Melting Me Softly is a romantic comedy about a variety show PD (Ji Chang Wook) and a part time worker (Won Jin Ah) at a broadcast station who are involved in a project where they are supposed to be frozen for 24 hours, but after something goes wrong, they instead wake up 20 years later.
Ji Chang Wook plays Ma Dong Chan. He’s a star PD who is great at his job and likes taking risks. He quickly jumps at the chance to be a part of the Frozen Human Project, but he never could have guessed the experiment would go wrong and land him 20 years in the future.
Won Jin Ah is Go Mi Ran. Mi Ran is a struggling part time worker at Dong Chan’s broadcast station and is known for being willing to participate in crazy stunts. That’s how she ends up joining the experiment and having her life completely changed.
Then we have Yoon Se Ah as Na Ha Young. She was Dong Chan’s girlfriend in 1999 and strongly opposed him doing the experiment. She is left devastated after she loses him and then has her life shaken up when he suddenly returns after 20 years.
Melting Me Softly was such a fun drama for me. I got hooked quickly and really loved the first few episodes. They introduced the story well with the interesting concept of people being frozen and waking up 20 years later.
I liked how they told the initial story while mixing scenes from the “present” 1999 time line combined with flashbacks leading up to the frozen project. It connected me with the characters, their situations, and their relationship dynamics.
We briefly see what happened right after they were frozen and then we jump 20 years into the future to 2019. The drama did excellent at showing how disorienting it was for Dong Chan and Mi Ran to find themselves in the future as well as their families reactions to the situation. It was jam-packed with feels as we see everyone reunite and try to adjust to everything. I was thoroughly pleased with how it was all handled.
The drama leans heavily towards the romantic comedy side with a dash of sci-fi surrounding the frozen experiment. The comedy is quite silly, and I would compare it to another drama from this writer, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon.
It worked for me, and I actually found Melting Me Softly quite funny. Any drama that has a time travel type concept is primed for fun regarding adjusting to the future. I was happy that this drama spent a few episodes showing the humor around that.
About a third of the way through the drama, we really get the romance starting to take shape. I liked seeing Dong Chan and Mi Ran develop feelings for each other. They were in a very unique situation that only the two of them could understand.
They also have to contend with a side effect of them being frozen…they have to keep their body temperatures lower than normal or they could die. It makes for some dramatic situations where their lives are at stake.
We also get a bit of a love triangle as Dong Chan is reunited with his girlfriend from 20 years ago, Ha Young. They have to address old feelings between them as well as some uncomfortable truths.
This is one of those great dramas where I loved all of the supporting characters. They are all so quirky and hilarious, and I loved how over-the-top they were. This made every scene interesting which is something I can’t praise enough.
One of my favorites was the man Mi Ran was dating back in 1999, Hwang Byung Sim (Shim Hyuang Tak). And let me tell you, this guy was something else! He’s completely delusional and thinks she is madly in love with him for 20 years.
He’s a total jerk and basically a stalker, but his reactions are so crazy and completely hilarious. Shim Hyuang Tak was perfect for this role with his animated faces and gestures. He cracked me up every time he was on screen.
I liked Dong Chan and Mi Ran’s families too. They are all very interesting and fun characters, and I got a lot of laughs from them. There are also many touching moments throughout the drama as these families deal with everything. I was particularly touched by the moments between them and their siblings. I teared up on multiple occasions seeing how much they loved each other.
We have a couple of supporting characters who worked at the station and were involved in covering up the frozen experiment. They are very over-the-top and spend much of the drama shrieking in despair about what to do. I normally wouldn’t find this funny, but something about this duo just worked for me, and I enjoyed their crazy reactions.
For those considering watching this one, expectations are key. It’s a rom-com with a side of sci-fi. It’s meant to be silly and fun with a sci-fi story that is on the fantastical side. Not everything makes logical sense, but I wouldn’t expect it to with this type drama.
It’s not meant to be over-analyzed as there is a basic problem to solve regarding our couple being frozen and a straight forward villain looking to cause trouble. This part of the story isn’t particularly hard hitting, but it adds in a nice back drop for the romance and the comedy.
This was one of those times where I was really surprised to see how many people really disliked this drama and thought the story was bad and boring. It felt like I had watched a different drama. That wasn’t my experience at all as I thought the story progressed nicely from the set up, to our characters adjusting to their new lives, to the sci-fi mystery, and then turning into a wonderful romance.
Just remember, this is meant to be fun and not super serious. And there were other people like me who really enjoyed this drama, so I would recommend at least giving it a try to see if the style works for you.
I really liked getting to see Dong Chan and Mi Rain adjust to their new lives and fall in love. When taking it for what it is, I found the drama to be a whole lot of fun with a lovely romance.
There are also a good amount of cute couple moments with them being very adorable. I loved watching them develop feelings and how protective they were towards each other. This couple faced quite a few challenges, sometimes with their lives at stake, and they were always there for one another.
Melting Me Softly was just a wonderful watch. The sci-fi concept was interesting, and I loved all of the characters who made me laugh quite a lot. I also thoroughly enjoyed the sweet romance that blossomed into such a caring and nurturing relationship.
My Rating: 8/10
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