Match! Banjun Drama (Korean: 대결! 반전드라마), commonly known as Banjun Drama (Korean: 반전드라마) and later Banjun Theater (Korean: 반전극장), was a South Korean Anthology drama series that aired as part of SBS's variety program Good Sunday. The segment ran from August 8, 2004 to April 16, 2006. Each episode consists of two separate stories, both with (usually multiple) Plot Twists (hence the name Banjun, or "twist" drama), competing against each other. Viewers would vote for the story they thought had the most shocking twist, and those who voted for the winning drama could win prizes. In 2006, the segment changed its name to Banjun Theater, and introduced the format of a certain celebrity starring back-to-back in multiple episodes. The segment would play after episodes of the Game Show X-Man.
The segment was known for frequently featuring (at the time) big-name celebrities, varying from rookie actors and veterans returning to TV to non-actors who had little to no experience. Singers such as Jun Jin and Andy from Shinhwa, Danny Ahn from g.o.d, and the group Dong Bang Shin Ki, as well as comedians like Yoo Jae-suk and Jeong Jun-ha and actors like Bae Seul-ki and So Yoo-jin all played roles in multiple episodes. Stories can vary widely in theme, but as mentioned before, all have at least one twist that changes an aspect of the plot.
This show provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: In "Rival", a fight between the titular rivals, Min-ho and Jin-woo, leads to Jin-woo causing Min-ho to fall to his death. Since (although unbeknownst to himself) Jin-woo also ends up dying in the same way, this also counts as an Accidental Suicide.
- Age-Down Romance: In "My Wish", 10-year-old Andy wishes on a snowglobe to become an adult so that he can marry his teacher. After he's hit by a car the next day, he wakes up in the hospital as a fully-grown adult. In the hospital, he meets his teacher and pursues his crush, but another admirer persistently gets in his way. At the end, it turns out that Andy's sudden growth spurt was because he'd woken up from a 15 year coma he'd fallen into after the car crash, along with his teacher who had protected him. The girl he'd been pursuing since he'd woken up was actually his teacher's niece.
- All Just a Prank: In "I Will Love You", Young-jun's whole escapade with his favorite actress Han Eun-byeol, from becoming her baking teacher to their dates, turns out to be planned for a hidden camera show. The ending shows the hurt Young-jun receiving a glimmer of hope by Eun-byeol seriously returning to his side... but that, too, is revealed to be part of the prank show.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Three Wishes", Jae-suk jokingly wishes for every woman in the world to run to him after receiving a coin that can make wishes come true. Upon waking up the next day, his walk to work is terrorized by a barrage of women — from students to newlywed brides — chasing him to the point he has to lock himself in a bathroom stall to undo the wish. Later in the episode, Jae-suk uses the coin to make Yoo-jin, the girl he has a crush on, love him forever. Unfortunately, Yoo-jin ends up being hit by a car right after he makes the wish... but that doesn't stop her undead form from coming to romance him.
- Blood from the Mouth: Min-woo's opponent bleeding from the mouth serves as a tell that he'd died at the beginning of "Champion."
- Boy Meets Ghoul: "When She Opens Her Eyes." The main character in that one encounters the wandering spirit of a girl in a coma that only he can see. He ends up falling for her - even after he realizes he's the one who put her in that situation. Of course, when she finds out, their relationship stops going so well.
- Cassandra Truth: In "Dangerous Love", Jun-su won't believe Chang-min's assertions of seeing an unfamiliar person in Hee-bon's house even though she says she lives alone. When Chang-min tells Jun-su at first, he believes Chang-min's jealous of him and Hee-bon's closeness. Hee-bon does eventually confess to having an additional occupant later on.
- Closed Circle: "Message" starts with a group of robbers staying in an empty guest house after their car runs out of gas. Strange sightings (including premonitory notes and disappearing ghost girls) lead them to conclude that the house is haunted, but when Kyung-seok and Min-seo try to leave, the door is locked shut. Next to the door is a note that states "no passage after 12 A.M.!" No matter how hard they try, they can't escape, and the majority of the plot keeps them there.
- Daydream Surprise:
- "Sweet Room" opens with Chae Rim and a masked man during a romantic ball, only to reveal the scene is her daydream.
- In "Three Wishes", the opening scene shows Jae-suk being boldly confronted by his (one-sided) love interest, Yoo-jin, in an elevator, followed up by him waking up from bed and revealing the sequence was a dream.
- A Deadly Affair: This turns out two different ways in "Fatal Love." While the main character Jin, his boss (Kyung-seok), and his boss's wife with whom he'd fell into a love affair with (In-young), confront each other, Jin hits his boss's head with a book, and the impact seems to kill him. Though In-young is traumatized, Jin advises her to pretend nothing ever happened. Later, In-young sees an apparition of her husband in the middle of the night and dies of a heart attack. But the heart attack was all part of Jin and Kyung-seok's plan. The two planned the fake death, and even the whole affair between Jin and In-young, for money and... love - because Jin and Kyung-seok were in love the whole time.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The main character of "Life Reversal", Andy, is accidentally roped up into doing this. As a taxi driver, Andy meets a man who is on the way to reconnect with his long lost rich parents. When the man gets off the taxi, a car hits him and he dies. Andy goes to return the man's belongings but gets mistaken for the long lost son, and though he tries to distance himself at first, he ends up keeping up with and plays into the con.
- Give Me Back My Wallet: The two leads' Meet Cute in "Something to Tell You" begins with this. The female lead, a pickpocket, tries to steal the wallet of yet another victim, but the man turns out to be a detective who quickly catches her and sends her to the police station. He lets her off with a warning after finding out she's an orphan, and she promptly (successfully) pickpockets him again. Their relationship progresses from there.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Jun-hyeok from "His Double Life" does one for his main piece's birthday. While working late at the hospital, she suddenly gets an urgent patient rushed to her. Taking off the cloth covering the patient reveals her boyfriend, with a doll and a declaration of "I love you." The employees who rushed him in bring out the party poppers and birthday commemorations; it was Jun-hyeok's elaborate birthday present for her.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Hwi-jae from "Marriage Corporation" initially thought his marriage partner Jin was unattractive, but he couldn't reject her since, if he did, she would die because of the matchmaking service through which they first met. After taking off Jin's glasses in her sleep, though, Hwi-jae realizes she's not so bad after all. The pressure of needing to marry her laying heavy on him, he moves to kiss her... only for her to reposition herself in her sleep.
- Gratuitous English: As is common in Korean works, this shows up every now and then. Instances of this are usually Played for Laughs:
- Lee Hwi-jae's character in "Get That Girl" has a habit of speaking in English when provoked. Justified in that he's an English teacher.
- The second girl Hwi-jae goes out with in "Marriage Corporation", being Korean-American, often inserts English words into her Korean speech. For example, instead of saying "neomu maeryeokjeokida" ("you're so charming" in Korean), she'll say "neomu charminghashida."
- Haunting the Guilty: "Since That Day." At the end, the mysterious visions haunting the main character turn out to be of a woman he hit with a car.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Exaggerated in "My Life's Eraser." Yoo-jin is so beautiful that her mere presence causes men (and a dog) to literally turn their heads and fawn over her, with a crowd of guys following her as she walks out of a restaurant with her husband. Men are so head over heels that one admirer breaks into her house and attempts to kill her husband to make her his.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In "Father and Son", Hwi-jae saves his father from a gun attack that killed him in the past through time travel. At first, Hwi-jae tries to stop his father from going through the mission that would end up killing him, but when he arrives anyway, Hwi-jae defends his father from the killing shot by taking it for him. Hwi-jae ends up injured from taking the shot, but his dad survives and gets to see the birth of his baby — future Hwi-jae.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: Banjun Drama started using this format when it changed its name to Banjun Theater — the corner would be presented as (actor who plays the lead role)'s Banjun Theater, e.g. Danny Ahn's Banjun Theater in his episodes.
- The Killer in Me: In "Since That Day", a man goes on a search after a mysterious woman starts appearing in his vision after a car crash. Through a confrontation with the man he had assumed to be her murderer, he finds out that he himself had killed her in a car crash.
- Literal Change of Heart: Hwi-jae in "Sick Heart" comes up with a heart disease and has to have his heart transplanted. After the surgery, his personality becomes more feminine (feminine meaning weak-hearted); when he meets Jin, an acquaintance of his donor, he learns that his new heart used to belong to a man named Andy, who was quite feminine in his life.
- Love Potion: "Love Potion" centers around one of these. Kyung-seok suffers from a one sided crush on his co-worker In-young, whose way is blocked by the star employee Si-kyung. One day, a mysterious man in a bar gives Kyung-seok a magic potion which will make the person who drinks it fall in love with him. Of course, In-young is not the one who ends up drinking it but Si-kyung, and the usual shenanigans follow.
- Mandatory Twist Ending: As the show's literal title translates to "twist drama", all of the episodes have an unexpected ending — usually one that changes the foundation of the story. Each episode, viewers are invited to guess the twist as the story's end approaches.
- Mirror Scare: One of the ghost woman's appearances in "Since That Day" shows up in this form. The main character wipes the mirror after taking a bath, but is met with the blurry image of the woman.
- The Mourning After: "Second Love" stars Eric Mun as a man who lost his girlfriend in a car accident. After a hasty turn, he was launched out of his car — he couldn't save his girlfriend, still in the car, in time and had to watch as she burned in front of his eyes. He swears celibacy even three years after the event and still has her on his mind. Matters complicate when he encounters a woman who looks exactly like his lost love.
- Nostalgic Narrator: In "Unforgettable Love", the boys of TVXQ are left alone in their house after Yun-ho leaves to go on a blind date. Hung up on the topic of girlfriends, they each take turns reminiscing upon the most unforgettable girls they've met. This serves as a framing device to segment into the main narrated flashback scenes.
- Obfuscating Disability: Subverted in "Lovers." Near the end, the blind female lead who happens to be the sole witness for a crime Kwang-hyun commited confronts him, confessing that she could see and saw his crime. But in reality, her "confession" was coached to get him to reveal that he did it, and she was really blind.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Jae-joong's discovery of a shipping fanfic revolving around Yun-ho and him (itself given to him by Yun-ho) is the inciting incident for the subplot of "Dangerous Love", where Jae-joong starts to suspect Yun-ho might be into him romantically.
- One-Eyed Shot: Used in several episodes: for example, a close-up of Jae-suk's eye is used every time he uses the "eraser" fluid in "My Life's Eraser", and a dramatic close-up is also used in "Reincarnation" when the main character re-encounters the man who'd harmed him in his past life.
- Overnight Age-Up: The "Christmas Wish" segment of "g.o.d, Love Christmas" centers around a six-year-old boy with a crush on his teacher. He wishes on a Christmas tree to grow up, and when he wakes up the next day his wish has come true. He uses this chance to get closer to his teacher, though he still retains his childish personality (which weirds her out).
- Pick a Card: In "The Magician's Doll", savvy Stage Magician Sung-jin uses this trick to hit on the woman his friend brought home. The girl is impressed when he shows her card, but she's taken away further when, by a swipe of his hand, Sung-jin changes her card into a suit of hearts, written on it "I Love You."
- Police Psychic: In the episode Trap, Hye-bin uses Psychometry to help the detectives investigate the murder of their boss. Her visions lead her to narrow down the culprit to Kyung-seok, but as she could not see the face of the real killer (combined with the fact the killer happened to be wearing the same clothes as the culprit), she never ended up realizing the one who delivered the final blow was Min-woo.
- Quest for Identity: The plot of "She's Suspicious" centers around a woman with Identity Amnesia and her husband, both of whom are trying to figure out who she was in the past. With her ability to fight, shoot guns, and use knives, along with her nightmares that seem to be memories of the past, the wife and husband both begin to suspect that she was a gangster or in some other violent profession.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: The family photo Si-kyung has in his wallet serves as one in "Protect Mom." When he helps his parents in the past better their financial situation, the picture changes to show a better version of his family; when cracks start showing in their relationship, his body in the picture starts disappearing.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In "Father and Son", Hwi-jae finds himself facing his late father in the past — one week before his father's death, to be exact — after being hit by a car. After figuring out his situation, he sets out to prevent his father's death. Hwi-jae manages to succeed, returning to the present to see his mother and father alive and well — but crying over his own picture, as the aforementioned car accident actually killed him.
- Stalker Shrine: In "Dangerous Love", there's a locked room in Hee-bon's house - where Jun-su and Chang-min ended up at after falling down a hill - that she won't let the boys get to. As Chang-min discovers, the room is filled to the brim with TVXQ pictures, which makes him realize she was a stalker fan who kidnapped them.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: While most Banjun Drama episodes follow a single plot thread because of their short length, "Dangerous Love" features two threads. The A-Plot focuses on Jun-su and Chang-min as they find themselves injured and saved by a woman inside her abandoned Closed Circle house, while the B-Plot centers around Jae-joong mistaking Yun-ho as gay after being shown a romantic fanfic with Yun-ho and him.
- You Must Be Cold: In "And There Was Nothing", Jae-suk notices that Sa-gang looks cold while painting her portrait, and he brings her a jacket. Sa-gang does the same vice versa with a scarf later in the episode.
