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Love in Contract korean drama review
Lopend 4/16
Love in Contract
2 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
by lilili
okt 3, 2022
4 van 16
Lopend
Geheel 8.0
Verhaal 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Muziek 7.0
Rewatch Waarde 8.0
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten

Weird mix of romcom elements with dark childhood trauma but it works

I never write reviews of airing dramas but this drama has gotten a lot of bad word of mouth and I want to counter that for anyone who's undecided about watching it. Just know going in that the marketing for this show has been very misleading. Someone on Reddit described it as Business Proposal meets Flower of Evil meets Pretty Woman and that is very accurate. Yes it's often very funny (a dinner scene in episode 4 made me scream laugh) but it's also very heavy and sad in a lot of ways.

It has what may be the weirdest first episode of a drama I've ever seen. You are dropped directly into the story after the leads have been contract married for five years. Their entire relationship to that point has consisted of her meeting him three days a week for dinners he's cooked for her and that they eat in total silence because the ML suffers from crippling social anxiety and struggles to make connections with other people. Despite that, the FL is starting to catch feelings for the ML because he feeds her and gives her a quiet safe space and makes no demands on her, unlike her other clients who constantly have to be managed.

The FL was raised by a shady woman contracted by a corporation to groom the perfect chaebol wife so she could be married off to the eldest son of another chaebol family. The FL refused to go through with the marriage and uses the skills she learned to run a business as a wife for hire. She's been divorced 13 times and has had many more fake relationships that were never made legal. She sends all of her money to the shady woman who treats her coldly but is the closest thing she has to a mother.

The 2ML is the youngest brother of the man rejected by the FL. He's never forgotten her and even though he's become a famous actor he's named his beloved cat after her (it's a one sided love since the cat hates him). There's a big development in episode 4 that I won't spoil but this is definitely not your typical 2ML.

The FL's roommate and best friend is a gay man she fake married (later divorced) to get his homophobic sisters off his back. We first see him with the hot young man he's spent the night with but he dreams of moving to Canada so he can be openly out and attend the gay pride parade in Vancouver. It's great to see an LGBT character in a Kdrama who isn't stereotypical and has his own story arc.

The actors are all excellent but I want to give a special shoutout to Go Kyung-pyo as the ML. I've always liked him but he's a revelation in this drama. The character requires him to veer from dark and scary to endearingly awkward to sexy and smitten to panicked and jealous. He's good at all of it and I also have to mention he's in the best shape of his life and looks amazing in suits. He and Park Min Young have fantastic chemistry but she does that with all of her costars.

Whether or not you'll enjoy this depends a lot on your tolerance for drastic changes in tone and odd plotting (episode 1 felt like episode 10 of a normal drama). It's not like any other drama I've seen. I'm loving it and looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds. I hope it doesn't fall apart in the end but I think it's very much worth checking out.
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