Once published serially in Linewebtoons and now re-published, 'Chees in the Trap' has been a talk of the town that gained enough popularity to produce TV drama and film. 

 

Consisting of four parts, this work was published serially for quite a while from 2010 to 2017.

 

Since it was published serially for a long time, it gathered a huge fandom. Fans loved to take an assumption and discuss casting for the characters in the webtoon even before TV drama and film were produced. Finally, TV drama was confirmed to be produced, and then it sparked fans’ attention more than ever.

 

Above all, the attention in casting for the main characters 'Yu Jung', 'Hong Sul', and 'Baek In-ho' in Chees in the Trap webtoon was amazingly high, and actor Park Hae-jin was considered to be a dead ringer for the character, Yu Jung. No other actor could replace him.

 

There was no need for words because this casting made people imagine that the character, Yu Jung might have modeled Park Hae-jin. 

As a result, actor Park Hae-jin played the role of Yu Jung both in TV drama and film. Box-office record didn’t match to the attention. However, fans must have been happy to watch the webtoon character that Park Hae-jin acted on the screen since they considered Park Hae-jin as real Yu Jung.

 

When you take a close look at this webtoon, Chees in the Trap, there are three main characters mentioned earlier; Yu Jung, Hong Sul, and Baek In-ho.

 

Especially, Hong Sul is the main character among the three main characters. The webtoon illustrates events and relationships in the center of Hong Sul and the stories in her viewpoint. And these are described very realistically so that it wins many viewers’ sympathy.

 

Since a female main character leads the story, this work has been popular with female readers. And because there are two male characters, Yu Jung and Baek In-ho who have completely different magnetism, the work has gained even more responses from female readers.

 

Being unrealistically cool, good-looking, and attractive, the male characters show their hearts for Hong Sul, the main character. As female readers feel empathy with Hong Sul, they get vicarious satisfaction from this situation and that’s one of the reasons the huge fandom has been created.

 

The main story of Chees in the Trap is that a college student named Hong Sul, who took one year off from the university, returns to school and meets a senior, Yu Jung.

 

Without taking a close look at the work, it simply looks like a campus romance.

 

It looks like one of the stories that an ordinary college girl, Hong Sul meets Yu Jung who is a popular senior with a good personality. They go through misunderstanding and reconciliation over and over and finally fall in love.

 

However, how this webtoon attracts readers’ attention is not as same as one of many stories. It rejects such ordinary stories, yet adds up daily lives, mystery, and thriller to romance.

 

Also, the webtoon illustrates various events based on a romance feeling further through a relationship amongst people that would be an uneasy and difficult topic to bring up but anyone would experience, and characters who would be easily found in anyone’s neighborhood yet give a negative impression indeed.

 

Through Hong Sul’s university life and family history, various episodes, her psychological changes and the reason why she has to be so tenacious reveal. As a first daughter in the family that is not very rich, she experiences her parents raise only their son with the most resources. She enters a prestigious university, but she can only continue her education by working part-time and getting a scholarship which makes readers feel sorry for her. She has a tough time because of her family, but she also gets support and comfort from her family. At this moment, here comes Yu Jung who has an opposite background from Hong Sul’s.

 

Yu Jung is a person who has grown up in an abundant family and received the attention and love of everyone, but he hasn’t properly received the love of his parents.

 

His hatred and inner anger are caused by that reason, and their different environments and personalities often bring Hong Sul and Yu Jung to the conflict created because they can’t understand each other.

 

On the other hand, one of the reasons why the webtoon, Chees in the Trap is suitable for producing TV drama and film is the explosive power of characters that cause dramatic conflict. Amongst characters, Baek In-ha is unrivaled.

 

Baek In-ha is a sister of Back In-ho who has lived under the care of Yu Jung’s family since her childhood and has a poor family background.

 

Her character is supercilious and arbitrary. She’s mean and nasty, but as time goes on, everyone finds her very difficult to hate. She might be the most charming character except the main characters.

 

There are other characters such as a senior, Sang-chul, Oh Young-gon, and Son Min-soo, who would be easily found in anyone’s neighborhood. They play a great role in Hong Sul’s psychological changes and changes in the relationship of main characters, creating some sort of illiberal happenings.

 

Chees in the Trap is not only greatly attractive with various characters, but also with a solid story and high-quality drawing.

 

These days, a multitude of webtoons are released. Having a solid story doesn’t mean that the webtoon has a great drawing. However, this webtoon has strength in delicate artworks and unique coloring. A delicate drawing may reveal its nature by an appearance of the character and in the case of this webtoon, such prediction is right on target; the female main character, Hong Sul has frizzy, luxuriant hair that Baek In-ho calls as puppy hair. Her cat eyes create a feeling that she’s skillful and also has a temper.

 

Also, when you read this work, you will find out one surprising thing. Even if a character doesn’t seem to be important during the progress of the story, he/she plays an important role in the future as the story goes on. And a previous and small event is connected to other stories and discussed as a major factor as time passes by.

 

It shows that the author has been thorough with the story and a preset.

 

When TV dramas and films are produced from the original work, the positive synergy may be brought to each other. However, there is always a possibility that TV dramas and films don’t receive a favorable evaluation, which may give a negative impact on the original work.

 

If anyone is disappointed with watching the TV drama or film version of Chees in the Trap, I like to highly recommend to find and read the original work.