A Messy script but a trending drama.
When 'The Phone Rings’ just aired its final episode in January 2025, I felt the thrill, but it got boring at one point.
Read further to know my thrilling perspective:
The Plot:
The drama revolves around the main leads ‘Hong-Hee-Joo’ (female lead) and Baek sa-eon (male lead) in 12 exciting episodes. There are mysteries present regarding an orphanage, the two families, twins, fathers, and childhood. These mysteries start unravelling as the episodes progress. The male lead is a rising politician, coming from a prestigious family with legacies. The female lead is the wife of the politician who is mute and cannot speak but is a sign language interpreter at a media house. Both of their relationship is portrayed as ‘cold’ and ‘silent’. Both live in different bedrooms and stay as an individual but not as a couple. Their relationship is ‘awkward’ as no direct communication is present. An unknown person (caller number 406) starts calling the male lead, sends cryptic messages, and threatens his political career. That’s when the unknown person threatened to kill his wife — the mute girl. There’s a major turning happens when Hee Jo is attacked by that unknown person in her car, and when she ‘yells’ or ‘speaks’ or ‘utters’ her first words. She can speak! After the accident, the female lead grabs the unknown person’s phone and smartly comes out of that situation. Now, she smartly catches up on how the unknown person was threatening Baek Sa-eon on call and how there is voice-changing software. She uses this opportunity to talk to his husband and that’s how the show begins — When the phone rings.
“The thrill was unbeatable”
In the first few episodes, the thrill was unbeatable because there were so many questions, so much confusion, and a blank head as a watcher.
When you are an audience, you want to bite your nails and think hard “What’s happening” — this feeling is wonderfully taken up by the writers in their first few episodes.
The main characters are in a contract marriage.
It is shown that the step-sister of the female lead should have been the person to marry the male lead, but sadly, she was missing which made them marry off Hee joo to the male lead to save their family’s reputation.
But the reason for the marriage was different, which we find out at the end.
Both the male and the female leads were talking on the phone, the female lead taking the approach to ask her husband questions that she wanted to know the answers to.
On the other hand, the male lead is unsure of the unknown call and how that unknown caller knows so much about him and his wife.
This was interesting and thrilling to watch. Moreover, mysteries were unfolding in Baek’s family + Hong’s family which made the audience think and get excited more for future episodes.
I felt it was worth it to watch this drama wait every weekend and feel the thrill alive again.
“The thrill was missing”
But..
The thrill was gone. dead. silent.
There should be high emotions and shocking instances present when the male lead comes to know about the ‘truth’.
The ‘truth’ about Hee Jo’s speaking ability. We were all waiting for the same. But it just happened.
Quick & Swish & Flick!
The main lead viewed the car dash cam and saw her wife yelling with anxiety in a police car. That’s when the series started blossoming love and care between the two main characters.
There’s the storyline while on an office picnic, where the female lead falls off the cliff, and the male lead goes to find her. In that process, he knows that the call is made by the ‘unknown person’ who is actually his wife.
The thrill was missing because now the love-dovey scenes were emerging.
I am so happy to say that the ‘butterflies’ and ‘love feelings’ that we get from seeing the main lead — were found among the second leads ⋆.ೃ࿔🦋𓂃 ࣪ ❤
The second half of the series took another turn when the male lead asked her wife to audition for the ‘interpreter in sign language’ for the presidential team.
In this manner, the male lead (spokesperson) could keep her close to the unknown person who according to him is still prying. There are office scenes, love instances, and cute moments shown which are less thrilling and more calm vibes.
During this time, he also finds out the truth about himself, his family, who the real father is.. and more...
“Back to Thrill”
The thrill starts again when we audience forgets about the real ‘unknown man’ who really wanted revenge from the spokesperson.
He is the antagonist who desperately wants to take revenge on the male lead.
But there’s another thrill that unravels to find out the closest person spokesperson who is one of the twins of the orphanage that wanted revenge.
Here the thrill starts when there are two people seeking revenge on the main character.
In this time of storyline, there are a lot of mysteries that we find out which are surprising and yet thrilling. (I am not telling them, go and watch)
There are so many mysteries that you think will be unnecessary with the support of a storyline. There will be Hee Joo getting kidnapped the millionth time and the main lead saving, looking for her, the millionth time. He also lets her find out, that he actually knows about her, her calls, and how she wants a better relationship with her husband.
Both talk and share their first kiss and the female lead is surprised at how he forgave her. It should have been more interesting. More thrill should have been put to make those come across as shocked that she is imitating as the unknown person.
In the ending fight scene, the ‘unknown person’ wanted to kill the main characters but while hee jo sitting in car, he calls out the male lead, and utters a few harsh words in his ear “which is a secret, you go and watch”.
And that’s when the male character gets vanished from her life, donating all his money, and running away from the country. Some of the scenes in the storytelling felt repetitive. But still, the thrill was reactivated so we were looking forward to the last episode.
“There was an unnecessary thrill”
The last episode.. felt like an unnecessary thrill
Disappointed with the ending.
Since Baek Sa-eon is missing now, Hee Joo keeps waiting for him in their house, crying, and being depressed. Her step-sister tries to calm her down. Then asks her to celebrate Christmas with her, but she still waits for him.
One thing leads to another, and she comes to know that Sa Eon has moved to a fictional war-zone country named Argan. They tried to show the thrill of finding the main lead and ending the love story but it was tooo forced. The Argan sequence was unnecessary.
However, when we come back and they show the ending scene of both of them enjoying wine with their close acquaintances, that was the wholesome moment. They also got married, showed everybody her ring, and Baek Sa Eon changed his name. (there is a backstory you will know when you watch)
When the phone rings kdrama review - I deducted by review stars right here when they rushed the ending and took it to the Argan sequence.
Here’s when the second lead also announced their wedding and we went Awwwww! 🫰 In the final scene, Baek Sa Eon calls his wife and talks in a tone like he used to talk when her wife and calls her ‘406’.
This is because he wants to tell her that from now on he wants her to share with him anything like she used to as 406 — transparent and loud.
In the final scene, they walk hand in hand in a green forest and this marks the ending of ‘when the phone rings’ ❤
When the Phone Rings Kdrama Review: ⭐⭐⭐
Perfect drama with thrill, love, romance, friendship, and clean episodes. But deducted 2 stars for the last episode. It was unnecessary! I felt it began its episodes as wannabe ‘Queen of Tears’ Drama and ended with like ‘Descendents of Sun’ with a reunion scene. You can watch it, but give the episodes time to digest and don’t binge-watch because you might lose interest when the thrill goes down in the series.
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