When life overwhelms you with too many hassles, sometimes all you need to do is to remain still and allow everything to pass by without trying so hard to beat the odds. This is the exact feeling I get whenever I tune in to Laughter in Waikiki (2018). This followed-up season feels just as ridiculous yet entertaining as the previous one, and I guess you can just sit down and listen to the novel humors without much deliberation. It’s been almost 3 years since Kim Seon Ho’s drama, excluding his movie that took setting in the Philippines named The Childe (2023) (well he rocked that one too in my opinion). With the yearning of Kim Seon Ho’s long-awaited drama comeback, here I go with my review of Laughter in Waikiki 2 (2019).
WELCOME TO WAIKIKI 2 / 으라차차 와리키키 2 (2019)
Still around the setting of three jaded guys running a guest house named Waikiki, their life turns upside down in havoc whenever a problem occurs. Residents from the first season have turned out well and left the guest house except Lee Jun Ki (Lee Yi Kyung), who remains an unpopular actor with small insignificant roles. Cha Woo Shik (Kim Seon Ho) used to perform at school events and yearned to be a musician, but still leads an unsuccessful life at present. Along with them is Kook Ki Bong (Shin Hyun Soo), an aspiring baseball player with dim-witted nature. Together they try to navigate lives with seemingly-blindfolded eyes and sprinkled with some laughable sense of humor.
FIRST IMPRESSION
First of all, I’m not going to make a comparison between the first and second season because they serve two different story lines that are completely unrelated from each other. Nonetheless, I really like just how whimsically-ludicrous their humor is in each episode, like it made me seriously wonder just how the heck those inspirations managed to fly towards the scriptwriters. Humors were kind of toned down here that some people might consider the first season funnier, but here the chapters were spattered with more emotional outlook.
Cha Woo Shik (Kim Seon Ho) is a grumpy introverted guy that screams your typical tsundere character. He and Kang Dong Gu (Kim Jung Hyun) from the first season are like two peas in a pod in terms of personality. Woo Shik also has the tendency to act holier than thou at times and bluffs himself uncontrollably in a harmless way, but overall he has good heart and intention for people around him.
Kim Seon Ho never fails to deliver comedic reliefs in his scenes given his subtly uncanny gestures that always manages to crack me up. I love that he nails both comedy and emotional scenes as he always does.
Han Soo Yeon (Moon Ga Young) was everybody’s crush back in high school after a dazzling entrance back then. A sudden catastrophe turned her life upside down that she had no other option but to temporarily leech off Waikiki Guest House to survive. Given her privileged background, she was kind of spoiled and clueless about the sufferings experienced by middle-class people. Nonetheless, she makes adjustment and keeps improving amidst the comedy hassles.
Moon Ga Young is a comfortable face to watch and she can participate in the comedy equally well especially during her horrible singing scenes. Her face card doesn’t decline and she has quite good chemistry with Kim Seon Ho albeit more like siblings instead of romantic partners.
Lee Jun Ki (Lee Yi Kyung) is just as nonsensical and ridiculous as he was in the previous season. Still carrying the burdens of a supporting role, Jun Ki earnestly tries his best to make it to the entertainment industry with some sprinkles of insanity and laughter.
It’s hard to take Lee Yi Kyung’s serious acting seriously once you get immersed in his comical acting here. He’s always effortlessly funny and alluring in every peculiar gesture and tone. I have yet to watch that recently popular drama Marry My Husband (2024) where he’s supposed to play a trashy character, but his comical acting is constantly on my mind (in a good way) so it might be hard to hate whatever his antagonist role is.
Kook Ki Bong (Shin Hyun Soo) is unbelievably ignorant and close to a knucklehead in whatever endeavors he’s signing up to. His lifelong dream is to become a professional baseball player in major league, but the reality says that he’s still struggling in minor league.
I must say that Shin Hyun Soo’s way of depicting Ki Bong makes me grow hatred towards the character. I’m not sure if it’s intended that way by the scriptwriters that Ki Bong’s silly traits supposedly pissed people off or it’s because of the actor, but he isn’t that likable compared to the guys from the previous season.
Kim Jung Eun (Ahn So Hee) is another Waikiki resident whose background was kind of unknown. There wasn’t much meaning to her existence in the guesthouse other than becoming Jun Ki’s love interest later on. She tends to speak unnecessary things and makes people uncomfortable with her words, which then gets rubbed off as a joke.
Ahn So Hee’s acting was pretty meh and empty, in a way that doesn’t make feel anything about her character. It might be that her character doesn’t have much backstory that holds significant meaning as a plot device, but I found her just there.
Cha Yoo Ri (Kim Ye Won) is Cha Woo Shik’s older sister that he hates so much because of how sly her character is depicted. She likes provoking people but makes herself scarce to escape the troubles, which becomes the main reason why Woo Shik always chases her away. Nonetheless, Yoo Ri actually acts like a big sister that cares for Woo Shik and people at Waikiki Guest House.
Kim Ye Won plays the role of Yoo Ri interestingly in her own manner, making Yoo Ri impossible to hate.
STUFFS THAT I LIKED
Still my favorite character, Lee Jun Ki
Despite his random gags throughout the drama, Lee Jun Ki’s character really grew on me for his unstoppable persistence about life. If you put aside all his nonsensical choices that he made, it became obvious that he has so much ignited passion in his soul.
EP7. When he wanted to good acting as a beggar, Jun Ki went as far as researching real beggars and put himself to work as a beggar for nearly a week until the director could barely differentiate him with beggars on the street. Jun Ki even managed to learn about strategic begging for optimal gain and ended up looking truly pathetic on screen. I mean, his passion for everything is something else.
Cha Woo Shik when he’s being realistic
Despite Woo Shik’s annoyingly-sulky behavior most of the time, he often says the right thing when it comes to perspectives about life. [SPOILER ALERT] When Soo Yeon sulked about her part-time work and wanted to call it quit because she felt humiliated to do so, Woo Shik scolded her immediately with a harsh slap in the face. “Why don’t you grow up? You don’t want to do things that are tough, embarrassing or boring. Then what will you do? You can’t always do what you want to do in life. You have to do things you don’t like and just put up with it. Everyone in the world lives like that. You must overcome any difficulties on your own.” [END OF SPOILERS]
Cha siblings’ messy dynamics
I love the dynamic between Cha siblings when they quarrel with each other and suddenly join forces for bizarre tasks. Kind of relatable to see how Woo Shik is furious almost all the time after realizing how fool he has made himself because of trusting a person as unreliable as his own sister, and how Yoo Ri still wants to support his brother for a better love life while still leeching off him. Nonetheless, Woo Shik still treats her as an older sister to whom he can rant his problems too, especially when it comes to his love life.
It really runs in Cha family’s DNA to swallow the truth and concoct some excuses in a harmless manner. [SPOILER ALERT] When Soo Yeon wanted to train her vocal with Woo Shik, he tried his best to suppress his inner repulsion over her atrocious singer that he ended up getting physically sick. All those laughable sufferings just so that Soo Yeon didn’t feel discouraged and still kept thriving. On the other hand, there was Yoo Ri who was trying to cheer Ki Bong after he got kicked out of the baseball team over an injury. Ki Bong wrote some poems that sounded too good to be true until Woo Shik discovered that they are nothing but song lyrics. Regardless, Yoo Ri asked him to act like he liked it just so that Ki Bong wasn’t too dejected after such a huge slump. [END OF SPOILERS]
STUFFS THAT IRKED ME
Humors that went over-the-top sometimes
I know that logic is never the drama’s forte, but sometimes they really make it obvious about throwing everything under the bus.
EP11. About Jun Ki’s beloved car, Rebecca, it’s about time that she retired because of how worn-out her machine and body. The humor about reviving Rebecca and her machine suddenly starting up whimsically got repetitive so fast but they kept doing that. [SPOILER ALERT] Also, Ki Bong, who was a car dealer at that time, kept persuading Jun Ki to purchase a new car as a replacement. He went as far as pulling out the spark plug cunningly to shut down the car forever but as Jun Ki was performing a funeral ritual for Rebecca, the car got revived all by herself magically. [END OF SPOILERS]
Jung Eun’s pretentious oblivion
There wasn’t enough backstory to convince me to grow fondness of Jung Eun’s character. She looks dumb and ignorant almost all the time in an aggravating manner. I despise how she purposely set Ki Bong against Jun Ki to see who was physically stronger than the other, making them actually fight in the end. Despite the comedic intention, what Jung Eun did with a seemingly-innocent face left a bad taste in my mouth.
In another episode, when Woo Shik was around a girl who seemed to have interest in him, Jung Eun also purposely teased him blatantly in front of Soo Yeon even when she already knew about his feelings. As if it wasn’t enough, Jung Eun overreacted so much and asked Soo Yeon multiple times annoyingly. Her playing dumb was such a turn-off for her character. It irked me too when Jung Eun went on forcing Jun Ki to talk about his problems when he wasn’t in the mood to do so. The comedy didn’t work out during those scenes and irritated me instead.
LOVELINES ALERT
Cha Woo Shik & Han Soo Yeon
Despite the frustrating romantic development, it’s kind of cute to witness the interactions between Woo Shik and Soo Yeon. This is the common first love trope that occurs a lot, sprinkled with some regrettable misunderstanding. Woo Shik resented her a lot all along due to a silly misunderstanding, not knowing that he turned out to be her first love back in high school.
It’s kind of adorable to see him smitten all by himself upon the wishful thinking about someone he has liked for long. Given his tsundere personality, Woo Shik tends to hide what he truly feels and sometimes put on different facades accordingly. [SPOILER ALERT] I think he’s still a green flag despite how he comes off at times. When Soo Yeon was struggling to find a part-time job, Woo Shik found her one and practically begged the restaurant owner not to fire her over her abundant mistakes. He went as far as participating in a protest and starved himself for a week to keep Soo Yeon’s job, without her having any idea. When Soo Yeon said that she wanted to become an announcer, Woo Shik thought over the course fee she might need and accepted singing gigs he didn’t use to do just to save more money, including a dangerous gig that involved a group of gangsters. When Soo Yeon was about to leave for Pyeongchang for reporting job, Woo Shik happily insisted on dropping her off even when he had a schedule far away. [END OF SPOILERS] None of them would have been possible if Woo Shik didn’t have genuine feelings for Soo Yeon.
Woo Shik’s major green flag for me is his countless acts of service for Soo Yeon no matter what shape his physical and mental state is. Even when he’s not getting enough sleep, he keeps showering Soo Yeon with genuine efforts and gets worried about her all the time. [SPOILER ALERT] After getting turned down by Soo Yeon, Woo Shik didn’t get petty about it and agreed to be her friend so that she didn’t feel pressured. He remained supportive and helpful whenever she was in need. It took a third person for Soo Yeon to eventually realize her secluded feelings for Woo Shik. After a series of misunderstandings, things got resolved in the final episode and they ended up as a couple. [END OF SPOILERS]
Kook Ki Bong & Cha Yoo Ri
This pairing exudes chemistry better than I expected. Yoo Ri initially took advantage of Ki Bong’s weak heart to enter Waikiki Guest House secretly drove him nuts. However, there were moments in which Ki Bong actually relied on Yoo Ri like his own sister and instances where Yoo Ri delivered comfort during Ki Bong’s blue funk. It’s a pretty warm interaction to see as Yoo Ri tried to help Ki Bong with his major league dream and Ki Bong wanting to win the lump sum from a TV quiz program so that Yoo Ri’s Kitchen might come true.
[SPOILER ALERT] After trying out for their relationship with a date, they’d come into realization that too many differences bridge them from each other and wanted to call it off. Nonetheless, Ki Bong suddenly discovered Yoo Ri’s positive charms when she stood up for him after getting wrongly-accused. Yoo Ri also found Ki Bong attractive after he took her fallen scarf from the lake. [END OF SPOILERS]
Lee Jun Ki & Kim Jung Eun
It might be kind of awkward to begin a relationship after a long period of friendship, which explained Jung Eun’s denial upon her burgeoning feelings. It didn’t help that Jun Ki also treated her like a friend and made fun of her all the time, except for the times he made her heart skip a beat.
EP8. [SPOILER ALERT] When Jun Ki rushed to pick her up after she was on the verge of getting advantaged by a senior anchor, Jung Eun deciphered his good deed differently and started seeing him in a new light. It’s been agonizing since her brain was strongly against the idea of getting together with a person as goofy as Lee Jun Ki.
EP9. It escalated pretty quickly as Jun Ki made the senior anchor apologize to Jung Eun for his bad intention. Once a man gets a woman fluttered, there’s no turning back to her wandering thoughts that knows no boundary. [END OF SPOILERS]
FINAL THOUGHTS
Watching this kind of drama makes me believe that when things go astray, people are supposed to resort to laughter in order to stay sane in life. I mean, life often bombards us with unpredictable surprises that we can’t help. It’s only right not to give up, but some moments are meant for idling away temporarily and that’s okay.
“But do you know why I don’t give up? Because things will get more difficult if I do so. I know doing something that I don’t want to do is a hundred times more difficult. But if you know it’s going to be tough whether you give up or not, isn’t it better to suffer while doing something you like?“
In spite of the drama’s shortcomings, I enjoyed the episodes as a piece of funny art that I can occasionally re-watch from time to time without much attachment nor forethought. Sometimes it’s all you need to feel alright again.
GRADE
7/10
The Scorching Heaven 