The Trunk (2024)

When an 8 episodes drama felt like a 16 episodes drama.

Contract marriage is one of my go-to genres but the way they did it here was not your typical contract marriage.

The plot : The ex-wife (with issues) planned for her ex-husband (also with issues) to marry other woman while she herself marries to another. Thus began their mutual toxic relationship in the drama until the ex-husband met now his new wife (who also had her own share of trauma) which after living together her presence slowly become significant in his life. Then after facing a series of incidents together, began their process of healing.

For an 8 episodes drama you would think just how hard it can be to finish one. But it took me 7 days to complete watching. Even watching in 2x speed still feel too long. Plot got repetitive especially in the first half. Just when I feel like things started to get interesting , we are back to 0 again.

This was me while watching,

Ep 1 : Feel like the longest 1 hour of my life.
Ep 2 : Watching my cat sleeping is better than watching this.
Ep 3 : Still feel like the longest hour ever in my life.
Ep 4 : Why I am still watching ....
Ep 5 : Now things are getting interesting.
Ep 6 : We getting somewhere..
Ep 7 : Urgh. Not this obsessive woman again .
Ep 8 : Okay...

What this drama has :-

🔸️Contract marriage
🔸️Broken main leads
🔸️Toxic unhealthy marriage
🔸️Annoying unhinged ex-wife
🔸️Lot of stalking
🔸️Snailed-paced storyline
🔸️Okay mystery
🔸️Gong Yoo and Seo Hyun Jin who have great chemistry with each other

If you liked these elements in your drama well good news ,this is the drama for you.

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mistakes pretentiousness for style

this drama definitely felt like it was at least 12 episodes long.

the pacing is GLACIAL. you'd think that a drama that opens up with (1) a suspicious-looking trunk getting fished out of a lake,(2) a murder, (3) a contractual marriage company with an unclear agenda, and (4) fucked-up character dynamics would have no lack of suspense and momentum. but the show does so little beyond unraveling the characters' dynamics, and it is, at best, mediocre at doing so.

the trunk really went for that understated, sad, cold, empty vibe, and THATS FINE BUT. the direction just takes itself too seriously and overestimates its own artsiness, leading to a plethora of unnecessarily drawn-out scenes. 2 seconds of silent brooding in a static shot (that is NOT in reaction to any event) is more than enough. we don't need 10 to get the gist. honestly, the cold color schemes, the emptiness of the house, and the glaring lack of background music/sounds are more than enough to establish the lonely atmosphere, so a LOT of these scenes feel self-indulgent and add literally nothing to style or characterization or plot or enjoyment. episodes 1-3 could have easily been cut in half and the show would have lost NOTHING while gaining a much more engaging pace. this drama is in desperate need of more editing.

the meat of the show is indisputably the interpersonal affairs of our main characters. ALL of them are deeply damaged by some past traumatic event and are consequently in varying shades of fucked-up. sometimes, it feels like the writer is just trying to one-up themself with the characters' traumas and twistedness. is gratuitous fucked-up-ness a thing? it sure does feel like it.

the plot is your run-of-the-mill, fucked-up people do fucked-up things and have intense emotional reactions kind of shit. the ex-wife did most of the heavy-lifting here, almost single-handedly advancing the plot with her antics, until the stalker stepped in and took that responsibility. none of it particularly stands out; we already knew these people were deeply damaged. i'm glad the leads eventually found healing in each other, but even that seems more like a bond formed over their collective efforts against the batshit-craziness of the ex-wife. speaking of, the ex-wife is adequately established as a pathologically controlling character, and while her motives are explained, her decision to force the male lead to re-marry never made much sense to me. why did she feel like that course of action was the best way to complete her interests? it's a counterintuitive move, for sure. this circles back to the observation that her derangedness is one of the very few driving forces for the plot, but plot devices are rarely good for characterization, and it's an even worse offense in a character-driven show such as this.

finally, let's talk about how much the titular trunk barely had any role in this show. look, i know the trunk + dead person symbolizes the main characters' dark pasts/emotional baggage. but what is the point of bringing this allegory to the screen if you're not going to elaborate on the metaphor further? the show basically treats this as a plot point in the most half-assed way, as an afterthought to all the character drama going on. it is honestly more like a badly handled plot point that ends up as a loose end than some thoughtful symbolism.

bottom line: a show that thinks it's much more profound than it really is.

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