The start of marriage dates back to before recorded history, with the first recorded evidence of something like a marriage ceremony estimated to come from the 2350 B.C. Far East. There is no doubt that marriage, a mature human way of “breeding” with more formalities and social roles being given to both sides of the couple, has taken up an important part of human history both in terms of reproduction and creating new social groups. However, it is also true that ideas on marriage are changing along with the society, often creating conflict between different generations with conflicting perspectives.
Love in Contract is a romantic comedy drama from a Korean broadcasting system tvN directed by Nam Sung-woo, based on the original web comic with the same title. The main character, Choi Sang-eun (Park Min-young), is a “single life helper” who dates or even legally marries men who need a temporary girlfriend or wife due to their own unique reasons. Her job is to help the “clients” have perfect single lives, and she continuously transforms herself into customized styles for each of them. The two main clients Choi meets are Jung Ji-ho (Ko Gyung-pyo), a judge at the divorce court, and Kang Hae- jin (Kim Jae-young), the youngest son of the conglomerate family, Kangjin Corp, who hides this identity and works as a top actor. Choi has been in a contract with Jung for over five years, in which in contract requires the two to have dinner every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Kang’s new contract requires Choi to spend her Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays with him, therefore the literal translation of the Korean title being “Mon Wed Fri Tue Thurs Sat.”
The most interesting part of the drama is when the background of the main character, Choi, is revealed. Viewers follow through the first few episodes trying to find clues of why Choi, a young woman with perfect looks, abilities, personalities, and ambition, decided to become a single life helper, putting her into continuous difficulties and sometimes even despise form people around her. Secrets uncovered, Choi turns out to have been an orphan chosen by a conglomerate family, Ina Group, that did not have a daughter for contract marriage. For the success of the company’s business, Choi was trained for 17 years to become the “perfect” wife to marry the eldest son of Kangjin Corp, although the contract fails as Choi intentionally messes up at the meeting between the two families. Choi mentions that she decided to become a single life helper to make use of the only skills she had, as she was trained for so many years to delete her original identity and only work to become a perfect wife.
The first time I encountered the drama, I thought it would not be able to reflect the current reputation of marriage among the young generation. Contrary to the traditional belief that marriage is an essential process every man and woman in their mid-twenties to thirties should go through, it is no longer considered significant in the current 21st century. Many people in their twenties prioritize the well-being of their selves rather than forming a family due to the burden marriage seems to bring, and even those who choose to marry their lovers no longer seem to consider it as an extremely serious process of fusing two families together. And therefore, the fact that the drama continuously emphasized relationships of traditional marriage questioned me whether its ideas could be taken in.
However, as I progressed through the drama, I realized that the drama was precisely criticizing the problems of “performative” marriages and relationships in the society just to balance the needs of different generations. Furthermore, the drama asks questions to whether the current society is well performing its role of supporting both self-realization of oneself and the formation of a supportive relationship and family.
Although the show was criticized by many due to the issue of sex commercialization drawn by Choi and the absurd romantic relationships that never seem to exist in real life, I believe the drama raised an important issue. What does marriage mean in the modern society?