On Lee Jong-suk's birthday, looking back at his show, Romance Is A Bonus Book (Photo: Netflix)Lee Jong-suk is almost synonymous with the revenge drama genre considering he has starred in around six popular intense shows in a span of a less than a decade. Lately, he returned to showbiz with Big Mouth, another grimy drama focusing on corruption and politics. Apart from pounding tension complemented by equally pounding music, Lee Jong-suk’s shows are usually filled with a frantic energy, and a sense of thrilling, nervous dread. There has been an onslaught of such shows from 2014. In Pinocchio, he was determined to tear down sensationalist media, while in W Two Worlds he played the role of a comic-book character, ill-treated by his own author. In Doctor Stranger, he is a North Korean defector, hunting for his missing lover. In I Can Hear Your Voice, he plays the role of a man who can hear other people’s thoughts—a power that comes in handy as he needs to track down the man who murdered his father. It’s as if showrunners enjoy seeing him miserable, brooding and angry, because he never seems to have a stroke of happiness in most of his shows.
In the middle of all the noise and rage, there’s the soft Romance Is A Bonus Book. The story definitely belongs to the K-drama romantic school of thought, but has less mush and more story. The story adopts the popular K-drama trope—childhood friends to lovers, but portrays it in a far more gentle and realistic manner. The drama takes place within a book-publishing company—an unusual set-up for a romantic drama and not once does it veer from the premise of the stress in the publishing industry. It deals with aloof authors and panic-stricken editors ensuring error-free books. It’s a role that allows Jong-suk to delve fully into the romantic in him, an opportunity that he does not get in other shows, as he’s usually running away from murderers or well, towards them.
The show has a soft and touching beginning with Kang Dan-i, deciding to escape from her wedding with close childhood friend, Cha-eun ho (Jong-suk). It’s a moment of cold feet and the two of them muse on the streetside till she finally decides to return to get married, something she will regret later. Cha Eun-ho is clearly in love with her, but is contained about his feelings as he knows that she does not reciprocate them. Yet, he knows that he cannot be with anyone else, because she is the only person that he will ever love. Years later, he sees her at his book-publishing company, where he is the editor-in-chief. He is disappointed to see her in a rather menial role, despite her qualifications.
She is now divorced and has a child, and is on the brink of bankruptcy. They begin to share a house as flatmates and love slowly begins to brew between them. Fans often claim that they have been robbed of a ‘real kissing’ scene between them in the show, but the truth is that Jong-suk and Lee Na-Young didn’t require it to prove their relationship. In one of the most sensual scenes of the show, Kang Dan-i sleeps on Cha Eun-ho’s shoulder, and he just quietly touches her face and then withdraws his hand. The scene is far more impactful than any kiss would have been. It’s a slow, quiet burn of a romance, but never once do you feel impatient to see their story unfolding, as there’s so much else happening in their lives as well. The typical unconditional K-drama love that is so strong in most shows pervades this series too, but is delightfully subtle.
A still from Romance Is A Bonus Book (Photo: Netflix) It’s almost a relief to see Lee Jong-suk away from the sort of roles he usually does as Romance Is A Bonus Book engages the gentler side in him. He doesn’t expound breathless vows of love and neither is there a grand confession of sorts—the romance of it all lingers in his looks, smiles and a handful of words. In one of the most memorable scenes of the show, he lets slip that he is in love with her while they’re watching snowfall together. He realises a little too late and hurries back inside the house and tries to backtrack, till later, he decides to face his feelings. Even in the most climactic scenes when she is compelled to leave the organisation, he doesn’t engage in an excessive outburst of tears or words—something that would jar the symphony of the whole show. He just continues to love and support her, while tracking down his own side-story of a mysterious author. The show is peppered with many soft scenes, similar to the era of 90’s Hollywood romantic comedies and doesn’t deal a heavy hand with its romance, and provides a substantial story too.
Unlike many other K-drama heroes, Cha Eun-ho doesn’t adhere to the male savior as prominently in the show, but is able to co-exist along with the female lead, without taking away the limelight from her story as well. Eun-ho is actually a far more realistic romantic K-drama lead—with a believable job and isn’t thankfully remotely toxic in his views—such as fighting to save her from other men.
It’s not often that one sees the less-harrowed romantic in Lee Jong-suk, Romance Is A Bonus Book and the tragic Hymn Of Death are just a handful of examples. Often shows have relied entirely on his dramatic abilities, rather than letting him engage with subtle nuances of his characters. He is most effective when he doesn’t say too much, as he can emote with his eyes. In The Hymn Of Death, he plays a distraught playwright, a man struggling with his sense of duty and love in a deeply difficult political time. The story is based on the real story of playwright Kim Woo-jin and Joseon’s first opera Yun Sim Deok—a tale that ended in tragedy as the two committed suicide in the face of parental rejection. Once again, there is no heavy outburst of tears that Jong-suk is compelled to show in most of his other series, but the quaking of his hands and look of unshed tears says it all. It would be a lot more pleasant to see Lee Jong-suk in more subtle romantic dramas, because he makes for a delightfully unusual K-drama lead.