Can This Love Be Translated?

Beautiful Chaos Wrapped in Romance

I went into Can This Love Be Translated? with extremely high expectations. The premise sounded refreshing, the cast was stacked with talented actors, and the first few episodes genuinely felt like the beginning of something special. And honestly? The drama does shine in many ways — but somewhere along the journey, it loses its balance and turns into a chaotic emotional rollercoaster.

The biggest strength of this drama is definitely the cast. Kim Seon Ho once again proves why he’s such a captivating actor. He brings warmth, vulnerability, and charm to his role effortlessly, making even the weaker scenes watchable. The supporting cast also delivered strong performances, and one thing I really appreciated was how naturally the foreign characters spoke instead of forcing awkward accents like many dramas tend to do.

Visually, this drama is stunning. Some scenes looked straight out of a travel documentary, with gorgeous cinematography that elevated even the quietest moments. The dialogue also deserves praise for feeling surprisingly natural. While there are a few cheesy moments here and there, it never becomes overwhelmingly cringe.

However, the drama’s biggest weakness is its storytelling. What started as a refreshing romance slowly transformed into something overly complicated and emotionally exhausting. The plot kept introducing unnecessary twists and themes until it barely resembled the drama it began as. The pacing became messy, repetitive conflicts kept resurfacing, and by the end, it felt like the story was running in circles.

The romance itself also felt emotionally unstable. Instead of rooting for the couple with excitement, I often felt anxious waiting for the next heart breaking moment. Even during their happy scenes, the drama constantly hinted that something bad was around the corner, which made it difficult to fully enjoy the romance aspect.

Another issue was the drama trying a little too hard to feel deep and philosophical. While the themes about trauma, healing, and emotional connection were meaningful, the execution sometimes felt overly theatrical and forced. It leaned so heavily into symbolism and emotional intensity that it occasionally lost its natural flow.

That said, the drama reminded me a lot of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay with its quirky atmosphere, emotional trauma, and complex family dynamics. Fans of emotionally heavy melodramas may actually appreciate this shift more than viewers expecting a light hearted romance.

In the end, Can This Love Be Translated? is a drama filled with beautiful moments, strong performances, and emotional depth — but also frustrating storytelling choices that prevent it from reaching its full potential. Despite all its flaws, it’s still memorable enough that I’d consider re watching parts of it again.

Read More

A bit convoluted and sometimes confusing

After watching this series i wish they just made the Do Ra-Mi movie

First the casting, its mostly ok. Though i think ML was a miscast, he just feels too old. Especially with his mom's actress being only 7 years older than him, but i guess thats a too young casting there.

The side romance was completely unnecessary and honestly i disliked the second FL, i think its mainly the way her character was handled and presented because done differently she could have been fun. Like i have no idea what was supposed to make the manager dude like her.
The main story was sometimes nice but sometimes very confusing and not in a way that feels intentional because of FL's split personality. Honestly dont have too much to say it just felt like a mishandled premise. And i hated the ending, so many twisty twists, why? "But wait there is more twists. But wait even more, and some extra on top"

Read More

I HATE MISCOMMUNICATION ?

First of all the drama was so cutee and adorable. I loved Mu-hee's character development. The story was pretty basic nothing special but I liked how they dealt with her childhood trauma and how that affected her relationships. I loved the male lead, even though sometimes he sent her mixed signals imo. BUT THEY HAD SO MUCH MISCOMMUNICATION 😭😭 DON'T GET ME WRONG I LOVED THE DRAMA. IT WAS EASY TO WATCH AND I LOVED THE ACTORS BUT THE MISCOMMUNICATION 💔💔. They could've just talked and everything would've been resolved. I feel like they kind of stretched it just to hit the 12 episode mark. Would I rewatch this ?? personally no because the miscommunication annoyed me so much, it was cute and all but not worth rewatching imo. I also loved the second lead Hiro, at first I hated him but he grew on me. And people who are saying that he should've ended up with Mu-hee make no sense 😭. I felt kind of bad for him but I liked his character development and how he was able to grow because of his experiences.

Read More

Love Beyond Words

“Love is about understanding.” I think that’s true. It’s not only about how people should understand their partner, but also about understanding each other. It’s about how two people share their feelings, their words, and especially their love.

This drama made me realize that a relationship is more than just forcing yourself to accept someone. It’s about learning to understand each other’s language and the way each person expresses their feelings.

The chemistry between the characters feels natural, and the female lead portraying two characters at the same time is truly impressive.

This drama also became the 100th drama I’ve watched, which makes it feel special as a personal milestone. A solid 9.3/10 for me.⭐️

Read More

travel drama with a hidden meaning

After starting on this drama it made me realise how misleading the trailers were. I really thought it was gonna be a slow paced travel romance drama. But to my pleasant surprise I was actually shocked by the plot line.

Firstly, this is definitely a really high budgeted drama because the filming was beautiful and Cha Muhee's fits were all so pretty! Cha Muhee was also a very down to earth humble character who had a difficult upbringing but worked hard as an actress from the beginning. With the success of her movie her life changed but she still never lost the passion she had. However, as she becomes more famous the stress also increases.

Before she became famous she met Joo Hojin on a trip to japan. She fell for him very fast and tried many ways to get his attention. Funny thing is she was caught everytime and after some point JHJ just finds her efforts very cute. Joo Hojin is a more practical person which CMH acts more on her feelings.

So although CMH is very obvious with her intentions, it takes JHJ really long to fully open up. Now this is where i feel it could have been done better. CMH was not confident so she kept backing out thinking she is being a burden to him. He already likes her but still rejects her multiple times. So...this part was dragged for a bit.

Oh! omg i have to mention the japanese actor Hiro. I thought he was just an extra character who appears for a few secs but NOOO his character was so funny and unexpected. It was an interesting twist!

-- SPOILER --

lastly, Do Ra Mi. I really did not expect a split personality plot. Do Ra Mi was so wild and it was funny how they just kept going for night dates. Naturally as she found healing with JHJ, Do rami disappears and CMH gets all the memories.

Overall, apart from the leads being a abit frustrating, the music, the cinematography, the plot, is all not bad! I think it was still worth the watch!

Read More

I don’t know about the love, but my thoughts about this show can barely be translated

Sometimes I feel like k-drama screenwriters blindly shoot at a concept board of niche ideas and then try to connect the dots between everything they landed on so that it makes sense. This drama takes the cake in this regard: it could have carefully and purposefully explored cheating, unrequited love, family and medical trauma, sudden rise to fame, delusional disorders, miscommunication regardless of language, the inner conflict between jealousy and professionalism, I could go on. But it didn’t: all of these topics were discussed on a surface level, and the introduction of every next plot element felt like a whiplash. I could get on board with the almost fantasy-like depiction of Muhee’s hallucinations in the first half of the show, but even they felt like a betrayal to me as a viewer, since I went into this expecting to watch a “realistic” romantic comedy. From episode 7 onwards, however, it was simply a mess: the genre switched, new ideas kept appearing, we learned so much about the characters that we simply didn’t need to know, and the conflicts already laid out barely got a satisfying resolution.

The main premise - the reality format “Romantic trip” and Muhee falling for the interpreter in her ear instead of the Japanese actor she is going on dates with - is lovely. I think the show did a good job of exploring the relationship between language and love, but it could’ve gone even deeper. What are the constraints of Muhee and Hiro not speaking each other’s language when it comes to developing feelings? What misunderstandings can happen even if she and Joo Hojin can communicate freely? The message of “there are as many languages as people” is beautiful and I think the show missed out on not fleshing it out even further. In this line of thought, I wish we had seen more of Muhee and Hiro’s relationship, or at least understood why he ends up falling so hard for her despite her rejecting him all throughout the show, never bothering to learn to speak his language and going from 0 to 100 for no reason (at least from his perspective). I assume the show didn’t go in this direction to avoid setting up a love triangle like it appeared it would in the initial episodes, but I think simply seeing more of the filming process would’ve provided much needed context for both Hiro AND Hojin’s feelings towards Muhee. (Also, I self-indulgingly wish I’d seen much more of Hojin’s struggle to interpret Hiro’s growing fondness towards Muhee).

The biggest flaw of the show is definitely Do Rami in those middle three or four episodes. The motives behind her actions did not make any sense to me at all, even when one accounts for Muhee’s childhood trauma, negative self-talk and avoidant tendencies. On the one hand, Rami was there to push Muhee to do things she otherwise wouldn’t (that could bring her happiness), on the other, she was simply sabotaging her. The episodes where Rami was in the spotlight were incredibly frustrating to watch and did not manage to achieve the desired effect of her acting as an interpreter between Muhee and Hojin. Not to mention that, as far as I know, that’s not the way dissociative identity disorder functions: other personalities don’t simply disappear once their protective (or chaos-stirring, according to this drama) role is fulfilled. Muhee’s mental problems were not researched with the care needed to portray conditions surrounded by so much misinformation already. I wish the show had simply focused on her audiovisual hallucinations and how they affect her work on set and relationships with the crew. It could’ve even touched upon medical neglect instead, since one of the psychiatrists in the beginning did say her problems are “beyond medicine” (in the subtitles I read). Anything would’ve made more sense than what ended up in the script.

I hated that the main recurring conflict was between the leads and their mutual backing off from confessing/committing to each other, when it would’ve been way more heartwarming and meaningful to show them sticking together despite everything and navigating any misunderstandings by learning more about each other’s pasts and minds. I would’ve loved, for instance, a bigger focus on their family histories in a way that actually contributes to understanding how they act. What did Hojin’s shaky relationship with his mom bring to the plot? Absolutely nothing, it tied to nothing else and contextualised none of his behaviors or beliefs. What about his novel? Was that the only way to write a(n unnecessary) conflict between him and his mom, something to mention on two occasions and then never again? And why did we barely get to see anything about his relationship with his brother, the one who was supposed to marry his long-time unrequited crush Jiseon? Wouldn’t a conflict there have been much more productive in the grand scheme of things?

Genuinely, the vagueness of the show regarding so many of its central elements has to be where everything falls flat. Because we never really understand why Hojin was so hung up on Jiseon, or why she came together with his brother to begin with. It is never explained how Muhee’s uncle and aunt mistreated her, and the big reveal in the end regarding her family had 0 emotional impact and felt like an afterthought simply added to the script to explain Do Rami’s presence from a couple of episodes ago. These random lore drops that were barely explored felt like the screenwriters were exceptionally proud of a brainstorming session and wanted to include everything they'd come up with about all characters, regardless if it actually contributes to the show.

But at the end of the day, I mostly enjoyed watching this drama. The event-packed plot prevented me from taking breaks even when I was endlessly frustrated, and the acting was truly exceptional to the point where it distracted me from… everything else. I wouldn’t Not recommend it - just be prepared for disappointment, especially if you’re expecting a romantic comedy like I did.

Read More

Can this love be translated?

At first I did not plan to watch this, I do not know what change in the meantime. Big plus that episodes were out on release date (eventhough I watched it for a long time and could finished sooner only because I was sick - great I could watch it, not great to be sick).
It is mostly calm type of drama, all characters were likeable - really no one was annoying. There are only 12 episodes and I think that it was good amount, although for a moment I thought that it could end at episode 10 (it would not work well).
Acting was great. Chemistry was perfect, I really like main couple - althought I feel I like second a little more - both were cute - what happened with kdrama and beginning relationship with sexy time XD?
Small spoiler - I am really happy that it the end she was going to therapy, I was afraid that they would ignore the fact that she needed it.
All in all, it was really great drama, totally worth watching.
Side note: it is not a good idea to write reviews after two weeks xd

Read More

The actress & the translator

Main characters: Go Yoon Jung (Alchemy of Souls) and Kim Seon Ho (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha).
Kim Seon Ho, the "translator," worked really hard to act in this series. I read that it only took him four months to learn these five languages ​​(Japanese, English, Italian, French, and Chinese) and switch between them. Congratulations.
Another strong point is the stunning locations. They're top-notch, highly Instagrammable shots.
Her split personality that emerges in times of need is initially disturbing, but then this determined and resourceful version of her helps and encourages.
The last two episodes left me a little disappointed. I found the ending a bit dragged out, and then the lead woman's background is finally revealed, which I thought needed a little more exploration, given that it's the basis of her "split personality." Then, the news that her parents were still alive, in my opinion, they could have done without it.
While his brother, who made a fleeting appearance, I would have liked him to be more involved in the story.
Seeing a "mixed" cast was interesting and here the importance of knowing languages ​​​​emerges.

Read More

Stuck With This One

I’m a bit on the fence with this show. I absolutely love the mains. Most of the supporting cast is pretty good. music has been ok, but nothing standout. My issue with it is the constant state of give and take. I’ve watched a ton of dramas over the last 10 years and I don’t recall any of them throwing this many curveballs. Sure, one per episode is pretty standard, but with this show is 3-5 per episode. As a viewer, you’re never given the chance to build hope for the relationship to develop. To be honest, 7 episodes into a 12 episode series, there should be some development. There isn’t. They make the slowest amount of progress and then instantly erase it. Every time.

I have to finish it to see the end of course. I’m too invested at this point. But the building blocks of the story have been completely tossed out now. I’m sad about that.

Read More