Call It Love (사랑이라 말해요) is a Korean romantic drama series directed by Lee Kwang-young, written by Kim Ga-eun and stars Lee Sung-kyung, Kim Young-kwang, Sung Joon, Ahn Hee-yeon and Kim Ye-won, alongside other cast members.
Young-kwang was last seen in the 2022 Netflix thriller Somebody as Seong Yun-o opposite Kang Hae-lim, and Sung-kyung’s last drama role was in 2022’s tvN K-drama Sh**ting Stars as Oh Han-byeol, opposite Kim Young-dae.
Call It Love episode 1 has a runtime of 70 minutes.
Disney+ Hostar’s description of the series reads:
A woman vows revenge on her foe, a heart-wrenchingly lonely and gentle man…
– Call It Love Episode 1 Review Contains Spoilers –
Call It Love episode 1 starts with Woo-ju and Yoon Joon sharing a meal together and bantering. Elsewhere, Dong-jin is also eating, and the two of them suddenly walk in. She asks Yoon Joon whether he wants to bet on whether or not it will rain the next day, and the question makes Dong-jin take notice. She mentions some concerning stuff about going to her friend and then supports Dong-jin when the restaurant owner admonishes him for not telling her about an order mixup.
The next morning, we meet Woo-ju’s siblings, who are absolutely the opposite of her and are a delightful bunch. We are also made aware of a missing father who they don’t share a good relationship with. Now that her father is dead, she is invited to his funeral and pay respects. When the siblings were younger, their father’s infidelity gave all of them deep trauma, and her sense of foreboding seems to be coming from a similar place.
Anyway, it does start to rain later in the day eventually, and as Woo-ju thinks back to her past, Dong-jin tries to handle an office debacle brought on by his ex-boss, who seems to still be salty about Dong-jin and Sun-woo (his business partner) leaving. When Sun-woo tries to talk to the ex-boss, he doesn’t stop himself from insulting him further.
On the other hand, Woo-ju goes to the funeral parlour to rain some serious fire at her father Shim Chul-min’s funeral. Inside the parlour, Woo-ju reminds Hee-ja who she is and why she is there, and a look into the past reveals that her father was caught by her mother while trying to run away from home with Hee-ja. A young Woo-ju also caught them running away from home, and it clearly left a scar on her.
Woo-ju later gets into a verbal spat with her aunts and uncles while having a meal at the funeral and eventually airs Hee-ja’s dirty laundry in front of everyone as well, mentioning how she and Chul-min ran off with their money and jewellery and that Hee-ja is nothing but a high-achieving mistress. The accusations make Hee-ja furious, but she stops herself from physically harming Woo-ju and asks her to leave after finishing her food.
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Unfortunately for Woo-ju, she tragically learns that Hee-ja sold her childhood home, and after confronting her, Hee-ja, without any remorse, tells her that she legally inherited the house and that she sold it legally. Woo-ju, although morally correct, cannot do anything about it and her brother’s phone call from home cements the fact that the deed is truly done. Hee-ja asks her to vacate the house within a week and, as a final nail in the coffin, tells gives her some money to take a cab home.
In the meantime, Dong-jin scrambles to assemble money for his failing business, but finds adversities down every path. He later goes to the funeral, as it turns out he is Hee-ja’s son. Dong-jin, however, doesn’t seem to be too emotional, unlike his mother, who continues to whimper constantly.
On her way out, a heartbroken Woo-ju starts to sob after falling on the floor. Yoon Joon comes to her rescue, baffled to find her there and hoping against hope not to find her at the funeral. Either way, she is frustrated to find herself crying on the floor, more so because she doesn’t want other to think that she’s crying for her father.
Behind the building, Hee-ja admonishes her son for being absent from their lives for the last 5 years and tells him that she has sent him the money that he needs. Their relationship is rather odd, because she tells him that just because she was busy getting married multiple times doesn’t mean that he won’t come to her for advice or with his issues. Dong-jin, however, looks totally out of this relationship, even though his mother tries her level best to manipulate him.
The next day, Woo-ju and her family are hard at work packing everything up to move 20 years’ worth of things. Meanwhile, armed with cash influx, Dong-jin decides to hold a trade fair in order to pull his company out of the gutters and help it hold its own. On the other hand, at office, Hae-sung gets humiliated when it turns out that her boyfriend is cheating on his partner.
Woo-ju comes to her rescue and then later gives her a piece of her mind for always going after the worst men that she can find. Anyway, it turns out that Woo-ju has quit her job at the pharmacy and is working as a part-time office assistant at Best Fair with Dong-jin.
The employees there don’t really seem to like her, especially because she’s very dismissive of everyone, but she seems to be good at her job and is liked by the bosses. Later on, it comes to light that Woo-ju learned about Dong-jin and the truth about his relationship with Hee-ja before joining the company and is of the opinion that Dong-jin is just like his mother, refusing to cut him any slack for taking the money from the house sale.
Call It Love Episode 1 Ending
Either way, she stalks Dong-jin back home and tries to go through his mail, but he catches her in the act, telling her his apartment number. Realising that she is caught, the two look at each other, with Woo-ju not trying to hide anymore.
Call It Love Episode 1 Review
The first episode of the Disney+ Korean drama is heart-wrenching and leaves the audience rather sad for our protagonists. Infidelity is always a difficult pill to swallow, especially for children who are caught in the middle. And the series does a good job at bringing forth how Chul-min’s infidelity caused serious issues in his children. It’s subtle, and it’s just the first episode, but the message is loud and clear.
However, in all its merits and difficult discussions, it’s interesting how no one is questioning the men who are doing the cheating. I mean, sure, Woo-ju hates her father, as she should. But, even in the scene with Hae-sung, we don’t see the man, who is the one two-timing with different women, get called out all that much. Hee-ja is clearly a horrible person with a poisonous heart, but we don’t see enough vitrioul against Chul-min as we see against her.
Then again, it’s just the first episode. There is much revenge to be exacted still!
That being said, the episode has some very funky colour grading that almost gave me a headache. It’s there in some scenes are not in others. I understanding separating the past and future using colours and whatnot, but it’s there even in scenes that are taking place in the present, and it’s awfully distracting and annoying.
Call It Love is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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