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Pierce Conran

3/5 stars
Lead cast: Gong Yoo, Seo Hyun-jin
In Netflix’s new Korean romantic thriller The Trunk, nothing is quite as it seems: characters live in sleek and spacious homes and lead lives that project stability and affluence, but what lies beneath the surface?
The show’s title refers to a baby-blue designer suitcase trimmed in bright red which begins the show on the edge of an islet in a lake, water ominously lapping against its side in the blue light of dawn.


Later, on that same body of water, a woman drifts along in a red kayak during a moment of peace after having completed a long assignment.
The lake is calm and serene but in both scenes, shot from high above, a foreign dot of red disturbs its surface.
The Trunk is awash in carefully considered symbols such as these. Visually arresting objects hide or remind characters of dark truths, such as the titular luggage or a gleaming chandelier made up of sharp blades of glass.
There is a secret lurking underwater, within the titular trunk, but the criminal mystery that will unfold, although atmospheric, is far less important than the show’s other mirrored surface – the institution of marriage, which characters exploit to project a warped image of themselves.

Gong Yoo (Guardian: The Lonely and Great God) is Han Jeong-won, an insomniac music producer with an addiction to sleeping pills who lives in the home left to him by his father, a cavernous mansion filled with painful memories of the latter’s abuse and his mother’s violent death.
Jeong-won is not only traumatised by his past but haunted by the present, following an abrupt divorce from Lee Seo-yeon (Jung Yun-ha).
The pair had been together since they were children, but Seo-yeon recently broke things off and quickly found herself a younger husband – the severe and chiselled fencer Yoon Ji-o (Jo Yi-gun).
Jeong-won mopes around the house missing his ex-wife, until he is suddenly presented with a new wife, who he has never met before. She has been provided to him by Seo-yeon, who promises that if he stays married to this woman for one year, they will then get back together.
This woman is Noh In-ji, the stoic protagonist played by Seo Hyun-jin (Why Her?), who has an unusual vocation. She is a “field wife” who works for the secretive company NM (New Marriage), which discreetly sets up clients in matrimony with professional marriage providers for a variety of reasons.

At the start of the series, she is bidding farewell to her fourth husband, who is on the cusp of expiring in a hospital bed – watch out for the cameo performance behind the oxygen mask.
Following a brief break – including the aforementioned kayaking – In-ji takes on her fifth long-term assignment. She packs her red and blue suitcase and rolls up to Jeong-won’s house.
Jeong-won reluctantly agrees to the arrangement but continues to pine after Seo-yeon while giving In-ji the cold shoulder. However, the arranged marriage includes a manual carefully prepared by NM. The various instructions force Jeong-won to spend time in proximity to the formidable In-ji.

In-ji comes off as very dry at first, her actions calculated and efficient, but begins to exude a surprising warmth, and gradually turns Jeong-won’s glacial palace into a warm home.
Before he knows it, Jeong-won no longer relies on medication and finds that he is able to sleep through the night again. Ironically, it is the controlling Seo-yeon who becomes jealous as she detects a change in her ex-husband’s behaviour.
Replete with visual symbols and awash in pent-up emotions, The Trunk is a decidedly atmospheric production. However, while its symbols, stars and story attract us with their mood and mystery, the show ultimately comes up short when it is forced to reveal its full hand.
In-ji’s backstory, while a little convoluted, helps us make sense of her character. Jeong-won is not quite as fully formed, but thanks to his childhood trauma and Gong’s performance, we understand that he is wounded and vulnerable.

However, beyond being an emotional manipulator, Seo-yeon’s motivations become more abstruse as her plan is revealed.
Meanwhile, NM is presented as a major organisation with its own agents and capable of pulling strings. However, it never quite steps out of the shadows; the scriptwriters do not seem to know how to depict it beyond the initial concept.
Pretty to look at, The Trunk is engrossing until you try to open the proverbial trunk.
The Trunk is streaming on Netflix.


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Gong Yoo as Han Jeong-won and Seo Hyun-jin as Noh In-ji in a still from The Trunk. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix

Gong Yoo as Han Jeong-won in a still from The Trunk. Seo Hyun-jin co-stars. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix

Gong Yoo as Han Jeong-won in a still from The Trunk. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix.

Jung Yun-ha (left) as Lee Seo-yeon and Gong Yoo as Han Jeong-won in a still from The Trunk. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix.

Seo Hyun-jin as Noh In-ji in a still from The Trunk. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix

Gong Yoo (left) as Han Jeong-won and Seo Hyun-jin as Noh In-ji in a still from The Trunk. Photo: Kim Seung-wan/Netflix

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A woman leaves her wealthy husband and sets him up with another woman. Meanwhile a suitcase hides a mystery in atmospheric Netflix series


A woman leaves her wealthy husband and sets him up with another woman. Meanwhile a suitcase hides a mystery in atmospheric Netflix series.


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Review | Netflix K-drama The Trunk review: Gong Yoo, Seo Hyun-jin in atmospheric romantic thriller

A woman leaves her wealthy husband and sets him up with another woman. Meanwhile a suitcase hides a mystery in atmospheric Netflix series