The Trunk: A Mysterious Merge of Marriage and Murder

This Netflix k-drama follows the story of a contract marriage between wealthy music producer Han Jeong-won (Gong Yoo) and his wife-for-hire Noh In-ji (Seo Hyun-jin). Their relationship unfolds as they unexpectedly develop feelings for each other, and are eventually entangled in a murder case.

I'm gonna be honest, since that's what I do here. This show was OK. Some parts I enjoyed, others I didn't. The positives first because there were less of them. Seo Hyun-jin was outstanding with her acting; she's masterfully skilled at portraying both emotion and stoicism in one look. She and Gong Yoo had such great chemistry together, I found myself constantly longing to watch their scenes. While their relationship was occasionally action-packed and melodramatic, they heartwarmingly helped each other heal from past emotional trauma.

Unfortunately those were the only things I really liked about the show. Now we move on to the negatives. The writers included flashbacks that I felt weren't effective at balancing between the past and present; the transitions were really sudden and I was often left confused at what time it was. In addition to, and partly because of that, I felt like the storytelling wasn't that good. There were lots of details introduced all at once which affected the pacing and left me overwhelmed.

Onto more minor details. There were lots of side characters who were essentially useless and didn't provide much of anything to the plot. In-ji had confidants whose connection to her wasn't explained at all; I kept wondering what their purpose was. There are two primary "villains" in this show that we were supposed to hate and I did, but not for the intended reasons. The first one was Jeong-won's manipulative ex-wife Lee Seo-yeon (Jung Yun-ha). She quickly became infuriating, tormenting Jeong-won and fueling his drug addictions. Her toxicity made me want to break my laptop screen, as she invaded people's privacy and played with everyone's feelings to combat her own insecurities. The second villain was Eom Tae-song (Kim Dong-won), In-ji's stalker who intends to upend her life. I felt that his motives weren't clear; I never understood why he started stalking her. While I praise the show for its impressive acting, I felt that its reveals ultimately fell short.