Suspicious Partner x Ayashii Partner: Which One Is the Drama for You?

With Japan and Korea TV collaborations becoming more and more popular, we have seen a wave of remakes coming out recently. Nowadays, everyone has been talking about the Japanese version of tvN’s Marry My Husband, while Park Min-young’s remake of Fuji TV’s The Confidence Man, re-titled Confidence Queen, has been confirmed to be released on September 6th, 2025. The list goes on and on: WOWOW is now airing Kaibutsu, a Japanese remake of JTBC’s award-winning Beyond Evil and just yesterday, MBS aired the last episode of Ayashii Partner, a remake of SBS’s Suspicious Partner.

The premise of both is the same: A righteous prosecutor (Noh Ji-wook played by Ji Chang-wook in Korea, Tateishi Haruto played by Yagi Yusei in Japan) is mortified when a young judicial apprentice (Eun Bong-hee played by Nam Ji-hyun in Korea, Miyashita Sakura played by Saito Kyoko in Japan) mistakenly accuses him of groping her. Even though they thought they would never see each other again, later that day, Ji-wook/Haruto witnesses Bong-hee/Sakura in a heated argument with her cheating boyfriend. That encounter leads to a few drinks and a night together that Bong-hee/Sakura can’t seem to recall. Things get even more awkward when Bong-hee/Sakura joins Ji-wook/Haruto’s department days later, hoping to complete her prosecutorial training.

The original story was written by Kwon Ki-young, who went on to pen tvN’s Link: Eat, Love, Kill, and directed by Park Seon-ho, who has directed a few popular titles since then, including SBS’s My Strange Hero and Business Proposal. The script was adapted to Japanese television by Masaike Yusuke (who also wrote Fuji TV’s Japan’s Number One Jerk Salaryman) and directed by Yasukawa Yuka and Yoshimura Keisuke.

What makes these shows different? What makes them the same? Maybe you’re a fan of one and are now in two minds whether to watch the other. Or maybe you’re just curious to know which one would be more of your thing. Regardless of the case, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Here’s a comprehensive comparison between MBS’s Ayashii Partner (2025) and SBS’s Suspicious Partner (2017).

Running short on time? Then, pin our summary at the bottom so you can come back later!

1. Running Time

Suspicious Partner is composed of 20 one-hour episodes (or 40 episodes, under the short-lived half-hour numbering system), which were drastically reduced to 12 episodes of 25 minutes each in the Japanese remake.

Episodes 1 to 8 from both series are extremely similar, with certain scenes playing in the exact same way — with almost identical dialogue, framing, and blocking. Still, condensing one hour into 25 minutes means that everything happens very fast and less vital scenes were removed. Time, in Ayashii Partner, seems to fly by, but at the same time, it is portrayed in a way that feels like no time has passed at all. Editing is fairly brusque at times too, which means that the sequence of certain events feels unnatural and jumpy.

From episode 9, things change considerably. Suspicious Partner begins adding extra storylines to prolong the mystery and drama. Ayashii Partner completely ignores certain episodes, reducing misunderstandings, resolving romantic woes more swiftly, and eliminating secondary plotlines to create tighter instalments.

So, episodes 9 to 12 from the Japanese remake blend events from episodes 9 to 20 from the original Korean series. Bits and pieces are mixed and matched: the Korean episodes 11 and 12 become episode 9 in Japan, the Japanese episode 10 has moments from episodes 13 and 14 in Korea, episodes 15 to 20 from the original are reorganised into episodes 11 and 12 of the remake. That goes to show how Suspicious Partner sags halfway through its narrative — but is less really more in Ayashii Partner? Not really.

2. Narrative Structure [Contains Mild Spoilers]

Suspicious Partner is a legal thriller rom-com that sets out to deliver laughter, tears, shy giggles, and a chilling mystery. Yes, Kwon’s script was conceptually bold and daring — but not completely unique considering that 2017 also saw the release of SBS’s While You Were Sleeping, KBS2’s Witch at Court, SBS’s Judge vs Judge and even KBS2’s Queen of Mystery.

Even though Suspicious Partner starts strong, the narrative soon becomes convoluted. The pacing, character development, and romantic relationships progress at an inconsistent rhythm, with story beats that seem more convenient than natural. The mystery itself is fairly formulaic, with a flimsy investigative process and events that happen haphazardly and miraculously. Even logic seems to be stretched at times. For instance, a character can’t hear a motorbike speeding and honking towards them, but immediately after, they can hear and recognise the song coming out of their saviour’s earphones. Like… what?

Narratively, Suspicious Partner isn’t exactly cohesive and offers a loose plot whose elements get lost throughout or are stretched thin. In order to cover all its 20 hours, the story seems forced to repeat scenarios, exaggerate conflicts, and add unnecessary storylines that only distract the audience from the character and main plotline development needed.

Unfortunately, even though Ayashii Partner does get rid of much of the useless, melodramatic fluff, it sticks so faithfully to the original that it presents the same narrative flaws. Despite its shorter runtime, it keeps the eventual romantic melodrama and squishes the theatrical and tragic backstories (that already had little reason for existing in the original if not to lead to a clichéd break-up) into more rushed sequences. It’s also important to mention that the Korean version often uses secondary plotlines to set up the protagonists’ backgrounds, foreshadowing a bigger revelation later on. However, since the Japanese remake eliminated most of these extra events, there’s no proper setup and the characters’ backstories eventually seem irrelevant.

Ayashii Partner focuses on one series of crimes only (which makes for the main storyline in the original), with its few supporting storylines revolving around this core mystery. To make it work, the script reduces and simplifies the scope of the crime and allows a lot of the development and investigation to happen “behind the camera”. This extreme reduction, in addition to the jumpy editing, inevitably makes the progression of the narrative feel a bit more stilted and reduces opportunities to show motivation and strengthen characterisation effectively.

But we can say that Ayashii Partner feels more like a mystery guessing game than Suspicious Partner. That’s because it doesn’t show the murderer’s point of view until the end of episode 7. While Suspicious Partner gives us answers quite early on and keeps our characters in the dark, Ayashii Partner allows us to learn key information alongside the protagonists and not before them. The Korean version eliminates the mystery sooner, replacing it with the tension of the mind games between our heroes and the villain. While this is a matter of preference, I can say that something very, very positive about the remake is that it gets rid of the memory loss storyline — which is an awfully hackneyed device used in the original.

Finally, legal drama fans beware: the court scenes in Suspicious Partner are, hands down, much better structured and delivered than in Ayashii Partner.

3. Characters

Despite its narrative weaknesses, Suspicious Partner has a charm of its own thanks to the platonic bonds created between characters. The show offers a wide cast of supporting characters, creating a little “found family” between Ji-wook, Bong-hee, Eun-hyuk (Choi Tae-joon), Chief Bang (Jang Hyuk-jin), and CEO Byun (Lee Deok-hwa).

The second male lead, Eun-hyuk, also plays an active role in the narrative and develops a fairly solid bond with both Ji-wook and Bong-hee. We also get to know Ji-wook’s and Bong-hee’s mothers, and Bong-hee’s old classmate Ji-hae (Kim Ye-won) gets a fair share of screentime.

Regardless of how fleshed out these characters become or how necessary their scenes are, these individuals make the universe of Suspicious Partner feel inhabited and ensure that Ji-wook and Bong-hee aren’t alone in their battles.

Meanwhile, Ayashii Partner offers a markedly quieter world. Ji-hae and the mothers don’t really exist in the Japanese version, while Eun-hyuk (Kusakawa Takuya’s Umehara Ren) loses a lot of his screentime. He’s a supporting character who is often underused, which makes his background connection with Haruto and his friendship with Sakura feel a lot shallower. The second couple also have very few scenes together — so, if they weren’t your favourite thing in Suspicious Partner, you’ll appreciate Ayashii Partner for its decision.

Overall, relationships in Ayashii Partner feel colder: even though Chief Bang and CEO Byun have their equivalents (Tosa Kazunari’s Yoneda Yutaka and Takasugi Koh’s Shinjo Kazuhiro, respectively), there’s no “found family” and their relationships seem to be strictly professional. Haruto and Sakura seem alone in the world, only having each other to count on.

While the supporting cast in Suspicious Partner makes us feel like it’s “us vs. them”, the lack of an active supporting cast in Ayashii Partner makes it feel like it’s our two protagonists against the world.

4. Tone

That idea of “Haruto and Sakura against the world” is also delivered through the show’s general tone. Ayashii Partner dials down the melodrama and the comedy, making it a more subdued story. In the Japanese remake, there are no catfights or shouting matches. There are barely any sequences that exist for pure comical silliness. The difference is such that the comedy feels almost out of place at times, as the show focuses on more serious, dramatic sequences. The colours and lighting are softer and more muted and the delivery is substantially more restrained too.

Suspicious Partner is more colourful and (a lot) brighter throughout its ups and downs. It has more of that classic rom-com charm to it, delivering the plot in a much more cheerful and humorous manner. It can be fairly melodramatic, though, making some sequences feel trite and repetitive. It’s quite interesting to see how the series goes from the light-hearted to the suspenseful in a matter of minutes, highlighting the several facets of this script which the photography and the actors tried to balance as well as possible.

5. Acting

Here, things get tricky. I think most of you would agree that Suspicious Partner is Ji Chang-wook’s show. He’s extraordinary in it: he nails the drama, comedy, romance, and thriller seamlessly, giving his character more substance and strengthening the dynamics with his fellow actors. He’s just so expressive and he knows exactly how to respond to different scenarios and performances. Nam Ji-hyun does comedy very well and her chemistry with Chang-wook can be quite electric. They look cute together — which the script takes full advantage of, especially for its more cringeworthy, I mean, saccharine scenes.

Another actor who stands out in Suspicious Partner is Dong Ha (who plays Jung Hyun-soo). He offers the role an intense delivery, navigating a fine line between creepy and charming as he brings the chameleonic nature of his character to the surface.

So, the bar is set quite high.

Even though Ayashii Partner has a different tone to it, it still mixes a bit of drama, comedy, and thriller. Its ensemble, however, seems more comfortable with a slice-of-life, romantic-like delivery and they often lack the timing and subtlety for comedy and drama. Tosa Kazunari stands out for having the sharpest comic timing in the cast and Ijima Ku (who plays Hyun-soo’s counterpart, Inaba Takahiko) also does a good job of balancing the weaker and angrier sides of his character.

As for our protagonists, Yagi and Saito respond well to each other and show their best performances in moments of traditional romance. Of course, it doesn’t help that Sakura is a much less active (and much less feisty) character in Ayashii Partner, which reduces what Saito could’ve conveyed with her female lead.

6. Ideas & Themes [Contains Mild Spoilers]

Both shows present the same ideas and themes, but in different doses.

Suspicious Partner benefits from a very opinionated and proactive female lead who helps bring its themes to the surface —either thanks to contrast, subtext, or direct characterisation. Sakura, Bong-hee’s counterpart in the Japanese remake, is much quieter in comparison and plays a smaller part in decisive moments. Even though Suspicious Partner is a lot more overt and incisive in its approach, both versions offer an important discussion on stalking, obsession, and violence against women. These ideas can be delivered superficially at times but it’s still good to see stories that raise these vital but difficult matters.

On the more clichéd side, both Suspicious Partner and Ayashii Partner make use of antiquated romantic ideas that don’t really hit the right notes. First, the relationship between Ji-wook/Haruto and Bong-hee/Sakura relies on the altruistic break-up trope to create unnecessary conflict later on in the narrative. While the remake resolves it all more quickly and less dramatically, the original series drags it out to the very last episode.

Most importantly, both stories repeatedly draw on the misused connection between romantic love and kindness. At first, Bong-hee/Sakura seems to fall in love (head over heels, after a couple of episodes) with Ji-wook/Haruto simply because he’s nice to her. Later on, we often see Bong-hee/Sakura asking Ji-wook/Haruto to “not be kind to her” as that would encourage her romantic feelings to grow. Kindness, respect, and consideration towards our fellow human beings shouldn’t be seen as an invitation for romance — but just characteristics of a decent person. It would’ve been nice to see a more rounded development of a romantic bond between our two protagonists through something more substantial than just “he/she is kind.”

Suspicious Partner x Ayashii Partner: Which one should you watch?

If you’re looking for a shorter, quick-paced story that focuses on one single objective, stick with Ayashii Partner. If you don’t mind a longer, winding adventure, Suspicious Partner will fit the bill just fine.

Remember that Suspicious Partner is more cheerful, comical, and colourful, while Ayashii Partner offers a more sober drama. Even though the premise is the same and the plot unfolds in very similar ways, the Korean original is more of a mind-game sort of thriller. If you prefer a more traditional mystery, the delivery of the Japanese remake might satisfy you a tad more. Both offer some cute, romantic scenes between their leads but if you’re looking for a wider supporting cast whose bonds convey more emotional weight, you should choose Suspicious Partner over Ayashii Partner.

Isn’t Suspicious Partner a bit predictable? Yes. It drags on at times? Yes, but it’s still entertaining.

Suspicious Partner is extremely sweet — and highly recommended if you’re looking for honeyed and funny (and slightly melodramatic) romance. There’s a reason why Suspicious Partner has become a staple of Korean legal rom-coms and Ayashii Partner is an interesting re-interpretation of its strengths (and weaknesses!).

You can watch Suspicious Partner on:

Or you can watch Ayashii Partner on: