Family by Choice

I’ve never seen Go Ahead but I was immediately drawn to this show after seeing the previews. Starting from the first episode I loved the characters and their little family. The main dad is so precious and he had such a great dynamic with each of the kids and the other dad as well. I think I liked the first half of this show better, which starts off when they are little kids and then focuses on them in high school. The three younger leads, San-ha, Ju-won, and Hae-jun were all such well-written characters and the actors had amazing performances. Between San-ha and Hae-Jun’s backstories I think I was crying every episode.

The first half of the show did a good job showing the connections between all of the characters and highlighting each person’s personality and backstory. When they had the two boys leave home and then the show did the time jump, it didn’t feel quite the same after. I always loved San-ha and I thought that he had good chemistry with Ju-won, but their courtship felt so extremely rushed. I didn’t have an issue with them getting together but it seemed that Ju-won had no time to process his feelings about her and then think about her own. The show was running out of episodes and needed to have them get together, so it didn’t feel organic. The show could’ve benefitted from another couple episodes. Similarly, I loved Dal and was rooting for her to get Hae-jun, but it felt like another case of not having enough time for Hae-jun to reflect on his feelings and then decide to pursue her. I did really love that couple but I would’ve liked their romance to be built up a little more.

San-ha’s mom was truly diabolical and it killed me that the show and the characters never gave her what she deserved. I know the actress did a great job because I wanted to slap her every time she appeared on the screen.

The heart of the show truly was Ju-won’s dad. His and Hae-jun’s relationship was the source of most of my tears from this show; there were so many heartwarming moments showing how much he loved his son. One of the reasons I think the show worked better for me at the beginning is that I think the strength is the portrayal of their family dynamic. Even just the scenes where they were eating dinner together were fun to watch. Even with my few issues with the last few episodes, I still really loved this show and can see a rewatch in my future!

Read More

The Good, The Bad, and The Infuriating

I went through so many emotions—laughing, crying, getting absolutely frustrated, and then crying again. But let’s break this down: what I loved vs. what drove me absolutely crazy.

What I Loved ❤️
- Mr. Yoon is the best dad ever. Like seriously, where do I sign up for a Mr. Yoon in my life? His love for these kids was so pure, and every time he cried, I cried. His relationship with Haejun? Ugh, so heartwarming.
- Dal and Haejun’s relationship. Now THIS is how you do romance! It felt so organic, so real, and their chemistry was undeniable. Their banter, their support for each other—perfect.
- Juwon’s unwavering love for her ‘oppa’. From the start, she was a ride-or-die for Sanha, even when he was being difficult. And her interactions with the nosy old lady neighbour? Hilarious.
- The small but refreshing moments. The found-family theme, and those wholesome sibling moments.

What Drove Me Crazy 😤
- Sanha’s mom is the actual worst. She’s not just a bad mother—she’s a whole toxic disaster. The emotional manipulation, the blaming, the audacity! I could not stand her.
- Sanha’s unnecessary coldness. Why did he always have to act so distant? I didn't like him for the most part of this drama. My opinion. You don't have to like it.
- Juwon and Sanha’s relationship. I’m sorry, but this felt so forced. No buildup, no chemistry, nothing.
- Haejun’s birth dad. The nerve of this man! He abandoned his kid, then popped up only because he needed an heir for his fortune.
- Sanha going back to his mom. WHY? She was poison. Every time he gave her another chance, I wanted to scream. And she never changed. Ever.

Overall, Family by Choice had some amazing emotional beats and strong character arcs, but it also had frustrating moments that made me want to throw my screen. The found-family theme was beautifully done, but the romance (especially between Juwon and Sanha) felt awkward and unconvincing. This could’ve been a near-perfect drama.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but with a disclaimer: be prepared to love the dads, adore Haejun and Dal, and hate the worst parents in K-drama history.

Rating? A 7/10—just for Mr. Yoon, Haejun, and all the tears they made me shed.

Read More

Entertaining, heartfelt, slow at times

This drama had depth and heartache and layered characters with complicated lives and relationships. This drama did an excellent job navigating difficult topics and although certain plot lines dragged on at times, it was still brilliant and well executed. I'd say Hwang In Youp is my favourite actor and he delivered a great performance as usual in this drama! His expressions are so great and he was the perfect choice for his character. Everyone else was great too, but he really shone brightly! Definitely give this drama a chance if you like the found family trope or heartfelt, deep, emotional stories about human connections and disconnections!

Read More

From someone who loved Go Ahead

As most people would know, FBC was the Korean remake/adaptation of the Chinese drama called Go Ahead. I personally loved the GA and just had to watch FBC when I saw that they were remaking it. After watching both of them I can say that while both shows start of pretty similar by the end of FBC it felt like a completely different show.
GA was more focused on children ( be it our main three casts or people around them like San Ha's sister or Park Dal's character) how their situations and circumstances around them affect the way they grow up, their relationships and social interactions. It was more of a slice of life type of show with some life lessons and hard hitting dialogues.
On the other hand, FBC felt more like a romance-family drama, that focused solely on the lives of our main characters and their family situations. However, the characters felt a lot more closer because of the way they all express their emotions and talk about their feelings. The romance was also handled much much better and allowed a decent amount of buildup compared to the original where it felt too sudden and personally a bit incestuous ( because they were super super close and tight knit growing up).

The show was well made and visually appealing with most of the cast working pretty well together. The actor playing Kang Hae Jun did a particularly great job and made his whole character shine a lot more. While the show cut a lot of scenes and changed a few characters ( would be too difficult to fit 40+ eps into 16) but the show ended up with a sweet sweet flavor of its own. It felt like the show was made by someone who actually saw the original in detail and loved it and then proceeded to handle it with utmost care while making some changes that would enhance the viewing experience. FBC did lack some nuances that made the original stand out for example, the house that Ju won/Hae jun live in - in GA it is small, slightly cramped, messy but tidy, full of stuff from different people, (as it would be because it was originally two people living there but then a third moves in + 2 people partially, all managed by a single dad who works the whole day either cooking at the restaurant or at home). It felt lived in compared to the one in FBC which looked tooo clean and empty and a bit like a set. The OSTs are also not as memorable as the original.

Overall I did like the drama and I am glad I gave it a chance. It is definitely made with a lot of love and care. It is a very good show about family ties, supporting each other and finding your own comfort zone. I would recommend the show regardless of if you have seen the original or not.

Rewatch value: As much as I like the show, if I do rewatch, I would personally prefer GA.

Read More

Heart warming family drama with multiple feel good light romances

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean coming of age family romance drama with 16, 60-70 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Yoon Jeong-jae (Choi Won-young) is a widower who is raising his young daughter, Yoon Ju-won (Jung Chae-yeon) by himself. He owns and operates a noodle shop to support them both and often provides food to friends and neighbors as a way to show he cares. Because of his kind nature kids are drawn to him as the perfect father figure. He knows that his precious daughter, Ju won, wishes to have a sibling, particularly a brother. The perfect oppa candidate moves in upstairs and the lively and engaging Ju won sets out to win him over as her brother like figure. But the young boy, Kim San-ha (Hwang In-youp) is leading a tragic life with parents who always fight, his mother who leaves, and a sister who died too young. Still Ju won's bubbly determination wears him down and he becomes a regular at Ju won's house. When San-ha's mother leaves, his father, Kim Dae-wook (Choi Moo Sung) is also drawn into the warm family environment Jeong jae provides. Jeong-jae is such an excellent father figure he winds up taking in the child, Kang Hae-jun (Bae Hyun sung) who was also abandoned by has mother and who he only knew of through a brief blind date encounter with his mother. This group forms a family of their own choosing who is all knitted together by Ju won who doesn't allow any of the to feel left out. This is a heart warming story of people who form a strong bond despite many of them not being blood related.

Review

This is a very heartwarming family drama. I watched the Chinese version, Go Ahead, first, and it was an excellent series, but I think the Korean version subtly improved upon it. I believe you could watch either version and still get the same basic story. I liked it enough that I fully enjoyed watching both versions. If you like family dramas, slice-of-life themes, adoption or fostering stories, or if you're just a fan of romance anytime, I highly recommend this one. It's well-acted, with great chemistry between the leads, and everything wraps up nicely.

Spoilers

I liked that the South Korean version didn't focus as much on the time the male lead (ML) character spent with his abusive mother. What I didn't like about either version, though, was the concept that the mother deserved any level of forgiveness just because she was sad or because she was his mother. What she did to him was abuse. With some training in psychology, her behavior closely resembles Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The ML's relationship with his mother was characteristic of a relationship with someone who has BPD-nothing was ever calm. On one hand, she adored him so much that she wanted him around her to the point of desperation, but she was always accusing him of things, getting angry with him for things that weren't even his fault, and being jealous of every relationship he had. She bullied him and manipulated him to stay with her. Many people with BPD have a Jekyll and Hyde personality, where they seem to have two distinct personalities. But with BPD, they flow between these personalities throughout the day. It is part of their personality to be so toxic and volatile. Having dealt with someone with this type of personality, I can say they are extremely hard to be around. I don't think their actions are any more excusable than those of a sociopath. So, I wasn't a fan of the fact that the story wanted us to accept and forgive her actions.

The romance was very believable. It was clear that the male lead never fully saw her as a sister, as he resisted whenever she brought up the idea of changing their names to make them the same. They weren't biologically related, so I thought their relationship was perfectly fine.

I loved the dads. One dad was so nurturing, and the other was a quiet strength. Any kids raised in that environment would thrive. They had all the love and support they would ever need. However, having worked with foster kids, I know they still long for their biological parents. No matter how good the family environment, there is always some level of yearning for biological parents, even if those parents were abusive. It can be heartbreaking, and I thought the series portrayed that well.

Read More

I liked it, it was okay

finished this after a few days of binging and i will start by saying that this i liked the start of the show. it was very heartwarming seeing these kids be brought together due to unfortunate familial circumstances and form close bonds between one another and live as a found family; but i definitely feel that the fl was very biased towards sanha (ml) and also haejun (sml ig? but not really?) were always fighting with each other lowkey ml was always being rude to others 💀 and i get it, he was abandoned by his mother and she was horrible to him but he often said things to them purposely to hurt them. tbh there was alot of things all over the place (plus considering this is a remake of a cdrama) it feels like they left many things behind (they could’ve delved more into ml’s trauma, his mom just never got any real development if anything became insufferable, fl’s dad falling for sml’s mom when they hardly interacted) etc. the main couple were cute but i couldn’t really get into their relationship i think bc they grew up calling each other brother and sister even tho they’re not blood related lol 💀 overall i liked the bond they all had together as a found family but there was a lot of annoying and trash characters imo that pmo more than anything else (esp ml’s mother shes one of the worst parents i ever saw in a kdrama)

Read More

So good! Compared to it's Chinese counterpart - I'd say better quality, but not more enjoyable

Loved it! It was better than the Chinese version in many ways, but I think I enjoyed them just about equally. Equal enjoyment doesn't equate equal quality. I think the overall story was better here. The found family was the best I've seen in a drama (besides Love is Science? but that is a different type of found family). In this version THERE WAS NO LOVE TRIANGLE. God that was so much of a blerg in the Chinese version especially when you compare it to the lack of one in the Korean version. The lack of the love triangle meant that they could do Hae Jun's character SO MUCH JUSTICE. I loved his character. I loved his acting. I never felt bad because he didn't get the girl and you could tell that he played an equally important role in the sister's and the family's life.
(We of course felt bad for him because of his "family situation" but not because he earned second place in his sister's affections - which became the case in the Chinese one. Then that made the relationship between San Ha's equivalent and the sister more central, overshadowing parts of the story that were better fleshed out in the Korean version.
Also, Hwang In Youp's acting was FAR superior to his counterpart. That, of course, is no surprise, because Hwang In Youp is a genius and we're all so so so so so so happy that he finally has his lead role that he deserves.
On the other hand. I will say that I didn't feel the chemistry as much. I felt his longing and love for Ju Won, but I never felt here's for him. It was almost like *snap* she's in love with him and it happened so fast and with nothing to support it and her character kind of felt flaky ever after. NOTE, I saw someone say they didn't like her character/the actress didn't do a great job. (This was before I watched it and why I held back from watching it for so long). I 100% disagree. I thought she did an excellent job. She was the glue that held the family together and she did a perfect job at it. It isn't her fault that they didn't do her justice in giving her the opportunity/reasons to fall in love with San Ha (besides the fact that his love is so apparent and genuine and all-encompassing, but having someone love you that much doesn't equate you loving them, and I just was never convinced. They fit together well and were a cute couple, there was just never the spark that got Ju Won there.)
On that note, while San Ha's counterpart's acting wasn't that good, I did think the couple from the original Chinese version had chemistry that their Korean counterpart lacked. Which is confusing. How can a poorer actor be in a couple that has better chemistry? I think it was directing/how the story played out. I still remember the scene where San Ha's counterpart says he's going to marry her early on... you just have to watch the whole thing.

Read More

Worth a watch with better and worse things.

Personally I am a fan of Go Ahead. The bonds, the friends and family connections and yes even the romance because from my pov, Ling Xiao loved JianJian all his life and never considered her as a sibling. Now to make more sense, about why this worth your time and what I personally thought was did wrong lets list it out..

The Good:
1. Actors did an incredible job. Absolutely made me cry a million tears just like original did. The dads were perfect and so were other, well mostly.
2. The romantic angle of Sanha and Juwon, romance was done better in this one somehow, more mature, more stable and more heart fluttering.
3. The second pairing, thank the lords for that. I wanted the best friend to fulfill her first love and I am glad they got their chance here.
4. Better ML. While Ling Xiao was good but Sanha is incredible, he is more vocal about his feelings, he lashes out when he should and also InYoup for this role was perfect. He did it more justice than the OG. For me he carried the show with the two dads. And his character was the one that made this adaption more on a good side that OG.
5. FL's career choice. I loved how she ended up as baker because she loved cakes and also how they put the sports injury line because that broke my heart.
6. Bromance, in this one brothers were better connected and more comfortable with each other. Well done!

The Bad:
1. FL. I love the actress but Juwon's character was a downgrade for me from Jian Jian. The school Juwon is not as bubbly and quirky, and the adult one is also not as good but still better. She was not as charming at the OG FL for me.
2. The living in Seoul and not meeting for 10 years with a girl you love so dearly, umm...should have send him abroad tbh to make this more believable.
3. Leaving out the adult friendships of females from the OG. I wanted to see that because I absolutely adored it.
4. The SL, he was good but compared to OG, wasn't as mature which I kinda missed.
5. Reunion and FLs reaction. It feels like FL didn't grew up all those 10 years and still whines like that. Any aspect connected to FL was better in OG.

And since Good is a bit more than Bad, I would recommend it. I binged it and it made me cry. Loved bits of it, just didn't end up loving it as much as the Go Ahead.

Read More

A really bad remake of a REALLY good Chinese Drama

I am always sceptical towards remakes but also looking forward to them with the hope of them doing a fair job of the original.
This fell flat on its head. If this was a standalone korean drama It would be average, now when you compare it to the original it feels so shallow in every single way.
After I finished this remake I went back and re-watched Go Ahead and confirmed it again, how superior Go Ahead is.

Go Ahead is one of my favorite Chinese dramas, even that had flaws in the storyline which was fairly annoying. But it was overall a GREAT drama.

Go ahead obviously changes some things here and there which is common in a remake and I don't mind that.

I have several issues with the drama personally.
Acting: The acting is no where near the level of the Chinese drama.
Go ahead managed to show such intense emotions you could literally feel the sorrow deep within you. I hardly felt that all with this, everything felt so shallow and "fake"

Meanwhile the comedic parts was nowhere near Go Ahead, you could see they tried to bring it in but not even close, and some parts were just so horribly bad and fake it was sad to watch.

The progression was WAY to fast, I thought Go Aheads youth pace was way to fast. This just plows through stuff. Obviously Korean dramas are not as long as typical Chinese dramas, but it felt bad after watching the original.

It was a good try, but not no where near good enough.

If you only watched this Korean remake I STRONGLY suggest you watch the original Go Ahead.

Read More

Not Flawless, But Deeply Felt: Why Family by Choice Worked for Me

Even though there have been a lot of criticisms about this series, for me it was deeply touching, heartfelt, and truly string-tugging.

The acting was incredibly strong, especially Juwon’s dad. His performance brought so much depth and warmth that it was impossible not to feel moved. Throughout the series, you’re constantly wrapped in emotion because of the family bond they share.

My only wish is that there were more episodes showing Juwon’s emotional development toward Sanha. That part felt a bit rushed, especially when compared to the storyline of Dal and Haejun. With them, you could clearly see how Haejun’s feelings for Dal slowly unfolded. How he didn’t recognize them at first, denied them, struggled with inner conflict, and eventually gave in. There was space for that emotional journey to breathe. He even openly admitted that he might not feel as strongly as Dal yet, which made it feel honest and real.

Despite everything, the series is a beautiful, emotional experience. One that reminds us that family is not always about blood, but about choice, love, and being there when it matters most.

Read More