Manhwa Review: Full House 1: Incompatible by Soo Yon Won
Elle Gee is an aspiring scriptwriter who has spent the last ten days recovering from a breakup with her childhood sweetheart Felix by shutting out the outside world to concentrate on her debut script. Thus it’s a complete surprise to her to learn that Full House, the house her father the noted architect Seok Woo-Gee built, has been sold out from under her, and she is being forced to vacate on an hour’s notice.
Ryder Baye has his own problems. The handsome movie star is spoiled and self-centered, so doesn’t think about the effect his actions have on other people. This has resulted in his many flirtations being treated as sexual flings by the tabloid media, and now him just being extremely close with another man at the beach has been turned into a rumor that he’s gay. (Or possibly bisexual, but that’s not the angle the tabloids are going with.) He was hoping to have an isolated house to relax away from the paparazzi, and the very nice Full House looked like the ticket, so he had an agent buy it for him.
Elle is understandably enraged by her home being taken away, and is determined to fight. When Ryder accidentally runs over her foot (breaking a toe) and makes her lose part of her manuscript, he doesn’t understand why she takes it so personally and insists that she should be living in Full House. His attempts at just paying Elle off only make things worse.
A bit of lost tempers later, Elle sarcastically proposes a marriage. Ryder’s manager Miranda sees an opportunity. If Ryder announces his engagement to this plain-looking nobody who’s nothing like the glitterati girls he’s normally seen with, that will quash the “gay” rumors. They can quietly “dump” each other later once the news cycle has moved on.
And so their fake relationship begins!
“Manhwa” is Korean comics, which for historical reasons are strongly influenced by Japanese manga. There are some distinctive features, but it can be hard for foreigners like me to figure them out.
This romance title is set in exotic Britain, though our heroine is Korean, having moved to London with her father as a child.
The art style is pretty, but tends to obscure facial differences–one wouldn’t know that Elle is supposed to be not-pretty at a glance, so we get descriptions of her by other people to point this out. (The same with her Asianess.)
As is typical, a lot of the initial problem is caused by lack of communication. Elle never calmly explains why she should live in Full House, and neither Ryder nor anyone else asks on page. Ryder does show a bit of deeper characterization and good points so that the eventual romantic reconciliation will make sense. And there is a certain fishiness to the whole thing that is only mentioned in passing. Why did Elle not know that she didn’t own Full House, or that it had been put on the market? Or did someone falsely represent themselves as the owner?
Content note: homophobia, racism, sexism. There’s a forceful kiss of the “shut up” kind, Elle is not thrilled.
It’s not my sort of thing, but apparently the series was successful enough to get a sequel. Check it out if you’re into Korean dramas.
