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Kim Ro-woon requests a marriage annulment in new teaser

by Jenzy

If you couldn’t get enough of Kim Ro-woon’s sageuk scenes in Destined With You, you’re in luck because the new teaser for KBS’s The Matchmakers gives us that in spades, with some of his Jang Shin-yu sass to boot.

The teaser opens on Shim Jung-woo (Ro-woon), a bright scholar who placed first in the state exam, as he somberly pens a letter: “The reason I’m requesting a marriage annulment… is because the fact that I can’t work is a waste of Joseon’s greatest mind.” LOL

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We see exactly what went down to cause Jung-woo’s impassioned stance on marriage. On his wedding day with the princess, she collapsed and suddenly passed away, making him a widower on his first day of marriage. His widower status (to the royal family no less) has made him unable to take a government job or get remarried. To this he exasperatedly cries, “I refuse to be a useless son-in-law that can’t work in the government!”

While he thinks this all makes perfect sense, others think he’s being ridiculous — specifically Jung Soon-deok, played by Jo Yi-hyun (All of Us Are Dead). She is a fellow widower, subject to the same cultural restraints as Jung-woo, but instead of bemoaning her circumstances, she’s taken up matchmaking as her new career. In a conversation with Jung-woo, she sneers, “What kind of pathetic excuse for a man asks for an annulment?”

This is especially flabbergasting to Jung-woo because, as he says in his letter, excluding his annulment request he is the very picture of Confucian adherence, scolding kids holding hands on the street, hugging his piety textbook, and squeaking out a rebuke to a nonchalant Soon-deok when she dares to touch his face. But when she asks him straight up, “Did you fall for me?” his hiccups in response give away his answer louder than words could.

Written by Ha Soo-jin (Sell Your Haunted House) and directed by Hwang Seung-gi (Memorials) and Kim Soo-jin (Nineteen Otters), The Matchmakers will premiere on October 30 on KBS.