8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean Romantic Drama with 8, 63-71 minute episodes.  Based on the webtoon “Is it Fate” by Nam Ji-eun and Kim In-ho. 

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

 Synopsis

Lee Hong Ju (Kim So Hyun) fell in love with Bang Jun-ho (Yoon Ji-on) the last year of high school.  He is an accomplished author but very narcissistic and broke Hong Ju’s heart when he just up and left to research a novel in the middle of their relationship. At the same time she was initially pursuing Hong Ju, she was also trying to help her best friend, Kim Hye-ji (Kim Da-som) confess her love to Kang Hoo-yeong (Chae Jong-hyeop) one of the most popular boys in the school who was known for coldly refusing the many love confessions he received.  Hye-ji was too shy to approach Hoo-yeong so Hong-ju was delivering love notes on her behalf.  And Hoo-yeong was uncharacteristically accepting the notes from Hong-ju (as he had secretly fallen for her).  Ten years have passed and Hoo-yeong is back in South Korea after spending his college years and early career in the United States.  He is now an ace financial planner for a company that has interests on both sides of the ocean.  His first goal is to see Hong Ju who was his first love he very got over.  Hong Ju is now an animation producer which puts her back in contact with Junho who would like to just take the relationship up where it left off.  Hye-ji is eager to re-unite with Hoo-yeong in the hope of finally winning his heart.  Can Hoo-yeong finally get Hong Ju to realize he has feelings for her not Hye-ji?  Will Hye-ji give her narcissistic ex another chance or finally give her heart to Hoo-yeong who has stayed in love with her all these years?


Review

 I had reservations as Kim So-hyun has been hit or miss in the roles she has taken recently.  I did not like “Love Alarm” at all.  Like it almost makes me angry when I see that title I disliked it so much.  I also did not like “My Lovely Liar” at all.  When the last few roles of an actor have been premises or, particularly endings, I do not like it leaves an impression.  It makes me think they are not choosing roles/scripts I would like.  So, it was with reluctance I watched this as I was concerned it may not end well or the premise may be “off”.  With this one it was good.  It didn’t have a lot of the problems that were off putting for me in the last couple she has done.  All in all it was a pretty straight forward predictable romance.  Which I often like.  I am a romance fan.  I can see the same basic thing repeated over and over.  No huge surprises, relatively heart warming and ended well  I thought their chemistry was really good and Kang Hu Yeong (Chae Jong Hyeop) was like the perfect boyfriend/husband material.  He was so sweet to her most of the time.  .  I would watch it if someone turned it on, would not seek it out to re-watch, but do recommend it for anyone that likes this genre or any of the actors.  It was well acted and reasonably well written.  The ending is relatively happy although I would have liked to see a few things go a slightly different way. 

Spoilers

 I get that it happens, but I found it annoying that her friend, Kim Hye-ji (Kim Da-som) kept having Lee Hong-jo give Kang Hoo-yeong love letters.  I totally understood what he said, no answer is an answer.  I have no idea if it accurately depicts South Korean culture at all that if someone likes you, there is a responsibility to them.  A few love letters, okay whatever.  But the number they did, that starts to become no means no.  The fact that Hye-ji acted like she had a chance with Hoo-yeong when he came to South Korea on business was a little bit irritating.  She acted as if she had not been rejected in high school.

 Teenage girls are notoriously oblivious to when guys like them.  Some, young girls in particular, think a guy will hang out with a girl strictly for friendship.  Not that it never happens but it is rare.  When a popular guy, like he was, is hanging out with a girl, it is because he likes the girl (so rarely the case otherwise might as well say it isn’t the case).  But she totally did not get that.  Not even later when she first reflected on their time together in high school.  I thought she was rather inconsiderate of his feelings.  When he came back to South Korea and showed no interest at all in Hye-ji, Hong-jo continued to push her friend on him.  I think, at one point, any reasonably emotionally intelligent person would have known who he was interested in or, at minimum, that he was not at all interested in Hye-ji.  When she got him to come out to meet for drinks then ducked out and left him with Hye-ji it was rude.  It made me not like her character as well.  When she gave Hye-ji his phone number without asking him if it was okay, that was also inconsiderate.  “Stealing” his dream was an odd thing to do.  And it was not very realistic that someone with such a thin resume, and no real skills, would land that sort of job.  I get it is fiction, and I don’t want it to perfectly replicate reality all the time, but it has to be at least within the realm of possibility.  She was someone who cut class, did not focus at all on academics, then just walked in and got a job people with far more credentials and experience would struggle with?  Just not believable. 

 Bang Jun-Ho (Yun Ji On) was such a poor second male lead character.  I was with everyone else in the drama that said he was no good.  He had the typical personality of a narcissist.  He leaves her with no word when he should have known her past given the length of their relationship.  If he didn’t know she had abandonment issues, then he never cared to learn much about her and if he did and ignored them then he was just an unfeeling jerk.  I never got a sense for how their relationship developed and what they were like when they were together.  But he was a selfish narcissist to the end.  Kim Bok Nam (Kim Won Hae), his uncle was rather harsh with him and said look you were a complete jerk leaving her like that so just leave Hong-jo alone at this point.  So, he even had another perspective on his behavior and chose to still try to get her back.  He, as is typical with narcissists, tried to turn it around and make it about him.  “Oh you don’t feel sorry for me because look how sick I am?”  I was so glad she did not fall for it.  They did a good job with making him a completely undesirable character.  I did not think they did a very good job explaining why she was so attached to him.  We really only saw her fan girl following him, then he says this is day one basically, then them broken up.  The missing middle made it hard to understand how she had such a hard time getting over him.

 Baek Do Seon (Kim Jung Nan), Hu Yeong’s mom was also completely unlikable.  She was the typical overbearing mother who totally disregards their child’s feelings.  He never told her “look, I have loved this girl for a decade and finally have a chance to be with her.”  I did not like that she essentially won in the end forcing him to go back to the United States.  That was not a happy way for that to end in my mind.  He told her he missed South Korea and she just completely disregarded his feelings.  That is going to be Hong-jo’s mother-in-law at some point and so a happier ending would have been he or she put her in her place or the mom had an epiphany.  But neither of those things happened.  The whole here’s my credit card thing was just bizarre.  It was a pride/pity thing and maybe that is what they were trying to show as revenge when she spent it on the convenience store items.  I don’t know.  But that was not what it accomplished.  It was like why did you spend on it?  It actually made you look lower.  Like you were accepting her pity.  Or just after money.  Why didn’t you reject it with dignity? 

 So, Hong-jo surprises him and she is going to the USA with him.  But, only with the leave she cobbled together.  So that means she has to go back and he will still be in the USA for an indefinite amount of time.  I mean I like she didn’t give up her job and all that but stay or go.  You love each other then one of you need to fully commit one way or another. 

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