K-Drama Rewind, Melting Me Softly: Ji Chang-wook and Won Jin-ah's feverish romance defrosts gaping plot-holes

Ji Chang-wook is earnest.

 He has the power of conviction. He can make you believe in a story that is otherwise so absurdly outlandish with a wafer-thin plot, but he does it because he know you will watch it for him. He knows that he has crafted such a reliable portfolio that he can occasionally slide in sneaky silliness mixed with some steaming chemistry, and no one will question it.

He knows us. Well played, JCW, you star.

 Melting Me Softly is that show. The title itself says it all. It isn’t actually sci-fi; it’s a genre where writers decided to have some fun with ideas and penned it down, with JCW in mind. What’s the story, you ask, my esteemed effendi? Well: As part of an cryogenic  experiment, two people  Dong-chan (Ji Chang-wook) and Won Jin-ah (Go Mi-ran) are ‘frozen’ for what was meant to be 24 hours, but of course, things go nightmarishly wrong and they’re frozen for over 20 years…and then woken up by a literal accident.

They haven’t aged a day. But everyone else has. Dong-chan’s fiancée believed he was dead and has aged in grief, while occasionally cherishing dreams of him, for once. Their relationship is over for good, and Dong-chan and Mi-ran face other challenges as a result of the experiment. Their body temperatures can’t rise above a certain point, and they must keep their heart rates steady — no small feat for two people clearly destined to fall madly in love. They encounter life-threatening situations, at times nearly dying in barren landscapes, only to be saved by sudden rain.

You don’t quite know when the romance blossoms, but it does, and before you know it, a heated (sorry) Dong-chan extrapolates on how frustrated he feels about this tricky situation of temperature, because he really is in love with Mi-ran. Ah, JCW, you had us there. You win.

There’s romance. There’s another life-endangering situation again, where Mi-ran is completely forced to make an unnecessary sacrifice. You probably might not remember most of the story, because it is quite inconsequential; be honest, you will watch it just for Chang-wook and Won Jin-ah stealing glances at each other suddenly after episodes of random banter. It works.

Melting Me Softly is the kind of K-Drama you watch when you just want chemistry and romance — no need to remember a single plot detail. It’s quintessential K-Drama fluff for a weary day: the kind of day when you think, “Alright, nothing cerebral, just two people in love.” Many K-Dramas try this and fail — your brain inevitably switches back on, and suddenly the crater-sized plot holes are glaring. But with Melting Me Softly, you don’t even notice.

You fast-forward everything else, the villain chases, people evil-evilling, but stay for the scenes with Chang-wook and Jin-ah, because they’re committed to their role. It melts…your reservations, slightly. Of course, this completely depends on the kind of person you are, and whether just romance is your cup of tea.

Logic left the chat. Chemistry is running the show, folks.