K-Drama Flashback: 'Playful Kiss'

‘Playful Kiss,’ starring Kim Hyun-joong and Jung So-min isn’t so playful per se. Between its ‘romance’ and its ‘comedy,’ there’s a toxic relationship and things to learn

- DEBASHREE DUTTA

THE PREMISE OF a love-hate relationship—when two distinct individuals start seemingly detesting each other—is fairly mined in teen romantic fiction. On alternate occasions, they belittle the other person up front, oblivious to a potent affinity that exists and intensifies with time, twisting hate into love—the gist of Playful Kiss in 2010 (aka Mischievous Kiss or Naughty Kiss), based on the Tada Kaoru-written Japanese manga Itazura Na Kiss. It was the third televised rendition of the manga, adhering to the Taiwanese It Started with a Kiss in 2005 and its follow-up They Kiss Again in 2007.

Fundamentally a romantic-comedy K-drama, it’s a toxic love story that saw poor ratings in South Korea but became a global hit. An extended commemorative version following the series finale was made available on YouTube for this reason.