Check In to You

Strongberry quality

South Korea is the country of BL miniseries, some of which often deliver well-told stories within less than an hour. The short duration, the setting often reduced to just one apartment or a secluded part of a bar, and the small number of characters are due to limited budgets. Among the production companies working like this – Sukfilm, True Film, and Seek Media, to name just a few – Strongberry has always stood out as the runtime of their series is a little longer, allowing their stories to be more complex, the settings and cinematography more diversified.

“Choco Milk Shake“ was a wonderful fairy tale, “Blossom Campus“ an extraordinary college series, and “Sweetheart Service“ the story of young professionals trying to find their place in society. In all these series, Strongberry cast young, talented actors, many of whom used their work with this company as their entry into an acting career.

“Check in to you“ is a typical Strongberry production that lives up to the company’s reputation as a maker of creative BL content. It is a “body-swap“ plot, and I admit I was skeptical when I read this, because most body-swap BL series have been disappointing. The very first episode made me curious, though, because it was so funny that it made me laugh out loud. But I soon realized that this wasn’t going to be pure comedy, but the exciting story of two young men from not just different, but opposite worlds who are tied together by an accident that made them swap their bodies has some important messages for viewers.

Cha Do-gyeong (Hwang Dong-hee) is the CEO of a real estate corporation owned by his mother, who raised him to become a cold-hearted, profit-driven, if not greedy businessman. He is sent to a beautiful seaside resort in order to sell the place to build a more profitable establishment in its location. Yoon Ji-o (Kim Dong-won), the manager of the resort, is a romantic individual who quit his job in a big Seoul corporation after feeling t...