‘Woori The Virgin’ review: don’t expect the wild ride that the American version was

Oh Woori (Im Soo-hyang) is a 30-year-old virgin (as it says on the tin). Usually, one wouldn’t care – to each their own, you know? – but Woori’s sexual status is apparently no secret to anyone in her vicinity. At 15, she took a vow of abstinence at her grandmother’s behest (a lot of generational trauma to unpack here, but more on that in a minute) and at 30, she is paying the price by having literally every one of her friends inject it into every conversation as fodder or debate – wow, women really cannot catch a break.

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Life, however, is fine – her loving, detective boyfriend Lee Kang-jae (Shin Dong-wook) is perfection incarnate. He’s handsome, kind, diligent, intelligent, devoted and shares her values (setting us up for the second lead syndrome early, we see). Their dates start with them handing out drinks at the local church and end with the couple coming in for a confessional because Kang-jae had impure thoughts about Woori and wanted to repent – yes, it’s all so healthy that even the priest tells them to stop dicking around (ha!) and actually dick around.

As is the case with life, however, it gets complicated. A goof-up at the OB-GYN’s office ends with Woori being artificially inseminated with the last viable sperm from the CEO of Diamond Cosmetics, Raphael (Sung Hoon). After a dramedy of errors – during which Woori is offered money to keep the baby by Raphael’s father and his devious wife Lee Ma-ri (Hong Ji-yoon), spoils her own marriage proposal by loudly announcing she’s pregnant, and discovers that famous actor Choi Sung-il (Kim Soo-ro) and her mother may know each other – Woori finally decides that she’ll keep the baby and give Raphael a chance at fatherhood. Oh, did we say he is also Woori’s childhood crush? And that they both most definitely remember that one kiss they shared at the beach years ago, but won’t say anything?

Yes, Woori The Virgin has a lot going on, much like its source material US TV series Jane The Virgin. Yes, the cringe is intense at times – such as when Lee Ma-ri is having meltdowns on screen, or the awful sepia effects during Woori and Raphael’s beach date, or even the name Raphael – but the show never meant to take itself too seriously. At the end of the day, it’s a comedy and a drama, and you get oodles of both, and then some.

That’s not to say that it’s irreverent. Underneath the comic timing and the oft-ridiculous premise, Woori The Virgin weaves an equally compelling story of the grays of life – generational trauma, loss, single motherhood, artificial insemination, social stigma, all shown from the lens of people who are good, but helpless in the face of their own circumstances.

Much of Woori’s vacillation between keeping the baby and aborting it, for example, stems from her own generational trauma. She believes her birth ruined her mother’s life – who was 16 at the time – leading her to not only take the vow of abstinence, but also put undue pressure on herself to shoulder responsibilities out of her purview.

Unlike our usual K-drama crop of chaebols, cancer survivor and former playboy Raphael actually seems to be a decent man. When he’s not calling out his father for his arrogant ways or serving his wife divorce papers, he’s watching dramas in memory of his mother or helping out other cancer survivors. Having had many choices taken away in life – living a healthy life, marrying a woman he loves – Raphael is mature enough to respect Woori’s decision, even if it meant losing his last chance to have a child of his own.

In that sense, writer and director Jeong Jeong-hwa does a commendable job of setting up Kang-jae and Raphael as the enablers of two very different sides of Woori. Kang-jae represents everything that she is comfortable and familiar with – he’s a perfectly fine man, but perhaps too sanitary for the complex Woori. Raphael, on the other hand, is the catalyst that inspires her to choose for herself, perhaps for the first time in her life.

In their respective roles, Im Soo-hyang, Sung Hoon and Shin Dong-wook fare well. After her no-nonsense, cutthroat character in Graceful Family, Im proves she’s got the range by going from the fresh-faced, sensitive, at times befuddled Woori to a thoughtful, dutiful woman who wishes for “Mallet” – as she calls the baby – to have a loving family. As her boyfriend,

Shin Dong-wook is the perfectly hygienic partner, right down to his genial features and his upstanding job, even if he does make us wish for more. Of course, with only four episodes out, it may be a little too early to judge him by the complexity of his character – we’re not sure how faithful Woori The Virgin is planning to be to the source material, but even a general adaptation might give Shin enough to work wonders with.

Ironically, Sung Hoon seems to be the second weakest link in this cast. While his Raphael ticks the requisite boxes – easy on the eyes, fashion to make the sponsors proud, heart of hold and actual gold – Sung Hoon often seems mechanical and awkward in some places. While the more sensitive parts of Raphael come easily to him, he seems out of place with his anger, intensity, and fighting spirit. If you’re looking for a leg-up from his character in My Secret Romance, you’ll be disappointed.

Disappointingly, it’s Hong Ji-yoon’s Ma-ri who emerges as the most insufferable character in the show. For a scheming, conniving woman, Ma-ri is naïve at best and juvenile at worst. Where you want confidence and ambition, you get teenage tantrums and indecisiveness. It’s a shame, because Ma-ri and her background seem to be setting up one of the darkest and most complex storylines in the show, that is if Mari ever reckons with the control her mother Byun Mi-ja (Nam Mi-jeong) exerts over her life.

Still, that’s no reason to write Woori The Virgin off just yet – after all, the fun is only just beginning. With only 16 episodes on the roster, we’re not expecting to see the wild ride that the American counterpart was. Still, in Jeong Jeong-hwa’s capable hands, we’re looking at an easy watch to get us through the summer on a wave of laughs, love and drama.

‘Woori The Virgin’ airs on SBS every Monday and Tuesday at 9:30pm, and is also available to stream on Viu in select regions.

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