“Cheese in the Trap: The Movie” (치즈 인 더 트랩)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
January 7, 2022

☆☆☆☆
Yoo Jung (played by Park Hae-Jin)
Hong Seol (played by Oh Yeon-Seo)
Baek In-Ho (played by Park Ki-Woong)

Based on the 2016 K-drama, “Cheese in the Trap” — which was based on the webtoon of the same name — this film adaptation is a good primer, but it’s lacking in telling the characters’ full stories.

The webtoon ran for seven years, and the series carefully parsed out the most significant elements for its 16-episode run. The problem with this film is that it doesn’t follow through on the core issues that drive the characters. There are serious misunderstandings between the perfect college student, Jung, and his childhood friends, In-Ho and his twin sister In-Ha, which are left unexplored.

But, more importantly, there’s the matter of Jung being a sociopath, which could easily lead him down a dangerous path — and his unhealthy obsession with Seol, an underclassman.

That said, does the film stand alone for someone who is unfamiliar with the K-drama or webtoon? Kinda sorta.

There are some good moments. Park Hae-Jin is a charming actor, who is able to convey the character’s duplicitous behavior with a flash of his eyes. But his best scenes aren’t with Oh Yeon-Seo — who took over Kim Go-Eun’s role from the K-drama — but with Park Ki-Woong, who plays In-Ho.

There are a lot of subplots that the director tries to cover in roughly two hours, including a deadly stalker (and a stalker-in-training, who may or may not have been coached by Jung). It would’ve been fascinating to delve more into these topics, rather than watch toxic men (who aren’t stalkers) roughly grab women by their wrists and force them to listen.

Original Release Date: The 116-minute film premiered in South Korea in theaters on March 14, 2018. You may read my review of the 2016 series of the same name here.

A Cast Member’s Death: Moon Ji-Yoon, who portrayed Kim Sang-Chul — an overbearing bully in both this film and the K-drama that preceded it — died of acute septicemia on March 18, 2020.

Spoiler Alert: Near the end of the film, it’s revealed that Jung’s obsession with Seol began when a classmate mentioned that she was the female version of him … which I found odd. The only thing they had in common was that they both were team leaders in school. So when their team members failed to do their share of the projects, Seol and Jung each did all of the work. But the concept just rang false.

@2022 Jae-Ha Kim | All Rights Reserved