Welcome to Wedding Hell (2022)

Not bad!

Developed by ‘Kakao Ent.’ And produced by ‘Mays Ent.’, “Welcome to Wedding Hell (결혼백서)” is a 12 episode long romcom plus melo web series. Written by Choi I-rang and directed by Seo Joo Wan, the drama was originally aired by Kakao TV and internationally distributrd by Netflix, in selected countries.

The show follows the story of a couple who had been dating and finally decided to get married, while being hit by reality hard as they set out to prepare for their D-day. As she dreams about an all-happy life, Kim Na Eun (Lee Yun Hee) is finally proposed by his beloved boyfriend Seo Jun Hyung (Lee Jin Wook) who always moves on from matters than talking about it. As they start planning for the most important day, they have stuffs to settle before getting hitched. Overnight, their family & friends get involved in all these, eventually resulting in unforeseen and unexpected issues, that they must deal with to live happily in future.

In other major roles are: Kim Mi Kyung Yoon Yoo Sun, Hwang Seung Eon, Song Jin Woo, Im Ha Ryong, Kim Joo Yeon and Gil Young Woo, who are talented and did perfect deliveries. You will see few known faces as guest roles in the show too.

Having not watched any of their 2 previous works, Imma take this as the debut of Choi I-rang jakka-nim. And talking about the writing of the story, from the perspective of a viewer, this was pretty decent. Similarly, the seemingly rookie director Seo Jun Wan PDnim has done a good job, just like his previous web show. The drama did give off the classical melo Kdrama vibes with modern setup and the screen-editing was up to par per se.

 In the crowd of fairy-tale dramas where the leads either end up getting together or get married in the very ending of the show, happily, this particular story was on the realistic sides. This is more of a behind-the-scenes story portraying the real and relatable problems one must go through as they prepare to start a new life. Even with a short storyline and limited runtime, this was able to throw light upon many things including the conflict between the couple, dispute between the families, the ways friends and workplaces influences mindsets of to-be-married individuals and the psychological warfare everyone must overcome. As someone in his early 20s with no firsthand experience yet has grown up of seeing numerous marriage preparations, I can’t really say the show was relatable but it was definitely a reflection of reality, is all I can state.

There are 2 OSTs in the drama:
“To The Bride” by Aliee
“Marry ME” by Han Seung Yun.

 It was honestly very weird, at first, to see Lee Jin Wook playing a character so untypical of what he has been doing for the last few years. But, soon it became easy as I realized the mood of the drama wasn’t supposed to stay as fluffy as it at first seemed to be. Lee Yun Hee was as fabulous as ever and Kim Mi Kyung being the girly’s mother that she has aced ages ago.

The comedy elements as a part of the show were very funny and proved to be ice-breaker among the serious moods, accompanied by good soud-editing. Apart from the conversations between parents and friends, it was Song Jin Woo’s capabilities that carried the humor dept. of the show. 

The most important message from this drama, in my pov, is how married life is influenced by third parties, particularly family, no matter how much they seemed to have played the tiniest parts in the show. Over-possessiveness could be a poison and over-interference by parents between couples that too the ones preparing for marriage, could lead to unamendable situations, eventually resulting in fall in relationships. On contrary, well-established coordination, proper and free communication, abilities to understand, etc. are the key to healthy relationships, is what the puts emphasis on.

Before I finish, I would like to urge the ones complaining to look beyond the futile points. Rationally, there are not many technical flaws so whatever is left to criticize is how you feel about characters and situations. If you think some of the characters are unbearable and the situations are annoying, well, sweetie! This is what you see in perfectly real life. The show is made to show what’s wrong and needs to be rectified and what matters the most is how they deal with these and sort everything out by the end of show, which is clearly, again, realistically done. 

Regardless of everything, my fictional heart wanted one thing to be different. It was Na Eun's nature which the writer should have changed, a little if not drastically. There were not just one or two, rather many instances she was in the wrong and I was expecting her to have a development, or at least some growth in that matter, which didn't happen.

Final Remarks… This is definitely not the best drama or something worth of creating buzz, but it’s a well-made story with realistic elements that makes it an entertaining melodrama. I believe 6.5 will be perfect, provided the quality is average yet the decent efforts have been reflected.  I'd have actually given a 7.0 if not for the point I have mentioned above. The drama has about 7 hours runtime so I don't think it hurts to give it a try, again bcs it's not a waste.

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Na-Eun is written horribly

I thought that this would be a cute drama with elements from the anime "Love is War: Kaguya-sama" where we look into the minds of both the FL and ML as they overcome challenges regarding their love life. This doesn't seem to be the case as the couple begins to close off communication to wallow in self-pity. It started to go downhill after the furniture shopping incident with ML's mom.

It's odd that FL and ML have been together for so long and yet she doesn't really understand how clueless her fiance is (that it would be difficult for women to get along with their MILs, that it would have been better for him not to buy the watch himself during the watch incident, etc.) His mom seems to be the same way since she's been clueless as to how difficult it is for the FL to honestly communicate with her.

One thing that truly irks me is the fact that Na-Eun never takes responsibility for her behavior. She never tries to be honest with her MIL, or even her fiance. Whenever she's upset the ML has to resort to getting info from her best friend Hee Sun because FL often goes "You didn't know what you did?"

When ML apologizes, she says "Do you even know what you're apologizing for?" I honestly felt really bad for him when he started to have the mindset of "Everything's my fault, no one else's. It's all me. I'm sorry." At some point I was concerned that he was going to hurt himself.

It's funny though that FL is bothered by ML dishing out apologies left and right without a thought when she does the same exact thing with her MIL.

Side note: It seems strange to me that Soo Yeon gave Na Eun a tip for dealing with in-laws but Na Eun only used it once and never again. Why was that even put in? I mean they didn't even have another conversation about dealing with in-laws.

Past episode 10 I didn't watch but have read recaps on. Na Eun never reaches out to Joon Hyung, ever. She's always a sad little damsel and he's the puppy that chases after her. She wasn't even open to his attempts at reconnection before the wedding photo-shoot when he offered her a ride, a coffee and a smile. Not even when Hee Sun and Min Woo brought them together so they could try to make up the night before the photo-shoot. She had to get shit-faced drunk so the ML could could have a heart to heart with her. They didn't even touch on the major issues during that heart-to-heart.

What are they going to do when they have another major issue that threatens the foundation of their relationship?? Is she going to be upset all alone and he's going to Hee Sun/Min Woo for clues to resolve things again???? Her communication and problem-solving skills suck!!

*I gave the music rating a 5 since I didn't pay much attention to the music.

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