This review may contain spoilers
A unique experience
I had high expectations of this show, although I enjoyed to watch it I felt as the show dragged on from episode 7. Despite that, it was a unique experience to watch as it implemented other elements of genres inside of this rom-com.I felt the cast was perfect, the acting was spot on as well and the OST was well suited for the show.
I wouldn’t see myself rewatching this again due to it dragging on towards the end. I felt that the ending could’ve been more spread out as it was a lot to consume in the last 30 mins of episode 12, it could’ve expanded more into the storyline
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I haven't been watching any dramas for the last 2 years, but this one might bring me back for good.
I won't be discussing what made this drama good/bad nor will I try to convince you to watch it and ignore the low ratings from other users. I'll be discussing how this drama led me back to loving the genre as a whole.Just to give a little disclaimer, my ratings encapsulate how dramas in MDL were originally rated; dramas were never review bombed and it felt like every drama except for maybe controversial ones were always rated fairly. I'd like to think that I'm fairly harsh on my ratings and I wouldn't give such a high rating to a drama that didn't deserve it. That being said, does 'Can This Love Be Translated' really sit atop with the heaviest punchers in the drama world -- which is 9.5 in my case. I would say no, but in my books it deserves to be higher than 9.0. I originally debated giving it a 9.0 or a 9.5, but after some thought I decided to give it a 9.5. I usually have certain criteria for rating dramas; to name a few, I put a lot of emphasis on the enjoyability of the drama, how easy/hard was it to watch and finish, and how the drama was able to keep me intrigued throughout the show. In those three, this drama definitely scored higher than a 9.0, and this was confirmed after letting it sit after a few days of completing the drama. The feelings that I felt have lingered throughout my mind, and I found myself being interested in the show's promotions and the cast.
You could say that I've fallen out of love from watching dramas, but watching this one truly made me feel the butterflies I've once felt. Is this drama perfect -- no. Is the story extremely deep and compelling -- no. Is this drama a good watch that deserves the hype and a rewatch in the future -- definitely.
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This review may contain spoilers
It does get better . . trust me
This series doesn’t have a very convincing start. There is a lot to digest in the opening minutes. It does have the hallmarks of a rom-com, just a bit lopsided. A lot of that comes down to the interaction between the leads. The FL is awkward and a bit high strung when we first meet her. The ML is handsome as ever, but there is a certain weariness about him. The rom-com setup is there. The FL is sending out signals; the ML is not receiving. It all fades away like a dream.When our leads meet again, the FL is now an accidental superstar. She was the lead in a low budget zombie slasher flick. The fact that she was in a coma for 6 months while the world go crazy about her character is macabre and delicious. Their meeting on the set of an international dating/travel show is awkward to say the least.
To say the FL is totally unprepared for her newfound fame is an understatement. She defaults to a nice grey persona. Everyone identifies her with her zombie character, Do Ra-mi and not as the actor herself.
The ML is not in a good place either. His crush is about to become his sister-in-law. The appearance of the FL only reminded him of the past.
Let's just say the drama gods have their last laughs when his crush arrives at the filming location as the new PD for the dating show. He also finds out she broke up with his brother. What does this all mean?
Into this witches' brew enters the SML. A self-centred Japanese movie star. At first, he thinks the FL is nothing more than a C grade starlet who got lucky. While the actor is handsome, he is set up to fail. There is little doubt the romantic scenes are staged. The SML eventually falls for the FL and create a love triangle . . of sorts.
The reason for the rickety love triangle is largely due to the extreme push-pull between our OTP. Their relationship is nebulous. The FL is too weak to do anything other than watch the ML wistfully. The ML kept the FL at arm's length as he has too many emotional baggage to move forward.
I suppose this is where the whole translating love motif kicks into high gear. There are so many miscommunications. It is not so much failure to launch, but failure to communicate. You can only go so far with yes/no/thank you.
All that changed when the FL's Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) came to the fore as she takes on the persona of Do Ra-mi whenever she is under stress. This allows the meek FL to let it all hang out. Minimum self-control, maximum impact. The ML is the usual target of this human tsunami. Initially, he was overwhelmed, yet he could not help but be drawn to her.
The swoon worthy moments and skinship blossoms in the last few eps once all the misunderstandings are cleared away. It is a good thing, but I think the hands of the writer is doing all the heavy lifting. It is obvious that this is the One True Way if we are to get the HEA ending. It just feels a bit too "convenient" at times.
In terms of acting, the FL did good. The meek FL role is standard issue. She shines when she morphs into Do Ra-mi. She is obviously much livelier and more emotional charged. Those are precious moments that truly lifts the show.
On the other hand, the ML feels stiff and tired for the first half of the drama. His trademark sparkle only appears after he tangles with Do Ra-mi. In that sense, she is his muse. He can finally counter her zaniness with his charm.
Now, the use of a mock dating show that doubles up as a travelogue is a double-edged sword in my book. The sceneries are beautiful and iconic. There is a feeling of chicken or the egg.
Obviously, a dating show must build up the romance. Much of it feels staged as we know the FL’s heart is not in it. It even got a little painful towards the end when the SML makes a real confession to the FL only to be brushed aside as great acting. Ouch!
While the OTP's romance is almost operatic. The 2CP is cute and much more grounded. I ship them equally. They just feel right. No endless push-pulls and dramas. What little misunderstanding was quickly resolved. Nice.
In the end, I enjoyed this show. I don’t know if the international filming locations are necessary. I’m not complaining. They are beautiful sights, but they are competing for our attention and often winning. I don’t know if we need the mock dating show to push our leads together. The role of the SML is largely wasted. They used a lot of efforts on something that has minimal impact. There is also some controversy about the actor's background.
I'm also not a big fan of the cartoon-y scenes of her traumatic past. I understand that it is viewed from a little girl's perspective and it serves a purpose. The mental illness angle feels tropey and adds little to the conversation. This series did get better, but I don't think it quite reached its full potential. Peace.
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Can This Drama Be Saved?
It’s exhausting how stupid the writing of this show is. Anime have more depth in storytelling and character development. Can This Love Be Translated? Has a more important question that it needs to ask. Can This Show Be Saved? The answer in all frankness is: No!The characters are bickering about nothings. The love that we’re supposed to root for has no roots. It just happens, and we suddenly have to start applauding and gushing like brainless amoeba. It goes here and there but goes nowhere.
The variety show that’s basically used to move the plot just feels like the worst programming idea, but also just seems to disappear in the melee of bad writing.
The ex who is supposed to create a love triangle tension - we are supposed to dislike her for making moves on the ML while also empathising with her confused plight. Cha Mu Hee’s agent seems more worried about the ex than the talent he’s supposed to manage. 😅 Hiro is just a character that’s walked on set. He literally adds nothing. A total dud.
The acting is awkward and dead (over-powdered) faced.
What is the saving grace? The cinematography? If someone wants to think colour treatment substitutes for cinematography and a pastiche of landscape, beauty shots of actors and photogenic European architecture is cinematography, then I can’t argue about taste here, as it’s subjective and relative to one’s exposure and understanding. However, for me the worst still is the background score and soundtrack. It is bombastic and cheap and omnipresent. Never a quiet moment. No reflection. It’s as if the drama itself doesn't want to sit with itself without the visual and audio noise.
There is a lot of high contrast colour treatment, location design, designer wardrobe and smoothed out hair and make up, not-a-hair-out of place pageantry here. But nothing of substance. Not the characters, nor the story. The tragedy is forced, the romance unbelievable. The comedy: cheap. It’s shows like these that literally help discern what quality means to people.
No lies, it’s as deep as the chair 🪑 you sit on while reading this. Just a noisy, overdressed, overlabeled and over-produced mega-budget brain rot.
If someone wants to watch a show that has an escapist quality, an angsty romance with a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding tropes, but with a bit of self-reflection and depth, I recommend you watch Lovestruck In The City. You will find that it actually is what Can This Love Be Translated wants to be.
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A whole buffet if I say so my self
To say I'm flabbergasted would be an understatement frfrfr. This series is well seasoned and balanced. There were so many twists I never saw coming. Overall, it’s a good, comfy, comedy, and intriguing show. Once you start watching, it really pulls you in.I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say: y’all should go watch it—it was definitely worth my time, and I hope it will be worth yours too. Honestly, I think part of the reason I loved it so much is because of Chief Hong from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha and the female lead, who low-key looks like Zhao Lusi from China.
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A beautiful way to start the year with a romance drama
In my opinion, this is one of the better romance dramas to come out this year. If the ending hadn’t felt a bit forced, I probably would’ve given it an even higher rating.This drama is not your typical romance. It’s not just about falling in love, but also about mental health and healing from past trauma. The character development of both leads is very noticeable. Kim Seon-ho’s character slowly learns how to open up and be honest about his emotions, while Go Youn-jung’s character finally confronts her childhood trauma instead of letting it control her life.
Their chemistry is really strong — honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve watched a romance drama where the chemistry felt this natural and believable. Their relationship feels mature and emotionally grounded.
Another big plus is the soundtrack, which fits the mood perfectly, and the beautiful visuals. With filming locations across different countries, the drama is visually stunning and genuinely pleasing to watch.
That said, the ending was a letdown for me. The plot twist about the female lead’s family being alive felt unnecessary. Emotionally, the story was already complete once she had faced and overcome her trauma. Introducing that twist so late, without properly exploring it, made it feel rushed and added in just to extend the runtime.
Even with that flaw, this is still a solid and recommendable drama, especially for viewers who want a romance with emotional depth and meaningful themes, not just a simple love story.
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This review may contain spoilers
FL getting rejected in 50 different ways yet still refusing to gain any dignity
Okay, so I just finished this drama, and my thoughts haven’t changed much since I wrote this review after watching the first eight episodes.Kim Seon-ho returning to rom-coms had me seated and I like the actress too. The first few episodes had everything going for it with unique storyline, fun chemistry, interesting setup and beautiful cinematography. Then episode 5 happened and things started to get too boring !
My one issue is with Cha Mu-hee continuing to chase after Hojin even after he rejected her several times! I understand she’s supposed to be cute persistent, but at some point it stopped being “cute rom-com chasing” and just became too repetitive to watch. Episode 5 gave me secondhand embarrassment because Ho-jin LITERALLY rejected her saying if she was okay being a rebound. That should’ve been the moment she stepped back and regained some dignity. But no. The very next day she kissed him like nothing happened??
After misunderstanding Ho-jin and dramatically saying goodbye in episode 6, she STILL followed his friend just to get to his house in the next episode. THAT was my final straw. Like at that point I paused the episode because it was frustrating to watch.
Plus I couldn’t understand how Dorami resolved misunderstanding between Muhee and Hojin??It felt more like she held Hojin hostage until he accepted Muhee! But I feel like there was NO REAL MISUNDERSTANDING between them! It’s simply that both of them had complex personalities. Even thou I admire complex personalities but here it felt like Dorami shined at the expense of ML bcz we barely see any focus on him.
And don’t even get me started on Yongu’s love story with Ji seon!! Like WHAT!! It felt so random and unnecessary. Also, how did Ho-jin magically get over years of feelings after ONE conversation? This man spent half the drama ranting about her, only to move on in five minutes?? Ji seon could’ve been used for making the story complicated and create a real conflict between the main leads but instead she was given useless subplot love story .
Honestly, I watched because I love Kim Seon-ho and I needed to see where this trainwreck goes, but wow… I expected SO much better after those first few episodes and what was even that last episode ???
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A Must Watch
Cha Mu-hee- "So from now on,you will think about me, whenever you happen to see the Northern lights."Cha Mu-hee- "Don't be scared the aurora borealis will never occur in Korea."
Joo Ho-jin -"Knowing her, she'll do it in South Korea too."
Joo Ho-jin - "She said those memories would disappear with her."
Cha Mu-hee- "I couldn't let them vanish like that. Because I realised you were in there too."
This drama is just soooooo beautiful. The story is written from the perspective of a girl who isn't that good in expressing her thoughts. She's confused the same way every girl feels while conveying their feelings. She understands but misunderstands, she speaks but expresses less, she gaslights herself a lot, and especially she takes time to love him,to wait for him and this is what many of us do. I loved it so much. It felt like someone is trying to replicate my emotions and my confusions on screen. It was a very creative way to present the two different clashes/dynamics that everyone undergoes psychologically- Do Rami. There are various aspects of this drama that are amazing. This drama is so WELL WRITTEN. Hong Sisters - girls you never disappoint 🥰
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Perfect Drama to Re-subscribe Netflix in 2026
As a male fans of Kim Seon Ho since Start-up, I watched this drama expecting only comedy part of it. But I can't deny the whole casts and chemistry have hooked me everyday for the past 2 weeks since release to watch it over and over again. It's truly heart-warming and inspiring romance story. I tend to be logical and my gf is very emotional. This drama helps me to understand my gf's language more. Recommended drama to watch for boy or husband to understand the language of their woman. I really like the Love Language OST, too. It's giving me back my band concert memory in high school. HahahaWas this review helpful to you?
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I love them so much!
Oh the drama! The pain! Yearning! It was a while since I rooted for a couple so much!I did not read the synopsis or anything beforehand, so I was pleasantly surprised by all of this and binged all 12 episodes. I love tragic pasts and complex characters, so I quickly became addicted and couldn't wait to see it all play out.
I loved how ML tried to fully understand FL, got to know her inside and out and accepted her wholeheartedly - maybe because I would want that for myself. It's that unconditional love fantasy that always has me mesmerized.
The second male lead wasn't for me. I didn't feel bad for him at the end at all, maybe because of how he treated the FL at the start, mocking her without any real reason. He wasn't too annoying after that though.
I'm weak when it comes to characters with trauma and them finding someone, who soothes their pain. More of these, please!
And finally, we got more than just one, barely there kiss! I loved how they gazed at each other lovingly at the end and the scene in the dark - them kissing and "dancing" and how we could her their breathing, because they got together AT LAST.
It was like a reward.
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Very misleading premise
An interesting drama that seems like a crossover of It's Okay To Not Be Okay and Daily Dose of Sunshine.Like other people have mentioned, it came across as a romantic comedy and the first episode delivered on that.
However it soon turned into something unexpected. While it was still enjoyable and watchable. the plot became a bit convoluted and strange and I ended up dropping it.
At first, I thought Dorami was a supposed to be a fun representation of her inner self to provide some insight on her thought process (much like the animation in Yumi's Cells Kdrama) but it became this complex alternate personality that had MuHui had the ability to switch to when it served her. So, that's not how delusions/hallucinations operate. And when Dorami started providing insight on herself to the Ju Ho Jin it was ridiculous, as well as everyone observing her acting strange but not checking in on her and just allowing it to be, even when she referred to her "original self" as her/she.
Hiro was a fun character that wasn't always executed right. At first we see that he is obsessed with her as the entire world is (apparently and very exaggeratedly) but then because he wasn't recognized by her at an awards ceremony he hates that she was cast in the show with him - or maybe not, this part was a little unclear to me. They alluded to it with his assistant but also mentioned that it could be due to the fact it was a surprise as her name hadn't been on the list of actress candidates but since he liked her originally why was it such a big deal? Later. his character goes back on forth on wanting "confirmation" of something and it seems like he gets it (she doesn't like him) but his crush on her continues to shine through in the last part of filming. And why did Dorami kiss him and tease him and tell him "I choose you"??? Was there a point to that? And when did Hiro start liking her so much?
Ju Ho Jin - I thought his parents relationship and 10+ year crush referred to as a "delusion" by MuHui deserved more attention. He lacked depth which made his actions seem a little bit unnatural. He was commonly referred to as "nice" to describe it but it doesn't cover why he would visit Muhui in the hospital more than once for someone he had no interest of. It also seems like as much as his paren't relationships impacted him and how he views romantic relationships for himself this was barely given any attention to. They made it sound that he needed his brother to marry JiSeon as a way to truly get past his crush but that seems unreal too. Most people wouldn't want to date someone their siblings dated. I like this actor and he managed multiple languages very well and seemingly natural but his minuscule smirk, haha, a tradition he carried in every drama he's in.
There were more things wrong with it that I can't remember now but overall if you can get past that, it's good for a one time watch. People have commented that the soundtrack was good. None of the music really stood out for me. Despite the things I have previously mentioned, I think all the actors acted well.
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A real-life translation.
What do I mean by that? You can't interpret everything perfectly. Some things might get lost in translation, literally. You have to pay attention to understand everything!"Can This Love Be Translated?" is a perfect title for the show, because love or any personal connections can't be translated perfectly. Just like Yeong Hwan said, everyone uses their own language, and you have to listen carefully to understand them.
This drama is not your typical romcom with cute romance, perfect characters, a prince, and his princess. It's not a hardcore real-life story about real people either, but it tells an important story about personal struggles, mental health issues, and other relevant topics. There are many shows with similar subjects, but I can't name another one that showcased childhood trauma like this. I wouldn't say they did an amazing job with it, because the Hong sisters didn't delve into Mu Hui's past that much. To be honest, that's my biggest issue with the drama. I think with 2 more episodes, they could've done more with this.
So, we should ask one simple question. Do we need to see Mu Hui getting real medical treatment for her problems? Do we need to delve deeper into her past? Not really, because technically, the only thing she needs is someone who loves her and supports her. She never had that until Mr. Papago (Ho Jin) showed up. So I think the writers did a good job overall.
I know many romcom fans won't like the darker tone of the second half of the season, and it's a slow-burn romance, not cutesy, and it's more mature than other shows. If you can accept this, I think you're gonna love it, because it's well-written. The acting, the cinematography, and the OST are amazing as well. There are multiple characters you can like, even tho all of them can be irritating sometimes, just like real people. I have to give props to the writers because the character developments for pretty much everyone were handled well.
Some might say it's not a fast-paced series, but I think the pacing was perfect. It was kind of like the main story. Traveling around the world. You just want to see everything, walk peacefully, and do anything you want.
I was afraid of the potential love triangles because that's a usual cliche in romcoms, and most of the time it's annoying, but they handled this well too. I was surprised by the behavior of the characters, because they didn't ignore the problems.
Seeing Kim Seon Ho and Go Youn Jung's duo on screen with all the bickering, having fun, and doing crazy things was a joy to watch. They really are one of the best actors of their generation. Acting is not just about saying words, and these two are the prime examples of that. Their face-acting is out of this world.
The most important characters were complex enough. As I said above, it's well-written, and I feel like, if you watch this more than once, you can find more details because a lot of times they didn't spell out everything for the viewers.
Overall, this is a good drama, a lot of fun, two amazing lead actors with great chemistry, meaningful story, not really a typical romcom, so it can stand out a bit more than the rest, but not perfect, and I don’t think it has to be. It provides everything a show like this needs to, and thankfully, they didn’t mess up the finale either.
It does what it should without throwing too much unnecessary stuff in it.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
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