‘Unlock My Boss’ Asks What To Do If You Get Trapped In A Smartphone

It’s one thing to spend a lot of time immersed in your phone, but it’s another to actually wind up inside your phone. That’s what happens to Kim Sun-joo, played by Park Sung-woong, in the Korean drama Unlock My Boss.

Whatever else you may think about Unlock My Boss or the webtoon of the same name that inspired this genie-in-a-bottle story, it does deserve an A for concept. Sun-joo is a tech genius, who heads a large IT company. He’s so busy launching virtual reality software, he falls short in his parenting responsibilities, not spending enough time with his young daughter. On his way to meet her, he’s involved in a mysterious accident and somehow winds up trapped inside his phone. And the phone needs charging.

The smartphone he lands in is discovered by Park In-sun, played by Chae Jong-hyeop. In-sun has unsuccessfully been searching for a job, even though he is qualified. He would especially like to work at Sun-jooo’s company. You lack experience, the recruiters there tell him, but he can’t get any experience until he gets a job. It’s a conundrum.

At first it’s hard for In-sun to believe he’s really talking to someone trapped inside a phone but Sun-joo persuades him by offering him lots of money to temporarily take over his CEO job, while he finds out what happened to him and who to blame. Even trapped inside a phone, Sun-joo can make things happen and a large deposit into In-sun’s bank account seals the deal.

In-sun goes from unemployed to CEO overnight. He gets on-the-job help from the very smart phone and from Sun-joo’s secretary, played by Seo Eun-soo. She’s a lost soul with a sick mom, who is always one step ahead of the loan sharks. Whoever threatened Sun-joo may also be a threat to In-sun, so he will have to watch his back.

The rest of the series offers lots of comic possibilities as the previously unemployed In-sun will have to improvise his way through managing a company with the help of his dedicated smartphone assistant. Unlock the Boss is a comedy that raises some interesting, whimsical and maybe not so crazy questions about the amount of time humans spend interacting with a handheld electronic device. Some days we all seem to be trapped in our smartphones.

Park Sung-woon previously appeared in the dramas Snowdrop, Rugal and When The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. Chae Jong-hyeop appeared in the dramas Shooting Stars, The Witch’s Diner and Nevertheless. Seo Eun-woo appeared in When I Was Most Beautiful and Tell Me What Your Saw.

The ENA series is directed by Lee Chul-ha, who directed OK Madam and currently airs on Viki. The drama is written by Kim Hyung-min, who co-wrote Sweet Home.