Call It Love | Full K-drama Review / Ep. 110

<p>On Episode 110 of the Daebak K-Rambles Podcast, Jess and Nas from the Swoon Diaries Podcast to review the underrated 2023 melodrama <em>Call It Love</em>, starring Kim Young-Kwang and Lee Sung-Kyung.</p><p>Jess and Nas talk through how <em>Call It Love</em> transforms a familiar revenge setup into something unexpectedly tender, introspective, and quietly devastating. From its opening—lonely silhouettes, a haunting radio monologue about understanding others’ pain, and a heroine walking against the flow in the rain—the drama establishes its core thesis: love begins with empathy.</p><p>The story follows a hardened, defensive woman shaped by abandonment and betrayal, and a gentle man whose kindness feels almost radical. Their dynamic anchors a slow-burn romance that resists spectacle in favor of emotional truth.</p><p><em>Call It Love</em> stands out in the K-drama landscape with its refusal to glamorize revenge, exploring how vengeance offers no relief, just more emptiness. Meanwhile, the male lead embodies a quiet resilience, choosing endurance over retaliation, even when wronged. Their conversations—about loneliness, restraint, and the cost of honesty—are some of the most emotionally rich in recent K-dramas.</p><p>Highlights include: messy family ties, morally gray parents (including a strong contender for Worst K-drama Mom<strong>™</strong>), and questions of emotional boundaries—can you love someone connected to your deepest wounds?</p><p><strong>GUEST: Nas</strong></p><ul><li>Swoon Diaries Podcast: Available on Spotify, Google, Apple</li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/swoondiariespod/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram:</a> @swoondiariespod</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/swoondiariespod" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a>: @swoondiariespod</li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@swoondiariespod/featured" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">YouTube</a></li></ul><p><strong>Intro Music Credit</strong>: “Golden Coconut Club” by Tearliner, from the <em>Cheese in the Trap</em> OST. Used with permission from the artist.</p><p>*No portion of this work may be used to train large language models or similar Al systems without written permission.</p><p><em><strong>Rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, follow us on all the socials, and be sure to let us know what you want to see in Season 8!</strong></em></p>