Review of The Midnight Romance in Hagwon / 졸업

Korean cinema, literature, and television have been my passion for years. It’s the one version of national culture I’ve consumed the most from any country, and I’ve spent a lot of time curating my bookshelves to acquire Korean literature in translation. It’s why my blog has largely focused on Korean content throughout the years as well.

In the summer of 2024, which is almost a year from when this blog post will come out, I had the incredible opportunity to go to South Korea and study Korean under a State Department Critical Language Scholarship. I lived in Busan for the summer and really immersed myself in the culture, as I had a Korean language partner and roommate the entire time.

I began watching The Midnight Romance in Hagwon when it first began airing episodes on the American Viki. However, because of when these episodes dropped specifically, I did not finish the series by the time I went to Busan. Then, in Busan, I found out Viki isn’t accessible in South Korea, which shocked me.

So I had to wait until I was back in the United States and unhappily waiting for my next visa (which would take months, unfortunately) to watch the rest of the series. I did this with Dare to Love Me too, and with both shows I found myself struggling to finish after such an extensive break.

I did finish them both though, and here we are. I mainly pulled through with this one for Wi Ha-joon, as I’ve managed to get through most of his dramas and movies. I find they’re hit or miss lately.

Let’s get into the review before I ramble too much!

A career man quits his job to work with his former hagwon teacher, and they fall in love.

This series is certainly a rollercoaster ride in some ways, but someone looking for a lot of excitement in terms of plot is going to hate this show. There were a lot of moments where I just wanted to give up because of how boring the scenes were on-screen.

Our female lead in this series is Seo Hye-jin, who is older than our male lead. She’s worked at a hagwon, or cram school, for many years now, and is well respected in the industry for her teaching. People love her classes, but when a rival hagwon is taking all of the students, her school needs to figure out ways to draw in new students.

Enter: Lee Jun-ho. He was her student over ten years ago, and he recently decided to quit his stable and well paying career in order to become a hagwon teacher. His parents are very confused with his decision, but he’s stable in what he wants because of how he knows his goal: he wants to reunite with Hye-jin.

He shows up to the hagwon and asks for a job as a teacher. Hye-jin is shocked to see him, especially considering he just gave up his entire career just to teach here. He’s hired though, and the two do this little dance around each other for a bit.

Not only do they have to teach together and get rid of the awkwardness, but there’s also the fact there’s the B plot involving the other hagwon going on. I could kind of tell the writers needed this B plot, as otherwise there would be very little conflict in the show at all.

It’s a very mature show, and a lot of it is what I call vibes. As the relationship between Hye-jin and Jun-ho ramps up, the two share kisses in the empty classroom and stairwells of the hagwon, trying to hide the fact they’re romantically involved from the other teachers.

Which adds another element to their secret: it’s kind of unprofessional. All of this is very unprofessional, and I thought the main plot point of why Jun-ho wanted to become a teacher was very odd. I didn’t think it was cute in many different ways, but this drama did happen. However, I do admire how dedicated they are to teaching their students and bounce ideas off of each other.

Overall Thoughts

I can see this show being hit or miss for some people. I do think that it was good for representing an adult romance, and was also effective in showing their lives as teachers. It also does provide critical insight into the current moment of South Korea’s education system, which smothers creativity in so many different ways.

Personally though I couldn’t get past the unprofessional element and the fact the show is so slow. The star of the show are the social issues being brought up about the hagwon system and Korean education, as well as how predatory they can be as a business entity.

Give this one a chance though if you’re interested. I think maybe it should have had less episodes than it did, but it is what it is. Watch three episodes at a time and make your own judgements—taste is so subjective at the end of the day.

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