Noiva por Vingança (2022)

A Great Premise That Lost It's Way

I really went back and forth watching this one. The first couple episode are very slow to start and I struggled to hang on. The comedy is a bit of hit or miss for me and the general tone of the show is a bit of a whiplash of 4th wall breaking camera spiking from the two main leads, to murder and corporate espionage.

Someone in the comments here said it's like this show is a big puzzle with pieces that don't fit well and I have to agree with that. The show likes to throw twists and turns without fully fleshing out concepts or just concluding them by adding a new twist. That's not to say the story is entirely bad. The moment to moment writing is pretty satisfying and the delivery of the story was fairly fun to watch, especially up to episode 12 or so.
However the constant tone shifts throughout the show and scattered main plot make for a confusing watch. That's not to say you'll be left wondering what happened after watching the show but you'll be asking why the writers gave such odd motivations for the antagonists. The explanations on the last few episodes were pretty unsatisfying for me and left me wondering what the show would've looked like if it focused on other parts of the story inside. The premise set up after the first few episodes seemed like such a fun idea and had so many great places where they could've taken the show; but instead they keep developing and pushing too far, leaving behind the best ideas of the show behind.

When it comes to the acting, Krystal and Kim Jae Wook are super strong leads for a romcom like this, regardless of how I feel about the story. Krystal plays the overworked and underappreciated secretary very well and her charm is here in spades. She sells the character well and both her comedic and emotional moments are felt throughout.
Her character's writing fails her in the latter third of the show though and she falls into the same trope of the female lead that most kdramas end up going. She goes from being a capable, funny and impassioned lead character to being a passive supportive character to the male lead while the main plot of the story unfolds around the male lead.
Kim Jae Wook does well in the male lead role too. Just like his performance in Her Private Life, he is great at playing the cold tsundere CEO. I think just as a male lead actor should, he conveys his sensitive side of the male lead character just as well as his capable businessman side.
I do like that this show isn't interested in a second lead syndrome and in terms of the romance parts of the show, it focuses on the two leads. However the side characters in this show are nothing to write home about sadly. No acting here is too over the top (other than Im Won Hee but he's so typecast, it's hard to blame him.) and everyone plays their roles fairly well.

I think if you can accept how the plot unfolds you'll really enjoy this drama since the pieces are all there. For me it fell completely flat though and without the acting of the two main leads (and honestly too much free time for me) I would've dropped this show before it's conclusion.

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No sigue todos los clichés

Muy buena historia, entretenida y bastante diferente en cuanto a la relación entre los personajes a lo que estoy acostumbrada o mas bien nos tienen acostumbrados este tipo de relaciones entre el jefe y empleado, incluso también por el hecho de la relación que llegan a tener los protagonistas. Totalmente fuera de ciertos clichés a la hora de relacionarse y como en un punto te esperas que sigan la línea de "ahora están juntos" y en 4 capítulos o menos pase algo que los separe, cosas que suelen ocurrir muy de seguido y la verdad se agradece que en este caso no se necesite un cambio tan drástico en la relación principal si no que cada personaje tiene sus tramas y problemas que entrelazan bastante bien y no hay necesidad de crear muchos mas problemas para hacer todo interesante.

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How One Nasty Guy Came To Senses: Crazy-ish Edition

Crazy Love is somewhat entertaining drama - you get comedy, (fun) plot twists, backstabs, fake fiancé, terminal illness and of course R E V E N G E. At first it's a chaotic, crazy, enjoyable, silly ride (but despite all the ingredients being present, not a makjang) but it just falls off the funky rails soon and for the remaining drama you have dull bus ride through corrupted behind-the-scenes of academy business.

Any way i look at this, this drama just doesnt deliver – i had no expectations but i was still disappointed (okay i might have had some expectations since the top reviews seem to be waxing endless poetics on this drama...). The worst of it were the characters. It's like they had no stable personality whatsoever. I dont even know how to describe it - it's like most of the characters did things for a sake of doing it (and something happening in the drama) not because it made sense for their personality. No Go Jin was an awful dude who has been wronged 12 years ago BUT he still invests so much energy into destroying confidence of every secretary and person he meets. It was impossible for me to root for him even after he seemingly became a better person. Honestly – until now i dont know why he was such a jerk – did i accidentally skip a scene or something? Idk. It kinda made sense to me that literally every fucking person around him wanted to get rid of him.

Lee Si Na had good moments of enjoyable lead but once her storyline was resolved, she was forgotten by the writers and she became a cheerleader for the No Go Awful. The returning ex-girlfriend was suddenly randomly bitter and intensively charming it didnt made sense to me. Characters changed out of nowhere and their relationships between each other barely made sense. The final nail in the cofin was the shift to exposing the corruption and mysteries at the Gotop academy but done in such a superficial way it was just boring. And lets not even mention random-ass fairytale ending. You will have to watch that stupid thing yourself.

Editing was extra annoying in this drama. I would be more understanding if the second half of the drama was badly edited but how can first few episodes be so choppy? And dont get me started on the very first scene of the first drama. I kept thinking for solid 13 episodes that the first scene of the drama was some fastforward in the story and we are still supposed to get to that scene *somehow*. Anyways...

This drama was at some points so unhinged and ridiculous, which made me stay and be interested to see how the writers decide to resolve the plot but it became absolute snoozefest. The comedy was addmitedly enjoyable but i didnt particularly enjoy (or see) chemistry between Krystal and Kim Jae Wook, however, their acting was decent (although idk why but KJW seemed so very tired to me in this drama).
Either way... I’ve seen better dramas. But i’ve also seen worse dramas. It is what it is. I dont think this drama will become one of the new classics. 6/10

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It's not love

This isn't Crazy Love, this is everyone is an *ssh*le but they seem to have apparently good reasons to be one, or so they think.
They even try to reform someone who did a hit and run over a bet and someone who left his best friend to die with absolutely no reaction whatsoever and even fed him something that could potentially kill him.

The main male lead is an *ssh*le and only stops being one after someone threatens to take "something" he thinks belongs to him. He then turns into the complete opposite by letting people who betray him gain his complete trust just because they feel bad or are crying. He's seen as a rational, logical person and all the logic goes out the window.

This would have been great as a shorter story and one where both leads don't end up together. We can't give a pass to guys who are rude, egotistical and arrogant just because they're hot and have money. There's absolutely nothing likable about him, he just has a difficult past. So do a lot of people and they don't go around being an absolute menace to others, especially staff.

To make things worse, as per usual, the female lead goes from being opinionated and strong to being a decorative vase on the night table. In the last episode we can't almost hear her voice from how low her voice got. The crazy is left to a demonstration of possession in the last episode.

As if this wasn't enough, the mystery culprit had so many layers that it made me lose interest completely. When we found out, I was ready to give up on the drama.

I don't like Disney in the kdrama world, we should leave things separate. You don't have to reform everybody, toxic masculinity is not desirable, women aren't meant to be tamed, suicide and mental health problems aren't excuses to commit crimes, the happy ending one should hope for is not always a ring or marriage, it can be choosing oneself.

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Un mélange de genres bizarre... mais réussi

Avant même de visionner ce drama, et malgré les reviews sur MyDramalist, j'avais déjà du mal à classer ce titre dans un genre particulier. Déjà le résumé ne donne qu'une idée très partielle de l'histoire, ensuite pendant les quatre 1ers épisodes (après aussi, quoique ce soit moins marqué une fois rentrés dans le développement de la romance), on assiste bel et bien à ce mélange de genres. Rien que l'étrange générique "ambiance rap" brouille les pistes et reflète cette difficulté à définir clairement l'orientation de l'intrigue. J'avoue qu'au début c'est un peu perturbant parce que j'aime bien mettre les choses dans des cases. Ca ne veut pas dire que je n'ai pas aimé, bien au contraire. Disons que j'ai été surprise dans le bon sens.

Alors le fameux résumé nous donne l'impression qu'on va avoir une romance classique entre un patron bully et sa secrétaire souffre-douleur, qui vont se rapprocher après avoir vécu tous les deux une sorte d'expérience de prédiction de mort prochaine. Sauf qu'en fait, c'est pas du tout ça. D'ailleurs l'affiche qui montre notre héroïne avec un marteau et une robe ensanglantée présage déjà de ce décalage. En vrai ça démarre quand la pauvre assistante (la seule à avoir réussi l'exploit de tenir 1 an à ce poste), apprend qu'elle a une tumeur et qu'il lui reste quelques mois à vivre. Comme sa maladie est sans doute une conséquence du stress causé par son patron, elle débarque furax dans sa maison de campagne pour lui foutre une raclée. Juste après, un chauffard lui fonce dessus (sur le patron, pas la secrétaire) et le laisse presque mort, un "accident" volontaire parce que les gens qui le détestent se bousculent au portillon. Heureusement la secrétaire furax n'était pas loin et revient sur les lieux avant de prévenir les secours. Après quoi, profitant qu'il est amnésique à son réveil, elle se fait passer pour sa fiancée afin de lui pourrir la vie bien comme il faut. Pendant ce temps-là, c'est la guerre dans l'industrie de l'éducation (un secteur professionnel que je n'avais pas encore vu abordé dans un drama donc c'est cool), des psychopathes s'amusent à envoyer des trucs tordus et sanglants à notre patron adoré, plusieurs personnes en interne semblent vouloir lui nuire et pour compléter le tableau, on a droit au retour de l'ex-fiancée désireuse de le reconquérir. A part ça, on regrette que les choses ne tournent pas plus souvent "crazy" comme le titre semblait l'indiquer, parce que l'héroïne est magistrale les rares fois où elle pète les plombs.

Avec un début pareil, j'avais du mal à comprendre où on voulait nous emmener. En apparence, l'histoire prenait la direction d'un thriller psychologique angoissant, avec une victime de harcèlement professionnel décidée à se venger de son patron. Plusieurs détails creepy, des moments tristes quand elle tente de vivre avec la nouvelle de sa maladie, des envois anonymes glauques, même la musique donnent vraiment cette impression qui met parfois mal à l'aise, au point que j'ai dû relire les commentaires sur ce site pour m'assurer qu'il s'agissait bien d'une "rom-com" comme ils le prétendent. Et même sachant que c'était une romance, c'est bien la première fois que je me suis demandée comment nos deux protagonistes allaient réussir à finir ensemble, ou à finir 'bien' tout court.

Et bizarrement c'est cet espèce de patchwork entre thriller, romance, humour, intrigues et guerres de concurrence - qui semblent se télescoper mais finalement fonctionnent bien ensemble, on ne sait d'ailleurs pas trop comment - qui fait tout le sel de ce drama original. J'ai lu dans un commentaire que l'histoire s'améliore au fil des épisodes, ce n'est pas faux. Plusieurs fois il nous arrive d'être surpris par la tournure des dialogues, la profondeur et l'intelligence de l'histoire, ou le caractère loin d'être unidimensionnel des antagonistes, qui parviennent à nous toucher parce que crédibles. Certains moments nous serrent le cœur, l'intrigue prend souvent une direction à laquelle on ne s'attendait pas, et en plein milieu d'un truc sérieux on a même 2 ou 3 scènes complètement WTF qui surgissent de façon incongrue et nous font hurler de rire. Cerise sur le gâteau, l'ensemble du casting est vraiment, vraiment talentueux et naturel, quant à nos deux héros ils ont une super alchimie et leurs (trop rares) bisous sont très jolis à regarder. Bon certains clichés étaient évitables, et des spectateurs resteront peut-être sur leur faim parce qu'il y avait matière à prendre plus de risques, dommage qu'ils ne nous aient pas offert une histoire d'amour réellement déjantée, mais ce sont les seuls bémols que j'ai trouvés alors on passera aisément dessus.

Donc non, je ne dirais pas vraiment que c'est une rom-com. Difficile de résumer et ranger ce drama dans une case précise, c'est tour à tour drôle, triste, tendre et romantique, souvent émouvant, et même un peu angoissant au début. Ca surprend au point qu'on se demande comment tout ça tient ensemble, mais c'est juste parce que c'est intelligent et bien joué, si ça se trouve.
Bref, une expérience un peu bizarre, mais chouette.

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The Fights in this Kdrama are Crazy

HAD TO BINGE!!!!
This drama has it all...
- deep painful pasts✔️
- lead has a cool fam ✔️
- stalker boyfriend✔️ (always coming out of nowhere weather she wants him there or not - cringe)
- stalker boyfriend is controlling at times✔️(cringe)
- perfect length epilogue✔️
- crazy and cringy physical fights ✔️
- amnesia✔️
- revenge✔️
- cute, but all-too-sudden romance
- overreacting male lead ✔️
- jealous ex ✔️
- betrayal ✔️

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Easily the most toxic relationship in all the kdrama I've watched.

Another one to add to the "pretty good early episodes but that's it" pile. Except this time, the 1st episode is actually hot garbage, then the next few episodes become surprisingly great once the script is flipped on its head, and after that, we're back to bad again.

Amazing to me how typical kdrama have had the same format of 16 episodes of 1 hour each for decades at this point…

And yet, most writers continuously can't manage to hit the 16 episodes count without adding pointless bloat. It's really not that complicated, just add side story elements that are relevant to the main narrative instead of boring slapstick that has nothing to do with it.

This one also has the additional problem of wanting to delay the main romance so much (because they hate each other) that eventually it becomes entirely impossible that they'd ever fall for each other. Their mutual dislike has been a central part of their character for too long, which is also an undesirable side effect of my point above on bloat. If they had properly mapped the story, this wouldn't have happened.

But it was doomed to fail anyway because they made the male lead way too toxic, like irreparably so. Somehow even worse than in Secret Garden and that's saying quite something.

It's a bit of a shame because the lead actors Kim Jae-wook and Krystal Jung were great, but their characters sucked. Unless your thing is emotionally and psychologically abusive men (I'm not judging)... don't watch this.

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Hit or Miss

This drama is a hit or miss. It isn’t a typical rom com drama it’s definitely unique and some people might not like it. The story isn’t that straightforward. It tries to be a lot of things by throwing all types of cliches, but ends being underwhelming. For me overall it wasn’t my taste. Just watching because I like Krystal and Kim Jae Wook.

There are a lot of scenes that I find boring. To be honest I just enjoy Krystal and Kim Jae-wook scenes. I don’t care for any of the side plots: who’s trying to kill him, the secretaries revenge, or the friend and the brother dating plot line etc. I skip those scenes. There are a lot filler scenes and this drama is draggy and gets boring at times. The comedy is a hit or miss and it’s mostly miss except when they are fighting.
Krystal’s drama choices have been so bad. I think I’ve only really enjoyed 2 dramas of hers (prison playbook & player). I would say that this drama is better then My Lovely girl and Police University. I did watch the heirs that drama was cringey but her character was cute.

Kim Jae wook has a FLAWLESS filmography and I would say Crazy love puts a dent in it. The plot could’ve been so much better. Honestly Krystal and Kim Jae wook should’ve been casted in an Enemies to lovers Action Romance, something like Mr and Mrs Smith. Maybe a Bonnie & Clyde dynamic or Joker & Harley Quinn or a villain couple. The fact that they chose this script is mind boggling especially Kim Jae wook. I’d like to believe they chose it just to work with each other. Anyways Krystal and Kim Jae wook ARE THE PLOT. That’s why I’m watching otherwise it would’ve been dropped a long time ago.

There acting was good especially Kim Jae wook. Krystal’s acting was also good but there were some scenes that I find her acting lacking. Kinda expected more from her but she’s definitely improved A LOT.

OST’s are enjoyable and I like all the songs. Dive into you, Maybe, and Stay Alive are my favorite.

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Either you like it or you don’t ?

When I started this, it was quite intriguing. A really hateful CEO with people issues; quirky and narcissistic, a very bad temper and is full of himself. Then his personal assistant/ secretary who can’t stand him, but has held on and swallowed her pride for one year for the sake of her job.

How the story unfolds from this to her melt down and threatening him, to his accident, his memory loss, her pretending to be his fiancé etc.. all at the same time the people around him trying to find a way to destroy him and his company. It got quite annoying for me.. I had to FF here and there cos I found some characters just to cliche. It got better from Episode 10 onwards- better in the romance, better in the plot and theories, better overall.

One really good aspect of the drama is the character development of Noh Go Jin (ML). From being such a jerk- to realising all the awful things he had done, how badly he treated his staff and the ppl around him; and how he changed and turned a new leaf. It was really heart-warming to watch.

The final episode was good (at least better than Business Proposal ?) A nice closure for all the characters involved, and a happy ending. The way the end was written was also sweet and memorable, a nice after taste to all the craziness. “You are my miracle that made me go crazy” ?

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The story was interesting...

at first i thoght the story and actors were interesting and it was but in the last episodes i was so dissapointed.Stalking, hate mails and emails are really serious thing and how this drama viewed it was just wrong.This is a serious thing and honestly it was pretty awful how this kind of subject was processed as 'not important' When somebody stalks you, send you hate mails, a dead rat or makes lots of illegal things to make sure you lose your company you do not apologize and let it go! And you just don't take a worker who did almost everything wrong back because there would be never trust left.
The best ting was Sina's brothers and friend relationship.they were the cutest.

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