Branding in Seongsu-dong (2024)

Typical But Quirky Body Swap Mystery Thriller

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CURRENT SITUATION
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At the time of writing this review, only a handful of people have watched this as it was released on a fairly new platform "U+ Mobile TV" despite having popular actors like Kim Ji Eun and Lomon. Therefore, the current rating of 7.6 is actually skewed and its lower than what this drama deserves (which in my opinion should be around 8.5)

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DISCLAIMER
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Before going into the details of the drama, wanted to give a fair warning that currently I am obsessed with Kim Ji Eun and totally enamoured by her beauty and personality. I think she is drop dead gorgeous and am crushing so hard right now that any scene with her is a straight 10 for me. So, basically I am unable to think objectively without any bias when it comes to her. Apologies in advance.

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GENRE : BODY SWAP
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Now lets talk about the mixture of genres the show tackles. As per the synopsis, we know that there is body swap and as a seasoned K-Drama watcher, I know that its nothing extra ordinary and not the first time in K-Drama history. But the way Kim Ji Eun and Lomon has acted when they were in each other bodies is basically whats the USP of this drama as both of them were freaking amazing as well as convincing with their incredible acting of the opposite gender. Special shout out to Kim Ji Eun, she totally slayed her role here.

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GENRE: CRIME SUSPENSE THRILLER
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Apart from body swap, the whodunit kind of mystery is intriguing and binds the plot together and keeps us at the edge of our seats guessing who might be behind the crime as there are several suspects. Though sometimes its difficult to follow as who is in whose body and which side is scheming what making the drama little disjointed and all over the place. So the crime mystery is not the strong part of the drama. The premise is interesting but the execution is messy.

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GENRE: WORKPLACE COMEDY
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There is fair amount of workplace comedy which lands most of the times involving a gay character, a young Gen Z girl and an old lady played incredibly by Jeon Jun Ho, Chae Soo Ah & Jung Yi Rang respectively. Their interactions with the main leads are hilarious and made the drama very entertaining. And when I am talking about the gay character, I should mention that the drama overall, is very liberal in its approach in depicting various things, though the politics of certain scenes does not make the drama cringe or woke in any sense as thats not the focal point of the series.

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GENRE: DRAMA AROUND BRANDING
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There is great amount of drama and emotions involved as well when it comes to showcasing how branding works as the name of the show is "Branding in Seongsu". The main leads would take on certain branding assignments through which we, the audience also understands how the process of marketing strategy actually works along with the creativity and nitty gritty of behind the scenes as well. All of this is presented in such a palatable manner that it can be easily understood and consumed by everyone even those who do not know the "B" of "Branding". Every case is so heartwarming that if the show has showed more of these assignments rather then indulging too much into the whodunit mystery, this would have been a way better show in execution.

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GENRE: ROMANCE
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Now this is the part where the drama shines the most as there is explosive chemistry between Kim Ji Eun and Lomon. As a heterosexual male, I have to confess that Lomon actually looks very handsome and is sometimes the star of the show. Kim Ji Eun looks sassy and sexy as the bossy "Kang Na Eon" which is a character who is very ferocious and have "boss bitch" attitude to climb her way to the top with her creativity and competence. Both of them shines when they play themselves as well as their body swapped versions. There are many romantic scenes and especially 2 kissing scenes that will make the viewers swoon and they won't believe what they actually saw on family friendly Korean Television. Lomon is one lucky MF that he got the chance to kiss Kim Ji Eun so passionately. The supporting leads are forgettable as their roles have been poorly written. Neither their acting nor their actions are interesting in any manner and are pretty bland in my opinion. They are definitely the weakest aspect of the drama apart from the convoluted plot about the whodunit mystery.

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OVERALL REVIEW
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Overall in a nutshell, its a decent body swap mystery thriller whose whodunit mystery plot is very mediocre but the chemistry between the leads along with their great acting performances makes this a fun watch. And the comedy by supporting characters along with "branding" assignments are a highlight of the show.

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A Refreshing Binge Watch Story For All The People Who Got Tired Of Clichés

Note: This review DOES NOT include any major spoilers (probably dont even include any of them) but i decided to flag it nevertheless.

First of all, the leads. FL has a strong personality traits and ML has almost the opposite personality compared to her. They do get involved w each other in an interesting way in my opinion. At the very beginning FL’s character irked me a lot (bc of the issues in the drama that i wouldnt like to mention so i wont be giving any big spoilers ahead)

Second, how the story flows. For the first half? of the drama they do the marketing for different lines of business which might bore some ppl but it was entertaining to watch for me. The marketing part still goes on on the second half of the drama as well but it lightens up a bit due to other things going on with both of the leads. I must mention again, you might not get immersed in it straight up from the beginning but it gets better i promise!

Then lets get to the pros and cons from my perspective.

Pros:
— an interesting story
— might pull you out of the drama slump (although it took me months to finish due some issues)
— plot twists

Cons:
— some character traits of the leads
— acting in some parts (its not a big issue imo but still would like to mention it just in case)
— there were some characters that i really couldnt get their intentions

Things aside, if you are interested in gender swap genre and looking for something different i think you should definitely give this a go!

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DRAMA NI BEST GAIS. SILA LAYAN. AKU TAK EXPECT AKU DAPAT FOLLOW UP CERITA ni dari episod 1 sampailah habis. Total 24 eps, tak sampai 30 minit pun. So boleh dikirakan ada 12 eps jee. Simple. Plot tak berterabur. Cuma plot twist halamak aku tak sangka pulak dia ekkkk. And ofccc first plot twist got me like HAAAAAAA??? REALLYYYY? Scene paling aku suka is mereka tukar roh tu. Pandai betul heroin bawa watak Eunho dlm diri diaaaa. SOO COMELL! Aku suka drama ni. Tak expect yeee aku akan suka drama ni sebab eps 1-5 buatkan aku rasa nak give up and drop. kalau nak tgk, boleh jeeeeee. utk luangkan masa anda hihii.

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No chemistry, homophobic, racist, stereotypes, stupidly convoluted, ugly, bland

Synopsis: Kang Na Eon the icy girl boss and eco-friendly activist So Eun Ho are total opposites hiding their own secrets that are bigger than you'd expect. Kang Na Eon is almost murdered but before she has a chance to get back on her feet and investigate, she has a body swap with So Eun Ho who also seems to be investigating something.

The thriller element (which is half of the story) wasn't so bad but it meshed terribly with the other elements (ex. romance) making the mystery and thrill stupidly convoluted and difficult to stay captivated, the high stakes moments became boring before long. The payoff at the end was nonexistent, unsatisfying, and insulting to the viewers. The drama likes to spotlight various topics regarding issues of the marginalized and the minorities, but only a few of the stories were actually done decently with the rest falling very flat and being outright cringe inducing.

Positives out of the way, I will specify more about the poor attitude the drama takes towards the OTHER marginalized issues and topics. There were several stereotypical portrayals in this drama. From predatory gay man, to phone-addict and naive Gen Z in the workplace, to foolish environmentalist and activist, and typical mockery of India and Africa, all disguised as amusing comedy. All of this had offensive visuals too. The FL's makeup was supposed to portray a strong-willed and independent girl boss using red tones, but why did it look like an allergic reaction? And did her outfits really need to follow the red theme as well? From head to toe, her whole look was tacky. If she's going to be bold, I would think she would wear a more balanced makeup look at the very least, her makeup looked unfinished and did not match her character. The environmentalist had a matching corny and contradicting look too, I felt so bad for both the leading actors.

Lastly, the characters' chemistry was awful. I don't just mean the lead actors either, the whole cast as a team was difficult to believe in. The subplots suffered along with the main romance plot between the leads whose attraction is extremely unnatural. It was a long and difficult drama to sit through but at the same everything felt rushed or added in last minute.

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O mundo de Branding in Seongsu

"Branding in Seongsu" encerra sua trajetória como uma farofa épica, tecida com elementos de mistério, suspense, vingança, negócios, comédia, romance e até mesmo trocas de almas.

A narrativa nos imerge no intrigante mundo do marketing, onde uma gerente workaholic, um estagiário pacifista, e uma equipe de excluídos se unem formando uma aliança poderosa. Entre os personagens, destaca-se a presença marcante da "amiga falciane", uma chefe desprovida de escrúpulos, e um amor não correspondido que adiciona uma camada adicional de complexidade emocional.

Contudo, o enredo aparentemente simples se revela repleto de reviravoltas, incluindo um homicídio, uma tentativa de assassinato e o sobrenatural fenômeno da troca de almas entre a gerente workaholic e o estagiário pacifista.

Inicialmente atraída pela presença cativante do ator Park Lemon, ao longo da trama, os eventos e a dinâmica da equipe dos excluídos despertaram minha crescente curiosidade. Eles conseguiram quebrar o gelo nos momentos de tensão, proporcionando momentos hilários que aliviavam o clima pesado da narrativa.

Com episódios de 30 minutos, "Branding in Seongsu" oferece uma experiência completa, levando o espectador a rir, torcer, se encantar e até mesmo chorar. Apesar de não ser isento de falhas, é inegável que o dorama proporciona um entretenimento satisfatório.

Em suma, "Branding in Seongsu" não é uma obra perfeita, mas certamente vale a pena como uma fonte de bom entretenimento.

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Kim Ji Eun and Park Solomon's drama is a breath of fresh air in this cliche trope of Body Swapping

The show from start to end is engaging, chaotic, mysterious, humorous and even dark at some points making the viewers curious on what will happen next. This isn't you cliche romantic stuff where the leads swap their bodies and fall in love later on but more about two extremely opposite people with each having their own secrets, motives and ambitions.

FL's character isn't some damsel in distress but one strong, cold, bossy, ruthless and arrogant wolf who is ready to go through hell and even put others through it to get the job done. ML's character is a loud, chaotic sometimes childish guy who works under the FL and often faces the brunt of her actions. Both of their arcs end up getting interconnected with each learning to work with the Swap and at the same time going ahead to achieve their own motives.

The best part of the drama is that romance isn't forced down the throat of viewers but is kept subtle while keeping the main focus on the mystery and thrill factor of the show.

The cast especially the leads have nailed their roles. Both did justice to their own and each other's characters too. I would say it is a must watch if you are looking for something new.

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Un bel thriller romantico!

Un dramma che score velocemente con una storia abbastanza intrigante tra thriller e romanticismo con un po' di fantasy che non guasta.
La storia racconta di una sprezzante e forte donna che vuole raggiungere i suoi obiettivi e che sembra non guardi in faccia nessuno, ma poi c'è un risvolto diverso e si vedrà la sua vera natura. Poi c'è lui che sembra un semplice ragazzo imbranato ma così non sarà.La storia si svolge tra misteri e un pizzico di fantasy con scambio di anime e tutto ciò che comporta.
I risvolti thriller tiene incollati allo schermo e la storia romantica è adorabile.
Un dramma un po' insolito ma davvero carino!

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Colouring oppression pink doesn't make it go away

I'm just going to make a review because this drama was sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, so this is a political message (even more than all other art that isn't directly sponsored by branches of government) that needs to be dissected so we understand where we're at and what's happening and what we can do with the information we're provided.

Branding and marketing are tools of capitalism to convince us to buy shit we don't need and clean the image of very dodgy people and businesses. So branding is about manipulating the truth and straight out lying and that's what they did with this drama to sell us South Korea as a place with wholesome business and work practices.

The South Korean president is a conservative right wing politician who has worsened the labour conditions for Koreans and foreigners working in South Korea. Companies are places of work, they're not families or kind and friendly. Selling that image tricks workers into thinking they're more than just numbers in a spreadsheet. Currently, they have a 52-hour workweek and the government wanted to increase it to 69 hours just last year. This year, they loosened the labour laws which has already resulted in the death of several workers, korean and foreign. Just last week there were news of a 19 year old who died on the job in South Korea. You can't sell bosses and CEO's as friendly and close to their workers when this is the reality of your work culture in your country.

Working hard in this economy is not a moral trait, it says nothing about your character. It's very much representative of our collective exploitation as members of the working class. Trusting companies is a fallacy. There's no such thing as an ethical billionaire, as there is no such thing as ethical major companies. Companies will do what benefits their profits the most.
Our ethical marketer, in the form of the FL, pushed the idea that cooperation with big companies is a way of helping small businesses. That's not what happens in the real world. In the real world, big companies buy small companies off and profit from their labour, turning the market into an oligopoly where eventually they are able to control the market and, in the long run, the consumers because competition no longer exists in oligopolies. That's what was going to happen with the candle business and that is what would happen with the motor business. They marketed charity as a way to clean one's image and that's what charity ultimately does, it doesn't change anything and it offers temporary patches to issues that require structural solutions to have any kind of impact.

It's the same with representation. I'm glad there was a lot of representation and there was an effort to show the drama as inclusive and progressive. That could have been great because we should be portraying the world we ultimately want to create. It's not so great when you pair representation with a push to abide by conformity, like changing the image of the sex toy shop CEO. You can't break taboos and non-conformity by conforming.

Representation that isn't free isn't representation and charity isn't social justice.
This is the main message I want to leave here after having watched this drama because I feel it's important to remove the rose coloured glasses to have a sense of what they're really selling us.

This is a worldwide trend of softening the image of the entities that oppress us, we see that with companies that pretend to treat us like family by providing company dinners but refusing to pay livable wages and with yt women occupying the leadership of fascist parties. That's not justice or liberation, it's branding.

About the story:
It was a fun drama. It had good pace and good acting. It was a bit theatrical in some representations but I can live with that, it was fun anyway. I'm a bit disappointed they chose a basic villain with not much of a story except a thirst for power in the form of a higher place in a company, it's not even to own the company. It seems like a very basic and low stake motivation.

I liked the representation and the not shying away from talking about taboo themes, even considering what I said before. Most of the characters were unlikable and I still have doubts about the redemption of some of them but they were fun, nonetheless.
I don't know how the mains fixed their relationship, it wasn't a topic that could have been glossed over very easily. I'm deciding not to analyse that. I've already over analysed the premise of the drama. Anyway, go watch it, it's fun but don't let yourself be fooled by propaganda.

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Could be more subversive, but still interesting

Kang Na Eon is such a refreshing female lead character that got to be diabolically cool, smart, and cunning. She even has the smooth, swoony kdrama moves down like when she caught the male lead as he fell. Both leads have excellent chemistry too, starting with the moment So Eun Ho desperately dresses up in his literal funeral best and initiates some passionate kissing that she reciprocates. It was lamentable that she had to switch bodies so soon, but it was also cool to see how immediately went about acclimating and investigating the attempt on her life while in Eun Ho's body. She had a lot of cool moments while in his body, so I looked forward to her switching back because I really want to see a female character get to be a commanding presence, but the drama definitely favored her having intense and commanding moments while in a male form more alas.

The costuming for her started with her in the most garish colors like poisonous animals have, but she totally owned every outfit. I like that she took a liking to wearing suits after spending time wearing them in Eun Ho's body, but it's a bummer it's mostly over sized looks rather than bepsoke ones that would fit her to perfection. That would have been amazing. I really liked the reveal that Eun Ho was playing dumb and had a hole revenge plan against her too, blaming her for stealing his idea and the death of his girlfriend. The twist that Na Eon tried to fix the situation and apologize for it was interesting, the hint that she had a heart deep inside.

I found the body swap pretty easy to follow, there were even times where I felt like the show was over explaining who was in who's body. There seems to be two ghostly presences legitimately haunting Na Eon since it's not psychosomatic and Eun Ho experienced it too and later follows Na Eon to Eun Ho's body, one being the ghostly hands and the other being the body swap ghost girlfriend Da Eun. It's never explained but there was a bunch of people that rushed in to help the Da Eun before there was an explosion, so I wonder if they also died and are the hands. There should have been more of an attempt to explain how the switches are triggered and why is it limited. It was pretty arbitrary through out the end.

On the gender side of things, I appreciated that they didn't add stereotypically gendered movements to the characters when they've switched, it's more personality traits like Na Eon's aloofness and Eun Ho's over the top reactions which were an act on top of an act. On the other hand the portrayal of the only gay character Lex was suspect. It's totally fine he's effeminate and a fashionable drag queen, but the show had him be overly touchy to other male characters and the other male characters refer to him in gay panic moments. That's very unfortunate. The show seems to be making effort to destigmatize gay culture along with feminine hygiene, contraceptives, and sex toys, but still baby steps for productions that aren't lgbt specific.

The ending with almost all the antagonists redeemed except for the lone female executive was lacking. There wasn't enough from Yoo Mi or Nam Byul for them to be redeemed. Also Jung Woo would go as far as being so physically violent and attempted to murder Na Eon, erasing the evidence, and left her for dead is all forgiven because Hee Jung told him to is extremely nonsensical. That man committed a huge crime and she shouldn't be on friendly terms with him at all, at least not with how things turn out. Yoo Mi went off the deep end hating Na Eon's guts too and there should have been seeded more scenes of her caring enough about Na Eon for their return to friendship to mean anything. Otherwise her not wanting to murder Eun Ho is good enough for them to have some sort of begrudging understanding. Nam Byul was literally a character on the side plotting against Na Eon the whole time with no emotional connection to anything.

Though the drama would have been better if there was a bit more grit and angst in a bit of a darker tone, it was still an interesting take on the body swap genre.

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