Love in Contract

 Love in Contract

4/10

Love in Contract

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                           Year: 2022

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Choi Sang Eun is a charismatic woman who works as a contract wife. Her job is to help her clients in situations where a wife is required- such as looking good for school reunions, climbing the social ladder at work, or avoiding pressure from family to settle down. Sang Eun has a long term client, Jung Ji Ho, who she sees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A new client, Kang Hae Jin, is a popular actor who has hired her for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Cast:

Park Min Young (Choi Sang Eun)

Go Kyung Pyo (Jung Ji Ho)

Kim Jae Young (Kang Hae Jin)

Kang Hyung Suk (Woo Gwang Nam)

Jin Kyung (Yoo Mi Ho)

Lee Joo Bin (Jung Ji Eun)

General Thoughts:

I picked up this drama because I am a big fan of Park Min Young. Even though there was a lot of negativity floating around about this show, I honestly thought to myself “How bad can it be? Park Min Young chose to be in it,”. I wish I had listened to all those online posts saying that ‘Love in Contract’ was bad. Because sadly it is. And not even the good kind of bad where everything is so whacky that it’s almost fun to watch what a complete mess the show becomes. This show didn’t become a mess. It was just horribly, horrifically, mind-numbingly boring.

Big yawn

Most poor dramas tend to at least make it a good 5 or 6 episodes in before falling apart, but by episode 3 of ‘Love in Contract’ I was already pretty darn bored. There’s just no plot really. The whole set up of Sang Eun being a wife for hire was basically a lie, because after a short montage in the first episode, she retires. I kid you not. The whole THING of this show was that you could pay Sang Eun to be in a contract relationship and that was supposedly where all our story and tension would come from.

The contract expired before this drama even began

But then she retires except for two ‘clients’. Which pretty quickly takes it out of the professional realm and goes into personal. All the tropes you expect to get with a contract relationship (which is what people who like stories about contract relationships are looking for) just weren’t there. By the time the drama started it was pretty clear and obvious that Sang Eun had feelings for Ji Ho and Ji Ho had feelings for Sang Eun. There was no back and forth or awkwardness of getting around a predetermined relationship set up, and there was no proper confusion about whether the other persons’ feelings were genuine or if they were just playing a role. All the good parts about a scenario like this just weren’t in the show. And if they were in the show, they weren’t developed or explored fully. Even the supposed love-triangle was done poorly. By establishing Sang Eun’s feelings so early on in the show’s run, there was no real opportunity for Hae Jin to have a good chance. Which was a shame because he was probably the only character that didn’t bore me. I don’t think there was anyone watching this who honestly thought that Hae Jin had any hope of ending up with the girl. Beyond these two watered down scenarios, the only other storyline really happening was whatever the hell was going on between Sang Eun and Madam Yoo. And not only was that boring, but it was confusing too.

Why would you even offer to live with someone you actively dislike?

I actually didn’t mind where we ended up, with Madam Yoo being Sang Eun’s Mum and them both having known for a long time but just never broaching the subject. I just don’t like how it played out. Without knowing about the unique relationship between them it was completely baffling as to why Madam Yoo would go so out of her way to meddle in Sang Eun’s life, and why Sang Eun would go so far out of her way to make sure Madam Yoo had money and a place to live. For most of this drama’s run these two characters were making decisions that were virtually impossible for the viewers to understand as we had a big chunk of information missing that would only be revealed in the last few moments.

A lot of this drama would have made a lot more sense if we always knew they were related

I don’t think the relationship needed to be a big twist at the end- I think the drama would have benefitted more from giving insight into the life experiences and thought processes of the characters so that they could be understandable rather than holding back information to try and do a shock reveal- because by the time that reveal came, I really didn’t care anymore. It took too long to get there, and I had already mentally checked out. And then that bring us to the other main relationship Sang Eun had going on in her life- Ji Ho. I quite liked Ji Ho’s character at the start of the show- he seemed sweet but with a uniquely introverted and withdrawn nature.

Ain't no spice in this dish

For a while it was fun to see the differences between Ji Ho’s mindset of minding his own business to the extreme and Sang Eun’s mindset of caring way too much about everyone else's perception (which was kinda just her job). But then it rather quickly became obvious that the writer had absolutely no idea what to do with Ji Ho’s character. He was developed so poorly as the drama progressed that he stopped making any sense at all. Supposedly his divorce was so traumatic that it caused him to completely turn inwards and just start ignoring everyone else around him. Only we then find out that his divorce was due to…miscommunication. You know, the same reason 90% of divorces happen. Why this was so traumatic and why he blamed himself so much for it was left mainly up to the viewers’ imaginations. So it was never really explained why Ji Ho started to shun being social so much. I mean, he has to have been normal and social enough before to date and get married, right? So what happened? Similarly, he then starts to get along with Sang Eun and all his coworkers pretty easily once he decides to date her. Just because that’s what's convenient. This relationship is supposedly so amazing and so life-altering that it changes his outlook on the world completely, and changes how everyone he knows views him. But a major problem here is that there was NO CHEMISTRY. I have never seen Park Min Young not have chemistry with someone, but there you go. There was no spark between the leads and it just felt kind of awkward. The whole relationship felt very immature and high-schooly considering that they were both adults and one of them had been married before.

The show totally glossed over how and why they fell for each other too...

When so much of a drama is riding on nothing more than a romance, it’s super disappointing when that romance is lacklustre. While the characters were all fairly cr*p, I will say that the acting was good. There was nothing amazing (as with such a boring storyline the actors weren’t asked to deliver much), but at least I can say that the actors did a good enough job with the complete amount of nothing they were given.

I didn't really ship her with anyone to be honest

I’m not a huge fan of Go Kyung Pyo- not for any particular reason, he just lacks that sort of sparkle that really makes you love a leading actor. But he did do a good enough job of giving a bit of emotion to a very quiet character which can be a tricky ask. Did I completely love him? No. But did I find him annoying and terrible? Also no. So I mean, that’s a win I guess. On the other hand, Kim Jae Young felt much more male-leady. He had a more engaging character so that was probably a contributing factor. Hae Jin was also a much more emotional character than any of the others in this show, so he expressed himself often and had a larger range of emotions to portray. Not only did this give us insight into exactly how Hae Jin was feeling as a character, but it made Kim Jae Young feel like he was doing a really great job at bringing Hae Jin to life. There was an energy he provided to Hae Jin that just made him likeable as a character and made him stand out a tad more that Go Kyung Pyo. Poor Go Kyung Pyo- there’s only so much you can do when your character’s description is literally just be blank.

What Was Great:

Low Toxicity:

Do I have to put something in this section? I do? Fine, I'll try. While many of the characters were annoying or a little unlikeable, I will say that none of them were outright toxic or completely horrible. When Ji Ho’s ex, Ji Eun, came on the scene I honestly thought they were going to have her be a super b*tchy, horrible character whose only agenda was to break up the leading couple in some deluded attempt to get her ex back.

Though admittedly this drama did need some better conflict

But I was pretty thankful when that didn’t happen- I’ve seen enough spiteful exes on my screen for a lifetime. Similarly, Madam Yoo had a redemption arc towards the end as her character was explored more, and even the two Chaebol families weren’t that bad. They were stubborn and didn’t listen, but they weren’t outright hostile. Except for maybe Sun Jin, but to be honest he was around so sporadically and I really didn’t have any clue what his nefarious schemes were or why they mattered, so he was pretty easy to overlook and forget.

What Wasn’t:

The Leading Lady:

She was just so annoying guys. I couldn’t cope with how much I didn’t like Sang Eun. Even with Park Min Young acting her, there was just no way to save this character for me. I’m sure the writers thought they were giving us a bubbly, perky, somewhat sassy heroine, but that is just not what ended up happening.

Like, could she BE any more self-obsessed?

Sang Eun was so self-absorbed. It’s like the show thought they were giving us a heroine that was extremely selfless because her job was about ‘helping’ people who were needing ways out of certain situations. But that’s just not the case! Sure, Sang Eun focused on her clients when she was with them- else she wouldn’t get paid and she wouldn’t have a job! But when she was on her own time all she seemed to care about was herself- how she was feeling, what she was going through, what she was doing. I cannot count the amount of times Kwang Nam (who was DELIGHTFUL by the way) was trying to tell Sang Eun something or have a serious conversation with her about something he was going through just for her to brush him off or minimise his feelings. This is supposed to be her best friend and she cannot give him even five minutes of her d*mn time to hear him out. Even with Ji Ho she seemed to always be forcing what she wanted onto him. A stand-out in my mind is the hospital scene. Ji Ho didn’t want a fuss and just wanted to go home but Sang Eun completely ignored him and dismissed his feelings and took it upon herself to get him a private room and do it up like a mini house. Not only did Ji Ho not ask for this- he specifically said he didn’t want it. He had to come up with some bullsh*t lie in order to get Sang Eun to finally stop and let him go home. Was this behaviour supposed to be cute? It’s not! It’s controlling and annoying and not a sign of a healthy relationship! To be honest, I actually think I liked Sang Eun better when she was being a chaebol.

Also what the f*ck was with her ghosting Ji Ho in that last episode? He should have dumped her for that alone

In one of the last episodes where she strolls into Hae Jin’s company and utterly destroys Hae Jin’s brother, she was pretty cool. The icy, I’m-the-greatest-thing-ever concept really worked in this sort of Chaebol scenario. I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but I think I would have preferred if the heroine had just been a Chaebol. It would have made her b*tchy, self-centred character a lot more tolerable.

Recommend?

No. I ignored all the bad things I’d heard about this drama, but please don’t ignore me. You will regret it.

Yay- it's over!

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

5/10

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 20                                    Year: 2010

Romance

Comedy

Historical

Synopsis:

Since her father passed away, Kim Yoon Hee has needed to earn money to support her mother and her sick brother. She works by disguising herself as her brother and providing answers to the men's only national exam. After being discovered as a stand-in during the exam, Yoon Hee is forced to take the exam under her brother’s name, Kim Yoon Shik, and is admitted into Sunkyunkwan University.

Cast:

Park Min Young (Kim Yoon Hee)

Park Yoo Chun (Lee Seon Joon)

Yoo Ah In (Moon Jae Shin)

Song Joong Ki (Gu Yong Ha)

Seo Hyo Rim (Ha Hyo Eun)

Jeon Tae Soo (Ha In Soo)

Ahn Nae Sang (Jung Yak Yong)

Cho Sung Ha (King Jung Jo)

Kim Min Seo (Cho Sun)

Kim Kap Soo (Lee Jung Moo)

General Thoughts:

I totally expected to love this drama, so I was bitterly disappointed when that didn’t exactly happen. Considering that most people call this one of the best ever K-Dramas, it didn’t really live up to the expectations.

Another drama killed by the hype-train

It’s not that the drama was all bad, there were definitely fun and interesting aspects to the story, it just didn’t hold my interest well enough for me to appreciate the fun and interesting moments when thy came around. To start with, the story wasn’t exactly extensive enough to warrant 20 episodes.

Quit forcing your love-line on me

The crossdressing hijinks and the humour that ensued could be pulled out for a few episodes, but after that we needed some beefy plot to kick in, and that kind of didn’t happen. A lot of the beginning of this drama was dedicated to various goings-on in Sungkyunkwan that were basically only there as a cause for Yoon Hee and Seon Joon to get closer. Which is fine, I guess, I just wished there’d been a tad more meaning behind these events as it was painfully obvious that they were only included as a way to get the leads actually interacting with each other. And when it requires that much effort to get your leads interacting, their whole relationship feels a bit forced. The second half of this series was dedicated to finding the Geum Deung Ji Sa (which the King then didn’t even use), and having the leads actually get together. Which isn’t a lot to spread over 10 hours. The acting was either really quite good, or on the worse side of mediocre. I’m a huge fan of Park Min Young, but I will admit that she felt a bit green here. Granted it is one of her earlier roles, but she didn’t have the natural charm that makes you love her character that she has since developed.

Moody, moody, dark and broody 

I’ve never found Yoo Chun to be a great actor- he’s just passable. But I actually found him pretty bad here. His character was painfully emotionless and robotic, and Park Yoo Chun didn’t add anything to the character that made him stand out as a loveable hero. Song Joong Ki and Yoo Ah In were so good that it kind of served to make Park Yoo Chul feel worse than he really was. Song Joong Ki and Yoo Ah In just have so much charisma that they completely overpowered poor Yoo Chun in every scene they were in together. Which of course kind of made me wonder why the heroine would fall for the most boring man in Sungkyunkwan.

These two were so much more fun. And nice. 

Jeon Tae Soo did well as our main character of conflict, and I found him believably arrogant and manipulative. However, his scare-factor was reduced a fair bit by having two of his minions being silly, bumbling characters who couldn’t pull off a single scheme.

It felt like they just barley tolerated each other

I thought Seo Hyo Lim was delightful as the innocent noblewoman, and Kim Min Seo was so dynamic as Cho Sun that I wished her story had been explored a bit more. The bromance between the four boys (well three boys and a girl) was charming when it came about, but I always had this feeling that they didn’t actually like each other all that much. Seon Joon was far too busy looking down on everyone to actually be friends with any of them, and Jae Shin had a pretty big hatred for Seon Joon and the rest of the Norons. While I understand that the drama needed tension behind it, I wish that the writers could’ve come up with some other way to add tension that didn’t include the main guys not liking/trusting each other. There were so many moments that could have been used to bring the boys closer together, but the writers always seemed to opt for using every single situation as an excuse to push Seon Joon and Yoon Hee together. It just felt like a total waste of these other two brilliant characters they had in Yong Ha and Jae Shin. I actually thought Yong Ha as a character got shafted pretty badly.

You're so cute and so interesting and so underdeveloped

He’s one of our main quartet and he only gets a smidge of his back story shown right at the end. Yes, I suppose the drama could have been trying to maintain his air of mystery, but Yong Ha would have been so much more interesting throughout the whole series had we known he was masquerading as a nobleman.

A fangirl's fantasy

I also just plain wasn’t a fan of Yong Ha’s ambiguity when it came to the friendships. While it was cute that he just did things for fun and to stir up toruble, in the grand scheme of things it didn’t make a lot of sense. Yong Ha clearly knew that Yoon Hee was a girl and that Jae Shin liked her, and yet it felt like he was going out of his way to set Yoon Hee up with Seon Joon- even before it was clear that Yoon Hee liked Seon Joon. Which seems like a pretty cr*ppy thing to do to your best friend who is so obviously in love with this girl. These behaviours might have been excused if he’d actually had a crush on Jae Shin, and it seemed like the drama was going to go that way for a while before it pulled out, but as just friends its a bit of a d*uche move. The ending also left me a bit baffled. Yoon Hee was teaching at Sungkyunkwan, that much was obvious, but was she still pretending to be a man (the students called her Yoon Shik not Yoon Hee)? Her gender was outed to the King and the rest of the quartet had known for ages- but was it ever actually revealed to everyone? If so, how did she avoid punishment? And how did she end up teaching?

This whole ending was just a confusing attempt at fan-service

The new messenger that Jae Shin caught was also obviously a girl (as evidenced by Jae Shin's hiccups), and yet Jae Shin mentioned that she was studying at Sungkyunkwan. If the Geum Deung Ji Sa wasn't used then how did the King manage to get to that Joseon he dreamed of- and so quickly too. 

What Was Great:

Solid Base:

The ingredients for this drama were all there, it’s just that they weren’t put together quite right. Yoon Hee crossdressing was always going to be fun, and there were definitely some hilarious moments that were caused by this situation. The moments of friendship and bromance we got between the main four were usually pretty delightful, and left me wishing that there had more moments like them.

There were some cute moments

The idea behind the Geum Deung Ji Sa was a good one, and having these four scholars hand picked by the King was a great way to bring them together. The idea of political faction friction and the class divide was an interesting one, but I just don’t think it was used to its full potential. 

What Wasn’t:

Seon Joon:

I was not a fan of this character. He was boring and uninteresting and came across as exceedingly arrogant most of the time. From the start I got off on the wrong foot with this character when he was criticising Yoon Hee’s view of class divide,

Isn't cool, no, I don't like you

poverty and the world at large when he himself had only lead a severely sheltered life with a buttload of money and power. Despite Yoon Hee being constructed as a smart character, I always kind of felt like he was belittling her. Sure, I think it was more that the writers were trying to have him teach Yoon Hee and challenge her world views, but for me it just ended up causing him to come across as highly obnoxious. And then when he thought he was gay it only lead me to dislike him more. While Yoon see sometimes acted shallow and petty it was obvious that this arose out of jealousy. However, when Seon Joon started acting petty it wasn’t because he was annoyed with how close Yoon Hee and Jae Shin were, or because Cho Sun loved Yoon Hee, but because he himself liked her. And that’s a really stupid and childish reason to be mean to someone. To make matters worse, Seon Joon was actually engaged to another woman for most of this show’s run. And he treated her like total poo.

I felt so bad for this poor girl

Seon Joon used Hyo Eun to try and make Yoon Hee jealous and to try and get over his own feelings, and I’m never a fan of abusing a third party like that.

Go for the guy that makes you smile not the guy that makes you cry

Hyo Eun was sweet and naive and in no way deserved to have her feelings trampled on so carelessly the way Seon Joon did- especially when you consider that his selfish act of asking her to marry him and then changing his mind would have a huge societal impact on Hyo Eun regardless of which party broke the marriage off. Girls in Joseon whose engagements fall through aren’t exactly thought of nicely, and don’t tend to have a lot of suitors afterwards. It only made things worse that next to Seon Joon we had Jae Shin- who was encouraging and supportive of Yoon Hee, and always went out of his way to make her feel comfortable. Yoon Hee smiled more when she was with Jae Shin, which only made me question more why she liked Seon Joon. The whole relationship just felt forced. 

Aged:

I don’t think this drama has aged particularly well. I know that’s it’s almost 10 years old now, but the whole show felt very dated. From the way it was shot, to the side characters that were purely for slapstick comedic effect, to the way it took 500 years for the plot to get moving- everything just felt like it belonged in the past.

I know it's set in the past and all, but this drama just felt old

While there are a lot of K-Dramas that have withstood the test of time and remain engaging, interesting shows despite the year they were made, I don’t think ‘Sungkyunwan Scandal’ is one of them.

Recommend?

Not really. Despite still being one of the top K-Dramas people say are fabulous, I really don’t think there’s that much good stuff in this drama. I can see how it could’ve been amazing when it first came out- but that was a whole 8 years ago now.

I didn't really feel the sparkle

Top 5 K-Drama Girls to Love

Top 5 

K-Drama Girls to Love

Seeing as I did a valentine special to celebrate some of the best Oppas K-Drama has to offer, I thought I’d do a similar follow up for White Day. Since it was Oppas last time let's have a look at the special girls (Unnies? Noonas?) that populate K-Dramaland. Similarly to the previous post, the actresses will have to be pretty well liked, star in good projects, and be generally more active in dramas rather than movies. Again, as I’m the compiler of this list, my preference will have some (a lot of) sway. 

5: Chae Soo Bin

Chae Soo Bin is a newer actress, with her earliest credit being around 2015. However, her awesome acting talent has propelled her to the forefront of Korean Drama, and she’s quickly making a name for herself as one of viewers’ favourite girls in K-Drama. It doesn’t hurt that there seems to be a lack of decent actresses in their early 20s- but if that means Chae Soo Bin gets more roles, I’m not complaining! She first grabbed attention as the stunningly beautiful second female lead in ‘Moonlight Drawn By Clouds’. I haven’t actually seen her next two dramas ‘Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People’ or ‘Strongest Deliveryman’ but I’ve heard raving reports of Chae Soo Bin’s performance in both. I watched and adored her in her latest drama ‘I’m Not a Robot’ where she was a delightful, adorable lead that filled her character with charm and warmth. If you want something shorter you can also catch her in last year’s KBS Special ‘If We Were a Season’.

4: Kim So Hyun

This wonderful girl was able to transition splendidly from child roles to teen roles and has now even delivered some dynamic performances as adult characters. From the moment I saw her in ‘Moon That Embraces the Sun’ I knew she was going to be an actress to watch out for. She has a whole list of credits earlier than ‘Moon’ and a whole heap after- the girl keeps busy. Not only is she gorgeous, but she’s an incredible actress that is able to play a variety of characters from villainous to petty to delightful, and has a way of wringing emotion out of an audience. Some of her biggest recent hits include ‘School 2015: Who Are You?’, delightful short series ‘Page Turner’, ‘Let’s Fight, Ghost’, ‘Ruler: Master of the Mask’ (admittedly this one is a total dud and I warn you against watching it), and you can currently catch her with Yoon Doo Joon in ‘Radio Romance’.

3: Park Shin Hye

Park Shin Hye is one of the bigger names in K-Drama, as she has a knack of signing onto projects that become huge hits. In fact, after a while I think part of the reason her dramas became huge hits is that people were watching due to her being in them. While she tends to play pretty similar characters, she does add a certain charm to them, and rather than seeming boring it’s more like comfort food- simple, and sweetly familiar. I haven’t caught many of her earlier works, first seeing her as the whacky, yet fun, crossdressing nun in ‘You’re Beautiful’. She went on to film ‘Heartstrings’, ‘Flower Boys Next Door’ (my particular favourite), ‘The Heirs’, ‘Pinocchio’, and ‘Doctors’. Her most recent drama was mid 2016 so hopefully that means we’ll be able to catch Park Shin Hye in a new production sometime soon.

2: Park Min Young

Park Min Young is definitely one of my favourite actresses in K-Dramaland. While she might not have been in as many productions as some other actresses, her characters tend to have a bit of backbone and personality (unusual for K-Drama heroines), which makes Park Min Young really stand out. She stole hearts as the leading lady in the widely popular and wildly loved ‘Sungkyunkwan Scandal’ and followed that up with the big hit ‘City Hunter’. ‘Dr Jin’ was next, and I honestly can’t remember whether this was good or bad (I haven’t seen it myself). But I have seen, and fondly remember her latest three dramas, in which she delivered strong, dynamic performances in all- ‘Healer’, ‘Remember- Son’s War’, and ‘7 Day Queen’.

1: Gong Hyo Jin

When you think rom-com, you think Gong Hyo Jin. Admittedly, she’s been in far more movies than dramas, but she’s still been in an enormous amount of dramas- most of which are insanely addictive and extremely fun. I first saw Gong Hyo Jin in the weirdly successful ‘Hello My Teacher’ which was hilarious and delightful. Since then I’ve seen all her works (bar ‘Pasta’) and mostly loved them. Gong Hyo Jin always brings a certain quirkiness to her characters and has an abundance of chemistry with her male leads- she’s said in the past that she actually falls a little in love with each of her co-stars, which definitely helps make the on-screen romance adorably believable. Her big hits (which is basically all her dramas) are ‘The Greatest Love’, ‘Master’s Sun’, ‘It’s Okay, That’s Love’, ‘The Producers’, and ‘Jealousy Incarnate’. I actually did a Top 5 list all for Gong Hyo Jin which you can check out here.

Happy White Day!