My Unfortunate Boyfriend

My Unfortunate Boyfriend

3.5/10

My unfortunate Boyfriend 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Yoo Ji Na is a driven, determined woman who will do whatever she needs to do in order to succeed at her internship in a large advertising company. Things start to get complicated when she makes the acquaintance of Yoon Tae Woon, a florist who has earned the name ‘Mr. Unfortunate’ at the office due to misfortune often befalling those who interact with him.

Cast:

No Min Woo (Yoon Tae Woon)

Yang Jin Sung (Yoo Ji Na)

Yoon Hak (Kang Hee Chul)

Han Hye Rin (Jung Hye Mi)

General Thoughts:

It’s basically cliché soup. There are no new ideas or characters presented and no surprises in the plot. We have a woman who will do whatever it takes to succeed in her job- and we actually have the romance taking a backseat to Yoo Ji Na working. Yawn.

Three guesses who the main character is

No Min Woo is an innocent klutz who develops a crush on the female lead. Why? Because that’s what happens in K-Drama so logically it should make sense, right? Right? No. We need an actual reason why our leading man gets the hots for our leading lady- and in ‘My Unfortunate Boyfriend’ none were given. Kang Hee Chul is your typical boss trying to get ahead in his career, ready to throw anyone under the bus to make that happen.

Boss Kang has Wanker's Cramp- the most deadly of all Second Lead Diseases

I think the writers were trying to play some sort of sympathy card here- like he’s worked so hard all his life for what he’s got he doesn’t know how to enjoy his life (or something), but he just came across as a giant wanker. Lastly, Jung Hye Min is your classic K-Drama b*tch- only the writers seemed afraid to make her a total b*tch so she just came across as this wishy-washy half-assed b*tch. But a b*tch all the same. As for the acting…well Yoon Hak does a great job. I really disliked his character (though I’m not sure that was the point) so he was able to construct a manipulative boss out of the nothingness that was Kang Hee Chul’s ambiguous character. Han Hye Rin was confusing. I couldn’t quite read her expressions all that well. Sometimes when she looked at Ji Na or Hee Chul I couldn’t really tell if she was trying to convey anger, jealousy or sadness. I feel conflicted about No Min Woo as well. I know he’s a good actor, and sometimes I was able to see it, but there were a lot of scenes where he came across a little awkward- not for lack of trying either.

An accurate depiction of how much weight Ji Na pulled in their relationship

He dove in 100%, and it was nice to see him playing a normal, regular guy, BUT the problem came when the writers made him do ridiculous, outlandish things under the guise of being ‘innocent’ or ‘naïve’. The issue here lies less with his acting and more with his face. He did all the right expressions and all the right movements, but the thing is- he just has such a unique, handsome, masculine face that didn’t really fit with the character. Once the story settled down and the characters became far less ridiculous he was able to play the sweet florist quite convincingly. And that brings us to Yang Jin Sung. Hoooooo, okay.

My thoughts about Yang Jin Sung after finishing this drama

I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of Yang Jin Sung, and I’ve yet to find a drama where I actually enjoy her in a leading role. I’m not sure if it’s something about her acting, or if she just plays strangely dislikeable characters, but she always comes across a tad stand-offish and abrasive. In the end, Yoo Ji Na just became a screechy, work-focused, not-cute heroine. The supporting cast were all adequate, but not outstanding. Then we have the plot, which does nothing and goes nowhere. We get a lot of footage of Yoo Ji Na working and schmoozing up to her boss, who is using her for some reason or another, and being hindered by Jung Hye Mi. Yoon Tae Woon just sort of flits around the edges interacting with the other characters every now and then and giving awkward diary monologues. Then he’s the nephew of the chairman (which surprises no one) and starts working at the firm too. Yaaaaawnnn. I don’t care who inherits the company, because it’s not interesting either way. Either Kang Hee Chul gets it- which is so painfully obvious, or Tae Woon gets it- which means karma’s doing a nice job of letting Yoo Ji Na have everything by turning the guy she maybe likes into a rich man that she’ll definitely like, which would’ve just sat wrong for all kinds of reasons. The drama did have lots of pretty scenery though.

Let's just ignore all the people and focus on the pretty

What Was Great:

Misunderstandings:

Some of the only comedic scenes that really hit the right note were the scenes involving Tae Woon and a huge misunderstanding. Sure it’s a little lowbrow, but I found it hilarious. In a drama crammed with unrealistic events and unrelatable characters, these scenes were probably the most plausible of the lot. Plus, sex jokes are just so unexpected in K-Drama- it just came out of nowhere and it was hysterical.

Hur hur hur

Office Couples:

The office couples were adorable. The tension between the males and females in the workplace was always present, but I never actually thought anything would come of it. It was cute and unexpected that the drama hooked up our support cast. 

What Wasn’t:

Starting on Steroids:

Goodness, I nearly quit after the first couple of episodes. It’s just plain ridiculous. All the overacting paired with bizarre situations are bad enough, but when delivered by slightly uncomfortable, mildly robotic actors it’s…painful.

Basically my face when I started this drama

It’s as if the writers were trying to make the drama funny by using ludicrous situations that would never ever happen, rather than thinking about how the differing character dynamics could bring about humour. While we do have these two polar opposite leads, none of the ‘funny’ events that happen to them at the start are actually character specific- any two characters could be slapped with the hair-caught-in-belt scene and produce the same result. It just felt like a whole lot of noise that didn’t further develop our plot or our characters. Once things settled down a bit and characters starting acting like actual humans, the drama became much more bearable.

Overacting:

Oh. My. God. Yang Jin Sung in basically every scene she was in was almost unbearably overacted. People just don’t react to things that way. Whether it was her getting angry, surprised or cringing in embarrassment, it was all insanely over the top. In some cases No Min Woo acted similarly, but this dropped down after about episode 3 or 4. I suppose the tone of the overall drama was outlandish and whacky, and sometimes overacting can fit in well to the tone of a scene, but not that much and not that often- particularly when it’s coming from only our main leads and no one else in the cast!

Please just stop.

Unbalanced Relationships:

The relationships were messy and sloppily constructed. Yoo Ji Na had more romantic scenes with Boss Kang than she did with Tae Woon.

C'mon player, at least change your setting

Which became increasingly more irritating once it was revealed he was just using her to get ahead in the company, particularly when Tae Woon was doing such a surprisingly good job of bringing the cute in the chances he was given. Yoo Ji Na’s different reactions to the romance bothered me too. She was totally smitten with Kang, but seemed taken aback and a little uncomfortable with Tae Woon- which made it confusing and weird when she chose to leave Kang for Tae Woon when she didn’t even know about the depths of Boss Kang’s douchbaggery. There was a similar feeling with Kang and Hye Mi. When Ji Na walked away from Kang, he always had this look on his face as if he was sad to see her go. I suppose this was meant to be his feelings of guilt for using her, but really it just made it look as if he really was into her on some level. But whenever he was with Hye Mi he was cold, distant and distinctly unromantic. And then throw in Hye Mi’s warped logic and it’s just one giant clusterf*ck. ‘Oh, I just want to have him even if it means destroying him’. What the hell woman? One- that’s not how love works. Two- why would losing the election make him turn back to you? Oh, wait no, it worked. Apparently that is how love works.

I'm still convinced this pairing makes the most sense

The 'what the f*ck' expression we were all wearing

The Bloody End:

She disappears, end of story. While I wouldn’t exactly call it a time skip- because it doesn’t have the telling ‘However Many Years Later’ tag, it was just as annoying. It could have been one year, it could have been one week. All I know is that Ji Na quits the job she worked all drama-long for and ditches the man she chose. What even. Bloody K-Drama heroines. Granted, Tae Woon does come back and find her and they snoodle on the beach. Meh. Also Boss Kang and Hye Mi get engaged. Congratulations- you two terrible people deserve each other.

Re-watch?

Never. It’s not the worst thing ever- as is shown by the fact that I actually finished it. No Min Woo was cute at times, and I did adore the tree kiss. But there’s really nothing in the drama to recommend it.

Best part of the whole thing

Bride of the Century

Bride of the Century

5/10

Bride of the Century

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2014

Romance

Comedy

Supernatural

Synopsis:

Choi Kang Joo is the eldest son of Taeyang Group, a large conglomerate. His family is rumoured to have been cursed hundreds of years ago, and as a result of the curse, the first wife of the eldest son will die on the wedding night. Due to this rumour, Kang Joo’s family is unable to set him up with an advantageous business marriage. Jang Yi Kyung is the daughter of a failing company, and her mother agrees that she will marry Choi Kang Joo for his family’s support, even though Yi Kyung has no desire to marry Kang Joo. When Yi Kyung runs away in the middle of marriage negotiations, her mother discovers a girl named Na Doo Rim, who happens to look exactly like Yi Kyung. Yi Kyung’s mother pays Doo Rim to pretend to be Kang Joo’s fiancé until Yi Kyung is found. 

Cast:

Lee Hong Ki (Choi Jang Joo)

Yang Jin Sung (Na Doo Rim/Jang Yi Kyung)

Sung Hyuk (Jang Yi Hyun)

Jang Ah Young (Lee Roo Mi)

Kim Seo Ra (Kim Myeong Hee)

Shin Eun Jung (Ma Jae Ran)

Kim Ah Young (God of House)

General Thoughts:

I really, really, really wanted this to be a good drama. The first half was amazing, starting off at a strapping pace. We get an instant idea of who our main characters are, and what situations they are in. The plot moves fairly quickly, with the characters making bold moves right from the start. We are set up to feel pity for Jang Yi Kyung when we see Choi Kang Joo treating her badly, which predisposes us to feel positively towards Na Doo Rim, her doppelganger. Na Doo Rim completely steals the show, not taking a backseat to Kang Joo, and her fiery rebellion is a great contrast to Yi Kyung’s simmering dissent. Yang Jin Sung does an excellent job expressing her two different roles, capturing both Doo Rim’s cheerful innocence and Yi Kyung’s festering anger. Lee Hong Ki is perfection (when isn't he) and gives a wonderful performance- perfectly capturing the very gradual softening of Kang Joo’s heart.

The beginning was ripe with hilarity

However, no amount of great acting can cover up for poor script writing. At exactly the halfway point, the plot takes a dive, and our characters suffer for it. The plot slows right down and we are privy once more (as is so common in K-Dramaland) to characters making stupid decisions. At this point in the drama they start to introduce the idea that longing and letting go is also a form of love.

"Why yes, I will lose my sh*t halfway through."

Sweet baby Jesus, we’ve seen so much bloody longing and letting go in K-Dramas. Please no more. When done well, and for good reasons, a main lead stepping back from their desires for the happiness of their significant other is heart-wrenching and bittersweet. However, in this case, it’s just a display of pure stupidity. If abandoning your loved one changes nothing in their situation, why abandon them at all? And the lame, played-out excuse of ‘saving them from suffering’ doesn’t cut it anymore. Haven’t we all gathered by know that being heartbroken at the departure of their lover is a form of suffering? Seriously. The writers also try to over-complicate a rather simple plot. Most of our characters’ major cards had already been played, and they’re all doing a lot of darting around in the shadows to try and get the upper hand, while not a lot is changing on the surface. The series also started out with a fair amount of quality humour, but that starts to flat-line as the drama has an identity crisis and tries (and fails) to become a melodrama.

We all know, but no one cares

The show gets back a bit of its old spark towards the end, bringing the humour back in and starting to round the rather haggard plot into its climax. And then we have some more uncalled for ‘I’m going to leave you because I love you’, with no real consequence except to make our characters (and viewers) miserable again.

What Was Great:

Ghostie Girl:

Most adorable ghost ever

The ghost was a nice twist on the classic rich-man, poor-girl scenario. I really enjoy characters with hidden motives, as it prevents the drama from becoming too predictable, and frankly it can get a little boring when you know what everybody wants. Right until the end, it was unclear what the intention of our ghost was- did she want to kill Doo Rim or not? I must admit, towards the end there I was hoping she would. What I was most worried about was that the drama would fail to address why this ghost was bothering this family, but thankfully, we got an episode that explained quite nicely what our ghost’s deal was. It was a pity the rest of our characters weren’t mapped out this nicely.

Flashback:

I’m not usually a fan of flashbacks at all- particularly when they are used to explain the current actions of the characters. However, surprisingly enough, this drama showed a nice little example of how effective flashback can be when pulled off well. It gave us insight into both our living character’s intentions, and also perfectly explained why ghostie was harassing this family. The key point was that the drama didn’t focus on the past characters for too long, only giving us a little snapshot of what had happened, while managing to include all relevant information.

Oppa:

Okay, Jang Yi Hyun was a great (if unrealistic) character. He was essentially perfect- with a kind heart, gentle nature, and strong sense of responsibility. The way he protected Doo Rim from the Choi family, and eventually even his own family, was massively endearing. He had so much cute going on with Doo Rim, and it was so easy to love him as an audience. Running away to live a happy life with this man does not sound like a horrible plan at all.

He's basically just wonderful. All the time. Forever.

Initial Setup:

The beginning of this drama was so, so, so, so good. All our characters had reasons behind their actions, and we even had some pretty surprising character reveals- with some people in our main cast not being who we thought they were. The idea of the curse was set up strongly, and our characters were slowly beginning to circle each other in preparation for the big climax- which sadly fell a bit flat after a drag in the build-up. We were also given little hints to side problems that may arise later in the drama: daddy Choi’s first love, discovery of Doo Rim, and Oppa’s half-brotheriness.

Back before the drama lost the plot (quite literally)

Roo Mi:

Oh, how rarely do we see a well executed turn-around for our female jilted ex-lover. Originally Roo Mi was set up as dislikable- antagonising Yi Kyung and doing everything in her power to keep Kang Joo for herself.

Omg, a successful side-woman character switch-up

She is the perfect opposite force for Doo Rim, giving Doo Rim opportunities to buck up, display some delightful sass (without coming off b*tchy), and stick close to Kang Joo. Unlike SO many girls in K-Dramas- Roo Mi when to back off. Instead of making an ass of herself when she realised Kang Joo was really in love with Doo Rim, she backed away from the situation. Hooray! It was totally believable that she didn’t like Doo Rim for a patch in the middle- who likes the girl that captures the heart of the man you love? Then, as the story progresses, and Doo Rim makes stupid, incomprehensible decisions, Roo Mi works really hard to help Kang Joo and Doo Rim’s relationship work, because she’s a smart lil’ cookie, and figures out that she can’t be happy and move on if the man she loves is miserable. The discovery of Yi Kyung’s true character also makes it much easier to accept Roo Mi’s apparent character change. It was a wonderful, well-executed character 180°.

Grandma’s Role:

Okay, this whole tie-in with Doo Rim’s family was actually pretty cool. It was nice that they revealed all these hidden connections, even if it was mildly incestuous.

What an unexpected gem

What Wasn’t:

Letting Go is Love Too:

Oh. This whole concept is just….blegh. We are actually given a nice, hidden, accurate representation of what this means. Roo Mi. Even though she loves Kang Joo, she lets go of her feelings for him so they can both be happier.

If you run off I'm going to dislike your character instantly. 

I cannot stress enough- THIS CONCEPT DOESN’T REALLY WORK ON TWO PEOPLE WHO ARE TOTALLY IN LOVE. It just doesn’t, K-Drama. Stop trying to make this a logical move. It is never, ever going to be a logical move between our main couple. Sure, Doo Rim’s backing out made sense when Kang Joo didn’t even know she existed. He really might have been happier not knowing that the fiancé he fell for was a different chick. Maybe. But then the second running away is just ridiculous. Not only does Kang Joo specifically ask her to wait until the commotion dies down so they can be together, but nothing actually changes with Doo Rim’s disappearance. Except that now both she and Kang Joo are sad little heartbroken babies. Not even kidding, the situation would have played out the same regardless of Doo Rim’s presence- the only difference being that everyone would have felt a little less like shooting someone if Doo Rim had even tried to stick it out. It’s just salt in the wound that Kang Joo has potentially ruined his whole life for this girl, and she just buggers off. I swear, if another K-Drama does this (which it inevitably will), I’m going to lose my noodle.

Not my tears.

Ethical Queries:

Okay, was I the only one that was massively uncomfortable when this girl married Kang Joo while still pretending to be someone else? It was dead creepy. The whole scene was given this super dreamy, golden light and music vibe, and I’m just sitting here like ‘dude, he doesn’t even know who that is’. Was it supposed to be sadly romantic when in her vows she thinks her own name, but says someone else’s’? Because it wasn’t. It was weird. And wrong.

Wrong on so many levels

Doo Rim was given so many perfect opportunities to tell Kang Joo who she really was, and she passed them all up. That whole episode was just waiting for her to let the secret out, but no. She chooses to secretly marry this poor, unsuspecting man while continuing the lie. Understandably, Kang Joo’s not pleased when he finds out.

What. What are you even. You crazy.

And then, THEN, ohmygodguys, THEN she has a secret baby. I mean, the whole marriage thing can sort of, maybe be given a pass if you kind of squint your eyes. It was her he loved and not Yi Kyung after all. But on what planet is it okay to give birth to your sort-of-husband’s baby and raise it for two years- all while he’s running himself ragged to find you? Not this one, I can tell you. In this moment, Doo Rim’s character lost any feelings I still had left for her (which was minimal after the uncalled for disappearance). I was really hoping Kang Joo would find her, blow his top, take the kid, and arrest her for impersonation and identity theft. But no, he’s not even mad. He’s mad that she lied to him for a couple of months about her name, but it’s totally cool that she lied to him for two years about his own fatherhood. Drama, what are you even doing. Stop. Stop it now. Stop it forever.

Oppa’s Family:

I didn’t really get this whole plot-point. Is Yi Hyun actually related to Yi Kyung? I thought so, but then everyone’s talking about how he wouldn’t act this way if Yi Kyung was his real sister. Isn’t a half-sister still a sister? Don’t these kids have the same baby-daddy? I thought they did.

Sooooo is it borderline incest or not?

Really, I don’t know why they bothered bringing this up at all because it had no impact on anything relevant. Maybe the writers were hoping it would just make it a little less weird that Oppa fell for a girl with the same face as his sister.

Re-watch?

Absolutely not. This drama made me so mad. It was most likely the excellent start that made the low points seem so very, very low. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry at the writers before now. Why did you kill this drama half-way through? Jerks.

There was so much right, but so much wrong