I think at this point we’ve watched more than enough slice-of-life dramas to be passing just anything as a good watch. With humanism and hospice affairs, this drama attempted to attract viewers with melting vibes, but unfortunately the shoddy story and deficient characters made it fail very sub-standardly. In overall, this wasn’t even average, rather a bad drama. I was more excited for Sung Dong Il than Ji Chang Wook, but it worked for neither.

Produced by ‘A&E Networks Korea’ & ‘Climax Studios’, “If You Wish Upon Me (당신이 소원을 말하면)” is a feel-good drama, enmarking Ji Chang Wook’s come back to cable drama following his military service. Written by Jo Ryung Soo and directed by Kim Yong Wan, the drama was originally broadcasted on KBS while Viu was assigned for international distribution. The production claims that the story has been inspired by the true accounts of “Make-a-Wish Foundation” in Netherlands, which is somewhat correct.

The story follows a young ex-convict with dark past, Yoon Gyu Re (Ji Chang Wook) who is ordered to join a hospice for community service upon a minor offence. Even with hesitations and doubts, he soon joins ‘Team Genie’- a group that fulfills the last wishes of terminally ill patients at the hospice, created by Kang Tae Shik (Sung Dong Il). Seo Yoon Joo (Choi Soo Young) is a nurse and the only medical personnel in the team while it also consists of Yeom Soon Ja (Yang Hee Kyung), a cook, Yoo Seo Jin (Jeon Chae Eun), a high-schooler, Mr. Koo (Park Jung Pyo) a social worker and Choi Deok Ja (Gil Hye Yeon) & Hwang Cha Young (Yoo Soon Woong) an old couple who work as cleaners at the hospice.

Other familiar faces in the drama are: Shin Joo Hwan, Won Ji An, Nam Tae Hoon, Park Se Jun, Park Jin Joo and Nam Kyung Joo.

Plot development is an absolute disappointment. What started with a little bloom, became weary by the interval and dreadful and illogical in final sequence. The seemingly peak scenes did exhibit no emotion, nor raised hopes for further development.

Given the storyline, the script could have been a very good one even without any peculiar feature, but the debutant writer failed through rough despite their firm motivational muse. I think its natural provided they made a debut with the drama and hopefully this helps them as a writer, but there several things that could have been avoided easily, which seemed like a lack of motive. The introduction was okay but it soon became ineffectual even before it could finish a quarter. The characters were poorly written and had no development throughout, the plot development was inconsistent and tawdry and the elements were underwhelmingly typical.

Directorial input is visibly way under the par; not just they could better the script, also the things that had to have only their contribution was very tacky. The editing and screenplay did irk me as soon as the show started rolling, however, I was expecting it would improve. I honestly lost interest before two episodes because of this choppy execution but decided to continue wishing for warm moments. Albeit, the limitations of the drama are that even the events that are supposed to make you cry, rather invite boredom. There is little significance of cinematography and the screenplay organization is a huge mess.

Composed by Kim Dong Wook, there are 9 OSTs in the drama. Most of them are indeed beautiful, touching and are perfect for the genre of the drama, though underutilized in the editing.
# “Loner” by Kim Sung Kyu (Infinite)
# “Starlight” by Jung So Yeon (Laboum)
# “I Can’t Forget You” by Kim Feel
# “Young Day” by Lee Ye Jun
# “Halo” by Park Jin Joo
# “I’ll Protect You” by Choi Yu Ree
# “Let U Go” by Suran
# ‘’To My Star” by Choi Soo Young
# “You and Me” by Taeyeon

No, this is not the first time, a flawed male lead with dark past and in requirement of therapy has been projected in a Kdrama. In fact, such characters have been brought forward more recently by beautiful female writers of the industry, who have been able to create impressions. Any of you citing Gyeo Re as ‘too weak to be a man’ probably either has toxic masculinity or are into ‘all heroic alpha males’ too much. But what was the problrm? Poor context and subpar presentation and not to forget, zero transition in between. I would have liked to see a slow and steady development in him, from rags to flower, but he changes from an evil to sage in a blink of moment and remains the same throughout. Such a waste of his acting skills plus the potential development.

I think romance was a factor that stood out the most amongst all. Not only the chemistry between Gyeo Rye and Yeon Joo was wonderful, also the development of love and their follow-up till the end was beautifully drawn. It was not typical at the least and the healthy relationship goals reflected through their beautiful presence was cute and heart-touching. Well, most of the credited to Soo Young’s expertise in that area but Chang Wook playing an untypical arc did help it too.

There are a lot of unnecessary sequential flashbacks for several characters which might have been a good idea for a drama where a lot of people are breathing for the last time, but ngl it could have been better executed. So, their random incorporation and editing with OSTs rather felt underwhelming.

Side characters were a part of the journey and definitely contributed some of the warm factors but they hardly had much to offer as individuals and whatever they had, lacked plausibility and any interest. I was particularly anticipating for the team members bcs they have been favourite actors and the initial episodes made me expect a little. However, realizing that the writer doesn’t intend to improve themselves, I gave up very soon.

Another thing that I loved was Won Ji An's character as Joon Kyung, portraying mental health issues and how they take cumulative toll on body along with their way of affecting the surrounding people, be it family, friends and acquaintances. The actress did deliver amazingly, 0.5 for her only.


The thriller subplot to the script was such a havoc, I could not help but hate it too much. Not like the drama had any overall potential to begin with but the way kept ruining it and destroyed the remining essence towards the end using bad guy fight and conspiracies within the hospice. The 14th and 15th were total letdowns because the repetitive and fast-paced fists and knifes were only funny and laughable. The past connection part between the leads did not make sense either. Ending of it was not really terrible but I was in no mood to think about it by that.

Final Remarks… The drama was an act of trumpery (flashy but unproductive). Keeping JCW, SDI and CSY at the centre, it did aim for big but in overall, the makers did have a lack of creativity and motive to do better which led to a wasted and forgettable watch. They did attempt to incorporate touchy stories and blooming moments to make it seem appealing and heart-wrenching but they rather felt forced and out of place. The drama failed through for a lot of reasons and is a technical flop. Not recommending to anyone.