“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” These wise words appear on a con artist’s business card in the fantasy comedy Miss Night and Day. This adage becomes relevant to Lee Mi-jin, played by both Lee Jung-eun and Jung Eun-ji, as she navigates a series of life-altering events.
Mi-jin, portrayed by the younger Jung, is a desperate jobseeker who has been struggling to find decent employment for seven years. Living with her working-class parents, her mother’s patience has worn thin. After a mix-up at a job interview where another woman with the same name is hired, Mi-jin’s mother mistakenly believes her daughter’s job hunt is finally over. Unable to break the truth to her mother, Mi-jin’s desperation peaks.
She turns to a man who had previously given her a business card, promising a good job for a fee. Mi-jin pays him, only to have her money transferred elsewhere. Fortunately, prosecutor Gye Ji-ung (Choi Jin-hyuk) overhears and catches the con artist, but Mi-jin’s money is already gone. Her guilt intensifies when she returns home to her parents’ congratulatory gifts. That night, she confides in a stray cat and follows it into a large clay pot, losing consciousness.
In the morning, Mi-jin wakes up transformed into a middle-aged woman, now played by Lee Jung-eun. During the day, she remains in this older form, reverting to her younger self at night. Despite the confusion, Mi-jin learns to navigate her new reality. Her transformation allows her to join a program for older job seekers, leading to a job at the local prosecutor’s office under the alias Im Soon.
Ji-ung soon transfers to her town, secretly investigating a series of disappearances, including Mi-jin’s long-lost aunt. Miss Night and Day, reminiscent of the fantasy comedy Miss Granny, delves into the black-and-white dichotomies of society, exploring themes of youth and age, night and day, right and wrong.
The show’s prime-time K-drama format blends workplace transformation fantasy with familiar tropes, including romance and crime. Despite the fantastical elements, the series sticks to conventional K-drama elements, including a serial killer subplot. While it might have benefitted from a deeper exploration of fraud, the show’s broad strokes maintain its appeal.
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