Summary
Clean with Passion for Now is now on Netflix, offering a charming South Korean story and highlighting the importance of love and support.
As much as the out-of-touch minority moan about Netflix making content available to the masses, without the streaming platform, Ready Steady Cut would never have covered such a variety of Korean entertainment. Okay, Clean with Passion for Now is not a Netflix exclusive, but it shows the continued desire to cover the entire global market. As much as Disney+ is digging its claws into the digital world, intending to take over, they still have a job on their hands.
Clean with Passion for Now Season 1 reminds me slightly of Romance is a Bonus Book, where two polar-opposite adults are brought together in relatively normal circumstances, slowly allowing a romance to build between them both. In the case of the latter, the series was all about different stages of each other’s careers; Clean with Passion for Now is about one being supremely clean, while the other takes on life in a lackadaisical manner. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a cultural device (and feel free to comment), but Netflix seems to acquire South Korean stories solely on budding romances between two characters only.
As for the premise of Clean with Passion for Now, Jang Sun Gyeol has mysophobia and ironically runs a cleaning company. From the offset of the first chapter, Jang Sun Gyeol takes cleaning to the form of extremism. His spectrum of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was born environmentally when he was younger when a girl flicked a bogey in his mouth. He’s the type of character that tip-toes around bags of garbage or removes himself from a date if he can see the woman’s ear wax.
As for the counterpart character in Clean with Passion for Now, Jang Sun Gyeol meets Gil Oh Sol (Kim Yoo Jung), who is larger than life, bright and does not take the day to day routines seriously. The Korean series has created a character that does not mind getting dirty, but in reality, her cleanliness is fine, it’s just Jang Sun Gyeol’s standard is so high.
Once both characters get closer together due to a series of circumstances involving a robot hoover, and a crush that breaks her heart, their polar opposite habits are what drive the characters together, forming a connection that grows in a slow-burning way for the rest of Season 1.
Clean with Passion for Now follows two important core themes that sell both characters to the audience; Gil Oh Sol’s untidy and carefree ways are born from taking on the world, the harsh reality of being an adult. But the most important theme is Jang Sun Gyeol’s attempts to take on his mysophobia. The series demonstrates that with love and support, you can take on your flaws.
Clean with Passion for Now is endearing, funny and easy-to-watch, and it’s readily available on Netflix.
