Destined with You

A Weak Plot the Star-Studded Cast Didn't Deserve

It's been a while since I wrote a review, so please excuse me if I ramble a bit!
PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE SPOILERS!!!

Storyline: 4/10
The premise of this story is quite interesting, a man whose family has been cursed for a long time and a woman who seemingly can save him. On the outside, it looks like a perfect set-up for a magical modern story as the characters fall in love. The storyline starts out interesting but quickly gets sloppy, as the writer clearly struggles to maintain and balance the modern elements of the story as well as the fantasy elements. Although I've never personally written a script, I found myself thinking throughout watching the show that the writer had opportunities to put in plot twists but didn't take them---and at times threw in twists that weren't completely necessary.

I would say the love triangle was pretty much useless in this show, as the second male lead contributed essentially nothing. He does not protect the female lead, does not add anything to her magical journey, and just seems to argue with the male lead all the time. His character is also rather static, we learn very little about him except for his dysfunctional family dynamic and even that doesn't add very much. I'm sure it must have been a very limited character for the actor to work with, but he did a very good job with what he had.

Similarly, I felt the whole "other woman" dynamic was also poorly executed. Yes, the male lead's "girlfriend" cheats on him and we're meant to think everything is "even" because the female and male leads are technically cheating when they get together. I think they did a bit too much with the male lead's girlfriend in terms of the bully character, forcing the actress to repeat the same lines over and over. Although her character technically gets her karma in the end, we don't learn what she ACTUALLY did to the female lead until literally episode 16. Very sloppy!

Throughout the show there are many build-ups to literally nothing. For example, the shrine at the start of the show. We're told it's important and then they do nothing with it, no big full-circle moment like we'd expect. Same thing with Grandma Eun-Wol's character, you think she'll add something important but she doesn't. And most of all, the magical part of the show! We never learn for sure whether magic is true or not, and characters question it the whole time. This definitely makes the show duller, as we're promised fantasy and don't get it.

Overall, the writers of this show completely shot themselves in the foot. The story has so much prospect, but it is terribly half-baked and thrown together. This is of course reflected in the viewership ratings which even Rowoon's handsome face alone can't save. With some more planning and time, I personally think this show could've been a big hit!

Acting/Cast: 8/10
Now, some might disagree with me on this, but I truly felt bad for the actors of this show. As I described above, the storyline was incredibly messy and oftentimes redundant. Despite this, I felt that the actors truly did their best to make this show somewhat palatable. Rowoon does an excellent job at playing a golden retriever boyfriend, although I do find some of his more serious scenes bland---with the exception of his acting in episode 16 during a certain emotional scene. This is the first time I've watched Rowoon, and I actually didn't know he was an idol until I looked him up. His romantic and comedic expressions feel very natural, but his anger and seriousness could be just the tiniest bit better. Overall, he did amazing.

For Jo Bo Ah, I've seen her in Tale of the Nine Tailed, and I must admit, this is exactly what I expected from her. Just like in TotNT, Jo Bo Ah's happy-go-lucky acting feels very forced and bland. Comedy doesn't particularly seem to be her strong suit as an actress, neither is the cutesy style. However, I absolutely LOVED her acting in the flashbacks. Serious, heartbroken, and tear-filled. She truly sells her role in the flashbacks. Even when confronting her stalker, Jo Bo Ah's serious and tense expressions really come through. I'd love to see her in a thriller/revenge plot as the main character, if she hasn't done something similar already! Overall, I liked her and thought she did quite well with a rather plain Jane character.

For Ha-Joon (who played Kwon Jae-Gyeong) and Yura (who played Yoon Na-Yeon), I felt they also did a great job at making their dull characters come to life. Like I said, the script is messy and neither of their characters grow throughout the course of the show. I did find Kwon Jae-Gyeong's expressions a bit dull, but he certainly sells the image of an aloof gentleman well. As for Yoon Na-Yeon, I liked her micro-expressions especially in teary-eyed scenes. You can feel she's trying to give the character more depth through her acting, but the script doesn't allow for more than what she can show you. I felt like that was a real shame.

I'd also like to point out that of all the female characters in this show, there is never a single scene where they are not discussing a man. Between Lee Hong-Jo and Yoon Na-Yeon nor between Lee Hong-Jo and her co-workers. I understand that it's a rom-com, but seeing women who can only talk about men and nothing else is unrealistic and difficult to enjoy for me personally. Nonetheless, all the actors including the supporting actors did a good job!

Music: 8/10
Personally, I'm not a big OST person, so I don't know enough to give you a proper critique of this show's OST. That being said, I thought the background music was pleasant and easy to hear. So 8/10 for that!

Rewatch Value: 4/10
Unfortunately, I had hopes this show would be good as I've heard good things about Rowoon's acting and I personally like Jo Bo Ah. For me the rewatch value is a 4/10 because although I picked apart this show quite a lot, I think a good part of it is because I watched it every week as it was airing. If you're in the mood to sit back and not think a whole lot (unlike me haha), this show is fine to marathon and the eye-candy male and female leads certainly make the entire experience better!

That's all from me, thank you for reading my very long review haha <3

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Cliche but worth it

This drama has really gotten me out of my kdrama slump this year, I like how it’s cliche but still has a plot that’ll draw you in. There’s many dramas right now but this one really caught my attention, and the chemistry just hits different. A lot of people said it’s cringe and I thought I would hate it because I don’t typically like cringe plots but this one is the “good” cringe where I just laugh at it. I’m gonna be honest and say this is the 2nd drama that has made me giggle to myself and rewatch multiple scenes. The only things I dislike about this drama is that they could’ve gave the female lead a better character because her character is way too naive and I know for a fact that my girl Jo Boah can pull off any characters so they could’ve just gave her a badass role like the character in her past life. Not much to say about rowoon because i’m not really a fan of him but i’ve got to say that he’s improved a lot, and his drama has really helped him showcase his true potential. All in all, I give this drama a 10/10 because it’s everything I’ve been looking for in a kdrama for a while.

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Show didn't know what it wanted to be

So, the last time I left a negative review of a relatively popular Kdrama, someone actually created an account to tell me how much they hated me. LOL. I continue to be befuddled by this confounding behaviour and would like to tell everyone who has the knee-jerk reaction to do this to please cool your heels, touch some grass, and realise that my opinion will not destroy your world. Also, I'm sure Rowoon can survive my bad review, promise.

Anyway, long story short - I really, really wanted to like this. Trust me - I wanted to squee along with most people, but I couldn't. Destined With You was a mess in terms of plot structure. It tried too hard to be everything and ended up becoming nothing. I was terminally bored throughout because there were a lot of filler characters doing pointless things when all I wanted was to find out what was up with the curse, what's up with our couple and their past lives. But these kept getting pushed back until when all was revealed, I was like, thank God it's over.

In the end, Show was just messy. Too many plot threads that ended unsatisfactorily. It’s an extreme manifestation of the current K-Drama trend to shove a mystery/murder/reincarnation plot line in a romance and done in such a way that it distracted rather than enhanced the story.

So, yeah, what a wasted opportunity, my friends. It could've been better.

You can read my full review here: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2023/10/14/destined-with-you-review/

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Great fun with a little skipping

What I didn't like... I didn't like the female lead's acting. Her eyes were always dead and she was smirking more than half the time. I didn't love the whole past life thing either and the curse felt really fickle with the back when writers wanted it and gone when they wanted too. I also hated the whole 2nd lead thing. Throw that whole plot away. It is so incredibly rare to be pursued by two men or women and I'm so sick of seeing it. Get those 2nd leads out of my kdramas! Anyways, moving on...

What I did love was Rowoon in this. He did an amazing job and I actually enjoyed the way the murder subplot was written in. It was one of the most enjoyable for the fact that several people drank the potion, but responded differently to it due to their personalities. I loved that. I also loved the ML's parents. I loved them both. I know, in a kdrama, I loved both his parents. I'm really saying that. I would like to say that I didn't love his father as a husband to his mother, but I still really enjoyed his character and loved him as his father. He made sense. They were both so lovely and I could've watched way more scenes of Rowoon and the mom together just having good times as mother and son. That would've been a blast.

I had a great time with this show, but I did skip some, so that may account for some of the joy since I skipped much of the annoying 2nd lead stuff. I just hate to waste my time. But without it, I had a blast and hope others will love this one too. Oh forgot to mention the evil girl, but she didn't seem much worth mentioning, however I kind of did like that subplot and found it to have a satisfying end for once

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More romance than fantasy

I expected this to be a fantasy romance similar to Tale of the Nine Tailed (also starring Jo Boah), but was a bit disappointed in the lack of fantasy elements! The plot revolves around Hongjo (Boah) who is given a spellbook from Shinyu (Rowoon) and decides to use the love spell to make her work crush fall in love with her. Naturally, things go wrong. Meanwhile, Shinyu desperately needs her to cast a spell to cure his disease that is seemingly incurable, and worsening. After the first few episodes though, these fantasy elements seem to be totally lost! While past lives and family history get brought up, I thought there would be a lot more going on with the spells/generational curse/etc. than there was.

Watch for the romance and it's a fantastic show. Rowoon and Boah have great chemistry as the main couple and are super fun to watch. But if you wanted to watch this for the fantasy elements, they're not there in much capacity when compared with other fantasy romances.

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Over confident female lead , Super creepy villain,

I wanted to like this & I really tried to over look the bothersome plot points, but I kept stopping & starting until it finally took me over a month to finish this! Where to start ? Male lead is great to look at but [here] it seems like his range is limited or he's directed poorly. Despite that, his character does all the things that would make him the perfect boyfriend. Then you have the female lead, who Time after Time [after Time after Time!] puts herself in harms way. If you have a stalker , WHY would you seek them out- ALONE ? Why, when you have been threatened [& the bad guy's out to get you] would you go off into the woods-ALONE ? The repeating theme is that She knowingly takes risks because she thinks she's a strong capable confident woman, when she's simply over confident.
Uninteresting Side characters are annoying space fillers .
The creepy villain was a bit too creepy
spoiler:

and it is never explained why he had a thing for her. The spell actually did not seem to have worked at all, so the whole premise seemed like bait. The happy ending was nice, but bland and really I was just glad to be done. The plot and the actors should have made for a good drama, but it just falls way short of expectations.
also at some point the Female lead thinks she's pregnant but does not want to get married.

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I'm a sucker for a good romance and chemistry.

This was just so cute!

Idc about the stalker, the past lives, the curse, the witchcraft/shamanism…this drama as a ROMANCE alone EATS.

Rowoon is like a proper romance leading man (which was a welcomed surprise as the last and only thing I’d seen him in -to completion- was Extraordinary You, years ago and he was just a babee).

The chemistry, the longing, the denying, the kisses, the looks are all a 10/10

The way this man speaks about his feelings is honestly what sold this drama for me.

I believe that he loves her with his everything and the prospect of her not loving him back or wanting him would absolutely break him.

I do think they should’ve landed on one solid antagonist or genre tho. We’ve got a stalker, crazy ex-girlfriend, and a past life/curse threatening to keep them apart. Is it a fantasy, romcom, or thriller?

Because there are so many things to keep up with, everything feels like it’s happening in the background.

You start the drama thinking the illness/curse is the biggest issue needing fixing and the intrigue of it draws you in, but you soon forget it as it fades into the back.

In comes the stalker and he does take over our mind for a bit but then he starts sharing screen-time with the weight of their past life and I honestly started to wonder if either of these things even really matters.

We should’ve just scrapped all of this and made it a romcom fully. The romance is what carries this drama

or at the very least, make the weight of the curse/past life setup something that mattered.

I mean it’s literally the synopsis, how could it have become a footnote in the story?

This is a great drama if you want a swoony romance to give you the fuzzies with a twinge of thriller. If you’re looking for a real fantasy drama, I might suggest you look elsewhere.

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A Light Yet Entertaining Rom-Com

First of all, watch this without any expectations.

I find this drama super enjoyable and fun to watch. Although there are parts of it that I'm not fond of but overall the story is engaging and make me want to keep on watching.
I know there's a lot of negativity towards the drama or the actors, but for me, the casts were perfect fit for their roles and the story was interesting enough for me to keep watching it despite my busy schedule (I really watched super late some days).

Ok first of all, Rowoon's acting really improved a lot, I probably love his acting here in this drama and will be my favourite. As he act as "Jang Sin Yu", I sometimes almost mistake it as his own character in real life (that's how impressive his acting to me is). He sure is not only just handsome and tall but his acting is on point. Hope he will keep improving as his acting career soars.

Well.. there's a lot of hate towards Jo Bo Ah acting. However, I don't really agree to it. For me, her acting is always good and on point. I've watched several of her dramas and movies and she did deliver and portrayed her characters very well. I will always root for her in dramas. Her acting as "Lee Hong Jo" was a great one (compare to her last drama where she played a tough character).

Of course, the one acting as villains were as good as the main one to the point I started to hate them every time they showed up on screen (LOL).
All the side characters were great as well. They were cute, funny, sometimes annoying but always fun to see them on screen.
Therefore, I think the producer and writer did really well casting all the actors & actresses befitting all the characters they portrayed. Good Job!!!

Story line, well how to I put it, its easy to follow not as complicated as it sounds. For me the story was very engaging and kept me on edge towards new eps.

In the end, it's back to your own preferences. As for me, I always try to watch several episodes before deciding whether to continue or not without being biased towards the comments. (There were some dramas that disappoint me that I either dropped it or hate it after finish watching it).

Oh one more thing, that all the of CGI they used here are very cool (especially the bloody hand that sometimes appears, it did gave me the creeps).

I do hope you will enjoy this drama as much as I do. Try watching a couple of eps and decide then.
Hope this review will help you . ^^

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