A Prefabricated Family (2024)

As a standalone I guess it's decent but as an adaptation I'm afraid it suffers greatly in comparison

The beginning of the drama had me full of hope for what was to come. I thought the director was spot-on with carrying over the “key events” of the story that were pivotal but giving a small touch of his take. Everything felt familiar yet different and I was glad that I relived the beautiful story again in a different manner. I found myself constantly smiling especially whenever the 3 kiddos appeared. I also had a great time noticing things that were adapted over but done in a different Korean style. There were things like the walk-up apartment and its staircase, the long uphill road from the noodle store to their home, the rooftop, and even a rather familiar house layout! Aesthetically, it was very pleasing. I also appreciate the easter eggs placed in the show like how now Hae Jun becomes the "acting" bf instead of the lady later on.

I am glad they got Choi Won Young (the cooking father) and Choi Moo Sung (the police father) to play the two fathers who to me are two of the story's most important characters. CWY as an actor exudes the same warmth as Hai Chao (C-Drama cooking father) and CMS has the same nonchalant vibe as He Ping (C-Drama police father). I usually like it when both of them play the father's role in dramas, really good at the role. Their chemistry throughout the show was top notch and I enjoyed their screentime together the most. Little Ju Won deserves lots of applause too and it’s a pity we only get to see her for such a short time. How can someone so young act so well?! While most of the cast carry similar vibes as the original and are all good actors in their rights, it was not the choice of the actors that was the issue here but the change of characterization that is my problem with the drama. That coupled with an uninspired change of script, unfortunately, the show fell off the cliff very quickly despite my strong bias in wanting it to succeed.

While it was preserving most of the original’s core, subtly you can see things changing in different moments. Some of them were done, understandably to fit the Korean landscape better but some of them were done simply as a result of being “different”. I get that every director wants to interpret a story in their own artistic manner and I don't think anyone would be satisfied in simply copying something exactly, and I can respect that. After all, it's an "adaptation" not a "copy". I also understand that this is a much shorter story with 16 episodes compared to the original length of 40. They had to remove certain characters from the story and make certain things more direct for the plot to advance in pace. However because of this, many of their characters and dynamics and significantly modified, especially the three siblings, something that I am not particularly a fan of. Many changes were made but whether it would turn out well and benefit the story for the better, is another story.

I don’t like how from the get-go San Ha is behaving more like a lover than a brother and how from this early the motives of many of his actions are out of romantic feelings and not brotherly love. That calm and composed, natural genius and reliable anchor of the sibling's character in the original got dumbed down into a typical K-drama love-chasing oppa. They made his character into this loverboy who is constantly chasing after his sister's attention. The amount of attention he spends on his younger brother and father(s) makes it feel like he is only here for Ju Won since day one. In the original, I didn't think of them becoming a couple until much later post-time-skip. This show got them behaving like lovers from the beginning which just didn't feel right to me. The complexity behind his collected nature as someone who carried the burden of being perfect because of the trauma of his past feels so insignificant now because of this loverboy character.

Hae Jun being as outspoken as San Ha and relying less on him was weird to watch and it turns me off whenever I see both the brothers fight and how often it occurs. That reliable elder-troublesome younger brother dynamic is missing and they felt more like friends rather than siblings. That whole sequence of his temporary departure and his fear of returning, later on, is much less impactful because it now contradicts his new character as someone capable of being self-sufficient. He is talented and popular in school and good-looking enough to make a fortune off modeling overseas. In the original, he was someone who always had uncertainty revolving around him as he was struggling with abandonment issues and was in a place where he never knew if he truly belonged. That sense of hopelessness and lostness, always wanting to prove his value in the family is no longer defining. He skipped an entire growth journey imo.

I don’t like how insecure Ju Won is about the siblings not having the same surname. In the original that would be the least of her concerns and she would beat the hell out of anyone who says they are not family. The 3 siblings do not even look like they believe they are family to begin with other than Ju Won. The 3 siblings also treat the opposite fathers as just “uncles” and don’t relate to them as the other “father”. In the original, it was never said but always strongly implied that this was a household where one assumed the father's role of providing money and the other took on the role of the mother, caring on a deeper level, providing food and warmth for the kids when they return home. It doesn't feel the same here, something is just missing.

The thing that I dislike the most is how the family-centric theme that was key in the C-Drama is not as present here and they introduced the romance way too early that destroyed some of the innocence of it for me. Many of the emotional scenes just don't hit the same. I get that the director wants this to be its own drama but I don't think he did a great job at trying to blend in his new with the original plot. I feel like the director missed the essence of the original. The decision in most of the change of characterization and the choice to omit certain side characters makes it almost seem like he never watched the original. Many of the events that happened in turn felt like they happened as a tick to the checklist of things that needed to be included in the adaptation. The show focused way too much on the blossoming romance between San Ha and Ju Won and the character development of the rest suffered in turn on top of the fact that the runtime is significantly shortened, making the whole thing feel so underdeveloped, incohesive, and rushed. I am unable to feel the bond between the relationships and that to me is one of the core of this story. The drama very quickly dwindled back into the typical K-Drama rom-com with the cliches.

The ending, blessed by the happy-ever-after fairy tied up all the loose ends quickly and randomly- I mean all of their major issues were solved in one and a half episodes simply by sitting down and talking it out. Years of grief and pain were resolved by suddenly deciding to be nice to each other and letting things go. It was not just this that felt rushed, even the romance formed between Ju Won and San Ha when he returned after 10 YEARS felt weird. One minute Ju Won was still deciding if she was going to forgive them and ease things back like before and the next minute they were already kissing. He barely started to chase after her! All of the romance in this show was pretty much the same too but I shall not elaborate further.

If you look at my watchlist you can see that I am very stingy in giving 10/10 because that is the value I want to give to the score. Only dramas that I truly love will receive the rating and Go Ahead was one of them. Go Ahead had such a chokehold of my life back then because of the many parallels I shared with the drama in my own life that I relate to. This was why I was so excited when I heard the news that it would be adapted into a K-Drama and directed by the same director for Twenty-Five Twenty-One; another one of my 10/10 dramas. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a decent watch but from the perspective of someone who has watched Go Ahead, I am fully aware of the potential this beautiful story holds and so far Family by Choice has not exactly lived up to the expectations that I had. New viewers if you do find yourself enjoying(or not), you can always tune into the C-Drama version to see a more "extended" work; damn I'm jealous!

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