Betrayal and bloodshed in Grabbed by the Collar

by solstices

Another teaser is out for KBS’s upcoming thriller Grabbed by the Collar, starring Kim Haneul (Kill Heel) as the righteous journalist Seo Jung-won and Jang Seung-jo (Death’s Game) as her chaebol husband Seol Woo-jae. When Jung-won is framed for murder, her marriage and reputation are torn to shreds, and the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend Kim Tae-heon — played by Yeon Woo-jin (Daily Dose of Sunshine) — further complicates matters.

In a sweet play on the meaning of her name, Woo-jae thanks Jung-won for being his garden, painting a picture of a happily married couple. The arrival of Cha Eun-sae, however, changes everything. “You mentioned your husband is a novelist, right?” Eun-sae coyly asks Jung-won. “My lover is a writer, too.” One moment, Woo-jae is embracing Jung-won tenderly, and the next, he’s locking lips with another woman.

Before Eun-sae can reveal any more, though, she turns up dead. “Cha Eun-sae was my stalker,” Woo-jae claims, but his attempt at deflecting suspicion falls flat in the face of Tae-heon’s skepticism and detective instincts. Isn’t Woo-jae simply pinning the blame on her, since a corpse can’t defend itself? “Rude bastard,” scowls Woo-jae, fed up with Tae-heon’s probing.

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Jung-won isn’t all that happy to see Tae-heon, either. “We shouldn’t have met each other again,” she declares, since their nostalgia-tinged romance has long since burst its bubble. Now, Jung-won finds herself at the opposite end of Tae-heon’s gun, as the suspect he must corner. “Of all detectives, why did it have to be you?” laments Jung-won, as if wanting to keep her distance.

Meanwhile, Woo-jae’s quick on the uptake, swiftly clocking the tension between the two ex-lovers. “You seem to have a lot of interest in my wife,” Woo-jae points out, deliberately needling Tae-heon. However, Tae-heon isn’t one to back down. “Of course I do,” he counters, to the consternation of Jung-won. At the end of her rope, caught between her husband’s deceit and her murder charge, Jung-won blurts out, “I resent you so much I could kill you. That’s how much I love you.” As they say, the opposite of love is indifference, not hate.

There’s plenty of fury on Woo-jae’s end, too, as he grabs Tae-heon’s collar (heh) and snarls, “Someone like you dares to covet my wife?” Once again, though, Tae-heon has a retort ready. “If you were going to cling on so desperately, why did you hurt her in the first place?” The heart is a messy thing, and if the charged tension and meaningful gazes between our three leads are any indication, its desires will take center stage.

Helmed by PD Lee Ho and PD Lee Hyun-kyung, with scripts written by Bae Soo-young, the web novel adaptation Grabbed by the Collar is slated for a March 18 premiere.