PrettyCarEye

Ok, so I didn't read all of what you wrote because I don't want to be spoiled anymore. I read a bit and found out a huge detail that I could have done without knowing. Totally not your fault! That's what I get for being nosy! I just started this drama and I'm really feeling the lead guy (although I sometimes think his clothes looks too big on him ... haha. I often experience this in Jdramas too, but in K-dramas they really know how to dress, both the men and the women). Anyway, the female lead ... not feeling her as much. I hate to sound vapid and vane AF, but I don't find her very attractive. I feel like she has bad chemistry with him and maybe that's why I'm experiencing these first few eps as a bit slow. BUT that's part of the fantasy, right? The average girl with the hot, badass guy (those red pill guys hate on this trope so bad ... LOL). Anyway, all the swooning in the comments makes me want to continue despite 5 - 6 eps in, I feel its dragging a bit. I'm curious, though ... what is the ending? With this type of drama, it has got to be a happy one right??? :)

I don't think even she knows who the baby's father is. But my guess would the eunch because they were having sex for a long time before she married the king.

She wasn't a concubine at the start. She was the queen (and was thus referred to as such). There was a scene at the beginning where the former King asked his step-mom to find him a new wife since it's been a long time since his old queen died and he had to secure the line of succession. Therefore, he had to remarry. The Queen Mother then married him off to the female lead (to prevent her real son from going after her) and she gave birth to a son, but it is unclear who fathered the child. The King or her former lover before he became a eunch. I don't think she knows either. She became a concubine to the former king's stepbrother, who was the King she killed at the end so that her son could take the throne.

This sounds awfully similar to the worst drama I've ever watched in terms of all the illogical plot holes - Temptation. Don't think anything will ever top that wretched drama; won't watch this one to find out.

An inferior adaptation of the original Korean version, imo. FL had some charm, but ML was rather dry and one note throughout. His way of portraying guilt and shame was to constantly look melancholic & depressed. He lacked So Ji Sub's range & charisma. The romance too was rather understated and lacklustre. Definitely not as satisfying as the kversion, which is saying a lot because I remember wanting more romance and intimacy between the leads when I watched Always for the first time. But we all know when it comes to romance, the Japanese ain't about that life. Still watchable though so 6/10 for me.

Thanks, I'm familiar with many of these titles. I would argue, however, that these are exceptions to the rule. If you watch 10 romance jdramas or movies, 7-8 of them will have a sad ending, guaranteed. Don't believe me, try it as an experiment. Choose 10 random dramas and 10 random movies with a majority romance arc and see if it ends happy or sad. I'd be willing to bet money that most of them will be sad.
Also the ones with the happy endings often tend to feature sappy, puppy love teenage or young adult (early 20s) stories. Most love stories with people over 30 often end in tragedy. It's as if in Japan everyone over 30 either hate each other so their relationship can't last or they die of cancer. :/

Better than I anticipated. I went into it half expecting to drop it eventually or skip a lot of scenes, but neither occurred.
The series did start off to a slow start, but picked up pace once the main leads went steady in their relationship. And definitely they were the best thing about this drama. They had incredibly GREAT chemistry (+ a few decent kiss scenes & some sweet, cuddly moments, though not enough for my tastes).

The ML was sooo hot. I dunno if his voice was dubbed or not, but I loved listening to him speak. His bad boy swagger will have you drooling all over your computer. Can't believe the actor was only 27/28 at the time of filming; he had a more mature, big man vibe to him. Anyway, really loved their interactions & dynamic as a couple. This was a mature and strong couple who communicated well and worked out their problems like grown adults. The ML more so than the FL.

ML was the perfect modern gentleman. He was a protector, he doted on the FL (I love how playful & teasing he was toward her), gave her a lot of space & leeway to be herself and do her own thing. Sometimes the FL didn't seem to appreciate how much he cared for her, which was a bit off-putting given how great he was to her. At times she was a bit on the immature side, a little too self-absorbed and entitled as many modern women are. There were moments that felt like she took the ML for granted, acting in inconsiderate ways without thought or consequence for his feelings or putting other people (like his rivals) before him. Perhaps there were some cultural codes at play that I didn't fully grasp (guanxi), but I didn't like how she stuck to his opponent against him. Loyalty is super important in a relationship and at certain times she didn't appear very loyal at all to me.

Her good points were that she was ambitious and capable, but not as obnoxious as some FLs are in western shows. Overall, she was a good heroine and I guess both of them can't be perfect.

I wasn't a major fan of the 2nd lead couple. They both seemed too immature to really know what they were getting themselves into. The 2ML was particularly earnest, but I just couldn't warm to them as a couple. I would have much preferred to see more scenes with ML's rival and his wife.

Some of the negative comments are a bit frivilous (typical on MDL :/). People down voting the drama for product placement and a ring tone ... ::eyeroll::
Sure, the product placement was quite obvious but at least they incorporated it well into the story, rather than just randomly placing it in scenes where they don't belong. I've seen worse product placement attempts in K-dramas. As for the ringtone, yes, it was a bit repetitive and quite odd that everyone had the same one, but it wasn't a big deal. Certainly nothing to give this show a bad rating for. Those first 2 reviews on the drama's front page are totally out of line, imo.

It's been a minute since I watched a K-drama, but overall, this drama to me is a lot better than half the K-romcoms I've watched. While there's a lot of censorship in both C-dramas & K-dramas, I like how C-dramas deal with certain themes better. I couldn't imagine a lot of the stuff going down in this drama happening in a K-drama (ie. cohabitation b4 marriage & 2ML telling off his interfering mom & not groveling to her later on). So on that score alone, Love Designer wins. 7.5/10

Please list them.

I totally agree!

She's not her mom, but she is her mom's daughter. She is a scion of the establishment that orchestrated the downfall of his family. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that his lust for revenge would extend to her. It's not like he knew her or had any sort of prior relationship with her, so why would he have any empathy for her? Why would not want to see her and her entire family fall after everything they did to his??
When he got to know her and saw that she was innocent and pure of spirit - nothing like her mother - he changed his behaviour. He fell in love with her and protected her. This was a natural and correct development of his character under the circumstance. So I continue to maintain that these criticisms of him are illogical and baseless.

Society places restrictions and expectations on both men and women, not just women. In the past one of the reasons why men had so much privilege & power was exactly because of the expectations society placed on them. You were rewarded based on the level of responsibility you held. Granted, it was a society that mostly men designed and built, but they weren't without their fair share of responsibility - both on micro & macro level. Nowadays men are losing prestige, privilege & influence, but still bear the same amount of responsibility, if not more, than they did in the past. They're still expected to uphold certain behaviours & standards while women constantly whine & rebel against the role assigned to them.

I'm not saying that men don't rebel against their roles too; they do. But they don't bitch & complain about it half as much as women do. Basically, what women want is to do whatever they like when they like without being held accountable. Yet when a man does the same thing he's condemned, ostracized & labelled as irresponsible, toxic, narcissistic etc. Life isn't perfect for anyone & I don't buy into this notion of women being perpetual victims. It's interesting how you justify this woman's infidelity & horrible behaviour, but had she been a man, would you be singing the same tune? Probably not. Women claim they want equality, but in actuality most women can't handle what it takes to be on an even playing field with men. What most women really want is privilege, power & prestige without any of the responsibilities & sacrifice that goes along with it.

Totally agree! The double standard that no one ever wants to admit. The myth of the perpetual female victim & the male aggressor that everyone loves to perpetuate. Cheating or controlling behaviour is 'toxic', 'narcissistic' and condemned by everyone when a man does it, but the same behaviours in women are applauded and she's labelled as 'strong'. Society says don't judge a woman by her gender, but turns around and run rampant with judging men for theirs. I hate humans.

In these ridiculous times that we live in, any type of male forwardness is met with the usual overused buzzwords 'toxic', 'controlling', 'creepy', 'narcissistic'. All of a sudden everyone is an armchair psychologist. Now women are expected to chase men & men are expected to behave like castrated lapdogs. If a man does the chasing or is enthusiastic in his pursuit of a woman, he runs the risk of being me-too'ed & labelled. Smdh.

Sweet & relaxing. I loved it! This is how dramas should portray a relationship between two people who are supposedly madly in love. The couple here did not skirt around the issue of physical intimacy - they kiss and touch at all the right moments, and acted just like you'd expect two lovers to behave. They were giddy and head over heals for each other & naturally they couldn't keep their hands off each other. No fish or pursed-lip kissing, or any awkward interactions around each other here, folks. Just natural & believable chemistry. I really hate it when romance dramas have the grown a$$ couple behaving like dumb teenagers, afraid to touch each other & orchestrating intimacy so fake & cringey, it makes Madonna's fake butt start to look real. More dramas like this, please!? List them below!

This movie is actually pretty well done. One might be mistaken to think that the love story is between Nagata & Saki, but the love story is really between Nagata and his art, which is like an errant lover who taunts & haunts him and fills him with moments of euphoria & moments of dread.

His portrayal of the chaotic artistic mind is very real & brings to mind the madness that permeated the art and lives of greats like Van Gogh, Picasso & Da Vinci. As someone who is an artist as well, I understood this choas, the insecurities, the pursuit of perfectionism.

However, for Saki, Nagata was a spiritual vampire. He sucked the life out of her in pursuit of his true love, the theatre. And I felt bad for her. Because she did everything right, everything a good partner is supposed to do. But being the partner of a temperamental artist like Nagata is not an easy feat ... the mood swings, the poverty, the constant drama. But she gave him the love, the space, the encouragement he needed when other women would not have coped.

It's the first time in a long time I was glad that an apparent romance did not end on a happy note. It wasn't that Nagata didn't deserve such a positive, loving & supportive girl like Saki, he wasn't ready for such a positive loving & supportive girl like Saki. At first I was holding out for them to resolve their issues (although I know this is Japan & their stuff is almost always doggedly pessimistic aka true to life), but by the end of it, I was happy that Saki extracted herself from that situation. Nagata wasnt an inherently bad person, but his whole identity was consumed by his art & he had no space in him for anyone or anything else. I think he had a genuine desire to make Saki happy, and agonized when he couldn't.

You obviously do not watch as much Japanese romantic movies as I do. But whatever, think whatever you like.

That's a convenient explanation. Still not buying it. This is Japan following their movie formula to the T. Romantic leads always die at the end, 9/10.

Make me.

I think I watched it on dramacool.

Yes, I'm also aware of this phenomenon.
However, the divorce from the father & division of the twins could have been as a result of both the reason you state and the reason I state. They don't have to be mutually exclusive, imo.