Throughout Melo Movie, movies are all-pervading.

It is what drives the lives of its four lead characters, contributing to their joy, grief, frustration and ambition in equal measure. All of this comes blanketed in nostalgia; there are stacks of VHS tapes that the cinephiles in the series are engulfed by, and several references to movies smartly written into the show. The episode titles are all dialogues from famous films; Why So Serious? (The Dark Knight), All You Need is Love (Love Actually), and Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Enemies Closer (The Godfather Part II).

When Ko Gyeom (Choi Woo-shik) runs into (the cleverly named) Kim Mubee (Park Bo-young), it of course involves a movie that brings them together. Gyeom, a laughably bad actor, is trying to audition for a part in a highly admired director’s film. Mubee is an assistant on his set. While he doesn’t land the part, Gyeom becomes an annoyingly chipper presence on set: always up for discussing films with the director, butting into the work of the creative departments, and leaving the generally tsundere Mubee perplexed. A brief romantic encounter ensues, but the pair meet again years later — this time he’s a film critic, and she, a successful director.