Cinderella At 2AM
새벽 2시의 신데렐라
Channel A Web Drama (2024) 10 Episodes
Romantic Comedy, Grade: B+
Korean Drama Review by Jill, USA
(Some Spoilers)
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Cinderella At 2AM (2024) is a cute and wholesome Korean web drama adapted from the popular web novel of the same title by Algome. There is only a total of 10 episodes, neatly packaged together by directors Seo Min Jung and Bae Hee Young. If you are in the mood for something breezy, quick and sweet, then you could probably finish the whole drama in two days. Currently you can watch it on VIKI.
I chose to watch this drama because of the leading lady Shin Hyun Bin whom I had enjoyed in Mimi, Madame Antoine, Queen Of Mystery, Hospital Playlist, and Tell Me That You Love Me. She is a multi-dimensional actress who can combine melodrama with romance and comedy at the drop of a hat! The almost too handsome to be believed male lead, Moon Sang Min, was new to me but he acquitted himself very well and had nice chemistry with his leading lady Shin Hyun Bin.
The Story:
We meet a dedicated office manager woman named Ha Yoon Seo (Shin Hyun Bin) who works for a large credit card company called AL Group. She believes in protecting herself and her career first above everything else in life. She considers herself poor at the dating scene and keeps mostly to herself. She scoffs at Cinderella stories, believing they are all fiction and that they never happen in real life. Part of this thinking on her part is because earlier in her life she had had to flee an abusive home, with a younger brother in tow. It helps to make her personality cautious and pragmatic in the extreme.
However, at the workplace, she soon attracts the attention of a new, younger, handsome employee named Seo Joo Won (Moon Sang Min) and eventually cautiously agrees to start dating him after he is quite persistent in pursuing her. Although Yoon Seo thinks Joo Won is a new employee on her team in reality he is a third-generation Chaebol disguised as a newcomer, with his mother Kim Sun Joo (Jin Hee Kyung, Sad Love Story, I'll Go To You When The Weather Is Nice, The Killer's Shopping List) being the Chairwoman of the company! Soon enough these two gentle personalities, Joo Won and Yoon Seo, seem to be heading to an engagement but fate seems doomed to tear them apart.
Yoon Seo learns in a roundabout way that Joo Won is actually the rich heir to AL Group. Then Joo Won's mother Sun Joo invites Yoon Seo to a restaurant and says she doesn't want her son to get to the point of marriage this early in his life. She offers Yoon Seo a large sum of money on the condition that she break up with Joo Won. Now Yoon Seo, who from the beginning did not believe in true love, or fairy tales about handsome princes marrying pretty commoners, succumbs to the monetary offer but says she doesn't want to break up with Joo Won in an abrupt way, that that would be too painful to him. "Give me two months and I'll give him reasons to break up with me." Mother is not too keen on this scenario but agrees.
However, Joo Won apparently has the opposite belief to Yoon Seo's about love. He is a romantic who believes in the power of true love and he chooses to follow his heart. He loves Yoon Seo and no matter what she does to make herself less endearing to him he's not buying the act. He tries to change Yoon Seo's perspective on love, in the hopes to win her back. He pursues an advancement at work and eventually becomes Yoon Seo's boss! In this way she can't avoid him even when she tries. Joo Won is also helped in this endeavor to win his love back by a supportive older brother Seo Si Won (Yoon Park) who is happily married in his own life to the sweet and funny Lee Mi Jin (Sojin).
Eventually we learn the real reason why Mama wanted Yoo Seo out of her son's life and it has nothing to do with class differences or that Yoon Seo, like Cinderella, was not rich. This knowledge helps bring Mama's own relationship with her two sons into a more positive light. They begin to grow closer as a family.
Yoon Seo has to make the biggest decision of her life: will she take a chance that there IS true love out there, that she really CAN be a Prince's darling Cinderella? Or is such an existence merely a dream?
I enjoyed this short drama. It's not Shakespeare. It's not even a traditional Cinderella tale. But it does have some interesting, deeper things to say about what makes a successful romantic relationship. The drama skillfully blends heartwarming moments with emotional intensity, keeping viewers engaged in the story. Check it out and see how you like it. Enjoy!
