The Girl Who Sees Smells tells the story of a young woman named Oh Cho Rim (Shin Se Kyung) whose parents were victims in the bar code murder case when she was a teenager. She narrowly escapes the murderer, but ends up in the hospital in a coma. Months later when she wakes up, she has no memory of her parents or the murderer, and she has mysteriously developed the ability to physically see smells. I love how the drama portrays the smells she sees as little pictures related to the smell as they float around. Very cute.
Years later she meets Officer Choi Moo Gak (Park Yoo Chun) whose sister was killed by the bar code murderer around the same time as Cho Rim’s parents. Because of an accident, Moo Gak is completely opposite of Cho Rim’s heightened abilities in that he is unable to taste, smell, or feel pain at all. They are quite the pair!
Although skeptical of Cho Rim’s ability at first, once he is convinced she is telling the truth, she agrees to help him solve a few cases if he will be her partner in her comedy stage act. And thus our story is set in motion.
Basically, I loved everything about The Girl Who Sees Smells. First, it has the nice romantic comedy vibe between our main couple, and they are just too cute! For being a bit low on feelings and emotions, Moo Gak is a fun one to watch. And Cho Rim was sweet, adorable, and relatable. This pair had fabulous chemistry, and they were a true joy to watch.
SPOILERS BELOW
Then we add a nice little mystery to the plot to really seal the deal. The Bar Code Murder mystery was introduced within the first five minutes of the drama, and I thought it added a nice layer to the overall plot in that it really helped push the story forward.
For the first few episodes, we watch creepy Dr. Chun Baek Kyung (Song Jong Ho) who we believe to be the bar code murderer. There was plenty of tension when it came to this guy! But we eventually get a big surprise when we learn he really isn’t the murderer. And because he knows too much, the real murderer is now coming after him!
So we now know that the charming and handsome star chef Kwon Jae Hee (Nam Gung Min) is really the bar code murderer. I thoroughly enjoyed and was simultaneously creeped out by this guy for the rest of the drama. He was perfect as the cool and collected guy who is loved by everyone but in reality is a sociopathic serial murderer.
Admittedly, the police work was a little shoddy at times, but since literally everything else in the drama worked wonderfully, it was easy to overlook. And the other detectives added another nice comedic layer to the story, along with a second female lead that is nice and doesn’t try to cause our main couple problems.
So other than that, I felt everything else was perfect. Watching Jae Hee maneuver his way out of situations to avoid being found out and hoping that he didn’t discover that Cho Rim was the girl he tried to kill years earlier provided excitement all the way through.
We have a wonderful couple to give us comedy and romance, cute music, and a nice murder mystery to provide a little tension. It’s everything I love in a drama.
Now I’m already a pretty big fan of Park Yoo Chun (I Miss You, Rooftop Prince), but this guy can really do comedy! His comedy scenes with Shin Se Kyung were hilarious. And I love how they carried his little catch phrase “Churr!” throughout the drama. It certainly gave me many laughs, especially in some of his fantasy scenes in the last couple episodes of the drama.
The Girl Who Sees Smells isn’t exactly grand or radically different, but it simply gets right what it needs to in order to create an enjoyable ride from start to finish. This drama found its way into my heart, and I only have amazing memories when I think of the Girl Who Sees Smells.
What did you think of the Girl Who Sees Smells?
My Rating: 9/10
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Kdrama Kisses 
That’s a generous score and a glowing review for a drama that could easily have been reaaally bad. Somehow Yoo Chun saved this drama for me. We were left with too many questions, like just how he lost those senses of his. It’s an average drama, but for some reasons it struck a resounding chord with fans lol
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Haha, yep, I did love this drama. It just hit the right spot for me. But I definitely wasn’t blind to its flaws (mostly the police work). I don’t really mind when dramas just give a certain power or lack thereof to characters and never go in to it (I Hear Your Voice: hearing thoughts, GWSS: seeing smells, Blade Man: he just randomly started sprouting blades one day, lol – that wasn’t exactly executed the best). But it’s common in kdramas.
I actually found myself comparing Oh My Ghostess to this a lot as I watched. Both had absolutely adorable couples with great chemistry that really carried each drama. But I found OMG to be lacking in that it didn’t provide enough of the murder mystery throughout the show and crammed it in at the end. GWSS nicely paced the mystery and balanced it with the comedy. GWSS didn’t go into the bad guy’s backstory much, which it certainly could have, but sometimes the bad guy is just a sociopath. OMG had so much potential on the bad guy backstory, and it gave us a ton of questions but no answers. It also created its own world, but didn’t really explain the rules.
But sometimes a drama just clicks with you..or vice versa. All I keep hearing is how intense and amazing Mask was, but I found it completely average. Ah, well, we like what we like, lol
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Loved it!! Is there a reason why Park Yoochan’s pictures always end with a successful love interest. Is it because he was Americanized? Love his movie endings — always positive.
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Agree! He really does some of the best dramas. And he always has great chemistry with whatever actress he is paired with. I already miss seeing him in a new drama!
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I liked this show. It was good but not great. The main couple were cute. The ending was the way I like, So why do I say the show was okay but not great? The show tried to do too much, combining suspense (serial killer) and police work with romance and humor. The romance was nice but the serial killer wasn’t scary, there just wasn’t much suspense. The humor was often out of place ruining any suspense build up. The police work shown was not well written. Very sloppy. And that’s with the detective team having veteran actors such as Jo Hee-Bong who was in both The Good Detective and The Good Detective 2.
SPOILER It was nice to see the main couple get married and see a little of their life afterward.
Rating: 7.5/10
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It’s nice you at least thought it was a good watch 🙂 This is a classic favorite of mine from a writer I really like. I tend to enjoy their combination of rom-com/angst/suspense. It’s too bad you didn’t enjoy the serial killer aspect. Back when this aired, the serial killer was very well received as being sooo creepy. It was one of Nam Goong Min’s breakout performances, and I still think he does creepy serial killer so well, hehe 😅
Agree, it was definitely a nice ending and to get to see some of our couple’s new life together 🙂
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Maybe because of movies like Silence of the Lambs and Scream I expect more from my killers. 😎
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Haha, yeah, that’s definitely a different brand of serial killer 😂
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