The Interest of Love

The beauty, truthfulness and weakness of the human heart

As every episode goes by, the tone of this show drastically changes.

It starts off as any stereotypical romance drama would, but then when the wheels start turning the train falls completely off the tracks and into a roller coaster ride of emotions.

It begins slowly, but theres something special about the way the story is told, something captivating, that shows its hints in the opening sequences, but never fully reveals itself until about halfway through the drama.

Disguised cleverly at first as a typical rom com, what it is at its core, is a story about how social status, past events and experiences, can shape our lives; and the beauty, truthfulness, and weakness of the human heart.

The actual plot itself, begins light and slow - watching the first few episodes is not enough to see what the show is truly about. This is not a rom com, although it looks like it at first glance, and the show really starts making some interesting plot choices towards the middle of the show to really set the gears in. The more I watch the drama, the more I'm confused and left guessing at the directing, it is almost like a few different genres in one but each told at different points within the story, much like how a Shakespeare film may play out.

One key point I liked was when some key morally controversial actions were taken, the music or film techniques didn't really lead us to feel a certain way, but rather the focus was on why this specific action was taken by the character and I was left empathizing and understanding a character did what they did.

The acting is once again, hard to judge by the first few episodes. I thought Moon Ga Youn's acting was limited by her role, but the more I watched the more I understood and became immersed and captivated by her acting. What seemed lifeless and hollow at the start felt like it had purpose later on.

Same with the music. It almost felt too diverse with a bevy of feel good love songs at the start, but the key memorable pieces showed themselves later on.

Will continue to watch and see where this takes us.

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Pity me please!

This must be the most frustrating series I have ever watched.

I dont know how many times I wished to flip the table, chairs , tv and everything around me because of frustration.

The characters are walking on eggshells around each other the entire time and makes me want to pull out all of my hair.

The level of self pity and the need for sympathy by all of the characters is just depressing!

It would make a world of difference to everyone's lives if they'd stop walking on a tightrope and grow some balls and be honest to each other.

The only saving grace in the entire series thus far is the pilot ep. I'm not even a fan of cringey kdrama romcoms but I wanted that fluffy, cutsey and happy vibes back again but instead as the show went on it just got slower and depressing.

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Flat ending

This drama had an interesting start. I wanted to watch a drama that focused on "real" people and not the high luxury lives of chaebols. Having worked in a bank myself, I wanted to see how they would navigate office romances.

Truly wanted to like this drama but that ending was just What the???!!!

Mentally going through each episode, it really boils down to the lack of communication between the leads. Too many things left unsaid left room for doubts and suspicions which could have been prevented if they were more open with each other.
I saw the ML in Mr Sunshine and dr Romantic, so it was refreshing to see him portray a different role. To be honest, he was more likeable than the Fl. He was just that Real.....

The only other plus for me would be the OST. That was something I really enjoyed.

Overall, I don't think I would recommend this drama. The frustration that builds up every episode ending was just aggravated by that ending

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Give me my time back

I should have known from episode 1 that this series was not for me. I love fairy tales, happily ever afters, empowering, concrete endings and etc but I can also enjoy a decent bitter sweet series but this one was one of the worst experiences for me in the supposed romantic genre. In all fairness, just because the word love is in the title should not grant automatic permission to be placed in the romance genre. Whew!!! This was a depressing toxic mess.

We have a male and female lead who clearly like each other but they never get together. Why? The FL got issues…….
Just because she’s calm and quiet doesn’t redeem her at all.

ML like female lead, very evident. She goes through great lengths to push him away, only to slightly give hope again. So what you’ll view is a man in love with a woman getting disregarded, then given hope, then being hurt and pushed away. No dating. Just a guy falling in love with someone who got emotional issues. Never really getting accepted.

From the female standpoint she didn’t do anything g wrong by not being with a guy.

From a viewers standpoint we watch a sincere mans ‘ affections get trampled. The end.


There’s no healthy love here. There’s no dating. This is one of those experiences someone has gone through that you remember but it’s certainly not something you’d want to watch.

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Sad and Frustrating

I seen the finale at least 10 times, and I probably continue trying to reconciled with facts that they stoped loving each other. I feel so sad and frustrated at the sane time.
I have reading again the lyrics of the songs to realised that they were down the hill from beginning. The writers played with us from day one and give us some sort of hope in the chapter 16 finale.
Too late !!! Unfortunately my hope for a love history was just down the rubbish bin.
Although in my desesperación for them to find their love back, the open ending give me the opportunity to dream
- If they could have a fresh beginning after opening they’ hart’s realised finally after get to the top of the oblivion they were destined to be together.
I hope the writers would give us a better ending in the future when they write a Drama like this. We need a closures as well however I fund the acting and the production excelente!!!

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Implicit explanation of an implicit idea

Since ep5 I’ve been shouting at TV. The story is infuriating.
Absolutely infuriating. Throwing in a few class differences, sexism issues, bad biz practices doesn’t make it a good story!

What a sh*t character she has!
Her character is beyond comprehension. She came across so bad to me! He is a bit better, but not much!

What saved it for me was the acting.
Kudos to the two leads, it carried a story that could have easily be done in a film!! And all supporting roles were good.

It will be interesting to see if people who can watch it in one go think - watching it weekly was ok, tho the writes ears are probably burning!

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More Hopes Dashed!

I started watching Kdramas several years ago after my brother mentioned he enjoyed them...and generally I have too, over the 100 or so series I have seen all or part of. About 6 months ago he told me that he had started watching the last part of a final episode first to help determine if he was going to spend 16+ hours on the series. After the last couple of series that I have watched I have arrived at the same point. (Just before Interest of Love I watched Misty and Record of Youth.)

As is common for me (and apparently many others), I started to get weary of the premise / storyline after the first 4-8 episodes. In this case it felt like they were just circling back (as explained in one of the episodes) back to the beginning, without much of interest (pun intended) being added after each lap. The slow pace was getting to me so I bumped the playback to 1.5 and made frequent use of the 10 seconds ahead feature. I binged the first 12 episodes over a couple of days before hitting the wall at the end of episode 12. Maybe I was just tired, but I didn't want to watch anymore, excepting part of episode 16 to see how this train wreck ended.

The memories collage in the finale lacked any joy for me as I felt cheated out a positive ending. True, most of the individual scenes were the best of what had transpired along the way and those segments AT THE TIME were satisfying to watch. I kept watching the remaining time display thinking "There is still enough time to salvage a good ending. Come on!" Alas, their last steamy-stares were left to be interpreted. Were they still in love? If so, what a couple of losers. I get that these Kdramas present what many Americans (or at least my Boomer cohort) would consider dysfunctional, immature, sloooooow-developing romantic relationships. Six or more episodes before a confession of liking someone or maybe agreeing to drop the honorifics or hold hands. Then almost immediately into a committed maybe-gonna-get-married relationship. Heck, back in my day we dated for FUN. I have to believe that these Kdramas do not represent real life in South Korea.

Yes, I'm rambling a bit, an early morning rant about yet another waste of my time on a series that COULD have been so much more enjoyable. As it was, one of the highlights was trying to figure out the product placements. (Is Volvo really happy to have their EV shown as needing a longer-than-a-gas-fillup recharge?) From now on I am following in my brother's footsteps and watching the ending first. If I wanted to see tragic relationships I could always just watch French films. (Or maybe just checking the reviews here, as clearly I am not the only to dislike this show's path and ending.)

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Do introverts mate? Not in this drama

This is another one of my hormone-driven viewings (I am seldom proud of them) I convinced myself to undertake with the sole purpose of reliving the strong feelings Yoo Yeon-seok elicited in me during Mr. Sunshine. I was hoping for a modern Dong-mae and, predictably, was disappointed.
Sadly, no character in this drama is supposed to be charming. Also, do not be deceived by the word "love" in the title. It may lead you to believe this drama is about the birth of a love story when in fact it is about an aborted one.

We have two introverts that start liking each other and, as tortuous and difficult as their path toward a relationship is, it's not interesting enough to fill 16 episodes.

All the things that are said about introverts and their problematic approach to reality are true, though.
To the unsuspecting eye of an extrovert, the behavior of the characters, the female lead in particular, may seem senseless if not cruel. However, an experienced introvert, like myself, knows that 99% of her choices derive from the fact that she wants but can't let the world see that she does because she thinks she's not allowed to want. So she tries to be content and devotes herself to the next best thing and all her actions hinge on the subsequent guilt and bullheadedness that chains her to her choices. At the same time she is not able to kill the hope of getting what she truly wants and can't lie convincingly.
The male character is just as cowardly and twisted, of course.
Obviously, this is all very toxic for the people involved yet it is not senseless.
These characters' motives are clear to me, which speaks volumes about my mental sanity.

I think this drama gives a realistic, albeit depressing, point of view on adult relationships (romantic relationships as well as workplace relationships). Nonetheless, it gets boring to watch this asinine mating dance of adult insecurities and emotional damage.

I guess the performances are good, yet not outstanding. I remain a devoted fan of Yoo Yeon -seok.

The ending is as lukewarm as the rest of the series. I don't think there's any true character's growth except maybe for Jong-hyun who manages to find his self-worth and build on it (and Soo-young is a bit responsible for this growth despite the mess she made of him).
There is no real take-home message here save only for the fact that the interest of love might be just as burdensome as the interest on loans. (I wanted to end this with a wise adage or something, but I came up with this cringe motto. I guess it goes well with the realistic and depressing tone of the drama...).

Female Empowerment Score 3/5 : the women here try to help each other in a difficult, chauvinistic, work environment.

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The Trouble with The Class System

Having watched the 8 episodes and the preview to episodes 9 the writers have done a masterful job in depicting the wrongs and hardships living in a "Class" based society. The rich and powerful are revered and honored receiving what they at times aren't even qualified while the poor, no matter how hard they try will always be overlooked and held back simply because they are who they are.

The misunderstanding between the FL and The ML is not that they don't have an attraction for each other but rather the FL has made the assumption that the ML is part of the upper class because of where he lives, the college school he went to and some of his friends he associates with. She holds a resentment in that she was his superior when he entered the bank and three years latter he is her superior. Her hard work and efforts are continueously overlooked , while her looks are what her superiors deem worthy.

To better understand the series and the characters a breif discription of each would be necessary

The ML is the basic good guy who has a hard time talking about himself......... he lets his actions speak for themselves. Raised by a widowed mother whose husband's actions placed the family in hardships they couldn't imagine. The ML became the devoted son that didn't whine and cause trouble for his mother but rather worked hard and helped by not getting in trouble, getting scholarships to elite schools and being liked by everyone that comes in contact with him.......... He is a good and kind man.

The FL is a beautiful, talented and very driven girl who only wants to be recognized for her efforts and not her family background. After her brothers death that she idolized.......... she blamed her father for his death and distanced herself from them, leaving herself to be all alone in the big city. With her efforts and hardwork always being overlooked she appears to project herself as cold and aloof and jumping to conclusions if she would've taken a breath and just listened........ Her biggest problem in dissing the ML that truely cares fore her.

The SFL is not what she appears to be......... she is the spoiled rich girl who is use to getting everything she wants. Working as Assistant Manager as her father says working for "Jump Change" she loves the attention of the lower class and is willing to use them to achieve her goals. From day one transferring to the Bank........ she resented that the FL was considered the " The Goddess" ......... that was unacceptable for a vain spoiled girl like her. Everything she does for the FL in the name of frienship is only done to make the FL feel even more inferior than she already is.

The SML is also a good guy, but not in the realm of the ML. He is a dreamer that has accepted his place in the class system making himself feel good with his dreams. This was seen in how quickly he wanted to return to his former life after a setback. The FL though she wanted some form of attachment to allieviate her loneliness quickly realized that ML is the one even though she still refuses to admit it.

What I found interesting each week is how the previews to the next episodes are deliberately shown to misdirect the viewers attention. How the the romances will revolve ....... It is my opinion they will come about once the parents of each have their say.
The mother of the SFL has become besties with the mother of the ML ......... that friendship will come to an end because she can't have her daughter marry the son of someone that washes her feet. The parents of the FL will give praise to the ML lead in how often he takes the lead in helping whenever he is in the restaurant.

The Next 8 episodes should be rather interesting in that the misdirection that was shown in the first 8 episodes will slowly unwind. If It doesn't pan out that way I will have fun in making it happen in fan fiction.

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What did I just watch?

Ngl, I am so confused with this k-drama. Read mixed reviews, before watching it, thinking people are being too harsh on it. But for me, the 'quality watch' ended with episodes 9/10. It honestly just goes downhill from there.

From the start, I liked the idea, that finally, a kdrama is normalising couples living together without getting married, and talking about people's previous relationships etc., but oh boy why would fl ruin so many lives without any deeper motive? If the writer's main objective was to make people think about the consequences of their actions and to bring as much controversy as possible, then well done... But I wouldn't say that was the right way to do it.

Maybe I am not understanding something here, and there are some hidden meanings behind it, but overall I would end watching this drama at episode 10 - a tip for everyone who doesn't want to get confused and disappointed with the plot and main leads' actions.

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It's too too too complicated

No one can understand Ahn Su Young not even she can understand her own feeling. She is the most complicated character in kdrama, I guess 🙄.

And how does Han Sang Soo finds Ahn Su Young everytime? Does he has tracker on her?🤪

The first 8 episodes are quite interesting as storyline is quite different from the other dramas that I have watched but Awfully stretched out at the end 😒 At the beginning showing realistic characters and their emotions was nice. I really like the chemistry of Moon ga young and Yoo yeon seok. Moon ga young is so different from True beauty which is impressive . Yoo yeon seok is becoming one of my favourite.

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