DramaHeroine

I really wanted to finish this drama (for a number of reasons). I even attempted to watch it twice, getting a couple of episodes farther along the second time around before ultimately giving up again. And the reason I made it as far as I did (all the way to 2 eps before the end) is because there are a lot of good things about this drama. It has a solid start, a compelling and well paced story, the characters are all interesting and three-dimensional (even the secondary male and female leads), and the female lead is absolutely kickass. (I flippin’ love No Eun Seol. She’s the one thing about the drama I enjoyed during both my attempts to watch. She’s feisty. She’s tough. She’s hard-working. She’s genuine and honest. She’s persistent. She’s a little odd and different (for a Korean woman, anyway.) She’s got a no-nonsense attitude. And she can kick some literal ass.)

But the story was missing one of the number one things I need in a drama to like it. Actual romance.

While I never had a problem believing Cha Ji Heon truly liked No Eun Seol (sometimes I worried he liked her a little Too much, he was so annoying and persistent about it), I never believed she liked him back, and it felt weird watching the writers trying to convince me that she did. There was zero romantic chemistry on her side. Friendship chemistry, sure, but not romantic.

And while Cha Ji Heon was an adorable man-child in the beginning who just needed a steady, guiding hand (in the form of No Eun Seol), he eventually stopped being adorable and just became annoying. I just didn't understand why No Eun Seol would fall in love with him.

I eventually reached a point in the drama where I could no longer figure out No Eun Seol’s motivation for staying at her job. It was clearly no longer worth it. Contrary to what the writers wanted me to believe, there were zero signs that she was starting to like Cha Ji Heon (and he’d started to become persistent in a way that was slowly edging towards stalkerish and creepy), she'd had the job long enough to use it as a reference on her resume, and she definitely could have gotten another job that paid equally as well. If I had been her, I would have just quit and never looked back. Her motivation for staying was clearly meant to be that she had fallen in love with Cha Ji Heon, but I have to call bull on that.

Lack of genuine romance aside, the thing that probably drove me the most nuts was the ‘princess lessons.’ No Eun Seol didn’t want to learn how to arrange flowers and eat with fancy silverware. She didn’t want to learn how to be the ‘perfect wife’ of a CEO. (Which wouldn’t have worked anyway. Women like No Eun Seol just don’t do princess well.) And I didn't want her to have to do any of those things either, so watching her be affectively forced into them was unbearable to watch. If I had believed in the romance, I probably could have overlooked this. I would have been able to put up with the ‘princess lessons’ and the petty fighting between the parents, because I knew our leads truly loved each other and would stand by each other no matter what. But I Didn’t believe in the romance, and that made all the difference.

I do think this is a drama a lot of people would enjoy, so I'm certainly not saying don't watch it. But it left me disappointed and frustrated.

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The first six episodes of Business Proposal were literally everything. Lots of supremely well-used tropes that were equally well-subverted. I was constantly laughing at the humor, and anxiously awaiting the eventual romance. But something felt off in eps 7 and 8, something I couldn't put my finger on, so I did something I tell myself never to do, and I looked up spoilers. And I'm honestly glad I did, because they put their finger on what it was that felt off to me.

Somewhere in ep 7/8, the writers forgot that their drama was trying to use classic Kdrama tropes differently, and they pivoted to taking classic tropes too seriously, thus creating unnecessary angst. What I got through with 7 and 8 certainly couldn't be compared to the level of angst in a classic early to mid 2000's Kdrama, but it was a very definite tonal shift, and not one I liked. What's worse though is that the eventual story choices I read about were not something that made sense in regard to the characters. They sounded like obvious attempts at adding drama in a story that had been rather delightfully drama-free most of its run. They also just sounded like a waste of our character's time. I mean, the writers had a perfect opportunity to subvert the classic 'family doesn't approve' trope, and they Didn't take it. How uproariously hilarious would it have been for grandpa to pretend he didn't approve of their romance as a little bit of payback for them hiding it from him?

Armed with the knowledge of things to come, I decided to drop Business Proposal. But it's all good, cause Legally Romance (Cdrama) is doing all of the things with my heart right now, and I'm totally okay with it, lol.

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This was a really funny movie, and I loved watching the two leads try to one up each other, but then the ending happened everything leading up to it felt wasted. Honestly, I'm still not even sure What happened in the ending. Did the leads end up together? Did they Not end up together? Did they decide to team up together? Personally, I really wanted them to get together in the end romantically, and that's where I thought the writers were taking us. (I mean, it is advertised as a Rom-com, after all.) Clearly though, the writers didn't Know where they wanted to take us, or their characters, and ultimately, the story suffered because of it.

Definitely don't recommend this movie.

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This is a noona romance, pure and simple. There’s some exposition on what it’s like to be a reporter for a magazine, what it’s like to be an odd job man, what it’s like not to earn a steady living, and what it’s like to Earn a steady living, but all of that really comes in second to the noona romance. And the noona romance…is gooooood. The writers really got what real romance is about. Mutual respect, compatibility, excitement, passion, Actually Spending Time Together. Freakin’ real-deal romance. (And Zero asshole behavior, for which I am always grateful.)

Unfortunately, the drama did the romance So well, that it was all the more disappointing when same said romance faltered in the final quarter.

I'm talking about the Love Octopus (my name for love triangles).

I know they're common in older dramas, and it’s honestly very short-lived here (about two or three episodes), and yet I hated everything about it.

Almost from the moment he appeared on screen, I was ready for Shi Hoon to leave. From being angry at Ji Yeon for believing his secretary’s lie (don't even get me started on the stupidity of that whole plotline) to expecting everything to go back to exactly the way it had been six years earlier (because obviously, nothing could have changed within those six years; neither of them were different people or anything) to ‘pretending’ to be a ‘noble idiot’ and ‘pushing’ Ji Yeon away. (I didn’t even realize he was being a Noble Idiot until Ji Yeon pointed it out. That’s how good he was at just being an ass.) He literally got more and more annoying as the show went on, and by the end, I just wanted him dead.

As for Ji Yeon, she proved to be frustrating in a different, but all too familiar way to seasoned drama watchers. Leading up to the Love Octopus, she was a fabulous female lead. She’s feisty, she’s driven, she’s smart, she’s no-nonsense, SHE'S BLOODY CONSISTENT! Then Mr. Ex showed up, and Ji Yeon went from feisty and driven to timid and indecisive. She lost all sense of personality, spunk, spark, passion, fire, confidence, independence, and I HATED IT.

I’m not saying I don’t understand why it happened. She had been in a relationship with Shi Hoon for a long time, she’d clearly been pretending to be someone she wasn’t when she was with him, and the end of their relationship had devastated her. But we didn’t get nearly enough exposition into their past relationship for her sudden change in demeanor to feel realistic. I just didn’t believe that a woman so self-possessed would fall apart that easily at the sight of her ex.

But here’s where I sing Dong Ha’s praises as he was the only part of the Love Octopus that wasn't terrible. I love him. I love every single thing about him. He’s perfect. He’s wonderful. He’s kind. He’s caring. He’s giving. He’s hard working. He’s all the good things.

He literally saved this drama.

I will admit here that I might be too harsh in my assessment of this part of the story, but I honestly hated watching our female lead go from feisty and self-assured to a complete doormat within the span of seconds. And what made it so much worse is that all of the sexy, romantic, cuteness between our leads all but disappeared once the story hit the 'My ex fiancé is back, and for some unexplainable reason, I feel obligated to go back to him' arc. We were left with this open-ended, will they-won't they ending between our leads, and neither of them deserved that.

I don’t regret sticking this drama out, but I don’t Not regret it either. I mostly just wish we had gotten a less open ended ending. (Would have gone a long way in making up for the ex fiancé subplot.) I still totally recommend this drama to anyone who likes noona romances. Or just anyone who likes romances where there’s actually a compelling reason for the main couple to Be the main couple. Or just anyone who likes nice guys. Because as much as I hate Shi Hoon and feel like the drama really dragged it’s way to the finish after he showed up, I also think this drama was really, really, really well written and really, really, really, Really well acted and has a Fabulous romance between two people who are Actually compatible. If you can put up with two to three episodes of ex-significant-other drama (which is probably perfectly bearable as long as you’re not me) and a pretty open ended ending, this noona romance is killer.

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For a while there, I thought this would end up being one of my favorite dramas. The acting was phenomenal. The characters were phenomenal. The story was phenomenal. It was all so phenomenal. It was also one of those rare dramas from my newbie drama days where the stories outside of the romance actually interested me. Normally, I didn't care about so and so's conglomerate or singing career or whatever other boring and cliché overarching story the writers came up with, because I was there for the romance, damn it. But not this drama. I loved the whole idea of there being this woman who could see ghosts, but she doesn't know how to make them go away, and then meeting a random man who had some unexplained ability to get rid of them. It was compelling and tightly plotted, full of the kind of twisted logic only a drama can deliver.

I even got some enjoyment out of Joong Won's kidnapping and betrayal story. The idea of him being kidnapped and simultaneously betrayed by his teenaged girlfriend/teenaged girlfriends evil twin was overdramatic and unrealistic and filled with plotholes, but it had such a great initial setup that I couldn't help but be drawn in. I was excited to see what was going to happen. I totally called the whole thing falling apart long beforehand, so I wasn't surprised when it veered off into left field towards the middle of the drama, but it was still disappointing to see. The whole plotline was total makjang, confusing and silly and hard to follow. Hee Joo, Han Na, Anna, Falanna, Fee Fi Fo, Banana, let's forget about the fact that a teenage girl could not plan out a kidnapping like that (or really any kidnapping) by herself, we were also given very little explanation for Why she did it. At least not a strong one. So your nice twin stole your man without him realizing that was what was happening (although I don't know just how 'nice' that makes her.) Why you gotta kidnap Him for it? It wasn't His fault. The more logical option would have been to just kill your twin and take over her life so you could date Joong Won. Still messed up, but at least the logic follows.

It's in the four main characters and the romance where this drama really shines though.

I liked pretty much all of the leads (minus one) equally. Gong Shil is adorable, hilarious, full of emotional depth, and dogged in her pursuit of relief from ghosts. Her plight was both comical and heartrendingly sad. When she batted away a ghost or reeled back from one in fear, I laughed and felt for her at the same time. Joong Won is obsessive compulsive, highly intelligent, full of emotional depth, and dogged in his pursuit of relief from Gong Shil. His journey of self discovery and growth is superbly done and kept me very invested in his character. He's the same man at the end of the story, same quirks and mannerisms, and yet...he's a completely different person in so many ways.

Kang Woo was too precious for words. Loyal, sweet, adorable, intelligent, in possession of one of the most beautiful faces ever gifted to man, basically the perfect secondary male lead. He doesn't experience any kind of growth, but he doesn't really need to. He's Kang Woo. And once again, let's acknowledge the obvious. Man is DOUBLE FINE. (It's like a double rainbow but better.) Yi Ryung was the only one of the main four that didn't wow me. Spoiled and snobbish and hilarious in the most unintentional ways (intentional on the part of the writers, unintentional on the part of the character), I liked her. But I never loved her. She never experienced the amount of emotional growth and maturity I wanted her to.

Han Na and Hee Joo's teenage versions were interesting (despite the utter insanity of of the kidnapping and betrayal plot). Unfortunately, adult Hee Joo does not get a pass from me. I'm sure it was explained at some point and I just missed it, but I never understood why she showed back up. What did she want? What was her goal? She'd killed her sister, ruined Joong Won's life, and stole an expensive necklace for fun. (Or did she? I've actually forgotten now.) Did she just want to gloat about it?

In what is a rare turn me for me, I found myself experiencing some heavy second lead feels with this drama. This was particularly distressing to me, as I loved the male lead equally as much. Joong Won and Kang Woo were both perfectly acceptable romance options for Gong Shil, having equally compelling chemistry and relationships with her that were very carefully developed and thought through.

Some people would consider Joong Won a jerk and not worth Gong Shil's time, but I wouldn't classify him that way. If I were in a similar situation as him and someone I'd never met started following me around trying to touch me all the time because the 'ghosts' wouldn't leave them alone...I'd call the police. You really can't call Joong Won a jerk for trying to make a weird, kind of creepy woman leave him alone. Yes, his way(s) of avoiding his feelings for Gong Shil later on in the drama were unfair and not particularly kind, but they weren't intentionally malicious either.

Of course, Kang Woo filled the role of perfect second male lead to perfection, and that's the whole reason I had so much trouble squashing my second lead feels. If he'd had the ability to make the ghosts disappear rather than Joong Won and Gong Shil had shown romantic interest in him, I would have rooted for him instead. But Gong Shil and Joong Won liked each other, and he was the only one who could make the ghosts go away, and I really wanted Gong Shil to not have to see them anymore, so Joong Won...won...in the end. (That is a name ripe for puns.)

Intense second lead feels aside, I would say this romance is very well done. Gong Shil's constant need to be in contact with Joong Won contrasted with his desperate desire to get rid of her provided us with a hilarious give and take situation that I thoroughly enjoyed. And then when the tables were turned and it was him who needed the constant contact, it just made my heart go awwwww. The whole 'I love you, so you have to make sure I don't love you' thing was a surprisingly brilliant and effective plot device, even if incredibly silly character wise. Watching him try to deny his feelings was like watching those kids who take part in those experiments where they have to not eat something for a certain period of time in order to get something better. Only in this case, there was no reason for him to wait for something better, because Gong Shil was already perfect for him.

But the 'I love you. Don't let me love you' plot device eventually turned into a double edged sword, and it soon became obvious to everyone that all Gong Shil and Joong Won really wanted was to be together, and no matter how many reasons they came up with as to why they Couldn't be together, there was just no longer a legitimate reason for them Not to be together. Then it became a waiting game; a long, drawn out, waiting game where the only way to pass the time was to place bets on who would give in first.

And what better time for a third quarter shake up then right when our leads are on the cusp of admitting their undying love for each other. (That is a joke. It was not a good time. It was a bad time. It was terrible. I want my money back.) No, I'm not talking about Joong Won dying and then coming back with no memory of Gong Shil. Surprisingly, after sitting down and working out my feelings about it, I realized that that actually happened at the perfect point in the story.

I'm talking about Mr. 'I can see ghosts too.'

I understand why he was there. The drama was extended unexpectedly, and they needed to fill the extra time. But the characters presence is ultimately unnecessary. He adds nothing to the plot, he doesn't help Gong Shil find any answers, and he has it in his head that he has some kind of romantic claim on her because he met her ghost once. Nah, son. That ain't how that works.

In the end, our leads do still get a happy ending, but they also have to suffer through some rather unnecessary heartache before getting there. And they deliver to the audience what is a super weak-sauce kiss. Maybe the writers thought all the casual touching would be enough to satisfy the audience, but they thought wrong. Lame kiss was lame.

Despite it's faults, this drama does have a lot to commend itself, and I would recommend watching it.

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Just a Heads Up: This review is being written literal Years since I watched this drama. At least ten years now, if my math is right. That means it won't be an accurate representation of what I thought of this drama just after completing it but more of a reflection of my feelings for it now with all the nostalgia, the frustration, and eyes wide open to the stories flaws.

....

Ooooooh, Fated to Love You. What a history we have together. You were my first Asian drama ever, where it all began for me. You were the Definition of a crack drama; over-the-top, melodramatic, ridiculous, and yet somehow intensely watchable. Your female lead hit me in the feels so hard I'm Still feeling it. And you were So. Damn. Infuriating.

I loved and hated you at the same time.

First and foremost, I Love Xin Yi as a character. I know mousy, downtrodden, insecure, damsel-in-distress characters are considered passé now, offensive even, but I like them, and I always will. (Judge me all you want.) And Joe Chen's portrayal of such a character is simply superb. When she cried, You cried. (And don't tell me you didn't, cause you're lying.) Of course, Cun Xi is a terrible person, and you hate most of the things he does and frequently hate him himself, but he still made me like him at the same time, and whenever he did something lovely for Xin Yi, my heart melted into a puddle at my feet. (So sue me.) Anna, unsurprisingly, is one of my least favorite second female leads of all time and probably the main source of ire for me in this drama. She's bloody awful, and you spend most of the time she's on screen thinking up creative ways for her to die. And Dylan may have been a nice (ok, he Was nice), but that doesn't change the fact that I find clingy secondary leads annoying on most fronts, no matter how nice they are, and I did find him clingy.

Looking back at this drama now, I fully recognize the myriad of flaws with the story, and if I were watching it today for the first time ever, I probably wouldn't be able to finish it. I actually tried to re-watch it a few years ago, and I couldn't get more than halfway through. There are a lot of things I love about old-school dramas and sort-of miss, but there are a lot of things I put up with while watching them too. Draggy sections, extreme noble idiocy, wringing every last ounce of drama from a situation as possible to the point of inducing intense rage. I didn't enjoy those things then, and I don't enjoy them now. But I put up with them, because the stories made me care. And that's how it was with Fated to Love You. It may have had extreme noble idiocy, and it may have dragged in places, and it may have spent a large chunk of time trying to wring every last ounce of unnecessary drama from some of it's plot points, but it made me care. I wouldn't care Now, but it made me care then.

So I love this drama. And I hate it. And I will probably always feel that way, lol.

....

I don't remember anything about the music of this drama, so I've rated it a 1, but I'm sure it was like a lot of dramas of it's time and therefore holds some level of nostalgia/cringe of it's own, lol.

....

Original Review:
This is the first drama I ever watched, and I consumed it like it was crack. I both love and hate it at the same time, and it will forever have a special place in my heart.

I tried to rewatch it a couple years ago, and I couldn't get more than halfway through, lol.

Links to my reviews for the other versions:

https://kisskh.at/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/review/22004

https://kisskh.at/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/reviews/75009

https://kisskh.at/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/reviews/274737

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I never watch sad dramas. Never. But I couldn’t help it with this one. It just broke my heart in the most terrible of awful of perfect ways.

Now, I’ve never had an incurable illness. I’ll never know what it’s truly like. But I do suffer with depression. And there are definitely some similarities between ALS and mental illness. I don’t want to compare my situation to Takuto’s. They are not the same. But watching him struggle with his illness, struggle with communicating with his parents, struggle with being open and honest with his family and friends and co-workers, struggle with finding purpose in life, a part of me just understands.

It was hard to watch Takuto push people away. It was hard to watch as his parents refused to understand. It was hard to watch Shigeyuki smile to Takuto’s face then betray him behind his back. This was just a hard drama to watch at times. But I understood.

There is literally not one character in this drama that I hate. There were characters that I very much disliked, but that was because they were sucky people, not because they were poorly written, or they were impeding the story in some way. Everyone was so real and true to life. Takuto never felt like a caricature of a person with an incurable illness. He felt like a real person. Megumi was sweet and genuine and kind, but she wasn’t weak or helpless. She was a woman who could make her own decisions and who could change her mind. Their friends were aDORable, and I rooted for their romance from the beginning. Takuto’s family, as well as Megumi’s mother, while at turns frustrating and infuriating, behaved in a way that felt pretty normal. Sometimes families aren’t very good at being helpful, and you have to teach them how to be. But Shigeyuki was consistently my least favorite character.

Shigeyuki was so incredibly sleazy. He was clearly prepping Megumi for when he would finally make a move on her, but because he was so nice all the time, she didn’t even know it. Guys like him are the worst. When they just come out and say, ‘You should cheat on your boyfriend with me/break up with your boyfriend for me,’ there’s nothing to muddle a girl’s brain. The guy is clearly a jerk, and she can just kick him in the you-know-where and move on with her life. When he behaves the way this guy did, acting all nice and genuine and seemingly innocent, it’s very easy for a girl to get confused and fall for his trap. He is so true to life that it is frightening.

My only desire, up to the very last episode, was for him to get kicked off a very tall mountain and fall into the ocean where he would then be eaten by a shark.

But somehow, the drama managed to give him redemption without it feeling forced. When he admitted what we already knew about him, that he had been jealous of Takuto the whole time, and then he realized he didn’t want to be jealous anymore…I believed him.

Jealousy is a hungry beast, and it can make you do some terrible things.

This drama will probably make you cry. It is heartbreaking and tragic and yet incredibly hopeful. The performances are some of the best I've ever seen, and the story is incredibly real and honest. Nothing's watered down or turned into a cliché. If I have any complaints, it might be that the ending wasn't where I thought the writers were taking us, but that doesn't mean it's not good. I recommend this drama to everyone. It's a must watch!


Old Review:
Gah. Here. Just take my heart. You can have it.

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