Dating Agency: Cyrano releases first stills

          Dating agency is a short drama at tvn. How ’bout some new stills from Dating Agency: Cyrano, the upcoming rom-com from tvN? We’ve seen posters and teaser videos, but the drama just released its first stills today, featuring its lead star Lee Jong-hyuk as the gruff boss of the theater troupe–turned–dating agency, which stages encounters designed to put its lovelorn clientele in the best possible light before the objects of their affection.

           Since Lee Jong-hyuk follows Uhm Tae-woong’s character from the movie, and like him this character will be sharp, decisive, and cynical… until he meets his romantic match, perhaps? I ask that as a question because there appears to be no Lee Min-jung character in this drama; Sooyoung will be playing the lead, but her character seems rather different from the ladies of the film.

In the stills below, Lee Jong-hyuk hides behind a newspaper and wears a trench coat, which is universal dramaspeak for spying. Which he’ll be doing a lot of during his recon rounds in preparation for engineering his romantic scenarios.

 

             The drama has also lined up a cameo appearance by Lee Yoon-ji (The King 2 Hearts, The Great Seer), who’ll have a three-episode spot playing half of a couple who’d hired the dating agency. (The other half will be played by Im Hyung-joon of Third Ward and I Am the King.)

Meanwhile, the other set of stills features Sooyoung, who’ll display a “lively romanticism” as a new employee and couples counselor. Ha, that ought to lead to some clashes with our gruff romance-engineer-who-doesn’t-believe-in-romance.

I’ve always thought the concept of Cyrano Dating Agency was perfect for a drama; the movie idea was golden, just not perfectly executed. (Cyrano’s a classic for a reason!) Mind you, I’m not saying the movie should be stretched into 16 episodes (horrors—it was pretty slow in spots), but there’s a great premise if the world were expanded to include more clients and manufactured meet-cutes instead of centering around just one couple. In that sense it makes sense for a drama to focus on the agency and its goings-on, and developing the central conflict in a more complex way. Plus it’s tvN, which seems to be the only station producing half-decent romantic comedies these days.

Dating Agency: Cyrano will run for 16 episodes and premieres on Monday, May 27.