Dynamite Kiss: A Classic K-Drama Rom-Com on Netflix

Netflix's New Rom-Com Is A Delight For OG K-Drama Fans Gong Ji-hyeok and Go Da-rim in Dynamite Kiss, staring passionately into each other's eyes

By Rob Sperduto Published 53 minutes ago

Rob Sperduto is a Contributor for Screen Rant, covering Classiv TV. He's covered film, TV, and video games for 5 years, combining sharp editorial judgment with a storyteller’s eye. Known for his insightful analysis and clear voice, Rob helps audiences understand not just what’s trending, but why it matters. He is always looking for the next great story across all media. Rob is also a content strategist, and his work can be seen across The Direct, Attack of the Fanboy, We Got This Covered, and Pro Game Guides.

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Dynamite Kiss arrived on Netflix in mid-November and immediately shot to the top of the global charts, becoming the #3 most-watched non-English series worldwide and earning its spot as the best K-Drama of 2025. The K-drama is built on romance tropes older than the streaming platform itself, it doesn't apologize for any of them, and that's exactly why we're all eating it up.

The show doesn't reinvent anything, but that's the point. Dynamite Kiss takes the chaebol CEO, the poor-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold, the workplace romance, the fake relationship, and the impossible misunderstanding, then executes them with enough chemistry and heart to make the predictability feel like a comfortable, traditional K-drama.

For fans who grew up on some of the best beginner K-Dramas like Boys Over Flowers and What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, Dynamite Kiss wears these classic tropes proudly, reminding you why these stories worked in the first place.

Dynamite Kiss Feels Like A Classic K-Drama

Gong Ji-hyeok (Jang Ki-yong) rescuing Go Da-rim (Ahn Eun-jin) from a pool in Dynamite Kiss.

Go Da-rim is a single woman who's failed the civil service exam five times and can't catch a break in the job market. When she hears about a position at a baby products company that only hires mothers, she lies about having a husband and child, gets the job, and walks straight into the orbit of Gong Ji-hyeok—the same man she kissed on Jeju Island weeks earlier.

Now Ji-hyeok thinks she's married with a child, and Da-rim can't tell him the truth without losing her job. The misunderstanding is massive, painful, and entirely built on circumstances that feel absurd until you remember this is exactly how K-dramas have always worked.

The setup is traditional down to its bones. Rich male lead meets poor female lead under chaotic circumstances, they're separated by fate, then reunited in a workplace where their feelings complicate everything. There's an arranged fiancée lurking in the background, family drama tied to a toxic chaebol empire, and a secondary romance brewing between side characters.

It's the same structure we watched in Crash Landing on You, Business Proposal, and a dozen other K-Drama rom-coms that dominated Netflix over the last few years, and if you haven't yet, you need to watch those K-Dramas at least once. Dynamite Kiss has no intention to subvert your expextation, though; it just commits fully, trusting that the formula still works if the execution is strong enough.

And so far, it does. Rather than ask you to adjust to a new rhythm or experiment, it's giving you exactly what classic K-drama rom-coms have always delivered, executed with enough sincerity to make the familiar beats feel intentional rather than recycled.

Dynamite Kiss Makes Good Use Of K-Drama Tropes

Jang Ki-yong as Gong Ji-hyeok and Ahn Eun-jin as Go Da-rim in Dynamite Kiss.

The show is drowning in tropes, and it knows it. There's the fake dating scheme that forces proximity between the leads. There's the workplace romance that shouldn't happen but becomes inevitable.

There's the chaebol male lead with a tragic family background and emotional walls he refuses to let down. There's the second-chance romance angle, since Da-rim and Ji-hyeok already had their explosive first meeting before the story even starts.

Every single one of these elements has been done to death in K-Dramas and rom-coms at large. Fans have watched variations of this exact setup dozens of times, and yet Dynamite Kiss makes it feel fresh by leaning into the tropes with full commitment rather than trying to twist them into something clever.

The chemistry between Dynamite Kiss's award-winning leads, Jang Ki-yong and Ahn Eun-jin is what sells it. Their dynamic builds organically through small, quiet moments where the characters slowly let their guards down. The fake-marriage premise could've felt ridiculous, but so far in its first few episodes the show adds emotion exactly where viewers don't expect it, turning predictable beats into something that actually lands.

Dynamite Kiss just executes the tropes well enough that the predictability becomes part of the experience rather than a flaw. You know where the story is going, but the journey still feels worth taking because the characters make you care.

Dynamite Kiss Has Been Predictable - But That's A Good Thing

A woman in a red sweater kissing a shocked man in a beige coat.

The two main characters kissing in Dynamite Kiss.

So far, the biggest surprise in Dynamite Kiss is that there aren't any surprises—except for one big one. You know Da-rim and Ji-hyeok will end up together. You know the truth about her fake marriage will come out eventually, you know the arranged fiancée won't be a real threat, and you know the secondary couple will find their way to each other by the end. Even so, Dyamite Kiss still broke K-Drama's cardinal rule.

Most K-drama couples don't kiss until halfway through the series, but Dynamite Kiss broke that rule immediately, opening with a passionate kiss in episode 1 that would normally be saved as a midseason climax. That was an interesting choice for a show that feels so predictable; it's an explosive moment in an otherwise straightforward premise.

Instead, Dynamite Kiss is leaning into the emotional beats that make classic K-dramas work. The yearning, the misunderstandings, the moments where two people who clearly belong together are kept apart by circumstances that feel both tragic and absurd. This is the type of K-Drama show for romance fans who aren't yet obsessed with the drama.

Ji-hyeok is so angsty, pining after a woman he believes is married while wrestling with his refusal to repeat his father's mistakes, and that's exactly what we're here for. In this case, the predictability amplifies the story because you know the resolution is coming eventually, and the waiting becomes part of the experience.

Dynamite Kiss isn't one of those shows trying to outsmart its audience or deliver some shocking twist that redefines the genre. Those types of K-Dramas obviously push the genre forward, but this show proves that predictable genre formulas are okay if the execution works. And this is a rare moment where the familiarity feels right at home.

9.9/10

Dynamite Kiss

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Drama Comedy Release Date November 12, 2025 Network SBS Directors Kim Jae-hyun Writers Ha Yoon-ah

Cast

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Jang Ki-yong Gong Ji-hyeok
Ahn Eun-jin Ko Da-rim

Genres Drama, Comedy Powered by

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Dynamite Kiss

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