MBC, Wavve’s ‘Love Scene Number’ talks of love, marriage and sex

Omnibus drama “Love Scene Number,” spotlights themes of love, marriage and sex, with an emphasis on showcasing a woman’s point of view.

The drama, made by streaming platform Wavve and terrestrial broadcaster MBC in a collaborative effort, kicked off Monday on both platforms.

Wavve, the streaming platform created by three terrestrial broadcasters -- KBS, MBC and SBS -- and SK Telecom released all four episodes of “Love Scene Number” on Monday morning as soon as the online press conference began. MBC, which will show only two of the four episodes, aired the first episode Monday night.

“Love Scene Number” delves into the stories of four women at different turning points in their lives. At ages 23, 29, 35 and 42 they deal differently with their love, marriage and sex lives. With a 23-year-old college student who practices polyamory with three different men and a 42-year-old furniture designer who cheats on her husband after finding out that he is cheating on her, the drama is more risque than most dramas shown on MBC.

“I decided to take the role because it was a genre and role that I had not tried,” said actor Kim Bo-ra, who plays the 23-year-old. “I especially thought that the topic wasn’t dealt with much in Korea.”

Recalling that MBC dramas were once known for their fresh and novel approach, producer Kim Hyung-min said, “When I first took on this drama in 2019 as an MBC program director, I wanted people to think that MBC is trying something new and is addressing novel topics.

“Korean regulations and viewers are extremely lenient on crimes and violence, but are extremely sensitive on sexual matters,” said Kim. “In our lives, especially for women, sexual matters are big worries and are very normal worries. However, no one is talking about those topics,” Kim said.

As an omnibus drama, each episode can be watched as a standalone, featuring different actors and telling independent stories. The only exception is Kim Young-ah, who appears as a bestselling author in all four episodes.

While many omnibus dramas in South Korea feature different producers and screenwriters for each story -- as they are often used as platforms for multiple producers and screenwriters to make their debuts -- producer Kim and screenwriter Hong Kyung-sil created all four episodes.

“I wanted to challenge myself and tell the four episodes with the same producer and screenwriter. As such, I contemplated on how to make each story different,” said producer Kim Hyung-min, who makes his debut with this work.

As for his first drama appearing on both Wavve and MBC, Kim mentioned that he’d started planning the drama with both platforms in mind. If it were to be shown as a terrestrial broadcast only, he would not have considered the omnibus format, he said.

“Why aren’t there good omnibus dramas like Netflix’s ‘Easy,’ Amazon Prime’s ‘Modern Love’ or something like ‘Black Mirror’ in Korea? Koreans watch many US dramas through Netflix, but why aren’t there Korean works that come close to that level of sexuality? I thought of these questions and planned this drama. These days, following trends set by streaming platforms is another role of terrestrial broadcasters.”

All four episodes are available on Wavve. The story of the 42-year-old character, the second of two episodes available on MBC, will be aired next Monday at 10:50 p.m. on MBC.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)