Family by Choice

Perfect Example of How to spoil an lovely Adorable story to a uncomfortable drama

The KDrama started with beautiful caring simple yet beautiful and pure concept of a family where kids not related by blood started living emotionally and share there relationship as pure brother and sister till their teens and schooling. This a clearly evidently mentioned many times in starting 6-7 episodes that they share brother and sister emotions and relation. The story was adorable.

But the story started becoming uncomfortable to watch with family when a brother falls in love with his sister and started looking his sister as lover. May be in many countries, regions and cultures this relation is seen as forbidden.

A family exist when their is emotional attachment and caring among the relations, it doesn't matter whether they are blood related or not. How could a brother emotion changes to lovers emotion for his sister? Isn't it a taboo relation? Its a disturbing relationship. Majority will agree it will impact the mindset of brothers and sisters in a family watching this KDrama. The story becomes even sickening when the sister says her brother that she looks him as oppa (big brother) and still weird minded oppa trying to persuade his sister to change the relationship from siblings to lovers by starting it over again.

I don't understand how actors (Hwang In-youp and Jung Chae-Yeon) accepted such forbidden relation concepts? Are they so desperate to make money and agreed to do the Kdrama?

If the story demanded the romantic relation the director of the KDrama should have taken care of the script and should not have mentioned the relation as brother and sister between the two characters right from the beginning, then this would have been one of the all time great KDrama.

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Documentation

I watched the drama after it finished and I think that helped me in liking and focusing on the drama more. No stops no nothing just hours of watching. What also really made it enjoyable was the cast. I've seen them from the start of their acting careers. Which is a little bit crazy cause it was only by coincidence that I saw there first gigs as supporting or side characters. I also saw the dating show that Seo Ji Hye joined in years ago and she resembles her characters to a degree, very cute and a little bit naive. It just fascinates me that I grew up with there career's, which is similar to seeing child actors getting older. About the story, I really enjoyed it, that's it, it picks up the pace quite a bit after the time skip. Also the romance is quite fast, which is acceptable as their is a ten episode set up for them to be in a relationship. Really enjoyed side characters like the grandma and Huiju. After a long time of watching dramas ever since I was a kid, I mostly get annoyed with how bad a plot or how bad the editing is rather than intentionally annoying characters. The chemistry between all four was amazing, pretty much the highlight. Also the improvement of the girls in acting was great to see. I wish they the girls could get casted more. Everything was good or great so yeah. This is a great recommendation for beginners. It's not too draggy but not too fast. Also wish the second couple had more screen time such cuties.

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Great remake of a great original...

I was a bit reluctant to watch this since I loved the original drama, for its portrayal of the less fit mother, toxic relationships and found family. So much that it made way to most of my series articles abut family relationships in dramaland. But with that said I did have some issues with the original, issues that I did not have with the remake.

If you have seen the original and loved the story, you will probably love this one as it has just enough (very slight) differences to make you, or at leas me wonder how will they handle XYZ scene... While still sticking to the original story.

The acting and casting is really good, the chemistry is there and while I admit I loved the male lead in the C a lot more this one does a decent job, balanced up by the male leads who I enjoyed watching slightly more then the ones in the C. So basically they made up for it.


For those who have not seen the original C, this is drama that portrays family and bonds from many different perspectives and shows great contrast between different ways to be a parents well. I loved how this drama showed both the scares, pressure and pain created by the combination societies prejudice, expectations about parenthood and lets face it bad parenting as well as the sheltering/compensating affects of the good parenting, the found family and friendships can create.

The first time I saw this story I was obviously upset about some of the parts but it was also the first time I saw a character portrayed that was so close to my own mother, that I could overlook all the issues I had with it...

A good drama, an easy binge, but also a painful watch that is bound to make you feel a lot of things...

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Better Than Go Ahead

Just finished the drama so my opinion is fresh when I write this.

I watched Go Ahead a few weeks back while this kdrama was still airing. And guys, I'd say the cdrama is good as it is and the kdrama is good in its very own way.

Things I love here are:
1. How they have fit 40 eps in 16. I mean the character deletions and additions are on point.
(Unfortunately , Sanha's mom had to stay here for the plot ).
2. The relationship between haejun and dal.
3. The way there is not an actual love triangle but a more family based plot.
4. The close knit bond between Haejun and Sanha as brothers cause I think the original drama didn't potray that too well.

I love the part where Haejun opposes to Sanha and Juwon being together, in a funny way. I love those banters. Its so funny in the last episode he found out where Juwon was all night LMAO.

I also really like listening to the Southern/Busan satoori is so soothing to my ears. Particularly, Haejun's satoori is so pleasing.

Overall, a must watch drama. I really liked it.

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A masterpiece this far

Even though it’s not finished yet, I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite dramas of all time—and definitely of the year.

The acting is amazing; you can see that not only are the actors super talented, but the directing is on point too. It avoids the usual mistakes you see in a lot of K-dramas. The female lead is especially great—she actually has a real personality, not just the usual extremes of being overly annoying or overly sweet.

And the romance? Perfect. It’s a slow burn, but it never feels boring, so you get to enjoy it at a relaxed pace without feeling impatient for things to happen.

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"Blood is thicker than water"? Aniyooo..

"the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" will be well depicted in the drama
Food analogy: Well Balanced korean meal with fried eggs, and lot of other banchans.
I started this with the hopes of watching happy rainbows and pink cotton candy clouds but boy, was I forced in a rollercoaster? Yes. Am I complaining? No. You know, what I like about these "family oriented" stories is that there will be at least one angle (amidst multiple angles and storylines for e.g. romance, tragedy, warmth, distance e.t.c) that everyone could relate to, somewhere or the other, relatibity takes centre stage and strum at out heart strings.
I am solely writing this to tell everyone reading this to dive into this deep warm bubble bath of "family by choice. "

Spoiler ahead:
P. S: I totally relate yo Juwon. She is right to be hurt and angry.

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A trip from China to Korea!

finished 9/10 🌟
based on the 2020 cdrama go ahead... for me personally I liked this version better... they made necessary changes and some things were kept as the original version
I think the mothers' plot was well addressed, the romance theme as well, it didn't make me feel as cringe as in the other plot, which I appreciated 😅
The main characters did seem cute to me and I felt a lot of chemistry between them... the supporting characters won my heart. I wanted a happy ending for that particular brother so badly and Korea far surpassed it 👏
I still think that the parents' "marriage and love" is something that is completely out of nowhere and poorly thought out in many ways, but the important thing is that everyone was happy and a great family ❤️

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Slightly better

I found this one better than the original they warped it perfectly in just 16 episodes. Watching ML's mother's scenes were very difficult I tried to skip most of it I really wished someone to put that woman to her place and what's more annoying is that in whole drama everyone told ML to be good with her just because she is his mother and even ML was one who always felt guilty and the mother didn't change at all until the end.
The best part they did with remake was Park Dal, her character was amazing. They even gave her happy ending with 2ML by removing the love triangle and avoiding unnecessary angst.

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The best Drama to wind up 2024, just go for it....

I watched Go Ahead which is the Chinese version of "The Family by Choice". I really Love FBC more than GA because there was certain scenes where I didn't like in Go Ahead eg. A slight love triangle between the 3, though many of them says that the 2nd brother did it out of desperation, there was a scene in bakery where 2ML looks intimately towards FL. It really didn't make sense to me. 2nd FL fell love with ML in GA. 2nd ML was left alone in GA. These are all the things I didn't like.

When it comes to FBC, woah It was neat and ENDED IN ''PERFECTION''. The ending was so satisfying to me. The entire crew of FBC did a wonderful job in creating this Drama. The actors where carefully chosen to nail each role to the perfection. The Bromance between them was so indulging to watch, making us to think that we need that kind of family.

The emotions they delivered went straight to the heart. Hats off to the actors. I love them. I love FBC. One of the dramas to be cherished.

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In comparison... don't compare | When you should watch this

Disclaimer: I have watched Go ahead but will write this review so anyone can follow no matter their knowledge about the plot.

In general, I recommend watching both versions, but it doesn't really matter where you start. If you really hated one of both, though, I won't recommend watching the other as the main parts of the plot stay the same. This isn't a romance drama. It is about family, growing up and redefining what family means to you while going through the process of finding a healthy way to cope with (your) struggles. The plot elaborates perspectives of people at different life stages, although young people of course are the main focus.
While the Chinese version is a lot longer and its plot felt more realistic, this remake managed to resolve or at least smooth out some of the issues I had with the Chinese version (some I didn't even realize I had until I saw this remake). It does come with its own issues though you will need to be able to overlook.
The fewer amount of episodes means, of course, they had to shorten parts of the plot and character development I would have loved to dive deeper into, but overall, it seemed like this version portrayed more of an ideal version of how things should be. Someone in the comments described this version as quite healing and I found that word very fitting.

While many people described the chemistry to be wearing off after the first couple episodes, it was the opposite for me. With the progress of each episode I could also feel each character grow just as their chemistry with each other became more and more apparent. The music was used so well to bring out the emotions of every scene and support the already great acting skills instead of overruling them. For everyone being hesitant, I want to reassure you to stay patient, watch the characters grow and rethink their (past) decisions just as you probably have done in your life, too. While I understand watching this can feel draggy, boring or frustrating to some people, I loved every step of their way.
What I also really loved were the comedic scenes that almost always lit up the atmosphere. The humour was just perfect to me and even though there were heavy scenes of course, overall, almost every episode had something to make me smile or laugh.
As I already watched the story twice in two different versions and liked both, I don't know what should indicate I couldn't watch it a third and fourth and fifth time.

So, as a general recommendation: Don't watch this if you want to watch a pure fast-paced, heavily dramatic romance drama. Don't watch this if family issues trigger you easily. And, of course, don't watch this if you hated the Chinese version.
But go watch it if you want something about family, something deeply emotional, something to make you smile or something to make you overthink your own idea of what defines a family. I for sure will go and call mine now.

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