‘Second Shot At Love’ Delivers A Different K-Drama Take On Drinking

K-drama characters often meet and grow closer over drinks. Soju, makkgeoli and beer loosen tongues, let secrets slip, and often result in characters doing things they would rather not remember the next day, even if they enjoyed them. Drinking might cause problems in the lives of such k-drama characters, but is less often seen as having the potential to ruin these fictional lives. That’s not the case in Second Shot At Love, in which Choi Sooyoung plays someone who drinks to excess and uses alcohol to avoid dealing with her problems. Alcohol is becoming a serious problem in her life.

Her character Geum-joo chugs a beer for breakfast and has just broken up with her fiancé because he nagged her about drinking. While the reasons for the break-up might be more complicated than alcohol abuse, she refuses to give it up or even take a short hiatus. Choi is a talented comedienne, so some of her too-drunk drama scenes are entertainingly funny, but at the same time her character’s self-destructive tendencies are also heartbreaking.

Gong Myung plays Seo Ui-joon, a doctor whose talks help people recognize when they might have an alcohol problem. To illustrate some common misperceptions about alcoholism he asks the audience who they might consider to be an alcoholic. It’s not necessarily the homeless person he shows them a photo of. A more likely case is a functioning adult, one who manages to hide the severity of his or her problem. An alcoholic might look and act like the talented car mechanic Han Geum-joo, played by Sooyoung. Until recently Geum-joo had a job at a top car company and managed to make it look like her alcohol consumption was under control.

Geum-joo refuses to curtail her drinking even when her mother, played with comic verve by Kim Sung-ryoung (When Life Gives You Tangerines, A Virtuous Business), asks her to stop. Her dad, played by Kim Sung-ho, and her sister, played by Jo Yoon-hee, don’t seem to think she has a problem. That might be because they really enjoy drinking with her.

Could it be that the intervention she needs has to come from Ui-joon, who used to be her best friend. They had a mysterious falling out that was never resolved and it might involve feelings. As he says, recognizing that you have a problem is the first step to dealing with the problem. However, these two characters have some problems they first need to work out before Geum-joo can work on her drinking problem.

The Girls Generation singer and actress has created a relatable character in Geum-joo, realizing all the comic potential of her predicament but also making viewers hope she gets her life together. The versatile actress can be seen in dramas such as Not Others, If You Wish Upon Me, Move To Heaven and Run On. Gong Myung is having a romcom moment as he can also currently be seen in another romcom, Way Back Love, with co-star Kim Min-ha. He previously starred in Lovers Of The Red Sky, Be Melodramatic and Revolutionary Love, as well as the film Killing Romance. He’s the cool voice of reason in this drama, and also a much-loved doctor who makes house calls.

This lighthearted take on a serious subject also features some funny performances from a host of supporting actors, including Kang Hyoung-suk (Love In Contract) as Ui-joon’s best friend and Bae Hae-sun (Crash Course In Romance) as the doctor’s devoted nurse.

Jung Joo-young directed Second Shot at Love and the screenplay was written by Myung Soo-hyun, who also wrote Drinking Solo and Monthly Magazine Home. While it’s Jung’s first time directing a drama, she previously directed the films Honest Candidate, The Bros and Finding Mr. Destiny.

Second Shot At Love airs on Viki.com in the U.S.