Love in Contract (2022)

Park Min Young is picking some stinkers lately… SMH. This was such a snooze.

I love Park Min Young and have enjoyed several of her dramas, but lately, she is really picking some stinkers. It started with Forecasting Love & Weather, and continues here.

The ML is such a snore, and I was not feeling the chemistry between the 2 leads. The second ML was better, but of course, she doesn’t choose him because he actually seems to have a pulse.

The story was a little rough, the “professional bride for hire” angle had potential, but the execution fell a little short. The family dynamics were a train wreck leaving carnage all over this show. The ML judge character’s office life was so cringy at times I had secondhand embarrassment.

Honestly, the best parts about this show are the gay roommate and the second male lead. I can’t count the number of times I fell asleep while watching this show, and in the end, I had to fast forward through 80% of the last 5 eps just to finish it.

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Clichés in Contract with a sweet scent of broken flowers

The opening scen of this dram draws us in a we hear the narrative of a girl who was raised to become a commodity to be sold by entering the contract of marriage . Dark and orange red lights accompany us to the view of Go Kyung Pyo stepping in to the shower while she steps out though the dark apartments door in to a light hallway... Giving us a feel of high end dark and a bit naughty... However viewers are then thrown int to the light bubbly sweetness which is basically Park Min Young. Giving us a story of love, geometry, corporate politics and human relationships viewed from a bunch of angles.

The budget for this drama seems to be pretty big, not only seen by the star studded amazing cast but also bu the amount of PPL to pay for it. As there is so much PPL in this that it is impossible to miss out on it, even though you may be shocked by the missing Subs from Subway and face masks you get cars, Kopiko and the ever folding Samsungs instead.

Go Kyung Pyos character is wonderfully portrayed, awkward, straight forward, introverted to the core, a sweet little puppy and as usual the king of back hugs, there is no doubt that this guy is good at his job making great use of his eyes and slow mo it is hard not to fall for this guy.... Especially when put next to a fluffy cat.. Kim Jae Young also delivered a memorable performance, with captivating flirty smiles, playfulness this guy is the warm bubbly, emotional, perfect contrast to the other guy. Having both the cat an girl between these two was a lot of fun to watch in this highly contracted and respectful (most of the time) love triangle. The addition of Lee Joo Bins character in to the love geometry was the cherry on top for this geometry lover (yes I admit it I love em).

The ex husband/roommate played by Kang Hyung Suk may not have added to the geometry but was amazingly casted, well preformed and made me wish for a spinn off (I rarely want spinn offs) where he gets to be the star of a rising star rom com of his own.

There where a few annoying side characters who got a bit more screen time than I would have wished for taking down the score a bit, however they are manageable and though they did make me reach for the mute button I did not feel the need to skip the scenes with them all together. There are a few decisions that seemed to be there only to prolong the plot without actually giving it any substance, most of the twists were highly predictable but I do not really mind predictability so it did not really bother me.

The umbrellas in this drama are top of the hill... Red warning umbrella was so well used I could not help but laugh at the sight of her. There are also a bunch of good poetic lines here and there, which come off as oddly funny when delivered by the cold male lead. " Broken flowers smell the sweetes" (or something like that) would have felt like a way to slick buttery line if not delivered with a stone cold face.

The story really is nothing new, had I seen this a year or two ago I would probably have rated it higher as it does indeed hava a bunch of cliches and stuff I love but since there is some meeh moments, a few draggy parts , highly mutable parts and other parts that could have been explored a bit more I realised that no matter how much I love the cast and found most of this drama enjoyable I could not ignore them completely and thus settled for 8,5.

So to sum it up, if you like the cast, enjoy geometry and do not mind a bunch of cliches go for it this is a good choice for you.
If you want something new and exiting and hate PPL pick something else.

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Should've focused more on the main couple

This was a really average series. Some things were the worst while others were good. The things is, these good things were very little and not enough to forgive all the negative points in narrative. As I usually write my reviews, I will tell my favorite and least favorite parts.

Things I liked:

- The main couple, that is jiho and sangeun, they have great chemistry, I loved every scene with them.
- Jiho is so cute, he's my favorite character, no doubt. I just love him!!!

Things I didn't like:

- The actor haejin is so annoying. The writers tried to create a love triangle to make the audience discuss who she should end up with, but it's clear who is her love interest. And bc of that, haejin keeps forcing situations with sangeun. It's so embarassing and annoying really. Honestly, it's so unnecessary that the series tries to build sangeun's story with him when we know, from the beginning, that she's gonna really end up with jiho.
- Where's the development of jiho's background story? I kept waiting for when they were going to talk about his story whith his family and why he is so closed and antisocial. I think it would be really good to see more about his past with his family. This could actually be a way for him overcoming his social problems since I thought he developed them bc of some childhood trauma.
- That scene of her bff with his family and telling them he was gay was too rushed and undeveloped. Did his parents accept his sexuality? It was not clear, and that's so sad bc I really wanted his story to be told.
- And that leads me to the main problem of the show: it should have developed and talked more about these characters' stories and families instead of wasting time on that eena group plot which was going round in circles at some point. There was a moment, close to the ending, when her nanny and the eena group guy were talking for like the hundredth time of marrying her to haejin. It was so tiring. And while the series was going in circles with this plot, it could have been showing jiho's backstory or her gay friend's problems with his family or whatever.
- And why she left him in the end? It didn't made sense to me. I didn't understand if it was because she was embarassed of him (for some reason which I can't quite grasp) or because he was trying to do smth wrong for her wellbeing and she wanted to prevent him. Either way, I don't think these were reasons for doing that to him.

To conclude, it was not the worst show I've ever watched but it was way way far from being the best. It had a lot of problems regarding narrative, but the couple was good and if they had focused more on them maybe it would've been a better experience.

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So many stories badly blended...

I love romances.
I even try to endure the absurd length of this show, the boring pace and shallow characters.
So… here I go…

STORY – the premise could lead to a great story… Lots of stories badly condensed in a show. Maybe some could be developed or not even included… Maybe there will be a time without movie actors or singers… Really try hard to like the idea of that couple or even imagining 5 years of silent dinner…
Most of the characters are envolved in a masochist relationship, fighting to see who suffers more to protect others…

ACTING
Choi Sang Eun (Park Min Young) – I like her shows. I think this one is one of the worst I saw from her, specially because of the story and her character…
Jung Ji Ho (Go Kyung Pyo) – lacking any social skills became a judge. His love for Sang-Eun is sweet, he even showed power and competence taking care of her…With him I learn that in Korea a broken arm leads to spending days in the Hospital…
His team was good entertainment…
Kim Jae Young (Kang Hae Jin) – of course, the actor. Very likable. A little naïve with his feelings and actions that put all in risk. His team was ok.
Lee Joo Bin (Jung Ji Eun) – a good alpinist, climbing the ladder of the rich and powerful… thought that her end would be different.
Jin Kyung (Yoo Mi Ho) – Badass woman. Mixed feelings about her. Deserves most of the interest in the drama for me. Could her story be more explored…

MUSIC – I do not follow much k-pop and that kind of music. Some are great, but in this show, I cannot remember any…

REWATCH VALUE – maybe one or two scenes, but I doubt. In every aspect in a show, I can recall better shows than this.

OVERALL – sometimes I had to watch in 1,5x because it was a little boring, especially the boomerang story in the second half. I enjoyed enough not to think that I completely wasted my time.

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One time watchable

I personally LOVE park min young... She's the reason why I'm watching this kdrama to the end in the first place. Casting is the only thing justified in this drama. Everything else is.... meh.
FL and ML shines throughout the episodes. One thing I loved in this is that communication between the people are not dramatic. Everyone speaks their mind to the other person. The method of conveying the thoughts of characters are straight forward, thus decreasing the unnecessary dramatic scenes. It is waay too rare to see in kdramas.
ML/FL, second leads and even supporting actors are way too good for the characters given.
Production quality is 🔥. That is not at all compromised here.
Story, OST, script, director, editing are all only mid.

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Not worth it

Started watching the drama because of a tiktok i saw abt the first scenes where she was eating with a client's have highschool friends and she said she studied in Cornell, thought it was funny and decided to start watching it.
The first half of the drama was amazing, absolutely love it, mostly the part where she gets hurt by that one motorcycle guy and Haejin saves her. But then as Jiho starts demonstrating his feeling for her it kept getting worse, personally i was hoping Sangeun would choose Haejin, they had way more chemistry and Jiho and her. Then when Sangeun and Haejin finally kissed i thought this was it and she would finally fall in love with him, but it only showed her that she wanted to be with jiho. Jiho and Sangeun had no chemistry at all, every scene with them was so underwhelming i almost wanted to skip every single one of them.
Now onto Sangeun's best friend, i appreciate the LGBTQ+ representation but i think it's the worst representation i've seen, we got the first scenes of him with a guy and then he just went telling everyone he was gay, until the ep i saw (10) he never really had a love story or something, besides they also showed how he fought with his family, but i don't think his story was deepen enough.
The story behind every character was very much null, they would tell you this and that but wouldn't be specific about it.
After all the drama gets very boring after the 8-9 episode, since you can just start predicting what's gonna happen.

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Good

It's nice, you can give it a try. Story is kinda new and interesting, you may feel bored at start but you will start liking with the flow! I am still confused with the ML but we'll get to know by the future episodes! As always pmy❤️ is great..............................................
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

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Had me feeling many things—and not in a good way

Was initially interested in this one because I expected a fun and very light-hearted romcom where I'd be laughing and falling in love over and over (and I did get it for about 8 episodes???). Instead, I got a plot-heavy drama with a deus ex machina to solve all their problems in the end, some plot device established early then was forgotten for many episodes then somehow just came back again to add more drama, and not to mention a selfish second male lead whom I blame for quite a lot of the problems that happened in the show (though I do end up forgiving him in the end).

At one point, I considered just skipping to the end because everyone and everything was just so frustrating to watch. I didn't sign up for this. Not to mention how the ending—for the leads and the side characters—wasn't as satisfying as it could've been for quite a lot of reasons (for me).

All in all, it was good but I'm not sure if it's one I'd recommend nor one I'd rewatch so soon. The actors were amazing though! I love them all.

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Done!

Finally finally finally finished this!
I was actually following this story while it was airing, but I had to go offline for a while.
I know the last 5 episodes felt quite rushed, but I am happy to watch the episodes where I resumed better than I expected.
I was actually bracing my self for the worst of Jung Ji Eun (Ji Ho's ex-wife), but her character quite floated well.
As for Hae Jin, from the most annoying 2ML to the Saint of all Saints. Lol. I know I hated the character so much, but they gave him a super anti-climactic ending.
Same with Gwang Nam's. Gosh he did not deserve that ending. My very kind boy Gwang Nam.
On Madam Yoo's, it was quite expected, but at least it still gave me a little, tiny, bit of surprise there. Well the revelation on Sang Eun's part was for convenience, I guess.

Anyway, I didn't really expect this to be over the top drama, I just like this kind to pass time, or to entertain, cause I admit, the main leads' chemistry was second to none!

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Love it !

God I love it ! The actors are one point! (maybe I'm biased because it's Park Min Young 🙈) I fell in love with Kim Jae Young. It's the first timr that I saw a drama with him in it and damn I'm not disapointed at all! I'll definitly watch more dramas with him in the cast !

I understand why some people don't enjoy this drama, some elements in the story are at first not logical or meh! But everything finaly make sense in the last 3 episodes.

In my opinion it's a really good drama with awesome caracters, good music, and some plot twist that I enjoy! Can't wait for the final !

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