who used to physically assault his mother in front of the kids. One day, his brother raised his voice against his father, beat him up, and then left the house in shame. He got drunk and rode the car into a median, and died in the accident. Professor Cha Yong-hwan divorced Professor Cha’s mother and married Choi Yoo-sun, but even in his second marriage, he verbally and physically abused Mrs. Choi and treated her like a slave.
Mrs. Choi started REX to escape her husband’s shadows, while Professor Cha and his mother were living under a different roof. As her dying wish, Professor Cha’s mother took a promise from him to go back to his father’s house and claim what was rightfully his. However, when he arrived at Yong-hwan’s house, he put a condition that he would only make him his heir if he married the girl of his choice. Professor Cha was in love with Ms. Seo, but there were two problems. Cha Yong-hwan didn’t want his son to marry a middle-class woman with a daughter. Secondly, Ms. Seo had no intention of marrying again, not until she had exacted her revenge on Jin Yoo-hui. In this entire conflict, Mrs. Choi saw an opportunity. She made a deal with Professor Cha. She agreed to convince Ms. Seo to marry him if he would give up his inheritance and hand over the entire business to her. On the other hand, she put a condition in front of Ms. Seo that she would make sure that Yoo-sun would rot in a cell only if she agreed to marry Professor Cha.
At the end of “Remarriage and Desires” Season 1, Mrs. Choi fulfilled her promise, though not directly, but the events happened as she had planned, and after Yoo-hui was sent to prison, Ms. Seo finally decided to marry Professor Cha. However, at this point, Professor Cha could see in Ms. Seo’s eyes that she was deeply in love with Lee Hyung-Ju, and hence it was time for him to make a conscious decision and prove to Mrs. Choi the power of human emotion and attachment as she rejected all notions of innocent love between two individuals. Professor Cha arranged a marriage ceremony in a church, but he didn’t get married that day. Instead, he brought in Mr. Lee. He had asked Mr. Lee to get married to Ms. Seo as he just wanted her to be happy and knew that her real happiness lay with Mr. Lee. Professor Cha knew how truly they were in love with each other, but because of so many business deals going around, they couldn’t express their true feelings. Finally, Mr. Lee proposed to Ms. Seo, and they got married to look forward to their happily ever after. Ms. Seo was not only the mother that Jun-ho deserved, but she was also the woman whose integrity Mr. Lee respected the most in the world. She wasn’t looking for any material gains from Mr. Lee, but instead, she loved him truly from the bottom of her heart, and that expression of genuine, innocent love is what won him over and over again.
Will There Be A ‘Remarriage And Desires’ Season 2?
As soon as Chairman Cha Yong-hwan found out that his son, Professor Cha, was going to marry Ms. Seo, he blamed Mrs. Choi for her inefficiency, and to mock her, he transferred all his shares into Cha’s name. In a heated argument, Mrs. Choi accused Yong-hwan of abusing her, and suddenly Yong-hwan suffered a stroke, soon after which he was admitted to the hospital. In the hospital, Mrs. Choi sat beside an unconscious Yong-hwan and revealed to him how she had made a deal with Professor Cha according to which he would transfer all his inheritance into her name. And after announcing her finishing move, Mrs. Choi claimed that she had won in the end. In her arrogant pride, she suffocated Cha Yong-hwan to death and walked out of his hospital room. At the end of “Remarriage And Desires” Season 1, she returned to the REX for one last time to bid a final goodbye to her most prestigious venture. However, as she was closing down, an uninvited guest paid her a visit and asked her to reconsider her decision to close down REX. The young lad caught Mrs. Choi’s attention and convinced her to admit younger members like him into the REX, which would give her a totally new approach to the same business.
In Season 1, REX only dealt with rich and old members who wanted to remarry or were marrying late for various reasons, but this new young customer convinces Mrs. Choi to entertain the thought of being a match-maker for the first marriages of young people who come from reputed business families or dynasties. Mrs. Choi may consider this proposal as it isn’t revealed until the end whether Professor Cha has or will transfer his assets to her name. He didn’t marry Ms. Seo as per their deal, and hence it gives him a reason to walk out of it. On the other hand, the restriction on Chairman Cha Yong-hwan’s large spread of land will not be lifted as Mrs. Choi’s deal with Go Ae-Ran didn’t go as planned because Son Pil-young was arrested. So, at the end of affairs, Mrs. Choi doesn’t have many avenues left to carry out her business, and she is left with REX, which she will probably pursue further. Most likely, in “Remarriage And Desires” Season 2, we will see another group of new young members and another love triangle between them, or maybe the old members will make a comeback.
Speaking of comebacks, Jin Yoo-hui had told Ms. Seo that it was just the beginning, and hence she had already hinted at her return. Yoo-hui has her own crooked means to escape crime and sentences, and therefore, if she returns in “Remarriage And Desires” Season 2, her first target will probably be Mr. Lee, Ms. Seo, and their families. It will be exciting to watch what parts these characters play in the next installment of the series and what twists and turns it will narratively cover. And until season 2 is announced, let’s focus on the happy ending between Mr. Lee and Ms. Seo.
“Remarriage And Desires” is a 2022 Korean Romance Thriller series directed by Kim Jeong-min.
