When the Camellia Blooms

What kind of drama it is

A woman raising her child alone and running a small bar under the town's prejudiced gaze meets a local police officer who expresses his feelings for her without hesitation. Over this falls the shadow of a serial murder case hanging over the town, so warm romance and thriller live side by side in one show. At its centre, though, is the question of how people misjudge each other and how they come to truly see one another. It is a love story, and at the same time a drama about a person learning to believe in herself.

The makers and the cast

The writer is Lim Sang-choon, who wrote Fight for My Way. She is known for dialogue full of the flavour of ordinary speech and for scenes that turn from funny to piercing without warning. Director Cha Young-hoon captures both the homely scenery of a seaside town and the tension of a thriller. The leads are Gong Hyo-jin and Kang Ha-neul, and the actors playing the townspeople have a very strong presence too. The show's strength is that many characters, not just one or two leads, each get a story of their own.

• Aired: KBS2, 2019
• Writer: Lim Sang-choon (Fight for My Way)
• Director: Cha Young-hoon
• Cast: Gong Hyo-jin, Kang Ha-neul

Romance and thriller on the same screen

The temperature shifts sharply from scene to scene. You can be laughing at the townspeople's chatter one moment, and then a clue to the case cuts in and the mood turns cold. The switch can feel strange at first, but it is designed so that the warmer everyday life is, the more frightening the threat feels. Episodes often end on a question, so it is a show that makes you want to start the next one straight away. Rather than expecting only romance or only thriller, enjoy the way the two strands lock together.

The town as another lead character

Ongsan, the fictional seaside town, is more than a backdrop. The traders in the market alley, the neighbours who carry gossip and the old shops all form one strand of the story. Follow how the townspeople who first treat the heroine coldly change bit by bit, and what sets that change off. How prejudice forms and how it unravels comes through the space of the town itself. It is interesting that the show depicts both the suffocation and the reassurance of a tight community where everyone knows everyone else's business. The characters of the leads' parents' generation have their own histories too, so you see the same town through the eyes of different generations.

Things to watch for

Laughter, tears and tension are woven tightly together, and keeping the points below in mind makes the characters' changes easier to see.

• How the townspeople's words and attitude towards the heroine change
• The humour and comfort in the officer's blunt way of speaking
• Small gestures in scenes of mother and child together
• Clues to the case hidden inside peaceful scenes

Dialect and the flavour of speech

The officer and other townspeople speak a relaxed dialect in the style of the Chungcheong region. Its particular rhythm and roundabout way of saying things create laughs, and sometimes sincerity shows through the rough phrasing. This flavour is hard to carry fully into subtitles, so if you know even a little Korean, try listening to the sound of the lines themselves. Even if you do not, paying attention to how speed and intonation differ from character to character makes them feel more alive.

Worth knowing before you start

Since it is built around a serial killer, there are threatening and frightening scenes. There are also scenes of prejudice against single mothers, gossip and ostracism that can be uncomfortable to watch. The killer's identity is the story's big question, so avoid looking the show up online before you finish. The mood can change sharply within a single episode, so if scary scenes are hard for you, watching in the daytime is one option.

Who it suits

It suits viewers who enjoy stories about the bonds of neighbours and family and about people healing together. If you liked the neighbourhood stories of Reply 1988, or were drawn to dramas like My Mister in which wounded people recognise one another, this one is likely to stay with you. It is also worth recommending to anyone who wants laughter and tension together. The episodes are closely linked, so watch from the beginning in order. Bingeing heightens the tension, while watching slowly lets the townspeople's lines linger longer, so pick the pace that suits you.