KOR
The Coupang Play series "The Affair Was Just the Beginning" is a prime example of this. The title itself serves as a powerful hook, sparking curiosity about the show. Once you are drawn in by the title and check out the cast lineup and logline, your interest multiplies. Kim Hye-soo and Cho Yeo-jeong? The mere fact that these top actors, who have maintained their positions for a long time, chose this project deepens your trust in it.
"The Affair Was Just the Beginning" begins with the story of Kyung-hee (Kim Hye-soo), Jae-hong (Kim Jihun), and their daughter Ye-ji (Jeon Si-hyeon). Living in poverty in a semi-basement studio apartment with a leaky ceiling, Kyung-hee firmly resolves, "Let's live well."
That resolution soon becomes reality. Starting a YouTube channel centered on her unique interior design sensibility, Kyung-hee succeeds and grows into a creator with one million followers. Her family rises in social status, moving from the semi-basement to an apartment, and then to a luxury townhouse, finally entering high society. And that is where they meet their neighbor Su-jeong's family. This is precisely where the story begins to unfold in earnest.
Unlike Kyung-hee's family, who climbed up from the bottom, Su-jeong's (Cho Yeo-jeong) family comes from a wealthy, elite background. Aside from the fact that she is going through a divorce lawsuit with her ex-husband Bo-seong (Kim Jaechul) over the custody of their daughter Min-seo (Do Young-seo), she has nothing to envy. Growing up wealthy in a medical family, Su-jeong runs a dermatologic clinic in Cheongdam-dong and carries herself with elegance and sophistication. However, beneath her seemingly perfect exterior lies a contrasting side: she secretly smokes on the hospital rooftop to soothe her anxious state of mind.
Kyung-hee's seemingly harmonious family and Su-jeong's seemingly perfect family go beyond a simple neighborly relationship, becoming organically intertwined through their respective needs. Then, completely unexpected events break out in a chain reaction.
Tracking her husband's footsteps in search of traces of infidelity, Kyung-hee discovers a bloody corpse and her husband Jae-hong standing in front of it in an empty building in a demolition zone late at night. But this is only the beginning. Shocking serial incidents that she could never have imagined await Kyung-hee. Crimes that make an affair seem almost less shocking, such as drunk driving, hit-and-run, murder, and abandonment of a body, take place one after another.
Amidst twist upon twist, the characters struggle desperately to protect their respective families. In this process, their bare faces are exposed without filter. While a chaotic mess unfolds where the wounds caused by a spouse's affair become the starting point for another affair, even as they scramble to clean up the mess, their raw instincts and desires keep surfacing, portrayed with such desperation and pathos that they can seem almost pathetic.
They say life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long shot. Watching the hypocrisy and true faces of these seemingly perfect people get relentlessly stripped away is immensely entertaining. It delivers the intense thrills of a black comedy genre. The fast-paced delivery of raw, writhing fun also provides an overwhelming sense of immersion.
Bringing this solid script and sophisticated direction to life with flavor is the captivating acting of the cast. Kim Hye-soo, Cho Yeo-jeong, Kim Jihun, and Kim Jaechul, along with Jeon Si-hyeon and Do Young-seo playing the daughters of each family, unfold a flawless feast of acting.
"The Affair Was Just the Beginning" has a total of 8 episodes, with 6 episodes currently released. New episodes are released sequentially every Friday on Coupang Play.
[Photo=Coupang Play]
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Sun-ae)
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