The Time of Fever Review: Prequel Ticks Towards Heartache

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Am I the only delusional viewer who expected ‘The Time of Fever’ to be a steamy romance due to its title? Doesn’t ‘The Time of Fever’ immediately make some think ‘oh this is going to be hot, sexy one!’? I can imagine one of those Korean characters exclaiming – ‘Are you a pervert?’. No, just a regular person who appreciates spice.

Directed by Yang Kyung Hee (Love Tractor/Kissable Lips/The Director Who Buys Me Dinner), ‘The Time of Fever’ spans six episodes and stars Do Woo and Won Tae Min as childhood friends Kim Dong Hui and Ko Ho Tae respectively. The two find themselves attracted to each other when they are in high-school, but struggle to act on their feelings. Will they be able to cross the line successfully? Some of us already know the answer.

‘The Time of Fever’ is a prequel to the 2023 Korean series ‘Unintentional Love Story’, where Do Woo and Won Tae Min displayed promising chemistry as Dong Hui and Ho Tae, but their sub-plot ended inconclusively. Those who’ve seen the older show already know that in the future, Dong Hui strongly opposes Ho Tae’s requests to date, so it’s evident that their teen story would end in heartbreak. The creators should’ve instead made a sequel to follow what happens with the pair, merging their story with flashbacks to reveal how the attraction began.  

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While in ‘Unintentional Love Story’, Kim Dong Hui ran a café, in ‘The Time of Fever’, he is in the final year of High School, with great grades and a dream to become a doctor. Ho Tae is one year junior, a popular athlete, who dates any girl who asks him out, and then treats her worse than a friend. His dating life obviously doesn’t inspire any confidence in Dong Hui who has a huge crush on Ho Tae. There’s a lot of push and pull between the pair as they teeter between friends and lovers. Once Ho Tae becomes more confident about where his heart lies, he resolutely works to pull down the walls put up by the more wary Dong Hui. Actors Do Woo and Won Tae Min may not look like high-school students, but they capture the confusing pangs of first love convincingly and their chemistry is engaging.

Since the series is only six episodes long, it’s well-paced (might feel dragged out in some parts), easy to watch, with no side-couples distracting you from the main characters. It’s best to watch ‘The Time of Fever’ as a stand-alone high school romance, that’s filled with the usual teen angst, denial, jealousies and personal conflicts. The last episode was a mixed bag, and ends the story with a nostalgic emotional scene by the beach. If you were rooting for Kim Dong Hui and Ko Ho Tae in ‘Unintentional Love Story’ and are curious about their past, this is a good one-time-watch.

Rating: 6 on 10. Watch the series on iQIYI/ Wavve/ TVING

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