Take Charge of My Heart Netflix: Oct. 9 Release, Cast, Plot
All 10 episodes of Netflix's "Take Charge of My Heart" arrive Oct. 9, and the premise fits in one sentence: a conglomerate heir's artificial heart is running out of battery, and the only thing that recharges it is a screenwriter who shocks everyone else.
Kim Young-kwang plays Baek Ho-rang, a third-generation heir to TS Group and executive director of TS Resort, who is facing an artificial-heart battery replacement and the succession of the family business. Chae Soo-bin plays Na Bo-bae, a drama writer who has generated electricity since a childhood lightning strike and keeps people at a distance for fear of electrocuting them. Ho-rang turns out to be the one man her current does not affect, which Netflix's own marketing calls a "human rubber glove."
The charging starts by accident. On the day of Ho-rang's surgery, a hospital power outage drains his battery, and it begins refilling whenever Bo-bae is near. His response is a contract. "Just charge me for three months, until my next surgery," he tells her, per Netflix's synopsis. She agrees partly out of need: her director has ordered a "steamy adult romance," and she has never had a real relationship to write from.
The series is directed by Park Soo-won, whose earlier credits include "Work Later, Drink Now" and "Birthcare Center," and written by Song Yu-chae from a web novel of the same title. It is Park's first romantic comedy. At a press event in Seoul on Oct. 1, he said the apart-and-recharge dynamic between the leads is one of the show's main pleasures, and Korean outlets quoted him saying he wants viewers to relax and let the story charge them rather than puzzle over it. He also pointed to the moments when the two characters' wounds surface and the other simply accepts them, which he said goes beyond the contract.
Kim described the series as a "dreamlike narrative where comic book fantasy comes to life." Chae Soo-bin said she hesitated before signing on because she worried the rom-com label would box in her image, according to Korean press coverage of the event, and was won over after meeting the director and writer.
The supporting cast sets up the rivals and the complications. Cha Woo-min plays Ji Eun-ho, a top star and Bo-bae's biggest fan, positioned as the third corner of a triangle. Jung Jae-kwang plays Choi Do-yoon, TS Group's resident troublemaker and Ho-rang's rival. Shin Do-hyun plays Han Seol-hee, an executive at Hallim Planning with feelings for Ho-rang. Kim Mi-kyung plays TS Group chairman Gong Man-seol, and Gong Min-jung appears as Bo-bae's older sister, a former taekwondo gold medalist.
Netflix is releasing the full season at once on Oct. 9. The next Korean original on its October calendar is "Dead-End Job," an eight-episode fantasy-horror series dated for Oct. 30, according to Elle Korea.
