Dynamite Kiss review: Jang Ki-Yong and Ahn Eun-Jin anchor a solid rom-com that falls flat at the end!

Despite checking all the boxes for what makes a good K-drama, Dynamite Kiss’s climax is a major let down. Here’s why!

Dynamite Kiss review: One of the major elements that make K-dramas stand out in a sea of mediocre rom-coms today is the fact that they keep old school love alive. The slow-burning romance, holding hands in episode eight, the angst before a kiss, the way the male lead is an absolute green flag all adds to it being widely popular around the world. But instead of following that same path, Dynamite Kiss switches things up a little bit and makes the leads kiss in the first episode itself. As a K-drama fan I’m not used to being given what I wish for since the start so I was intrigued and so was the world! The chemistry between the two leads was off the charts ever since the first frame and the entire fandom collectively knew this is something we’d look forward to every week restlessly!

Dynamite Kiss’ premise is bizarre to begin with but the first half of the show somehow sells it all to you. After their paths entangled in Jeju Island under hilarious circumstances, Go Da-Rim(Ahn Eun-Jin) and Gong Ji-Hyeok (Jang Ki-Yong) are stuck in a fake dating scenario with each other. To keep the act going, Go Da-Rim kisses Ji-Hyeok at a party but little does she expect for him to actually fall deeply in love with her. Sometimes one kiss is really all it takes! The next day the two go on a date and fall head over heels for one another, and before we know it, they were ready to have sex! Yes, the leads were ready for physical intimacy in a K-drama in the first two episodes itself. It felt too good to be true, and it was because right before their best moment together, she runs away as her mom’s health worsens, without being able to say goodbye to him. With little to no information about her, Ji-Hyeok tries finding her every single day until she co-incidentally shows up for an interview at his company. She is desperate to get that job to pay her debt but because the position was only for mothers, she lies about being married and having a kid, which leaves Ji-Hyeok heart broken. 

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The premise of the drama is set. There’s of course constant back and forth between the two. He is in disbelief of how she could ever be married after the night they shared. He loves her even in moments he is too proud to accept it and more than anything it’s the gaze with which he looks at her throughout the show. As if he is always one step away from kissing her. The angst and the slow-burning romance keeps you coming to it episode after episode. There are also the second leads who add to the drama. Go Da-Rim’s childhood bestie Kim Seon-U(Kim Mu-Jin) who pretends to be her husband and Ha-Yeong (Woo Da-Vi) who falls in love with Seon-U at first sight. This isn’t a love triangle, but a rectangle at this point! But as the story unfolds further, the romance between Go Da-Rim and Ji-Hyeok, the second leads figuring things out and the plot twists make for a quintessential K-drama we were in desperate need of before the year ends!

It was refreshing to see Jang Ki-Yong back on-screen after Atypical Family. Not only does he fulfill his duty as the tall and extremely good looking male lead, he has an immaculate screen presence that’ll hold your attention on him every time he is in frame. Ahn Eun-Jin finally gets her due credit as a female lead with this one! She is all hands on as Go Da-Rim and we see her in a character like we never have before!

Having said that, the show’s latter half disappointed me deeply. Episode 12’s ending in particular where Ji-Hyeok’s dad slaps Go Da-Rim completely loses my respect as an audience for the show. Not only was it unnecessary to do that but also the lack of accountability for it makes it worse. Even though Ji-Hyeok takes revenge on her behalf and brings solid evidence to clear her name, it simply isn’t enough to forget that there was abuse involved. To add to that, the last episode is also overly dramatic for no reason at all.

From Ji-Hyeok’s accident to him losing his memory, it was truly a waste of time and waste of opportunity to show more of Da-Rim and Ji-Hyeok happy dating life for once! Even though the show starts off so strong, the ending fully loses what the story really wants to say and even though the show was bizarre to begin with, Dynamite Kiss crosses a line by the end of it. There’s a limit to how much one can blindside certain things as an audience in the name of fun and romance. Let’s just say the only true victim here was Ha-Yeong who deserved way better than what she got on the show and maybe sometime even having the best of actors cannot save a story that fails to hold the high standards it started off with!

All episodes of Dynamite Kiss are currently streaming on Netflix!

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