A Marriage Under Glass
Three years into a secret arranged marriage, presidential spokesperson Baek Sa-eon (Yoo Yeon-seok) and newspaper heiress Hong Hee-joo (Chae Soo-bin) have perfected the art of mutual indifference. They don't speak. They don't acknowledge each other. Hee-joo lives with selective mutism — or so Sa-eon believes. Then a kidnapper calls.
What follows is one of the most compulsive K-dramas to arrive on Netflix Malaysia in 2025: a political thriller that pivots seamlessly into a slow-burn romance, held together by two leads with chemistry so potent it practically radiates off the screen. Director Park Sang-woo (The Forbidden Marriage) and writer Kim Ji-woon (Melancholia) create a drama that knows exactly what it is — and executes it with disciplined, confident style.
Tension as Foreplay
The first ten episodes of When the Phone Rings are a masterclass in romantic tension construction. The drama understands that a wall between two people who want each other is more compelling than easy access — and it builds that wall brick by brick before demolishing it in the most satisfying ways.
Yoo Yeon-seok is terrific as Sa-eon: cold on the surface, quietly desperate underneath. His gradual thawing — provoked by a wife he discovers has been deceiving him in ways that reframe their entire marriage — is the engine of the show. Chae Soo-bin matches him completely, playing Hee-joo as a woman who has learned to survive invisibility and must now decide whether she wants to be seen.
The show peaked at 6.6 million Netflix views in a single week — and the buzz felt earned. Every episode drop was a social media event across Southeast Asia, and for most of the run, rightly so.
"Episodes 1–10 are among the most compulsive K-drama television of 2025. The finale will divide you. Watch it anyway — the journey is worth every minute of the destination's imperfection."
The Finale Problem
The show's reputation carries a significant asterisk: the final two episodes — particularly Episode 12 — provoked a near-universal audience revolt. Without spoiling specifics, the narrative takes a turn that many viewers felt betrayed the careful tension built across ten episodes. The tonal shift is jarring.
Our honest advice: the show could have ended at Episode 11 and been near-perfect. Episode 12 exists, and it is what it is. Lower your expectations going into the finale, and you'll likely find the overall experience still delivers generously.
Malaysian Viewing Context
For Malaysian audiences, When the Phone Rings fits squarely into the Korean political thriller romance tradition that has reliably dominated Netflix MY charts — and it adds a genuinely novel setup (the selective mutism conceit, the secret marriage, the kidnapper as catalyst) that distinguishes it from similar entries.
The pacing suits binge-watching: 12 episodes at roughly 68 minutes each make it a complete weekend commitment. Watch the OST separately — "See the Light" became one of the year's most-streamed K-drama tracks.