SanaRehmat

I picked up Before We Get Married almost completely on a whim. I was in a drama slump and had spent two days trying my usual K-dramas and C-dramas without anything really clicking. This wasn't even the kind of drama I normally reach for, but I had already shortlisted it for a challenge, and the infidelity tag made me curious enough to finally give it a try. I honestly wasn't sure whether I was going to love it or hate it.

Instead, I ended up binge-watching the whole thing.And somehow, despite all the questionable decisions, frustrating characters, messy relationships, and moments where I wanted to yell at basically everyone, I genuinely enjoyed the journey.

When I first saw the title Before We Get Married, I assumed it would be another drama mainly revolving around marriage and the usual relationship problems. It is technically about marriage and relationships, but it approaches them in a much more complicated and uncomfortable way. This isn't really a story about a perfect couple finding love. It's about two people who are already committed to other relationships slowly realizing that the lives they've planned may not actually be the lives they want.

The story begins when Zhou Wei Wei accidentally leaves her diary in Chu Ke Huan's taxi. He reads it while trying to return it and discovers her carefully planned **65-year life plan** with her boyfriend. And from there, everything starts unraveling.

Chu Ke Huan has been in a ten-year relationship with Gao Zi Yuan, but the relationship has long since lost its warmth. They barely communicate, live almost separate lives, and seem to stay together more out of obligation, history, and promises than actual love. Zi Yuan tries to compensate for the lack of emotional connection by controlling almost every aspect of Ke Huan's life, constantly deciding what is best for him without actually asking him what he wants.

Wei Wei's relationship isn't exactly healthy either. Li Hao Yi genuinely loves her, but their relationship has become more about following their carefully constructed future plan than actually living together in the present. Everything has a schedule, a goal, a budget and a box to check. He isn't a bad person, but he is so focused on building their future that he doesn't realize how unhappy Wei Wei has become in the present.

And then Chu Ke Huan walks into her life and completely disrupts that carefully planned future.


I think the biggest reason I enjoyed this drama was the chemistry between the leads.Their relationship is messy, morally questionable and frustrating at times, but the chemistry is so natural that you understand why they are drawn to each other. There are so many scenes where they barely say anything, but their expressions and the way they look at each other practically have an entire conversation.

Jasper Liu was especially good here. Chu Ke Huan is such an expressive character, and I could genuinely feel what he was feeling just by looking at his face. Attraction, frustration, jealousy, amusement, anger, loneliness... he managed to communicate so much without needing dialogue.

I also liked that Ke Huan wasn't presented as some perfect romantic hero. His choices are questionable, and sometimes he absolutely makes things worse. He starts interfering in Wei Wei's relationship partly out of curiosity and partly because he is attracted to her, and honestly, some of his early behavior made me wonder how I was supposed to root for this man.

But the drama gradually gives us more of his perspective. His relationship with Zi Yuan has been emotionally over for a long time, but he is trapped by guilt, obligation and a promise connected to her mother. That doesn't excuse everything he does, but it makes his situation more understandable.

Wei Wei takes much longer to acknowledge what is happening. She has far more to lose because she has spent years building this image of what her life is supposed to look like. She has a stable relationship, a stable future and a carefully planned life, but somewhere along the way she has lost herself inside that plan.

I actually liked that she didn't immediately run toward Ke Huan.

She struggles. She denies her feelings. She tries to convince herself that what she is feeling is temporary and wrong. And even when she knows that her relationship isn't making her happy anymore, leaving isn't easy.That's what made their romance feel more realistic to me.


What I found most interesting was that neither relationship was simply "good couple vs bad couple."

Ke Huan and Zi Yuan's relationship is suffocating, but you can understand why they stayed together for so long.Zi Yuan is extremely controlling, and I found her frustrating to watch. She constantly crosses Ke Huan's boundaries while convincing herself that everything she does is for his own good. She interferes with his career, friendships and personal life, and at times her behavior becomes genuinely uncomfortable.

But I also think the actress did a great job because I never felt like Zi Yuan was simply an evil girlfriend inserted into the story to justify the main couple. Her desperation and insecurity were visible underneath everything. She desperately wanted to preserve a relationship that had already emotionally ended.

Wei Wei and Hao Yi were different but equally unhappy.Hao Yi wasn't initially someone I could hate. He was dependable, hardworking and genuinely loved Wei Wei. The problem was that he loved the **future they had planned** more than he understood the person standing beside him.

Their 65-year plan was actually a really interesting metaphor. It looked romantic on paper, but eventually you realize how little room there is for Wei Wei to actually choose anything for herself.

And that's something I really appreciated about the drama. It constantly asks What happens when a life that looks perfect from the outside isn't actually the life you want anymore?

I usually don't enjoy cheating or infidelity storylines, so I was genuinely surprised by how invested I became in this one.The drama doesn't make the situation easy to judge. You're constantly aware that what the leads are doing isn't entirely right, but at the same time, you understand why they are doing it.And that's what made it uncomfortable in a good way.There were definitely moments when I thought, No, absolutely not. Don't do this.And then five episodes later I was somehow rooting for them. It made me question my own opinions about relationships, commitment, obligation and when someone should finally admit that a relationship has already ended emotionally.

The drama doesn't really give you a clean "right" answer. Sometimes people stay because of history. Sometimes they stay because of guilt. Sometimes they stay because they're afraid of hurting someone. And sometimes they stay because admitting that something is over means admitting that years of their life didn't turn out the way they expected.


The office storyline became especially messy toward the end.Actually, so messy that I completely understood why office romances are forbidden in the first place.There were moments when everything became tangled together, with personal relationships affecting professional relationships and vice versa. It wasn't always neat or convenient, but it did feel like the kind of disaster that can happen when people refuse to separate their personal and professional lives.

Some of those plotlines were definitely frustrating and could have been handled better, but I appreciated that the drama didn't suddenly become clean and simple just because the characters had realized their feelings.

The ending was probably the part I had the most mixed feelings about.A part of me wanted a more straightforward romantic payoff after everything these two went through. But another part of me understood why the drama chose not to wrap everything up in a perfect little bow.I actually think the ending fits the overall message.

Wei Wei needs time to figure herself out outside of a relationship. She spent so much of her life following someone else's plan that jumping immediately from Hao Yi to Ke Huan would have felt like she was simply replacing one relationship with another.I liked that she gets the opportunity to stand on her own first.

The ending basically says that if their feelings are genuine, they don't need to rush. They can take time to heal, grow and become better versions of themselves before deciding what comes next.And honestly, that's much more mature than simply giving us a big romantic reunion and pretending everything is magically fixed.


Before We Get Married definitely isn't a drama I'd recommend if you're looking for a fluffy, uncomplicated romance. It is messy, frustrating, morally grey and sometimes downright stressful.But that's also why I enjoyed it.

The story is predictable in some ways and definitely uses a few clichés, but the relationship dynamics, acting and chemistry kept me invested. I liked how flawed everyone was. Nobody was completely innocent, but nobody felt entirely cartoonishly evil either.

Most importantly, it made me think.I started this drama because I was bored and wanted something different, and somehow this random pick ended up pulling me completely out of my drama slump. I laughed, got frustrated, questioned everyone's decisions, rooted for the leads even when I knew I probably shouldn't, and genuinely became invested in their complicated journey.

It's definitely a messy and mature relationship drama, but underneath all that mess, I think it's really about learning when a relationship has stopped being right for you, finding the courage to choose yourself, and understanding that sometimes loving someone doesn't mean you have to immediately choose them.

And for a drama I started almost entirely on a whim, I ended up enjoying it far more than I expected.