Singapore, Dec. 5 -- When The Camellia Blooms is a South Korean romantic comedy - with a sting.
It starts with a bleak murder scene in grey before moving on to more familiar ground. Viewers are introduced to Dong-baek (Gong Hyo-jin), the pretty young woman whose arrival and opening of a bar named Camellia shakes up the quiet town of Ongsan. She is a single mother trying to make ends meet and suffers in silence the slings and slights that come her way.
When cop Yong-sik (Kang Ha-neul), who cannot abide injustice of any kind, lays eyes on her, he is instantly smitten.
Gong's speciality seems to be overlooked women who turn out to have steely strength, including the character she played in the hit K-drama Master's Sun (2013). Dong-baek m...