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Recommend
A Business Proposal was relatively a light and fun drama to watch. I enjoyed the bromance, the main actress was great for the role. She gave me a couple of laughs at the beginning of the drama.The ending left me wanting more. It ended very abruptly. Definitely could have elongated the drama to 14 episodes and give the ending more justice.
Overall, I recommend the drama, especially if you are trying to get over another drama that took your heart and broke it in two. A palate cleanser should I say, without spoiling too much.
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The only thing I truly liked about this show was the friendship between Ha-ri and Yeong-seo. They were such cute friends and both are very good looking. hehehe.
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Clichés with no plot
I started watching because I love romance, and everyone said it was awesome. Well, I didn't find it awesome. Here's why:Male lead: I feel like his character is pretty much a shallow copy of Park Seo-joon's character in Secretary Kim. Which is not a compliment even if it was exactly like that character. There's little depth to him. His parents' car accident seems to have shaped his entire personality. One day the trauma simply disappears. It's 2022. Love doesn't heal traumas. Therapy does! Anyway, I digress. At first, his main personality trait was being rude and a workaholic. Once he falls in love (out of nowhere) the only personality trait we see is him being in love.
Female lead: she too lacked personality. I'm still trying to find an adjective for her. I simply find none because she had absolutely nothing going on for her. The only times she seemed to have a bit of personality was when she was pretending to be her best friend on blind dates.
The main couple: half the time she was running away from him. In the other half, she was repeating the same phrases someone had just told her or 'huh?'. 2022 and we have that. There have been so many great female characters for the past few years (I'll mention Crash Landing on You, Hotel Del Luna, and Mad For Each Other to name a few), and here's Ha-ri, sounding every bit like a female lead from the 2000s. Anyway, the couple simply existed one day. It made no sense to them at first too.
The second couple had chemistry, which was more than the main couple. They also had some sort of connection. They kept me watching the show, I won't lie. But then they slept together - while she was super drunk. Drunk enough to not remember anything. While he wasn't drunk. How come that's okay? From where I come from, that's not consensual. So after that, they were lost to me.
The plot: I know it's not the kind of drama we can expect an intrinsic plot. I didn't expect it. But this was... nothing. Nothing happened. The episodes felt like fillers all the time. A lot that served as a foundation for the plot didn't get explained. Ha-ri's crush on Min-woo, Min-woo's girlfriend, and Tae-mu's grandfather who wanted him to marry any woman to have kids but when it was Ha-ri he didn't support the relationship (because she made him trip a few times. seriously?!). I understand this kind of drama is supposed to be a rom-com - make us swoon and laugh - but at least a simple plot is expected. This simply didn't deliver it. It delivered a few kisses so maybe that's why everyone was in such an uproar.
The cast was good. They made what they could to make it work.
Overall, everything was forgettable. Ha-ri's co-workers, Tae-mu's trauma, Ha-ri's crunch on Min-woo. The only exception may be the cousin who spoke English with Korean. I'll be forgetting everything by tomorrow.
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about the friendship, generic and boring. forced comedy again (this whole drama is forced, even the romance) and i don’t think their friendship is the best in dramaland, overdone and i’ve seen better. this drama has a lot of sex scenes to get the teenage fire out of their asses and forgot to put in the development, which was ZERO. yes, i want to see love development, i don’t live on crumbs and i want a real cute romance. it can have sex, but please, show some development so that i know how these two fell in love and why they love each other. now, if you put SEX, SEX, SEX and marriage (which NEVER makes sense in badly told stories like this, first of all) i can’t like it because it becomes like an american series/movie. the couple has no love development and they don’t even show it (both couples have no love development, everything is fast and boring) and now you come with marriage? sorry, but this rotten americanized cliché doesn’t go down well. for the babies who are drooling over drama because of the cute oppa instead of knowing how to evaluate by story and acting, grow up mentally and know how to evaluate. being cute doesn’t stop an americanized and badly done plot
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A Hard Watch When You've Read The Webtoon, A Cliche Mess When You've Only Watched The Drama
I don't have much to say when compare to the Webtoon cause they changes almost everything. The Characters are different, they dumb down the male lead, they make the female lead silly beyond belief and the supporting act character feels like stolen from another drama.For the drama, they added every cliche from other romcom drama, she was pretty, secretary kim, my secret life of secretary is all in here. I almost thought they wrote it to cast Park Seo Joon.
The last part is not as good as the beginning, probably they run out plot, male lead can't act to save the lines.
I probably rate it higher had the male lead can actually act but Ahn Hyeo Seob has been bad, Kim Se Jeong is the lifeline in the this drama.
I think it's right in the middle as a drama. As an adaptation, I rate it minus.
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Hats off to the story writer and the amazing production crew. Also a big round of applause to the actors who portrayed their roles perfectly. While watching the drama you can see and feel that the actors really became one with their respective characters.
Wonderful. Absolutely Intriguing. Perfect romantic-comedy. This show is so so much better than any other overrated shows. Storyline is perfect with perfect ending. Loved every part of this show from cast to chemistry from dialogues to filming locations and cinematography too. This drama is so hilarously funny! Watch it for a nice time of laughter with the really good looking young cast. Main actor Ahn HS is so handsome (in a Park SJ kinda way) ? did they have the same stylist? ?
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Same-same then product placement… Repeat.
I’m a rookie reviewer for this genre of fluffy romcom. This one seemed standard to me even though it’s the first time I’ve go through to the end of one. Standard plot of misunderstandings, standard character types of rich and ordinary, standard production values, standard slapstick humour. There wasn’t anything that struck me as original about it.I understand that this production was not aimed at me, however, that does not excuse lack of quality. To keep up quick fire momentum takes more than just energy—which for the first half was at a good level—it also requires imagination and inventiveness and I’m afraid this didn’t cut it. About two thirds through I began to find the TV drama everyone was watching more entertaining. Ultimately keeping a flow of fresh ideas is the responsibility of the writer and director and here the treatment was repetitive and unsophisticated.
It made a good start but quite quickly the script and plot became predictable. The acting tended to follow suit, with a lot of stock, same-same expressions and reactions to the manufactured situations. The first couple of times it’s funny, but very quickly becomes irritating. For example, the constant hiding begins to pall during Episode 3, but is still going in Episode 4, and then gets dragged out into Episode 5 by which time it is long past its use-by date. Ditto the pretending to be someone else theme.
There is a heavy emphasis on wealth with a lot of ostentatious display, along with the assumption that popularity and acceptance can be easily bought with a credit card. This message is backed up by the wall-to-wall product placement. Seo Hye Won’s part in the early episodes seemed to exist solely as a product placement vehicle. By Episode 10, scene after scene was built around it, reducing the dialogue to meaningless rubbish, destroying character integrity and disrupting the momentum.
On the plus side… there is plenty of fun with a load of eye candy. The couples have reasonable chemistry but lacked any sort of pizzazz. Kim Se Jeong and Ahn Hyo Seop were most believable in the tender scenes rather than the passionate ones. Seol In Ah and Kim Min Gue were more unevenly matched. I liked Seol In Ah’s performance, it had life and energy, whereas Kim Min Gue struggled to give depth to his more reserved character.
Shin Ha Ri’s family added the warmth and acceptance missing from the others. It’s a common theme that the wealth that is deemed so desirable comes at the cost of dysfunctional family relationships. But here the obligatory overbearing rich parents/family were not too forceful, just enough to provide a reason for our male and female leads to flex their muscles and prove their credentials.
The serious emotional interactions, which happened towards the end of the drama, were convincing. Kim Se Jeong especially made a good job of the hospital scene with Ahn Hyo Seop. But the ending was weak and unsatisfying, it just fizzled out without any real impact and needed to be much stronger to justify the build up given earlier in the episode.
The cinematography is okay, but nothing special. The colour palette was pleasing, with bright, engaging colours and an endless parade of cool clothes.
One of the things I really liked about the subs in this one was what I think is the literal translation of Korean sayings, which totally cracked me up. Thank you Choi Su In! Absolutely loved, “A face like a company perk” and “Like putting lipstick on a pig”.
What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.
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LOVED IT but the ending :(
The fact that I actually stayed up each week to watch the live broadcast/no subs (2AM) brought me back to my high school days!What I liked:
1. Casting, everyone did so well esp the 2nd lead casting was *chefs kiss*!
2. Cliche romcom tropes executed well apart from the rushed end.
3. Changed up a few scenes from webtoon.
4. SPOILER* how they still continued their relationship online despite TM going overseas.
5. Did not drag.
6. Solved most issues quickly.
7. TM and HR hugs!!
8. No romance between HR bro and YS.
What I did not like:
1. Rushed end.
2. I'm all for closures but eh was not feeling the MW closure XD
3. They did not continue where they left off on ep 11 HAHA
4. I prefer the way grandpa approved of HR in the webtoon more, this grandpa was being difficult LOL.
5. Lying/hiding took way too long.
Overall 8.5, was going to be a 9 but the rushed ending was not it. cute but not it. :b Time to re-read the webtoon for the 100th time HAHAHA. I hope for more well-executed romcom soon and not rush the end pls <3
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It was a mediocre drama where FL character is annoying.
A Business Proposal is a Kdrama about Shin Ha Ri, a single woman who works for a company where she goes on a blind date to help out her best friend, Jin Young Seo, and meets a workaholic CEO, Kang Tae Moo.Through many misunderstandings and mishaps, they both eventually fall in love with each other. I did not like the FL character and the actress (Kim Se Jeong) who played her. The actress was not attractive; I think the 2nd FL looks better than the FL.
The FL character is annoying, and the ML character is neither great. The onscreen chemistry between FL and ML (Ahn Hyo Seop) was neither great. The 2nd ML is better; I like the 2nd CP in this drama.
It was a mediocre drama, and I give it a 6.0 rating.
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The worst ending
The ending really left me depressed. It was a great drama what was the rush to just finish it and ruin it. I mean a two three weeks delay would've been okay so that we could finally have an amazing ending. Currently this drama has had the worst ending I've ever seen in my entire life and yet i was so in love with it, did you really had to ruin it in the end. Even the ending of game of thrones didn't depress me this much. The entire series was on a rate of 8+ but the ending has a rating of 1 or lessWas this review helpful to you?
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The leaning tower of pisa of kdramas
I told my friend just after finishing episode 11 that Business Proposal was much like the leaning tower of pisa. It looks good, it's competently shot, well acted, the music is utilised decently well, but the foundation on which it rests on is extremely shaky.To take from Folding Ideas video on 50 shades, the story is written much like a fanfiction. It follows the structure where plot A connects to B, B connects to C and so on, where you need all of them for the story to make sense, but A and C aren only tangentially related. The amount of times that plotpoints are picked up then dropped is very annoying, it makes the pacing pacing of the show much faster, which is extremely good for the "light, airy" feel it has, but definitely does detract from the story's quality as a whole.
After the reveal early on in the show, the quality of the show seems to dip considerably. The tightness of the first few episodes is very prevalent, minus some scenes that set up something later. It's later on in the show where emotional moments are brought up just for the sake of the story needing emotional beats. The story could have easily been "light and airy" all throughout, but it brings in a very poorly shoved in third act conflict.
If there is one thing that is good about this show it is the acting. The chemistry between the actors is very obvious, and the leads make one of the most natural lead couples I have ever seen. They all play off of each other very well, and with more time I think they could have also done more with other under utilised characters.
It's very difficult thinking about whether or not this show needed more episodes. There is a lot that could have been explored still, Hamin's relationship to the family, more about the grandfather, more with youngseo and yujeong's relationship, but I don't know if that would make the show more bloated than necessary. For the story to work, I think they should've cut the whole Yoora plotline completely. At the beginning of the show I really liked Minwoo compared to his webtoon counterpart who is somehow worse than the show version, but the contrived drama they create for him is so lacklustre, it's actually embarrassing.
Overall, the show is good. It isn't great, and it stems from structural problems that can only really be fixed by rewriting most of the script. If you want a quick laugh or a convincing romance, it is enjoyable enough.
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Just ok
I think that one of the problems of this drama is that it didn't have much material or that said material wasn't well developed to make it worth your while. With this I'm trying to say is that they basically tried to recycle a lot of old kdramas clichés and trying to act like they were -modern- about it by picking fun at them while also using them themselves. Which isn't bad, but they just took them and dropped them unfinished, or pulled back and it was lackluster in the delivery instead of shocking or hilariously ridiculous, which was the point of those old kdramas. So the story felt like a mix of every middle class hardworking secretary/rich boss with a sad past that you've seen, crushed all together, and not as charming. They also based the male character's style and manerisms way too much in the male character of "What's wrong with secretary Kim?", so it felt at some points that it was trying to borrow from that kdrama and a tiny bit from "The secret life of my secretary".The characters weren't charming or alluring, I got bored by them pretty quickly. The first two chapters were good enough to make me consider keep watching to see a light romcom drama, but there's so much you can do when the stakes aren't that high and you don't develop your characters. The acting wasn't good, tbh, I do like the male mc actor, but he's done a better job in other dramas. The female mc actress made me cringe at times by how bad the acting was, and the two second leads characters were way 2D to actually bother. I think a big part is because this drama kept putting things that could've lead to more interesting or profound aproaches, and just used them to move forward the story and acted like it didn't happen. Like the weird stalker, it could've been a good thing to focus on the female characters but was mostly used so the second lead couple would make up and the female mc was impressed by Tae Mo helping capture the creep.
The music was just ok, I think thet overused some of the lyrics so instead of making you feel more into a scene it was like, oh,this for the fifth time in the same episode...
I think this is a good drama if you want something fun and easy to watch without having to invest much of yourself on it. Like if you're having a tiring week and want to relax and watch something that'll distract you.
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