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Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Jung In-sun, Choi Si-won, Lee Tae-hwan, Jung Eugene
Latest Nielsen rating: 0.6 per cent
Since time immemorial, people have been trying to discover the secret to finding that special someone. For those not lucky enough to meet this person out of the blue there are a range of options available, ranging from the magic of love potions to the social science of matchmaking.
Falling somewhere in between those is the research of geneticist Han So-jin (Jung In-sun, Let Me Be Your Knight), the protagonist of the bubbly romcom DNA Lover.


The show opens with So-jin on stage, confidently expressing her theories about the link between DNA and romance. She believes that we can find our perfect matches by matching DNA.
“Love is a waste,” she exclaims as she explains how much unnecessary heartbreak she has experienced. With her research, she has now found what kind of a man is her ideal match – and she believes that others can, too.
Her “DNA lover” is tall and slim, has double eyelids and thick hair, and is sensitive to heat. He is also a drinker with a high likelihood of developing lung cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
This confident So-jin suddenly disappears when the real So-jin, with oversized spectacles and frazzled hair, wakes up at her desk, research papers glued to her cheeks.

So-jin, like so many K-drama heroines before her, is a highly competent professional who has been very unlucky in love. All of her relationships have ended because of a partner who has cheated on her.
She seems to be spared this ignominy during her latest break-up, when her boyfriend breaks things off because of her obsession with her DNA research. Unfortunately for her, it turns out he did cheat on her – with one of her colleagues, no less.
This confirms an observation by another of her colleagues, who had earlier analysed that So-jin has a gene that makes her apt to fall for men who will be unfaithful.
Choi Si-won of the K-pop group Super Junior plays Shim Yeon-woo, the antithesis of So-jin. Yeon-woo is a handsome and successful gynaecologist who hates clingy women and commitment and always breaks things off very quickly.

Dealing with her own break-up, So-jin drowns her sorrows in her local izakaya, where Yeon-woo’s latest ex is doing the very same thing. They get very drunk and decide to get revenge on Yeon-woo. This involves them barging into his bachelor pad, where he is working on a jigsaw puzzle of Gustav Klimt’s The Woman in Gold.
In the altercation that follows, So-jin sprays Yeon-woo with an experimental hair growth solution she had developed for her balding ex. When Yeon-woo’s left sideburn begins growing out of control the next morning, he is forced to seek her out.
After their disastrous meet cute, how will So-jin and Yeon-woo find their way to romance? And will Yeon-woo turn out to be her DNA lover?
Richard Dawkins, the author of The Selfish Gene, might not agree with So-jin’s views on genetics, but then again, beyond a few explanatory chyrons in So-jin’s lab, DNA Lover does not seem too concerned with the scientific implications of its concepts.

In the same way that K-dramas and films approach science fiction, So-jin’s genetics are just a way to dress up a very familiar story, in this case the traditional Korean romantic comedy.
The show even includes genetics in a mawkishly sentimental sidebar about a suicidal pregnant woman, who is said to have the “dying gene”.
The woman is Yeon-woo’s patient, and owing to a problem with her pregnancy, he advises her to terminate it. The child is unlikely to live for more than a few hours after birth and the act of bringing it into the world would be a grave risk to the mother.
Yeon-woo does not understand the mother’s desire to go through with the pregnancy anyway. However, So-jin does. She understands that a mother would sacrifice herself just to be able to meet their child and give them a few moments of life.

Both Yeon-woo and So-jin wind up on a hospital roof, attempting to talk the mother down from a ledge. They appeal to her emotionally, by talking about miracles and with Yeon-woo promising that he will do everything he can to deliver her baby.
With all its pseudoscience and cloying emotions, not to mention its extremely broad attempts at comedy, DNA Lover is one of those shows that is too eager to please, while running the risk of failing to satisfy anyone.
DNA Lover is streaming on Viu.


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K-drama DNA Lover: Jung In-sun, Choi Si-won lead tacky and mawkish romcom

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Choi Si-won (left) as Shim Yeon-woo and Jung In-sun as Han So-jin in a still from DNA Lover.

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Jung In-sun plays a geneticist who uses DNA to find her ‘ideal man’. Is it K-pop star Choi Si-won’s doctor? Romcom tries too hard to please


A geneticist (Jung In-sun) believes in using DNA matching to find her ‘ideal man’. She meets a doctor (Super Junior’s Choi Si-won) who is her opposite in Korean romantic comedy series DNA Lover.
