We meet her on the ground, rousing after having lost consciousness. A dashing man appears before her, who she believes to be the personification of death.
8 of the best new Korean drama series to look out for in September 2023
8 of the best new Korean drama series to look out for in September 2023
This is Jang Shin-yu, played by SF9 boy band member Rowoon (The King’s Affection), but he is not there to bring her to the afterlife. He is a proficient lawyer from a wealthy family, one that happens to own the shack that sets the stage for this creepy meet-cute.
Shin-yu suffers from a mysterious condition that manifests itself as a bloody hand that crawls over his face, occasionally at inopportune moments such as when he is driving.
He is self-assured and good at what he does, but he is a somewhat anaemic character. Clearly lacking in social graces, he is so dry that one imagines he might crumble into dust if someone touched him.
Hong-jo has been tasked with getting permission to demolish the shack, following complaints from the parents of a YouTuber who died there. Shin-yu is not very helpful, but he points her towards shaman Eun-wol (Kim Hye-ok), not expecting that she will grant Hong-jo permission.
Not only does she do so, she also gives Hong-jo a 300-year-old box that supposedly only she can open. Inside this box is a magic book of spells and, since one of those spells could lift Shin-yu’s curse, he suddenly takes great interest in Hong-jo.
Hong-jo does not believe these are real, but in her desperation she takes a shot on one of them – a love potion.
The potion is not for Shin-yu – in typical romcom fashion they do not get along yet – but rather Kwon Jae-gyeong (Ha-jun, Missing: The Other Side), a dreamy, high-ranking figure at city hall who is the object of affection for many.
To everyone’s surprise, Jae-gyeong has been very complimentary about Hong-jo ever since her arrival. One evening, she accidentally confesses to him and is crestfallen when he very politely rejects her.
Shin-yu witnesses her clumsy confession and everyone at work, where she is already seriously ostracised, finds out about it the next day. With nothing to lose she cracks open the book of spells.
With its top-down office politics, legal courtroom gymnastics and bickering leads, Destined with You employs a number of familiar ingredients. What is lacking is charm.
The one area where it does try to spice things up is horror. From its shaman shack revealing grisly deaths, including a fatal construction site fall and the sudden decapitation of the aforementioned YouTuber, the show has many horror overtones.
The trouble is, its horror and romcom elements interact like oil and water – separate layers that are unable to mix.
Part of the reason for this is because the horror side of the story is underdeveloped. Shin-yu comes from a family with mysterious origins whose members seldom live to old age. The family is old, rich and connected to shamans but we do not understand anything about it. What should be intriguing is instead perplexing.
Even the recognisable elements of the show do not feel quite right. Hong-ju is a typical character but she exists in a vacuum. The show goes out of its way to show us how lonely she is – her bizarre, alcoholic city hall colleagues keep going out drinking without her, for instance – without offering any insight into her character.
It is early days and time may fill in some of these holes, but this is not an auspicious start for Destined with You.
Destined with You is streaming on Netflix.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
