I'm having a hard time writing up a review for this drama. I certainly did not hate it. It has much to commend itself. But the romance was so incredibly slow, and I found that to be a very draining viewing experience. I wanted them together so bad, and the writers were just like 'Yeah. Maybe later.'

Of course, some drama lovers really enjoy the sit and wait style of romance, and if that's your thing, then this drama is for you. I just couldn't figure out why these two people who clearly were in it deep for each other couldn't learn to use their words and Say so.

Luckily, where the romance sort of left me hanging, the rest of the drama was quite enjoyable. I loved the whole office battle plot line and the heavy focus on friendship and what it actually means to be a friend. I definitely consider that part of the drama's plot to be one of its major strengths.

And while I found the female lead at times infuriating, I didn't hate her. I just wanted to prod her with a stick sometimes, lol. I quite liked the male lead and his tenacious go get it attitude about basically everything. Except when it came to romance, and then I wanted to be like 'Look. The drama's not giving me a clear justification for your behavior here, so how bout you help a sister out and tell me Why you aren't making a move on this girl already? Please and thanks I love you bye.'

So like I said, if you enjoy the sit and wait style of romance story, you will like this drama. If you like your romance to move a little faster than a snail, you might find this drama a little frustrating at times to watch.

Leia Mais

I did not read the manga this drama is based on (I didn't know there was a manga until I read other people's reviews), so I can't tell you how good or bad of an adaptation it is. But as a viewer who has not read the manga and was experiencing the story for the first time, I thought this drama was superb, very heartwarming and sweet. (I also loved that there was a Lolita character, as I also wear Lolita.)

If you read and loved the manga, you will probably agree with the other reviewers. If you have not read the manga, then I suggest giving this drama a chance. I think you'll find yourself liking it.

Leia Mais

Updated Review 2022:

Over the last few years, I've begun to re-watch some of my favorite dramas, the ones I've loved and cherished since I first watched them, and each time, I'm anxiously hoping they'll still live up to those feelings. So far, I've been very lucky. I've remembered why I loved a drama so much and my love for it has been renewed. I've even re-watched a couple dramas that I didn't like/didn't get the first time and discovered that the problem had actually been me all along. I finished my most recent re-watch, Weightlifting Fairy, this past week, a drama I utterly adored the first time I watched it, and I'm happy to say that the streak of good drama re-watches has not been broken.

First off, I have a newfound appreciation for everything that goes on outside of the romance. I was once one of those drama lovers who (mostly) only cared about romance, and while I didn't have anything I disliked about Weightlifting Fairy the first time I watched it, I definitely didn't give the other plotlines the attention they deserved. But now that I'm more seasoned and have developed an appreciation for stories that aren't solely about love, I found each separate plotline equally engaging to watch. There are no lulls or plot holes or draggy story points. From getting a glimpse into the weightlifting world to the heartbreaking struggles of the second female lead, there isn't a single plotline that ever feels wasteful or like a detour from the purpose of the drama. They all tie together and complement each other to provide meaningful contributions to the overarching messages of the drama. And I can't forget to talk about the characters, all of whom I love. Each and every one of them is charming and fun, Bok Joo and Joon Hyeong and their group of friend's chief among them.

But I think the thing I love most about this drama is the way it makes me feel. It's uplifting and hopeful and deeply earnest. There are heartbreaks and struggles to go around but threaded throughout is a sense of optimism and possibility, a belief in tomorrow. The story tells us this is hard, but the characters can overcome it. You can overcome it too. And I like stories that make me feel that way.

In closing, I'll leave you with this. There's a certain feeling I want to get from a drama once the story is over and there are no more episodes left to watch, a feeling that kind of takes over your body, your being, and for a moment, you and that feeling are the same. I don't know what you would call this feeling or how to describe it. Maybe peacefulness or satisfaction or a sense of completion but tinged with sadness that it's over. All I know is this drama left me feeling this feeling both times I watched it.

Weightlifting Fairy is a story filled with sweet moments and lovely characters and a genuine sense of earnestness, and I love it for it.

Original Review:
There's a certain feeling I want to get from a drama once the story is over and there are no more episodes left to watch, a feeling that kind of takes over your body, your being, and for a moment, you and that feeling are the same. I don't know what you would call this feeling or how to describe it. Maybe peacefulness or satisfaction or a sense of completion but tinged with sadness that it's all over. All I know is this drama left me feeling this feeling, and I don't get to say that often.

There are no lulls or plot holes or draggy story points. Only sweet moments and lovely characters and a sense of earnestness. And honestly, that's really all you need.

I'm sad that this drama is over, and I'll probably need a few days to recover.

Leia Mais

If you're looking for something cute and easy to watch that requires low-commitment, then this is a good drama for you.

Yoon Jeong Sook is feisty, brave, opinionated, and doesn’t let Kwon Hyuk Joon boss her around. I loved everything about her, even if she mellowed a bit towards the end. Hyuk Joon is a genuinely stand up guy. He definitely has a, ‘I’m a man. You’re a woman. We should fulfill those roles' attitude, but there’s a sense of decency about him that makes you like him. I hated most of the members of Kwon Hyuk Joon’s family (except for precious grandpa, even if he went on about Ji Hye fulfilling her duties as a wife a little too much) as there was always a lot of talk about being a ‘good wife’ and having lots of babies, etc., and Yoon Jeong Sook definitely gets put through the ringer a couple times, but there whining and complaining and trying to manipulate from behind the scenes has no impact on our main characters and their lives, so it's easy to tune out.

What makes this drama so easy to watch, at least for me, is that from the get go, I wanted our leads together. They just made sense as a couple. There’s some really great chemistry between them, enough chemistry in fact, that our leads eventually got married to each other in real life. Granted, they got divorced later on in real life too, but I don’t think that has any bearing on the future of our dramas characters.

Right?

Overall, it was an adorable drama. It wasn't perfect, but it kept me coming back. So if you're looking for something fun that you can watch without too much stress or aggravation, I would definitely recommend this one. I don’t consider this one of my favorites, but I definitely think it was worth the watch.


Super short review coming through!

Fluffy and cute, and I wouldn't rewatch it even if I rewatched dramas, because his family drove me insane.

Leia Mais

I honestly don't know how to explain this dramas plot. There were confusing birth secrets. (Illegitimate children everywhere. Everywhere illegitimate children.) There were too many women for Ma Te to learn from and not enough time spent with each of them. There was a password/passcode thing that ended up serving no purpose. There were corporate machinations that ended up just being confusing and silly. (And really, really boring.) And there was no romance, absolutely none, until the very end of the drama. And by That point, the story had fallen completely flat and the only reason I was sticking around was for Bo Tong.

First, I don’t like Ma Te. He started out as your typical 'good-looking' guy who thinks he's the bees knees, God's gift to humanity, the greatest thing since sliced bread, and to be fair, he's clearly never had anyone tell him otherwise so why shouldn't he believe that about himself? But really, he was pretty boring...and annoying...and kind of dumb. (And not the slightest bit attractive but what do I know. [They would give him a nice hairstyle, and I'd start to come around, then they'd screw it all up by turning his hair into a mop. Seriously, who was coming up with those hairstyles?!])

But he wasn't an awful character. In many ways, he was a good character. He was arrogant in a way that was sort of comical. Every time something didn't work out how he wanted, I was pumping my fists in excitement. His character was at his best when he was failing.

But failure came very rarely for Ma Te. Things were way too easy for him. Every woman he encountered fell for him. Every time he faced some kind of challenge at the company, it miraculously worked out in his favor. Granted, it was often because someone else with actual power and influence fixed things, but even then, Ma Te got all the credit.

He did get a 'final hour' emotional growth spurt, but it was completely unearned and I disliked him too much by then to care.

As for the entire conceit of the drama, the women (minus Bo Tong), each felt alternatively dynamic and boring. Sometimes the lesson Ma Te was meant to learn from them was clear, and other times I was scratching my head wondering why this random woman had wandered onto my screen where she clearly did not belong.

Then there's David. David broke my heart with all his heartbreaking wonderfulness. Which made it Oh So Frustrating when he turned into That character. You know the one. You’ll find them in every Asian drama known to man. They’ve been rejected. They’ve been turned down. They’ve been ignored. The lead has made their stance known, and it’s time for them to raise the white flag. But they refuse to let go.

I don’t know if the writer’s were just so in love with David that the only way for them to justify not giving him the girl was to make him look like a baby so they didn't have to feel bad about their choice or if they were just suffering from such an acute case of second lead feels that they got temporarily lost in those feelings, but they spent so much time on Bo Tong and David and David's inability to just move on that they did next to nothing to move Bo Tong and Ma Te's relationship along. And you might say at this point in the review 'That's hypocritical. You like Bo Tong, and she's every bit as much That character as David, so what gives?' What gives is I like stories where the jerky, self-important character gets a dose of their own medicine and finds themselves falling for someone they think is beneath them and through falling for them learns to be a not terrible person anymore, and you can't make me feel bad about that, so there.

Ultimately, the only thing that made the anguish that was watching this drama the slightest bit worth it, was Bo Tong. I frickin’ love Bo Tong.

Frickin’.

Love.

She was the only consistent character in the entire drama, she had GREAT fashion sense (FIGHT ME ON THAT), she was delightfully quirky and optimistic without being ridiculous, she was over the top, and I loved it.

Also, IU is such a good crier. My gosh.

To sum up, I think it's clear the writers bit off more then they could chew with this story. 10 women was too many. 6 would have been more doable. The lessons Ma Te was supposed to learn from each of them weren't always clear or even interesting. The family drama was ridiculous and confusing and added very little to the overall story. The illegitimate children plot was confusing, and the secret code concept was completely wasted. The business machinations made me roll my eyes. And there was no romance until the final hour. Tell us the truth writers. Did you actually have any sort of plan for this drama? Did you really want Bo Tong and Ma Te to end up together? Does any of it even matter? For my part, the answer is no.

(Rewatch is 1 because I can't choose zero.)

Leia Mais

Updated Review 2022:

Wow. What a difference time (and age (I’m getting old, folks)) makes. I don't remember when I first watched this drama (pretty sure the date for my original review is wrong), but my thoughts today are so vastly different from what they were then, that all I can say is.... I was wrong. Very wrong. Like cringing with embarrassment as I read my old review through my fingers, wrong. (You can also cringe-read that review below this updated one, as I've left it up for posterity's sake.)

Sometimes you have an inaccurate understanding of a stories characters, their motivations, their life experiences, what the writer is trying to convey/portray with their actions, and I would say that was definitely the case for me with this drama. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, including the leads. I found the romance unbelievable (I couldn’t see him falling in love with her, even when I held up a microscope). I wanted to throw the secondary leads into a fire (I mean, what’s new with these old-school dramas, lol). Basically, I DETESTED this drama.

But I was also in my rom-com’s only, don’t really care about what’s happening outside of the romance, only secondary characters who are happy and fun please, phase. There's nothing ultimately wrong with this, in my opinion, and I still very much have that side of me at times, but I’ve definitely changed as a drama-watcher since first watching Personal Taste. I’ve expanded my list of genre’s I’m willing to sit down in front of my computer for, I’ve found I actually enjoy stories that aren’t solely about romance or maybe don’t have romance at all, I’m genuinely interested in all of the side characters and watching their story arc progression, and I’ve even become more open to understanding the ‘evil’ secondary leads and seeing them as 3-dimensional characters rather than simply ‘the bad guy(s) out to stop my OTP.’

I was unsure going into Personal Taste a second time if it was really worth it to give the drama another chance, but I was also very curious to see if my perspective had changed. And I'm here to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this drama. Not only did I not need a microscope to see the romance, I Liked the main couple. A Lot. All of the stuff with the house and the competition and trying to figure out the perfect design bored me before, but I was firmly invested this time. The heartbreaking circumstances of the death of the female lead’s mother and her subsequent feelings of guilt and self-loathing and worthlessness struck a real chord with me. And believe it or not, I found myself feeling sympathetic for both secondary participants in the drama’s love octopus. The second male lead has a fantastic period of growth in the story where he becomes just plain likable. They kind of ruin it for a bit towards the end, but they do ultimately choose to leave him a redeemed man, which I’m happy with. My sympathy waned over time for the second female lead as the writers don’t do a lot to make her particularly sympathetic, but her motivations made sense to me, and I pitied her to a certain degree.

Overall, this is just a much better drama then I gave it credit for before, and I’m glad I re-watched it, because now I can set the record straight on how I feel about it. I think it’s pretty dang great, and I recommend it.

Original Review:
I don't remember most of what happened in this drama as I found the whole thing completely uninteresting.

The leads had Zero chemistry. Like, none. They put in an admirable effort, but it was just not there. Which is disappointing, because more chemistry between them might have made this a better drama for me. (Being able to believe in a romance is key.) But I couldn’t believe in them as a couple, and watching them be romantic with each other quickly went from cute to awkward, and then from awkward to uncomfortable. The final scene…made me want to close my eyes and pretend it wasn’t happening.

I have No idea why this Love Octopus (love triangle) existed. Park Kae In being hung up on him, sure. I can understand that. But why was he so determined to get her back???

HE DIDN'T LIKE HER, FAM.

He should have been tossed in a fire and never seen from again.

The second female lead? I’m honestly not even sure why she dumped the second male lead to begin with since she knew the whole time she was dating him that he was seeing her ‘best friend’ too and didn't seem all that upset about it. Just marry the dude and get it over with. The two of you clearly deserve each other. (Hate is Not a strong enough word to describe how I feel about the secondary leads.)

And does it not seem a little unrealistic that after all those years of living in that house that she would have never moved the pallet out of the middle of her living/dining room and seen that there was a glass floor underneath? Did she never spill her food and have to clean it up? Like ever?

Honestly, the farther away from this drama I get…the more I hate it. Very little chemistry between the leads. The secondary leads were awful. The Love Octopus should not exist. The overarching storyline was uninteresting. The ending was completely awkward and lackluster. And you would think with those two living in close quarters like that, we would get more awkward, romantic, run-ins. But no, the drama denied me that.

This is not worth the watch, in my opinion.

At least her house was pretty though?

Leia Mais

Updated Review 2024:

I understand why I liked this drama so much the first time I watched it. One, it's a noona romance, and I love noona romances. Two, I really like Shinohara Ryoko as an actress, and she plays this character really well. Three, I find messy, awkward, insecure, goofy female leads charming. Four, it's a noona romance, lol. (And there are some legitimately swoon worthy moments in this noona romance.)

But...

There are elements of this noona romance that are problematic. I hate using that word, because it's been so overused the last so many years that I honestly hate the sound of it. But this romance...kind of fits the bill.

To start off, I'm much older now than when I first watched this, much closer in age to the female lead now, and that gives me a very different perspective. I understand the implications now of a much older woman dating someone as young as the male lead. I openly admit that one of my favorite dramas is High School King of Savvy which has a similar age gap, and I love that drama to pieces. But if that drama had cast an actually significantly younger male actor in the lead, I would feel very differently about it. Casting Seo In Guk is what saves Savvy for me.

When you step away from the age gap, however, you find other problems. Such as the dynamic between the male lead and his stepsister. They have a frankly bizarre and unhealthy dynamic, and there's one scene specifically that makes the whole thing feel super weird. I actually remember thinking during my first watch through that it might be indicating some degree of incest. After a rewatch, I understand what the scene was intended to convey, but...that was not the way to go about it. But even outside of that moment, the dysfunction definitely bleeds into the female lead's relationships with both male leads in somewhat uncomfortable ways.

Then there's the fact that so much of the male leads motivation for going after the female lead for so much of the drama is just pure selfishness. And then when he starts to develop feelings for her, you don't really know why. Why is he attracted to this much older woman who is honestly kind of a mess? A charming mess, but still a mess. At times, she almost felt like a maternal figure for him, which definitely felt weird.

The main complaint against the second male lead is that he rags on the female lead a lot. This turns a lot of viewers off. But it's obviously that 'I just like to give you a hard time, I don't actually dislike you' and 'I sort of have feelings for you that I don't really want to admit' kind of ragging, which I don't personally mind in dramas. He's that kind of friend you know so well that you just tell each other what you really think. And when he starts to realize his own feelings, it feels very natural and believable. Truthfully, in a better written drama, the female lead would have ended up with the second male lead. Given her desire for marriage and children, how open they are able to be with each other, and how they both have genuine feelings for one other, he really does make the most sense.

Now that I've rewatched it, I find this drama to be kind of meh. It does have its own charm in its own way, so if you're looking for something fluffy where you can turn your brain off and just have a good time, this is a decent drama to go to. But I would definitely recommend turning off your brain.


Original Review:
Ten out of Ten. 2 Thumbs up. All the stars in the sky. I really don't think there are enough superlatives in existence to describe how good this drama is. If it isn't on your must watch list, then Put It On There Right Now!

Leia Mais

Updated Review 2023:

I just finished my first re-watch of this drama (and I say first, because I will certainly be re-watching Fated to Love You many more times in the future), and oh my goodness. This drama is even better than I remembered.

I believe I watched this as it aired (probably on Dramafever), but I can't be sure as MyDramaList had some sort of glitch or something at some point, and a bunch of my completed dramas now show themselves as completed in 2016, this drama included. (I definitely did not watch the number of dramas in 2016 that MyDramaList says I did.) Regardless, I greatly enjoyed Fated to Love You the first time I watched it, although I had some complaints as well.

I remember finding the amnesia and everything around the Gun's illness after his bout with amnesia to be really frustrating. It was the same old noble idiocy trope all over again, and for what felt like no reason. After re-watching, however, I have completely changed my opinion. I think I (and many other Kdrama lovers) had grown over-tired of amnesia and noble idiocy and forced separation tropes in dramas, and that affected at least my feelings about the drama. But Gun's fear of his illness rearing its ugly head and hurting the ones he loves is a very believable, and understandable, fear. Especially as he experienced that exact thing with his own father. The story also addresses, towards the very end, how his choice to run away was actually the wrong one, and he shouldn't live his life afraid of what might happen but rather enjoy his life in the here and now. So after this re-watch, I have a fuller appreciation for what the drama was doing.

Another big complaint that I've completely 360'd on is my thoughts on Mi Young in the second half of the drama. In my first viewing, second half Mi Young and first half Mi Young felt like totally different characters, and I disliked how different they felt. I LOVED first half Mi Young with all of her tenderheartedness (and super cute fashion sense), and second half Mi Young seemed to have lost that. But re-watching has given me a far better understanding of second half Mi Young, and I have to admit that I was completely off-base before. Jang Na Ra did a truly impressive job with Mi Young, showing this timid, shy, easily pushed around woman who goes through real tragedy and comes out the other side a woman who has been through pain and loss but has also grown exponentially as a person and has not lost any of her kindness despite what she's been through. She's merely gained an inner strength. I'm still sad that her wardrobe became somewhat boring and less colorful, but I guess you can't have everything you want in a drama, lol.

Finally, if you read to the bottom, you'll see in my original (very short) review on this site that I was disappointed by the finale. I now think I was completely bonkers for ever feeling that way. The finale made me happy, happy, happy!

There are only two things, TWO, that I found a little frustrating with this drama in my second viewing. When their marriage contract becomes known to the family and the company's board, Gun doesn't stand up and say 'I made a mistake, and I regret it. I don't want to get divorced anymore. I love Mi Young and want to stay together.' I don't know that there would have been a way for the writers to have him say these things and then make the subsequent amnesia and Gun deciding to let her go due to his own fear make sense, so I recognize, from a writing perspective, why they didn't have him speak up. But it was frustrating to watch him not defend their love.

And lastly, grandma's conspiring in the finale (with Gun's Secretary and faux brother) to get Mi Young pregnant on the honeymoon when Gun expressly told her he wanted them to have 6 months together as newlyweds before they think about kids. The resulting pregnancy didn't end up being upsetting for Gun or Mi Young, but I think grandma had it in her to be patient the 6 months.

I 100% think this is the best version of this drama out of all the versions out there. I'm currently watching the Chinese version (ep. 25 as of this review), and I've seen both the Japanese and the Taiwanese original (the Taiwanese was my first drama). This version did something none of the other versions have done. It put meat on the story's bones. It created livable, breathable characters, a romance with legitimate reasons to root for it, and it didn't give us unnecessary drama but instead gave us real tragedy and heartbreak and real joy and happiness. Fated to Love You is a romance, and a story, worth watching and loving. And I hope everyone does. (Future Edit: I forgot there is another version out there of this story, and I have not seen it, but at this point, I think this version will still be my favorite once watch that version.)

Original Review:
SO. MUCH. BETTER. THAN. THE. ORIGINAL! Complaints? Not as addictive, still suffered from mid-quarter shenanigans (like most dramas), finale episode was weak and disappointing. But overall, a much more satisfying story.

Links to my reviews for the other versions:

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/review/22006

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/reviews/75009

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/reviews/274737

Leia Mais

I have not watched the original Korean drama yet, but I'm glad I watched this version first. If I had watched the original first and loved it, I probably would have been disappointed by this version. This version is nothing more than a middling remake with very little to really recommend itself. As such, I feel pretty secure in the knowledge that I will most likely like the Korean version much better.

This version felt a lot like the Jdrama, Oh! My Boss!, which came out earlier this year. With the same setting of a fashion magazine and the same major sublot of needing to save said magazine from being shut down, it was kind of a redux of what Boss! had already done. And while I don't think Boss! is a particularly great drama, it did this premise better. On the same note, while I ended up not being all that interested in the romance in Boss!, at least it's couple experiences some real level of relationship development. The couple here feels like they're just jumping from story beat to story beat without anything meaningful happening in-between.

It was when the male lead fainted at the end of ep 8 that I was out. It was such strange timing to me, clearly thrown in for a little drama, and I just didn't care. I didn't care about the character's health, I didn't care about the fashion magazine, and my care for the romantic pairing was meager at that point. If I had thought the drama would do something a little creative and let the magazine be shut down, maybe I would watched the last two eps, but I highly doubted that would happen.

If you want to watch a recent Jdrama with the same Fashion Magazine Trying to Survive storyline and don't need it to be something spectacular, watch Oh! My Boss! instead. Or better yet, you could just watch a drama like Pretty Proofreader (Jimi ni Sugoi!) that both features fashion heavily And is stellar drama. A win-win, in my opinion.

Leia Mais

This story is, simply put, magical.

It is not, nor is it meant to be, an accurate depiction of what it's like to live in a mental hospital or have a mental illness. Instead, it looks at those who suffer from mental illness through a kinder, much more gentle lens, presenting their way of seeing the world as simply unique. The story is never disrespectful towards those who suffer with mental illness, and there is an understanding throughout the film that our lead character is never going to leave the hospital, but it is very much a story of joy and hope and even love.

It is in my top ten favorite romantic comedies of All time and on my list of films I believe everyone should see at least once in their lives.

Leia Mais