Love in Contract (2022)

Cliché en contrato

Si estás buscando algo relajado y facíl de ver, este es el k-drama correcto. Una historia simple y, hasta cierto punto, facíl de entender. Un k-drama con muchos clíches disfrutables.

Ahora bien, quiero comenzar este review con una crítica no tan favorecedora: era una historia simple, pero por no sé que razón, la quisieron hacer algo más compleja y con subtramas que al principio iban bien pero al final... quedarón al aire, sin importancia y por lo tanto, mal manejadas.

Este es el principal problema de este k-drama. Era una historia simple, bastante clíche, que debío mantenerse de esa manera. Pero se fue por el camino en que vieron/forzaron la necesidad de crear tensión, que en lo personal, no funcionó. Todo iba bien los primeros ¿10-12? capítulos, la comedia romántica iba bastante bien, algo relajado, ligero y divertido para tomarse una pausa de los k-dramas intensos y con mucho drama. Sin embargo, los últimos cuatro capítulos, destacandos los últimos dos, no funcionaron bastante bien por este hecho de que quiesieron meter esta "tensión" que no iba al caso. O bueno, si la querían meter, por lo menos la hubieran metido desde antes y no en los últimos dos capítulos que se vieron apresurados y sin dar a entender, del todo bien, la resolución del problema.

Con lo anterior me refiero a cuando ella decide alejarse de el protagonista y tiempo después ya estaban organizando su boda cuando ya estaban casados y luego que ya no porque no sé que. También, el amor secundario que dejó su trabajo de actor para "protegerla" (no entendí cómo), pero que gracias a su mamá (que al principio no estaba de acuerdo pero ahora sí) volvió a retomar su carrera. Así como estas hay muchas cosas, que para mí, al final, no tuvieron mucho sentido.

Del lado de la actuación... estuvo bien, pero en algunas ocasiones las sentí algo sozas y sobre actuadas por algunos personajes. Son un gran elenco, no lo voy a negar, pero no considero que haya alguna la cual destacar y si tuviera que hacerlo, solo sería la del amor secundario, Kang Hae-Jin (Kim Jae-young).

Lo que más disfruté de este k-drama es el OST y las escenas de comedia, las cuales lograron su objetivo y me sacaron bastantes risas. También el hecho de que es un SUPER clíche lo hace agradable y digerible porque no esperas mucho de él.

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Potentials Wasted & Left a lot to be desired

the first half of the show is pretty soild (for a rom-com) but the second half is boring as hell. i skipped alot just to be done with it. I watched it for PMY but her acting is questionable at some points. Main Male lead's performance was also underwhelming, the second male lead was good tho.
i think what made the second half unbearable to watch (aside from the poorly written script) is that the main characters had no chemistry, the FM and the second lead worked better for me, and it's not for "second lead's sympathy" reasons, they pairing felt refreshing and made up for the chemistry which lacked in the endgame couple. in addition, i think their stories would've made a lot more interesting plotlines and events than what we've been left with. I was surprised by the LGBTQ+ representation but again, something was lacking, much like most of the sub-plotlines, it felt poorly done and toned down.
to put it simple, yet another underwhelming project from PMY.

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so seriously i started watching this drama because of the female lead but this time her acting actually disappoints me a bit .
if you have watched her previous dramas you will know the difference .
the plot is good but you can really predict what will happen next . Characters have a good backstory . You will like the first half of the show coz it's a bit interesting but then slowly you will start getting bored . The mystery and suspense part is nice .
I was pleasantly surprised with the representation of LGBTQ themes. Watching ji-ho and sang-eun is not at all appealing, I don't feel connected with their chemistry or story. Feels like "let's just watch since I started this". Their is no proper dialogue, connection or any part that feels touching. I expected much more than this, it's just going not actually entertaining. Hae-jin character should've been first male lead. I'm much more interested in how he will solve his family conflicts then how ji-ho and sang-eun will end up together.... I really feel bad for hae-jin , it's clearly visible that he is in love with sang-eun . Personally i don't think that there is any kind of reason left to watch this drama .

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Bleh

I only watched this for PMY but it was absolutely ridiculous! Her acting was so stiffed and there wasn’t any kinda romance at all. Only 2nd lead was okay to watch. Story wasn’t strong, ugghhh! Not recommended at all! The plot was all over the places. My main problem is their acting. PMY should try out some diverse roles too, come on! Her acting was pretty forced. And the 2nd half was pointless. Actually whole drama was pointless.

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Not Good Enough

Korean Drama " Love in Contract " has a good story in theory, but the execution was weak.

The dynamics between a strong, independant and girly woman and a moody, closed up man were spot on, for starters. However, the love story lacked pace, had few romantic moments that were added awkwardly into the story and, overall, it lost its enjoyament since it felt parcial.

The love triangle, moreover, was boring and the two leads had zero chemistry, which did not aid at all.

Also, the main character was annoying and acting immature most of the time, though the actress did a good job with her performance.

Finally, the drama got boring after the first episodes and messy when it came to its plot.

So, overall, two out of ten.

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Could have been, but wasn't. Epic Fail

Love in Contract had so much appeal. After the disappointment of Forecasting love and weather, I was really hoping this would be Min-Young’s big come back! We all love Park Min-Young from What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and Her Private Life but Love in Contract was not the drama for any of the actors.

The big wrong:

1.) Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. What happened to Min Young’s face? It looks like she got the trendy Buccal Fat removal surgery. Why does her face look like a skeleton? It makes me sad as a fan that she thinks she has to look a certain way to feel beautiful. She has already had plenty of surgeries and her dieting has dropped so much of her weight. Call me crazy but being a size 0 is okay, she didn’t need to go into double zero territory.

The girl looks like she is starving and it’s so sad that she did that. I read articles saying that she didn’t have any surgery on her face and it’s just weight loss (regardless of what happened). I’m just disappointed that she didn’t feel like she was beautiful enough. She looked perfectly fine in Forecasting Love and Weather.

2.) Loved Go Kyung Pyo from Reply 1988 but this drama didn’t help his acting ability. I blame it on the script and directing. The main lead was cold, stiff and one dimensional. I didn’t really see any chemistry between him and the FL and I was wondering why I could root for such a bland character?

3.) The awful script. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was a lot of situational writing. I felt like the writing was setting up scenes for a climax. Like having the actor use the stairs all of sudden so they would not run into each on the stairs. Or there would be scenes when the characters have conversations, then go home, have a conversation with a different character and then call the person they just left to meet up again. So many times characters would re-meet up in the same day. It felt like it was silly writing.

4.) I couldn’t stand the characters. The choices they made was just annoying and frustrating. The whole plot focused on a girl who was adopted into a corporation to be a bride is just so out there, I couldn’t get into the storyline. The relationships the FL formed (with second male lead, best friend and nanny) was odd and just didn’t fully develop.

5.) The wardrobe. I don’t get it. The FL dresses VERY slutty in the first 70% of the drama, to the point where it didn’t make sense. Like do you really wear a crop top mini-dress to go buy food? I liked the high fashion, but there’s a time and place for certain outfits. It was as if the writers were trying to say, “the FL is a call-girl” but we can’t really say she is. Then in the last few episodes, she stopped dressing slutty and that even confused me more. What happened to the crop tops and open neck shoulder outfits? Why are you so covered now? The wardrobe was not consistent and I was disappointed on the character portrayal on the FL.

Overall, I wanted to watch the drama because I simply love Park Min-Young, I have watched most of all of her dramas, even her reality show, Busted (which I loved), but this drama really changed the way I feel about her. I’m not sure how much pressure she is under or what people she has around her, but with the combination of two failed dramas (Love in Contract, and Forecasting Love and Weather) with questionable wardrobe choices (not sure if she had any say in it) and the weird Skelton face and abnormally dieting, I feel like this girl needs some self-love and better people around her.

PLEASE go back to the old days. You are beautiful as you are and pick better dramas.

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eh??

The writing for this drama is mediocre to say the least
➜ There's lgbtq+ rep in the form of Gwang Nam his actual character is very likeable & his friendship with Sang Eun was cute, but he's a side character and it really shows towards the end of the series, they had potential to actually write a good story involving him and it started off great but its just left a horrible taste in my mouth especially the last episode because their "resolution" for homophobia was becoming famous... sure

➜ Ji Ho is socially awkward/has trouble with social cues and interacting with other people it made him quite relatable however throughout the whole drama the characters(mainly his co-workers) praise the FL for "fixing" him, "making him human" it just seemed very 2 dimensional and fairly off putting

➜ I'd say that the FL and ML's relationship is like healthier than 85% of the couples in kdramas LOL but it was hard to see the chemistry in them at times cause it felt like they were just reading off a script and that's it, not to mention the biggest reason I was rooting for them was because I wasn't a fan of the SML

➜ They threw away the SMLs character the moment he wasn't useful, he was just a plot device and honestly I found it hard to like his character considering he seemed a BIT manipulative and there was questionable consent regarding a kiss.

➜ You could probably skip a 3 episodes before episode 15 and it would still make sense

➜ The "antagonists" kinda made me cringe ngl, that laugh..........................

this drama has its cute moments & was pretty enjoyable at times if you just didn't think about it too much but overall i wouldn't bother with it unless you're extremely bored or maybe you like this kind of stuff 😵‍💫

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Interesting in the beginning but went downhill

Let’s be real, most people watched this drama for Park Minyoung. I wouldn’t say she did an amazing job in this role but she wasn’t bad. I enjoyed her character and how self-less she was but sometimes her character also didn’t make any sense. The storyline with this drama was also kind of annoying— it’s like they were trying to do something new with making the ML mysterious but it kind of got ruined with all the chaebol drama.

No hate against Go Kyungpho but I just don’t think he and Park Minyoung had an chemistry cause I got bored so many times and I wanted to drop the series many times. With that being said, she definitely had more chemistry with Kim Jaeyoung. And I did enjoy most of the side characters— the FL’s gay best friend and the SML’s manager and the ML’s ex-wife (who sort of grew on me, just because she helped the FL/ML).

Overall, the first couple episodes were great but got boring af later.

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Skipped A LOT!!:(

It was boring. I’m sorry to say.. I love Park Min Young, but her last few dramas were a drag.

The storyline had no backbone, the pace was dull and the chemistry was just lacking. The sub-plots with the family history, the 2ML family issues and the office colleagues - all did not hold any interest for me. Humour wasn’t funny; romance wasn’t sizzling; PMY wardrobe was good, and she looked good (although I think she’s done too much surgery on her face? :()

Watch only if you have nothing else… but nowadays there’s plenty good stuff to watch! Lol

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Just Okay...

This series could've been better if the episodes were shorter. Having 16 episodes seemed too much when the story development is sadly just subpar. The happy ending is seriously so lackluster that it seemed like it was written just to please everyone and give everyone a somewhat happy ending. One of the saving grace of this series was the acting. Almost all of the cast did a great portrayal of their characters. Their acting is amazing- especially since I've watched most of them act in a way different manner in other dramas.

BUT, I may be in the minority when I also say that I felt little to no spark between the leads. I think that one of the reasons I watched this is because I liked the story development of the FML Jamie and her 'tutor/nanny' more than the romance aspect itself. I also enjoyed the interactions that included the Senior Manager of Ji Ho and Gwang-name. They're hilarious!

One of the characters I was rooting for to have a great ending- because he deserves it, was Gwang-nam. He's seriously one of the best support characters I've watched! He also had a great potential storyline, but it was sadly overlooked because the story focused too much on the bland romance aspect. The ending given to him was such a downer. Every single character, minus the antagonist, got what they all wanted, except this cinnamon roll. UGH.

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