[비즈한국] Back when I was past what people called the "marriageable age," I frequently witnessed the noise people around me would make while preparing for marriage. Most of the friction would start with "money," but it usually ended up boiling down to "pride." It was at its worst when it turned into a battle of egos between families, which felt like a fast track to calling off the wedding. On top of that, the unsolicited advice coming from all directions during the wedding planning process was overwhelming. It seems other people's wedding preparations are just such an easy target for everyone to weigh in on. If that’s the case, how entertaining would a drama be that portrays the wedding preparation process in such a raw, realistic way? ‘Welcome to Wedding Hell,’ which began airing on Kakao035720TV, is a drama that depicts the wedding preparation process—a journey that would make you want to pull your hair out if it were your own, but becomes something you’d casually chatter about if it were someone else's.
Seo Joon-hyung (Lee Jin-wook) and Kim Na-eun (Lee Yeon-hee) are a sweet couple who have been dating for two years and have just decided to get married. In the first episode, Na-eun starts dreaming of marriage with Joon-hyung after seeing an elderly couple in the park and attending a close friend's wedding. She wants to talk to him about marriage, but her senior at work, Choi Hee-sun (Hwang Seung-eon), who has been through both marriage and divorce, advises her not to bring it up first, saying, "Marriage only happens if the man has the will to do it." Na-eun is skeptical. It’s a stereotypical statement, but it speaks to how difficult it is to break those very stereotypes. When she finally brings up the topic, Na-eun is surprised and disappointed to see Joon-hyung oddly avoiding it. Of course, it’s later revealed that this was because Joon-hyung was acting nervous while preparing a proposal, clearing up the misunderstanding. Right from the start, ‘Welcome to Wedding Hell’ focuses on showing just how many misunderstandings—and how much friction, big or small—can arise when not only the couple but also their respective families get entangled in the marriage preparation process.
Looking at the main issues covered through the first eight episodes—from the first hurdle of the meeting between families, to the inevitable conflicts over budgets and financial management, the dilemma between hotels and convention halls for the venue, and the scale of wedding gifts (ham and yedan)—it's clear that it all boils down to "money" and "pride." Joon-hyung, a graduate of a top university who works at a public corporation, grew up comfortably with a father who is an executive at a major conglomerate. Na-eun is a bright, model-student type working at a large corporation, but she comes from an ordinary family living in an apartment complex, with parents who run a real estate agency. In a reality where it’s no exaggeration to say that wedding prep starts with money and ends with money, the gap between their family economic backgrounds is bound to be the start of discord. On top of that, since Joon-hyung and Na-eun haven't disclosed a single thing about their financial status to each other despite dating for two years, they are in for a long road ahead.
The key issue is the difference in their financial mindsets. As a viewer, it’s tense to watch how Na-eun—who has saved over 200 million won in eight years of working, primarily through savings—and Joon-hyung—who spends over 30 million won a month on his credit card—will ever reach a compromise. (Seriously, how do you bridge that gap?) Even though Joon-hyung is considered a "top 1% boyfriend," there’s a creeping anxiety that he might turn out to be a "bottom 1% husband" when looking at his economic sense.
While I really appreciate Lee Jin-wook’s gentle charm, my favorite element of this drama is the middle-aged actors playing their parents. The skillful acting of Kim Mi-kyung, who plays Na-eun’s mother Dal-young, goes without saying. Yoon Yoo-sun, who plays Joon-hyung’s mother Mi-sook, is perfect for the "madam" role you can't help but like, and it’s great to see Kil Yong-woo playing Joon-hyung’s father Jong-soo, a role that fits an executive of a large company perfectly. Most impressive of all is Im Ha-ryong as Na-eun’s father, Soo-chan. I already knew that Im Ha-ryong was a master comedian, but watching him perfectly portray a father who expresses "relaxed indulgence" through humor and satire makes me think he should be cast in media much more often.
Each episode uses baseball terms like "First Pitch," "Sign Miss," "Surprise Bunt," "Fly Out," "Relief Pitcher," "Beanball," "Error," and "Double Play" to describe the wedding prep process. Even without these comparisons, the process is all too familiar—so familiar that it can sometimes be frustrating. Compared to the 2012 drama 'Can We Get Married,' which portrayed the journey to marriage in a very raw way that caused constant "frustration," the 12-episode series 'Welcome to Wedding Hell,' with episodes around 30 minutes long, is much milder. The potentially nerve-wracking meeting between families passed without incident, the tension between Joon-hyung and Na-eun caused by outside advice on budgets and finances was resolved quickly, and even the issue of choosing a wedding hall was settled within the same episode. Of course, episodes 7 and 8 saw significant friction over wedding gifts and furniture, and the grand challenge of picking a house awaits in episode 9, but there are no exaggerated, "spicy" or "mala-flavored" developments here, making it easy to watch without getting a headache. It is available on Netflix along with KakaoTV.
Who is the writer, Jung Soo-jin?
I have covered and written about film, travel, and popular culture while working at various magazines. I don't want to fall behind on trends, but I’ve become an "old person" who watches the latest dramas and only predicts the obvious clichés in the next scene. I am currently trying to regain my edge while drifting through the vast world of OTT platforms, and my current wish is for a unified OTT subscription plan.