Can This Love Be Translated?

Weird and Not Fun: In all honesty I hated it, but it had potential

Rating: 7.2
I just finished Can This Love Be Translated, and not too good. People we’re raving about this one and I did not see why… This one was weirder than I expected. I thought it’d be your typical Korean-Japanese romance drama , but it was totally different. *May contain minimum spoilers*

Story:
The concept of a Korean girl falling for a Korean translator was interesting and had potential. But here’s the thing: she has severe DID ( some type of multiple personality disorder with two personalities), and honestly, they should’ve given a heads-up about that. Honestly, it mostly felt like she was possessed — not really realistic and kind of distracting.

What I also found really unnecessary was the 1000 times they had miscommunications; like if you like him, you just like him, you had the chance to be with him. Why are you making it hard for yourself? I do understand it’s because the other personality is there, but on both ends, the ML and FL just made a difficult. I guess it’s supposed to be the struggles of being with someone who has mental and internal struggles, but I felt like if ML just took the bull by a horns in the beginning, it wouldn’t have happened, but also then it wouldn’t have been a show… So I just don’t think I liked the show or any show that’s like that for that matter.

The show was definitely marketed as a romance and did not mention any of the dark stuff they had in the show. I felt a bit played.

Watching it blind, some scenes were more frustrating than fun — kind of annoying, to be honest.

Characters:
I get that her “other” personality ( Do RaMi) was supposed to act like a devil on her shoulder, showing her childhood trauma and stopping her from falling in love. In theory, that could’ve been cool, but it just made parts of the show harder to watch and didn’t really add anything worthwhile.

One thing I did like was Joo Ho‑jin part in that he actually acknowledged Mu‑hee’s struggles instead of treating her different personality ( Do RaMi) like a joke and didn’t let her be in control of Mu-hee, I appreciated how seriously he took both parts of her rather than dismissing her or just laughing it off. He really stuck to the end.

A part that was kind of unrealistic was The Japanese guy falls for her even though they don’t speak the same language. He even learns Korean, which was kind of cute, but she didn’t make any effort to learn Japanese, and I get that’s her character, but it still felt weird and unrealistic.


Overall, it could’ve been a fresh, fun romance, but it ended up messy and more frustrating than enjoyable. Honestly, I wouldn’t really recommend it.

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Camp

“Can this love be translated” is a campy piece that you’re going to enjoy for reasons beyond its story. It has brilliant cinematography indicating a ridiculously expensive budget. They have managed to capture the most visually pleasing shots in Korea, Japan, Italy and Canada, showing us some overly edited, almost perfect imagery from these countries natural scenery, historical architecture, food and touristy charms and sites. Everyone has a very unique (read expensive) taste in fashion and female lead is basically a walking talking billboard.

“There are as many languages as there is human in the world”
The story has a good start by introducing two rather peculiar characters in an uncomfortable situation. Ju Ho jin is a translator fluent in Japanese, English and Italian. Despite knowing all these languages he is incapable of expressing his own feelings. He is avoidant person with a broken family background wishing for a drama free life (oh only if he knew). He makes a one day trip to Japan every year in a specific day hoping for something he knows wont happen because he will never try to do it. while our Fl, Cha Mu hui, is the anxious air headed D-list actor who acts first, blabbers second and talks third. She has a tendency to dance around what she is trying to say, just to suddenly close up right at the moment the conversation gets real. Her Japanese boyfriend ghosted her and she is determined to find him and demand explanations. Problem is she doesn’t speak Japanese and you can’t learn a language by stalking someone on instagram. Luckily she meets a translator kind enough to help her. These two speak completely different languages even if they both speak Korean.

The main concept here is miscommunications, forcing them to go back; reconsider their thoughts, see a different perspective and try again. Its an interesting concept and goes well for a while but unfortunately the story soon turns to a convoluted mess introducing many different concepts and ideas in a very sudden and confusing manner. What ruined the story for me was Do Ra mi. At first she was a TV character that shot Mu hui into stardom but later turned to Mu huis manifestation of her insecurities and anxiety. It was clear that Mu hui has some sort of mental illness causing her hallucinations and until now I had no problem with it. It was one the elements that gave this series its campy feeling. Then she seeks doctors help just to be told that nothing can be done medically which for me was the first red flag. Later on they turn this hallucination to an obvious case of DID where Do Ra mi turns to an alter ego of Mu hui, capable of taking control of her body without Mu huis knowledge. Now we are out of camp territory. This type of problem calls for some serious interventions which she never gets because everyone surrounding her is complete idiot. There are some responsibilities you would wish the writers take or some lines they wont cross. They cross many which I don’t have the energy to go back and recall all but just to mention some: They never use the name of the illness. The only reason I know this is DID is because I've seen it in another drama.
She finally seeks some professional help after Do Ra mi is gone. How did she get cured you ask?
Jo Ho jin takes on various jobs through out this drama that he has no business taking but the job of a psychiatrist was a step too far. And Mu huis mental disorder vanishes just by the power of a translators love and his relentless quest of translating all of Mu hui/ Ra mi incoherent blabbers? Without any professional help? How lucky. Some crazy stuff has been written here.

The main problem in this story is the fact that writers want us to believe it’s a deep psychological romance story with thought provoking ideas but cant even decide what Mu hui alter ego , Do ra mi, is supposed to be. Is Do ra mi a self-sabotaging alter ego trying to stop her from happiness and puts Mu hui in a safe path where there is no risk of losing? Or it’s the alter ego that says and does what Mu hui is too scared to do but makes her happy?
By this series logic, both are true. Do Ra mi explicitly tells Jo Ho jin to reject Mu hui when she come back and goes out of her way to flirt with Hiro. Later on she uses Hiro to make a situation where Mu hui and Ho jin can talk to clear some misunderstandings. One minute she pushes them apart, the next pulls them together.
So this woman is crazy enough to give herself a split personality but the split personality also has a split personality.

Beside its insensitive approach to mental illness, the romantic aspect of the story is quite problematic too. We are out to believe these two have finally found the way to translate each others languages but I find that hard to believe. The more the story progresses the worse their communication becomes. In earlier episodes they were trying ( to some extent ) to communicate. They were clear in their talks. Their different personalities was the cause of misunderstandings. “the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object” sort of problem. Somewhere along the middle they started to talk in riddles. You can’t tell me some dialogues couldn’t have been better written.
The main couple were the reason I kept watching in the beginning as I found every other character boring but found myself detesting their scenes in the middle. There is no actual positive progress ( I know many viewer will disagree ) and then BOOM they’re together. They are cute as a couple but the relationship is all based on nilly willy.
Hiro was a pleasant surprise. I like the character growth quite a lot.
Everyone else were annoying. Did not care about the second couple whatsoever.
Do not get me wrong. I enjoyed watching it while simultaneously questioning myself on why am I even enjoying it hence the big gap between the story score and overall score. If you are considering it, shut your brain off and take everything at face value. Know that its gonna be a feast for your eye.

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I enjoyed it...

When I heard about this series, I was really looking forward to it because it sounded fantastic. And I really enjoyed the first six episodes, it had a great atmosphere and the beautiful Canada? That was a real joy to watch. In addition, I also liked the dynamic between Ho-jin and Mu-hee, they made sense to me as a romantic couple. But then something broke and I felt like they were both acting really stupid? I got the impression that they wanted to pull more episodes out of the series, so they couldn't put them together so soon so that the viewer wouldn't get bored. But I started to feel uncomfortable at times, how cruelly Ho-jin pushed her away from her. On the other hand, I liked Mu-hee's split personality line, but I just found Do Ra-mi to be really stubborn at times. I enjoyed it a lot, but I definitely preferred when Mu-hee was herself. I expected a little more from it, but I can't say I was bothered by it.

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Characters That You Will Love to Love; Insane and Unnecessary Plot Point at the End

The best part of this show are the characters. The ML's character is finally a man who is honest all the time, never takes the easy way out by saying the fast and easy thing. SO REFRESHING! He is an example to all men and to all screenwriters. Add more characters who act like responsible adults, please!! The FL is emotion on a plate. This actress is known for conveying emotion extremely well. Her dewy eyes look at you like an 8-month old's and you want to give her everything she never had but deserves.

The romance between the ML/FL is like most of these Korean shows today: all longing and misunderstanding with little physical interaction until the end, much like the Chinese high-school-based dramas. The secondary characters are all great, including the secondary and unrequited romances. All people you love to love: fun, mature, reasonable, and inspiring.

SPOILER:
The story is complex and deals with mental health. Honestly, the description here in MDL makes absolutely no sense to me. As the FL's personality becomes more clear, it is a bit difficult. It takes a while to get used to her and figure out what is going on, but we have had other Korean dramas (quite a few) that include mental health struggles, so why be surprised when it is the female finally, and not the male? Are only men allowed to be complex?

BIG SPOILER:
The only thing that REALLY bothered me came at the very end of the show, so don't read on if you don't want to hear about this INSANE spoiler: Everything was smooth sailing into the sunset when we learn 50% through the final episode that the FL's parents are actually alive. WTF??? If she wasn't already crazy before this, how could finding out that your parents were alive and decided to leave you with the evil couple who hated you and disowned you at a young age not send you into a padded cell in the "nut house"? The real parents didn't love her enough to want to take care of her? Especially the father? WTF!!! It's not enough to have one set of evil step-parents, now she has a duplicate set? And then, the ML just agrees to let her go off to confront her father by herself and she comes back fine? She was barely holding it together up through episode 11 and now she can take on something like this? Just to fill up the last 20 minutes of screen time? PULEEZZE, screen writers, who up to this point have been pretty good, have some sense of pride in your work and don't kowtow to producers who feel that the ending "needs more drama." This plot twist is something that would take a full five episodes to overcome and is just way too much horror for one lead character to go through (outside of Chinese historical dramas, that is). Don't feel lovable? Well, now you have two sets of parents who don't love you. Deal with it--in less than 10 minutes with no further explanation and come home smiling. Unbelievable. Truly. The brown, swirly emoji on top of an otherwise tasty cupcake.

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Can this love be translated?

It is a unique and refreshing drama with a creative concept that I genuinely enjoyed. The chemistry between the leads is great, and the story feels original compared to many other romance K‑dramas. However, the series also has some noticeable flaws that made it feel incomplete at times.

Both main characters seem to exist in a world without friends (eventually he becomes friends with kim yong-u but he is his only friend)

Another issue is the way the drama handles the mental health issues te fl has. The fl clearly struggles with serious psychological problems, but the story never treats them realistically. The male lead never encourages her to seek professional help (even though he knows almost all of her psychological problems) , and her trauma seems to disappear almost magically by the end. This is not how mental health issues work in real life, and it made the ending feel rushed and unrealistic.

another issues is that he says that he doesn't understant her language but this never gets solved properly and it is never mentioned again

Despite these problems, I still think the drama is enjoyable and worth watching. It’s original and entertaining. it just could have been a better drama.

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Not just your average rom-com

I enjoyed this so much. At first I thought it was just a cute rom-com but I’m so glad it had way more depth than expected! Kim Seon-ho did such an amazing job, acting in multiple languages in the same scene - incredible dedication to the craft 👌 I’d only seen Go Youn-jung in Alchemy of Souls before so wasn’t sure what to expect. Her performance blew me away! I think it must be really fun for an actor to show more than one side to their character and she totally delivered. I also think showing her reaction to overnight fame was very realistic. Fab soundtrack too!

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This drama had so much potential

I really wanted to like this drama more and it had so much potential to be great, but for me it fell short. The story never fully developes and the reasons the male lead had for not getting together early on was kind of ridiculous! This could have been a classic, but instead it was a bit of a struggle to finish.

There were too many moments when I would shake my head for their reasoning ti not get together. It just didn't make sense! Really great locations, shooting in Canada and Italy with high production values, but that wasn't enough because after all... its all about the story!

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