Destined with You

This show hates all the women in it

The writing hates the female lead and all the other women characters too, even the men to a much lesser degree. Hong Jo starts off dealing with work place bullying with an unfair amount of work assigned to her and that is absolutely all her teammate's fault. I know it's a cultural thing for the team to eat together or get drinks together, but these people are not obligated to spend time with her on their breaks and after work with her, especially if it's not on the company dime. Her constantly trying to make friends with these truly mean spirited, shallow, selfish people is really pathetic. None of her work co-workers do anything meaningful that redeems them by the end of the show. The show treats the two women getting gossip about Hong Jo's office scandalous relationship or imposing on Hong Jo to skeeve on Jae Kyung as heartwarming "friendship". She's also later falls for Shin Yu who also treats her with near the same level of disdain. Hong Jo herself is a walking red flag, literally putting a weird drink to make someone unknowingly consume without their consent. The security officer had footage of it, but no one was watching or was concerned that some weirdo is pouring liquid into the glass from her own thermos before the meeting starts.

Jae Kyung after learning about this was fine with it, but this is much after he's gotten time to know her and more of his personality has been shown. Jae Kyung and Hong Jo match each other's freak, while Hong Jo and Shin Yu enable the annoying parts of each other. They are either annoyingly arguing or just doing lovey dovey moments later. They don't get to know each other as people like Hong Jo and second male lead Jae Kyung do. They actually balance each other out, bringing her cartoonish over acting down to being a real person while you can see his introvert layers peel back the longer they know each other, bringing out his warmth and quirks. Her moments with him are the only time she gets to have a personality. They build an organic relationship throughout the series. It made sense he would reject her confession when he had barely met her a few times and gradually fell for her once he actually gets time to know her. He's always there for her and never forces his feelings on her. It's a bummer that this is the healthy relationship that can never happen in this show. Jae Kyung is also the only one that has the most complete and interesting arc in the show, with him seeming like he's tempted to corruption which seems to be confirmed when it shows his role being a court enforcer chasing down Hong Jo's past self Aeng Cho. Jae Kyung turned out to be collection information as a whistleblower all along and brought down the corrupt mayor and he moves out of the house for a better life. Good for him.

This series also undercuts every single one of it's good or interesting ideas and doesn't bother to develop the main characters nor their main romance, choosing to brute force with tropey moments rather than build the connection, leaving a hollow feeling every time Hong Jo and Shin Yu are together. There was such potential to the work place bullying storyline when Manager Ma comes back to work and shuts down that behavior from all of the team members, but then totally annihilating her cool character by making her and the head bully Seo Gu be in love with each other and she ends up fighting another otherwise very capable leader whose brains are also scrambled by Seo Gu for no reason. He forcefully does a public proposal to Manager Ma who kept saying she doesn't want to marry and ends up marrying him. This creepy guy also felt entitled to drink from Hong Jo's thermos that she brought to work, just like the murderous stalker did. I hate how this show hates women having agency so much.

Of course Shin Yu happens to be dating Hong Jo's school bully Na Yeon who slaps Hong Jo for messing around with Shin Yu. And Hong Jo 100% deserves it for making both Jae Kyung and Shin Yu drink that nasty homemade liquid, intentionally to roofie a man without consent. Shin Yu fighting the effects of the love curse was a pretty good illustration of how creepy it is at first. She had the gall to be annoyed at him from being upset. Deserved more slaps. They make Na Yeon to be cheating (as well to what the main couple is doing) to try to lessen to how absolutely awful Hong Jo and Shin Yu's magically co-erced and stockholm syndrome relationship is. The spell work suddenly stops and never plays into anything that gives Hong Jo power or agency to help herself at all, it's only the impetus to force Shin Yu to be obsessed with Hong Jo. The set up where she offers the get rich spell to her co-workers goes nowhere. Hong Jo has zero survival instincts, choosing to open the apartment door because someone out of frame of the door video rang the bell even though she was strangled through the second floor window grates like an hour before, then choosing to go to the trap set by her stalker knowingly to "catch him" but with zero plan to incapacitate him and nearly gets murdered by him before she's saved like the useless damsel she is. They randomly let her have a backbone in the last episode, standing up to Na Yeon for the school bullying at the reunion, which again also had to be the guy in the situation to film and leak the video for Na Yeon to truly receive any repercussions, just to have her willfully put her own life in danger so male lead can be the hero. They didn't even let her shoo off the playground bullies on her own. They could have just had the male lead observe and be proud, but nope.

It turns out it was Shin Yu's past self Mu Jin that killed Aeng Cho and didn't even bother dying with her as it's revealed he's very much alive and fine burying the Aeng Cho's spell books in a scene at the end. It follows through to his current life where he doesn't let her choose how she wants to do, he just makes that decision for her and his current life follows that pattern of being that macho guy who will withhold information, be territorial, put her down then love bomb her echoing how his father treated his mother etc. The show tries to have it both ways with his self admittedly unhinged behavior caused by the spell and later having the characters suddenly come to a conclusion that the spells were fake even though we see that the magic is real, so his unhinged obsessive behavior is just him then if the magic is not real. The show also has her messing up the curse breaking spells and Seo Gu never being obsessed with her. The show should just have a clear stance on whether they want it to be real or not.

The other healthy and cute relationship that could have been was Shin Yu's bestie Lawyer Kim with Shin Yu's mom Yun Ju who was sick of years of being belittled and mentally put down by her husband which legally constituted the verbal abuse grounds for divorce which she has consistently wanted for a long time. She even says she kept having to postpone it for various things happening to her family and ultimately she gets back with her husband after he love bombs her into staying and she gets pregnant, which will most likely impact her career that she just re-started again. She was happy and free with a lot of commonalities with Lawyer Kim who respected her as a human being first and foremost. This drama is really terrible at actually seeing what is a good ending or how to get there except by accidentally Jae Kyung, though he also doesn't get to be with the woman he's got fantastic chemistry and genuine connection with.

The show feels like it was just weakly built around the striking initial imagery of ghostly dirty and bloody hands groping the male lead, without any connective tissue to give it a heart or soul.

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Leaves a lot to be desired

Not sure how to feel about this drama. I didn't think it was THAT bad. I mean, it was watchable. The writing was just insane, the plot just went all over the place and the last half felt like it turned into a completely different drama. It was like the writer completely forgot about the curse and fantasy plotline, just dropped it (literally had the characters say several times "it doesn't matter if the curse was real or not" with no real closure whatsoever) and turned it into a run of the mill past life connection romance. The OST is quite honestly one of the worst I've ever heard in a drama.

Rowoon impressed me, at first I thought his acting was starting out pretty stiff but then in the last half his acting became really good...again, not sure what the change in the middle of this drama was about. Either way he has a new fan.

The FL was annoying as heck, and I'm sick of the past life connection trend in dramas already. But the makeout scenes toward the end were super hot and their chemistry was good, I think mostly thanks to Rowoon.

Overall not really one I'd recommend but it had potential.

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A little gem of romance & fantasy, with a great great CL (｡◝‿◜｡)

I really loved this catchy romantic and fantasy series, with Rowoon as handsome as ever (((´♡‿♡`+))) and Jo Bo Ah, who combines liveliness, sensitivity and shows a touching vulnerability. It's a little masterpiece, as Korean directors know how to make.

PLOT:
A brilliant young lawyer, rich and subject to a curse, owner of a ruined sanctuary, meets FL, a city hall employee responsible for park management. During the demolition, they discovered a box that belonged to a shaman 300 years earlier. This box can only be opened by the FL. The duo will little by little discover their common past, and try to build their future, despite the multiple obstacles, from the past and the present.

PROS:
+ A CL that causes sparks to fly! Rowoon did well to focus on his acting career: he is magnificent, expressive, extraordinary in this drama. The chemistry with Jo Bo Ah is great and it has some pretty hot scenes ( eye candy for the viewers).
+ The story is solid, coherent, well written. Some commentators say it's confusing, because the storyline is not linear, but I don't agree at all ಠ益ಠ), we follow the plot without difficulty.
+ An almost perfect production: superb cinematography, balance between dark, tender and humorous scenes, well-conducted and well-placed flashbacks,... and a soothing ending (｡◝‿◜｡)
+ great OSTs, notably "it's you" by Park Won (in my playlist), which accompany and accentuate the emotions of the moment.

CONS:
- I can't stand the character of FL2 (the classic supposedly super beautiful pest of many plots) and I don't understand why the protagonists nickname her "goddess". She is nowhere near as pretty as the FL.
- Here again, Korean makeup artists have a problem with lipstick, always too obvious, on male actors!
- product or brand placements are TOO obvious.

=> A little gem of romance and mystery, which I devoured in one sitting and which I will certainly rewatch with pleasure.
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J'ai adoré cette série romantique et fantastique, accrocheuse, avec Rowoon toujours aussi beau (((´♡‿♡`+))) et Jo Bo Ah, qui allie la vivacité, la sensibilité et montre une vulnérabilité touchante. C'est un petit chef d’œuvre, comme les réalisateurs coréens savent le faire.

PLOT:
Un jeune avocat brillant, riche et objet d'une malédiction, propriétaire d'un sanctuaire en ruine, rencontre la FL, employée de mairie chargée de la gestion des parcs. Lors de la démolition, ils découvrent une boite qui appartenait à une chamane 300 ans plus tôt. Cette boite ne peut être ouverte que par la FL. Le duo va peu à peu découvrir leur passé commun, et essayer de construire leur avenir, malgré les multiples obstacles, du passé et du présent.

PROS:
+ Un CL qui casse tout ! Rowoon a bien fait de se concentrer sur sa carrière d'acteur : il est magnifique, expressif, extraordinaire dans ce drama. L'alchimie avec Jo Bo Ah est géniale et on a droit à quelques scènes assez hot.
+ L'histoire est solide, cohérente, bien écrite. Certains commentateurs la disent confuse, parce que la storyline n'est pas linéaire, mais je ne suis d'accord du tout ಠ益ಠ) , on suit le propos sans difficulté.
+ Une réalisation quasi parfaite : cinématographie superbe, équilibre entre les scènes dures, tendres et humoristiques, flashback bien conduits et bien placés,... et une fin apaisante (｡◝‿◜｡)
+ des OST géniales, notamment "it's you" de Park Won (dans ma playlist) qui accompagnent et accentuent les émotions de l'instant.

CONS:
- je ne supporte pas le personnage de la FL2 (la classique soi-disant super belle peste de nombreux plots) et je ne comprends pas que les protagonistes la surnomment "déesse". Elle est loin d'être aussi jolie que la FL.
- Ici encore, les maquilleurs coréens ont un problème avec le rouge à lèvres, toujours beaucoup trop évident, chez les hommes !
- les placements de produits ou d'enseigne sont TROP évidents.

=> Un petit bijou de romance et de mystère, que j'ai dévoré d'une traite et que je regarderai certainement à nouveau avec plaisir.

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No depth despite 16 Episodes

Since Rowoon was so convincing as ML in "She would never know" and "the kings affection", I expected a lot. The story line around the love spells would have provided many opportunities, but it was not clear to me when or when not, why or why not they were effective. What was left was a lame love story with no chemistry, in which the ML struggled to find emotional depth without succeeding at least in parts. The dialogues are cliché and miss any opportunity for real engagement. Clichees can play an important role in a story, but this opportunity was also missed. The story, the characters and their motives did not become plausible. I know "100 days my prince" from the screenwriter, which I liked. The cast with the supporting actors has already proven how good they are in many dramas. Too bad!

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From episode one it seems it’s destined to fail

So I am watching this drama for three things, Rowoon, the budget, and the fact that it is on Netflix. Netflix has been a great platform that releases some good k-dramas along with gems that.

If you came to this drama to look for a well connected linear story about destined lovers. Don't expect that. Don't expect any more than a romantic comedy with supernatural elements. I really thought from the promotional material that this would be much more compelling than it really is, but unfortunately it's a let down in that aspect .. and I'll explain. That isn’t to say it’s irredeemable horrible, it’s not what I expected so that leaves a lot of room to surprise me either good or bad

Hong-jo was someone I initially thought would be beautiful and endearing, someone that Rowoon's character gets attached to admits his loneliness. Instead this girl talks out loud to a box, she has some infatuation with a guy because he is good looking. I like characters because I see why they are the way they are, and especially if they are this dumb it is important to give them a motive. For example, Rowoon's character in Tommorow was very out there, he was a lot but that was juxtaposed by the situation he was put in. He was very motivated and ambitious and passionate. Hong-jo is teetering over the line of being unlikeable for me because she is so animated. Although I do like it in good doses, it just gets to be a bit much and that stays consistent for the episodes I have seen.On a writing standpoint of things it will be hard for me to buy into their love if they keep her character this way. Since she is so outlandish it will be hard for me to adjust if she mellows out. Not saying it can't be done though.. I'm just saying for the first two episodes they miss the mark. I really don't like characters that have fluff scenes just for people to get laughs when the parts she have are not even funny. Since she is by herself all the time she talks to herself, and those are scenes that pull me away from the dark nature of this dramas other scenes with Rowoon's character, Shin-Yu. I don't get why he wasn't the main focus and I hate when shows have such a potential with brooding characters that are closed off, conflicted, cursed... instead it focuses on Hang-Jo who has a lot of talking to herself, it is not fun, it is hard to watch.... embarrassing at times...

The VFX of Shin-Yu's hallucinations are really good. I wish this drama could be more into that more mature plot. Instead it goes for a love-plot that I did see coming. I just didn't see it coming to be this dumb. Maybe it is supposed to be funny... but it's like Hong-Jo and her scenes are out of a completely different drama than Shin-Yu's curse plot. I use dumb a lot, and I think its fair. Hong-Jo is a civil service worker who works the lowest grade. I did some research to see that it means she took a test but was not smart enough to work higher up in the government and instead sort of does odd jobs that the government pays for. So she was too dumb, and she still is dumb and is like a lost puppy with one thing on her mind. I do like puppies though so maybe if I watch long enough I will grow to like her. It is just this character is too much and I doubt I will really buy into any heart-tearing scenes.

The things about this drama I do like... I love that Rowoon is acting here.. don't really like the role though. It is very stilted and he isn't a good guy at all. The first lawyer scene he has establishes that and I could go over in detail how he screwed that up but I am not.Maybe it is because he is cursed and it reflects into his attitude. Obviously the guy has been scared by his past. This drama could work much better if the first episodes were better, be grand and bold. Show his connection with Hong-jo from his past life because we all know they are connected by fate. His character is what my friend said while watching a voice of reason. So he can level out any of the wrong behaviors by others with realism.

The first episode was unfortunately really bad at hooking me and anyone who wants to watch 15 episodes. I would've showed how he got cursed, and later on you can develop it more with longer past scenes that show the connections deepening between Hong-Jo and Shin-yu. So you'd have the end of their story at the beginning, and then work from the beginning and to that point. I would do it like this, it's easier to follow, has a better hook, Hong-Jo can be quirky and you can see how Shin-Yu grew to like her instead of throwing them into this dynamic of a cold man and upbeat woman. It wasn’t that it did it wrong, there are just better ways to do it and it’s a shame to see it other ways for me.

The beauty of dramas are that they aren't real. Taking advantage of their medium to tell an entertaining story. This drama has the budget but the writing is a miss in a lot of areas. It is such a drastic gap with their personalities that it seems like a fan fiction if you think about it too much. the dialogue isn't natural, their situation definitely isn't. I know it's supernatural, again though I wish to see balance. Balance the real setting between that supernatural parts. I am starting to grow with the campy nature with this drama, although it did take a while. I have a soft spot for Rowoon and as annoying I find the female lead, if he wants to be with her then there is no harm. This show could be a lot better, but it isn't the worst, definitely not the best though.

Watching through episode 7 any character I liked or was trying to has been severely flawed by the nonsensical writing. The second male lead leads of the love spell and was ok with it? And he regrets not liking her? There is nothing given for us to know why, and compared to his no nonsense attitude it makes even less sense. Both the leads like this woman who is meddling with peoples lives for her own gain. It is nothing more than that and it isn’t deep or romantic, it’s disturbing and I can’t get past it.

this drama is just not worth my time anymore

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Disappointing and less than mediocre

In short - the story was shit, the acting was not very good, the main two leads were good looking and had some sort of chemistry.

Goodness, this is the worst drama I have watched this year by a long shot...What's with the story? Too many elements thrown into what turned out to be a crazy stupid plot. The beginning was kind of interesting and I stayed watching because of the cute actors (yes, I am superficial like that!). It was funny at places and that made it kind of fun. Then I started losing all sense of what the overall story was supposed to be. The antagonist at the beginning was lost during the middle and was made to pop up during the final episodes, so very conveniently just to tie the loose ends.

The historical, past life bits were fucking annoying. Some side characters were irritating and I wished them to be gone from my screen. The main leads, as I mentioned earlier, were eye candy and that's why tolerable but oh god I have some gripes for them as well. The female lead started grating on me with her childish way of speaking. Like please!!! The writers and directors need to start treating their main leads like proper adults pleaseee..The main lead's acting felt like 'acting' in so many places and it irritated me to see him not working even thought he's supposed to be a lawyer. I think this was because I recently watched a couple of lawyer-judge type dramas where it's more realistic..

Anyway, conclusion is this is like a bubblegum candy type drama that will ignite your interest in the first couple of episodes and then leave you feel vastly disgruntled at how fucking boring and mediocre it is.

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stars only for rowoon

this was okay. the whole plot with the spells should’ve been more capitalized off of. only used in the beginning then basically forgotten about. didn’t feed into the fantasy aspect as much as i hoped it did. BUT rowoon and his puppy personality. omg and how he like chases after the FL 😭😭😭THAT MADE THE DRAMA. ugh he’s actually so cute and i can see how much his acting has improved since extraordinary you (well in that one he literally was a 2d character and showed no emotion or anything so…) i loveeeed his personality in this so much. i love the he falls first but doesn’t want to trope. ugh and how he was obsessed with her. need. but other than that the rest was meh. everything pretty predictable, cliche “oh i knew u in my past life” and “oh we r destined to be together” stuff. so nothing exceptional. EXCEPT FOR JANG SINYU!!! would rewatch just for him.

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A story about curses and spells and magic and a destined love? Sign me up! The premise of this sounds so intriguing and has all the kinds of things I like to watch. Unfortunately it does not deliver on any of those counts, or at least not in a way that would keep me watching or have me suggesting it to anyone. What this has ended up being is a fun first 3 episodes and then confusion and frustration after that as they add more random subplots without giving any more information about the previous ones and watering down the adorable chemistry between the leads as time passes. While they have managed to add quite a few plot lines the pacing is slow and you will feel like nothing really happened by the end of every hour episode.

The main characters in this series are fairly two dimensional with very little character building or even growth. You don't understand their actions or behaviors since neither are given much for you to go off of. The female lead is supposed to be spunky and awkward but endearing while actually comes off as a pushover with no backbone or ambition. The male lead is a strict lawyer that shows no real interest in anyone with a family curse that makes him so stand offish. The female leads coworkers are some of the most irritating to have to sit through; the only character traits they have is petty and man obsessed and are there purely to bully the female lead.

The first couple of episodes will hook you. You meet the characters and the OTP meet each other and do not particularly care for one another but get pushed together through a spell book that he needs her to use to help him. In turn she uses the spell book to make a love potion that he accidentally drinks and at this point their chemistry and his hilariously sweet behavior is at the highest. But then after the first few episodes the show just randomly drops subplots and picks up new ones without interweaving them together or giving the viewers a chance to even wrap their head around the previous random blip of information. The first episode introduces the red hand and the curse to the ML but then it is only casually mentioned again once and reintroduced, sort of, again 9 episodes later. The ML has broken up with the SFL twice now but since she doesn't accept the break up then he just continues dating her? It is so odd and makes no sense, since when is it so hard to break up with someone?! The random storyline for the SML is just a silly as for the SFL as well as the random stalker. None of these plots seem to be connecting in a coherent way but of course now at episode 10 they introduce a new subplot of them being reincarnated lovers. I assume the show will try to weave everything together, all 6 or so plots as long as they don't continue to add more.

Visually speaking the production of this is nice and the music is beautiful but the writing for this is a huge miss. The great chemistry from the two leads in the beginning has become boring with the hot and cold behavior between the two as the show progresses making it feel tedious to watch.

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I'm struggling to continue since there are so many filler scenes

Going in to this drama I was apprehensive. The first 2 episodes weren't the best. It's jarring, it's a bit icky... I think there's enough consensus to say that it's not the best. I completely agree. I wasn't sold on Rowoon as well. Then, I get to Ep 3, I started to see the fantasy rom-com tone, it's more cute and fun, although I can't believe the romance, it's only set up because of the curse, and the stake is not gripping anymore after they are together. I'm also a bit bitter because I think the second male lead really deserves the female lead much better than the male lead.

For the past two years, I think we've seen these law dramas with past lives connection, time travelling, time slips, too often already. I think we're done with this trope, right?

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Just watch it!!

It was nothing like what I had expected it to be. I thought it was a normal boring story about office workers but NOO!!! It is too good to be true.

The story is top notch and I promise you, you won't ever regret watching it. In a few scenes, I felt I was present in the drama due to their immersive acting. This drama made me feel single in many ways but I loved it!!!!! I really enjoyed watching this drama, it will make you laugh, cry and enjoy in every way possible,

This drama you never knew you needed in your life but this would be surely on my list of drama recommendations for new watchers.

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