Why Choi Mina Sue is the reason you should be watching Single's Inferno 5

Choi Mina Sue. That’s the article. If you haven’t watched the fifth season of Netflix’s Single’s Inferno, you are missing out on reality television gold.

WHAT SINGLE’S INFERNO IS REALLY ABOUT

In all honesty, my expectations for Single’s Inferno Season 5 were in, well, inferno. Running since 2021, the South Korean dating show had fallen into a by-the-numbers routine.

A bunch of objectively beautiful men and women are left alone in Inferno – a picturesque island with stunning ocean views, vast skies and unsullied flora – and fight tooth and nail to bring a companion to Paradise – a suite in essentially the Korean version of Marina Bay Sands.

Seventy per cent of said contestants will then inexplicably devote their attention to one person after Day 2, despite the show taking place for over a week.

Cue the whining and semi-stalkerish behaviour.

Cue the tears when their intended paramour chooses another contestant to escape Inferno with.

But it doesn’t matter, as everyone ends up a winner anyway.

Because the real prize is the meteoric boost in Instagram followers and public recognition that comes with joining a hit show like Single’s Inferno. A surge that leads to more opportunities in the entertainment industry and/or more attention to their brands and businesses. Heck, this season’s contestants have already landed a photoshoot with Elle even before the finale.

Rinse and repeat with the next season’s contestants.

Now, to be fair, Single’s Inferno Season 5 follows this exact playbook, but thanks to the beautiful chaos that is Choi Mina Sue, it has transcended to one of the best viewing experiences on Netflix.

WHO IS CHOI MINA SUE?

Introduced at the start of Episode 2, Choi Mina Sue immediately captures the attention of every other contestant in Inferno with her flowy yellow gown and charming demeanour, with many calling her a “natural beauty”.

As she interacts with everyone, we get to see her personality – or at least the one that’s curated for us: She’s easygoing, down-to-Earth, bubbly, friendly and freely speaks her mind. Oh, and she’s more comfortable speaking English.

During her first time at Paradise, we learn that she’s a 26-year-old university student who’s studying communications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US and is currently interning at a beauty brand.

But this belies her true CV.

The show doesn’t mention this at all, but Choi Mina Sue is a beauty pageant icon who was crowned Miss Earth in 2022, becoming the first Korean to win one of the Big Four beauty pageants. 

She was also the runner-up in the 2021 edition of Miss Korea and has made appearances in a few K-drama series.

So how did someone of her stature end up becoming one of the franchise’s most divisive contestants, drawing ire from both viewers and the panellists of Single’s Inferno alike – with hate comments flooding her Instagram page, even as of writing?

WHAT DID CHOI MINA SUE DO?

Many of the criticisms directed at Choi Mina Sue stem from what appears to be her fickleness. She says one thing and ends up doing another – sometimes within the same minute. In every episode, she vies for the attention of a different contestant.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a major issue. After all, Single’s Inferno is a dating show, and the whole point is to get to know different people.

Choi Mina Sue’s indecisiveness, however, is so legendary that it ends up directly affecting both the men and the women – regardless of whether she intended any malice.

The best example is the campfire scene in Episode 4, which, thanks to Choi, has become one of the best moments in Korean reality television.

During the sequence, when asked who her top pick on the show was, she chose fashion marketer Song Seung-il after learning that he was previously interested in her, despite having expressed interest in another contestant mere minutes before.

Her confession ultimately created cracks in the dynamic between Song and my GOAT, star athlete Kim Min-gee, which later culminates in an epic confrontation between Choi and Kim in Episode 9, which I shan’t spoil.

As the season progresses, Choi flip-flops so frequently that even the panellists begin openly criticising her, with comedian Hong Jin-kyung alluding in a later episode that the production team had asked them to tone down their remarks.

Viewers have also criticised Choi for her conversation with trader Lee Sung-hoon in Episode 6, which saw her ranting about her dissatisfaction at how no one seemed to care when she was sick, despite her being “so good to the girls”, with Choi highlighting how she had lent bikinis to a few contestants.

One viewer wrote: “The thing about Mina Sue is that she seems insecure and constantly needs validation for her ego…How can she casually talk about the fact that she lent her belongings, even her bikini, to other female cast members? She’s so insincere.”

IN DEFENCE OF CHOI MINA SUE

Look, I’m a Choi Mina Sue defender. Speaking as a viewer, Choi appears to be someone who wears her heart on her sleeve and expresses every thought that comes to her mind – oftentimes at her own detriment.

That fickleness that everyone has been complaining about could very well just be the absence of a filter.

We can debate on the morality of her actions, but the fact is: Everyone in Single’s Inferno is fair game.

By the show’s own rules, couples can leave Inferno together in the finale – but there is no requirement on how early those relationships must be formed.

Where people see someone with a blatant disregard for how her actions impact others, I see someone who explores all possibilities before making an informed decision.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, at the end of the day, we don’t know these people; we only see what the show’s production team wants us to see.

Choi Mina Sue may very well have been a victim of “evil editing” – the deliberate manipulation of reality television footage to portray a contestant as a villain for dramatic effect.

After all, how real is reality TV?

Judging by the flood of hate comments appearing on Choi’s Instagram page currently, it seems many viewers have forgotten the line between reality and reality TV.

THE IMPACT OF CHOI MINA SUE

Love her or hate her, there is no denying that Choi Mina Sue has cemented her place amongst the breakout stars of Single’s Inferno, including Song Ji-ah, Kim Jin-young aka Dex and Lee Si-an.

A recent report by South Korean analytics firm Good Data Corporation revealed that Choi Mina Sue topped its weekly TV-OTT non-drama cast ranking, a chart that tracks buzz-worthiness using indicators such as online mentions, media coverage and social media engagement.

Her fashion sense has also received attention after it was revealed that her iconic yellow dress in her introductory episode cost only 50,000 won (US$34.40), but the jewellery she paired it with cost millions of won.

But above all, Choi Mina Sue’s antics – and the chaos that follows – have made Single’s Inferno Season 5 one of the best shows to watch right now.

The final two episodes of Single’s Inferno Season 5 will air on Netflix on Feb 10.