Boda Imposible (2024)

No it’s not about spy’s

Ok so I originally thought since the title resembled some TV isn’t like Mission Impossible.. that this would involve some spy story. So that is what intrigued me funny enough. I then watched the promos and saw some sort of a femme fatal role from our FL.. but ultimately no spies. Now the trailer comes out and no spies. I at least thought that this would have some wit with how the fake relationship could be perceived as real. I thought this drama would bring some mind games and gaslighting others to make them believe the relationship that the story revolves around is real. In the end there was less of that and a whole lot more of.. well .. I don’t know?

I can’t say I don’t like this drama though. It was charming for the first handful of episodes. Soon though I started seeing problems with the main plot line and relationships. The FL gets too into the relationships around her, I mean I guess she’s only human- but it’s just kind of all over the place in a way. I guess I shouldn’t have expected a lot of smart writing here. It’s pretty boring at times, but it’s not too complicated. For what this drama wants to be, a romantic comedy- it’s not really that either. I don’t know what genre this wanted to be, but funny- yes at times- romantic…….. ehhhhh

This was just a quick little writings about how I thought about this. So to sum it up, it’s not bad. I don’t recommend it but I don’t hate it. I really like Moon Sang Min and am glad I watched it. Without the leads here I wouldn’t have. It’s got that curse where it has talented actors but the writing is just not all there. I get it’s from a source, but adapt it- make it better. Instead this was just average-ish. That’s a barely though, for a more average romantic comedy I would rather it be so bad it’s good. Instead if it’s like this a boring and doesn’t know what it wants to be, then I just get frustrated. I wanted a cult classic, instead I should just watch the classics.

My biggest frustration was the handling of the second male lead. He was a gay man and I expected that they didn’t make that some sort of disability for him. I kid you not, that’s how it was treated. A sad secret that kept him from living his life fully. I don’t care about the business or the appeal to the world, I don’t think it was fair for his story to be shoved away. They treated his homosexuality like a bad thing that was unfortunate. I swear the guy himself didn’t even like being gay nor was he proud of it. And he was 30? The whole life he had, he not once owned up to it because of what? His grandparents? If he didn’t care for that life why couldn’t he just say it? I guess he could’ve been scared for his partner.. but he didn’t have one. And also he never got one in the end. The straight people got their happy ending but if you are gay you just end up alone. It’s quite funny how bad they ended his story, and how the writers really don’t know anything about what it’s like to be gay. I mean I could go on and on. I’m just offended they never celebrated the queer aspects and instead it was someone’s misfortune. That’s not progress in kdrama land, that’s misfortune by itself.

If you want something more nuanced I don’t even know where to start. For a romantic comedy with queer leads watch Sematic Error. For a romantic comedy that is straight watch Business Proposal. I’m done here. Again I’ll say being gay isn’t a misfortune to someone live. This drama has the opportunity to shed light on the difficulties while also respecting someone’s identity. They could’ve showed how someone can still thrive and be successful no matter their identity. So what was the moral of this?

Don’t adapt something you don’t understand or try to. Instead it comes off as disrespectful and cheap. No matter how charming the leads and the characters are, the handling of identities was so flawed. I’ll say watch something else. Recommending more.. even other countries at this point. Watch Ready Set Love for queer characters and straight that is handled with respect.. watch that please.. not this

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wasted potential

The first 10 episodes were so good and I was ready to give this a 10/10. Even in episode 11, I was starting to be okay with the breakup because I thought it would allow characters to grow, but that last episode is so disappointing they got back together in the last 10 minutes of the show, and although the proposal scene was cute it also didn't make sense because there was no real build-up or DATING ERA. The main leads had so much chemistry yet they didn't have that many scenes together. The last 5 minutes were the most confusing 5 minutes of my life she was shooting in a wedding dress and then he just grabbed her and ran away like SIR she is shooting why are you interrupting it and taking her away, it made ZERO sense. They could have just given us their wedding or they could have just cut to their married life because that was so unnecessary. I cared for this drama and it just seemed like the writers gave up and that pisses me off the most. Overall though I loved the drama and they made my Mondays and Tuesdays better. I would just watch up till halfway through episode 10 that's when the show ended in my head.

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Cute Drama

I felt compelled to come here and leave a good review because I don’t feel like the ones that have taken the top spot up here accurately reflect all opinions. Sure I can see why some people feel disappointed. Or that they are reviewing it badly.

At the end of the day, that’s just their take. Let’s not be so overly critical of every little thing and sometimes just show up to enjoy a drama.

This show had a great plot and was cast well. A little predictable- but guess what, thats what Asian dramas do well. I thought thats why most of us are here in this space, but suddenly everyone has become an expert critic. Save the critic for the really awful ones, cos theres plenty of those!!

The last few episodes are the reason I can’t give this a 10/10, and thats because they did go down that road of predicibility too far. There are shows that handle the burden of media attention very well, and keep the leads together. Its so good, because they don’t use the breakup trope, just when we are fully expecting them too. The best dramas are the ones that surprise you, and I so badly wanted that to happen here.

Perhaps one day these writers will catch on to the idea of stepping away from the template.

Overall though I loved watching this story, and was along for the ride. I binged it in 2 days, and that says it all for me. There’s been far too many shows lately that have ended with a let down, so it was refreshing to have something I couldn’t put down.

Give it a chance and ignore the naysayers.

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The Kdrama Tropes Are Strong With This One

I really wanted to get into this kdrama and I kinda loved the male lead in this and thought his acting was great, but the story was all over the place and just felt like most of the show was filler. It takes way too long for the leads to get together and then it's so brief that you nearly miss it.

I loved the trauma they briefly brushed on for the male lead, but then they just kinda forgot about it. I guess he was magically cured offscreen or something. The female lead was great at times, but then felt overly rude towards the male lead when he was kind. Now he was a jerk a lot too, but they explain it at the very least, even though it still bothered me. Then the whole pretend to hate her thing was just really frustrating and takes a long time as well. This is why everything felt like filler.

The gay brother was terrible and completely selfish, all while calling his younger brother (the lead) selfish. They never fully explain the grandfather spending years basically ignoring and mistreating the Ji Han (the lead). They just briefly say a couple words at the end about it, so not enough. I was just frustrated by the whole thing and really wanted a refreshing take where they just run to each other and let the brother clean up his mess. he was fully prepared to do so, doesn't get to, and then does anyways and it's too late apparently. I hate kdrama plots like this.

The kdrama tropes were strong with this one that's all I'm saying, and it just felt like it was showcasing every trope in the book in one show. Terrible idea btw. And Moon Sang Min needs more lead roles, and just more roles. He did a great job with micro-expressions and I really appreciated his range of emotions. Also, I liked the grandpa for the most part and liked that he was way less awful than most are in these types of shows

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MEJOR EL ENEMIES QUE EL LOVERS

Comenzó de forma prometedora, historia interesante e innovadora (aunque de nuevo vuelve a ser adaptación de un webtoon, que creo que me leeré , porque la historia como estaba diciendo prometía) , actuaciones buenas y actores que todavía no conocía, pero que me alegraba conocer por primera vez. Los primeros 6 episodios son los que más me han gustado, todo el rollo te voy a seducir para luego dejarte me recuerda a Temped (drama romántico que me gustó mucho). Las actuaciones de los protagonistas (la chica y el hermano que intenta seducirla) me encantaba , no me parecía forzado ni nada y me reía mucho con sus momentos juntos. Como se puede ver prometía la serie para estar en mi lista de kdramas favoritos.... PROBLEMA, desde el capítulo 7 hasta el final. Desde el capítulo 7 cuando ambos se dan cuenta que se gustan, la historia se vuelve rara e insulsa, dejan ciertas problemáticas sin resolver (¿porque el ex acosaba a Do-Han?, etc) y las que resuelven las resuelven mal (todo el tema de la madre). Aparte las actuaciones de los protagonistas flactua, o al menos la de ella y mira que siento que he encontrado a dos grandes actores que tengo ganas de ver sus futuros trabajos, mientras que la actuación de él se mantiene estable (es más creo que he acabado de ver el drama por él), la de ella me parece que está todo el rato triste e insulsa y no como el principio de la serie que mostraba un mayor rango de emociones. No veo química o no la misma cuando están intentando seducirse mutuamente a él capítulo cuando brevemente están juntos y después esa ruptura por la manga sacada. Como he dicho en el título me gustó más la etapa de ENEMIES que el LOVERS.
Es un drama que prometía y que al final ha quedado un poco meh.

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Esperava muito mais.

Primeiramente, não foi o pior kdrama que assisti, mas não foi um dos melhores. Segundo que, para ter substituído Marry My Husband poderia ter entregado muito. No início, os 4 primeiros episódios foram bons. Depois do oitavo episódio, começou a perder um pouco a graça e se tornar repetitivo. Poderiam ao logo da série ter desenvolvido uma história bonita entre os irmãos em que o Dohan e Jihan tivessem uma relação melhor. Além disso, poderiam ter investido nos outros irmãos como vilões. Além de no fim ter dado um final melhor para o Jihan e a Ahjung. Tinham um casal com química e não souberam explorar. Os dois últimos episódios foram de muita enrolação e perderam a oportunidade de entregar um casal bom.

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If you can accept an episode that was useless to the series it is likable

7.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean romantic comedy series with 12, ~70 minute episodes. It is based on a popular Webtoon of the same name.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Na A jeong (Jeon Jong seo) and Lee Do han (Kim Do wan)were best friends since high school. When Do han asks A jeong to help him avoid an arranged marriage by entering into a contract marriage, A jeong agrees because, as an aspiring actress, pretending to be romantically in love with her best friend is just another role to play. She is used to playing parts for people (such as rent a friend) to make money to continue to pursue her dream of becoming a lead actress. Do han has hidden his homosexuality from his family to this point and the contractual relationship with his friend will allow him to continue to keep his secret. Lee Ji han (Moon Sang min) Do han’s younger brother, is not aware of his brother’s feelings on romance, and wants to thwart the relationship between Do han and A jeong. He wants Do han to folllow through with the arranged marriage with Yoon chae won (Bae Yoon kyung) to secure their grandfather’s approval and inherit control of the conglomerate.

Review

This is a slightly predictable but overall good romantic drama. It has a small comedic element but I wouldn’t characterize it too deeply as comedy. It deals with some deep issues like sexual identity and social stigmas. The slice of life is in the chaebol/conglomerate world and a lot of the social tension is viewed from that, upper echelon, lens. The first half was very good, the premise was not unique but not completely overdone and the story had great flow. But, the last episodes there was a lot of unnecessary drifting and I think some even stopped watching because of that. If you can get through an episode or so and just stick with it, it all wraps up well. The ending is generally happy and mostly tied up. I would not rewatch it any time soon as there are so many better options available. I would recommend it to those that like this genre, are interested in contract marriage tropes or social stigma around falling in love with the “wrong” person. It is not a hard watch and mostly enjoyable except for an episode or so where they seemed t have lost the way.

Spoilers

There was a lot of conflict around the grandfather choosing his “illegitimate” grandson as his main choice of heir even with all the problems Do han had. Nothing was ever explicitly explained but I understood he wanted him out of a sense of guilt toward his daughter and because he felt that powerful position would protect Do han from the social stigma around being an “illegitimate” child as well as his sexual orientation. But, it made no logical sense that a business man would choose his Grandson for those reasons alone. If they had made Do han some brilliant business person, a managerial or economic genius then him choosing him for the other reasons would have made more sense. They also did not clearly indicate why he was so opposed to his other grandchildren taking that seat. It does come out later that their father effectively caused their mother’s death and that might be why he was opposed to them inheriting the business, the whole sins of the father angle, but that is also not super clear. I wanted a huge take down and for those evil relatives to get some of their due. I guess their punishment was the fact that their father had done something so horrible. But that wasn’t completely satisfying given how cruel they had been to their half brothers. I thought it would have been a great twist if they had turned out “illegitimate” since there was so much snobbery around that.

The chemistry between the two main leads was just weird. Sometimes they had great chemistry and other times it just wasn’t there. When they did the beaten past recognition trope of “I’m going to leave you for the good” they acted like being apart did not bother them much. It was hard enough to believe they had some deep connection prior to that and I was just getting it when that separation happened. Then it was like, just kidding, we didn’t love each other that deeply after all. They were trying for the angle that they were just acting like they didn’t care but you can’t achieve that level of detachment with someone you love deeply. And why? At the point they took the year apart Do han had come out and confessed everything and the public had already moved on from labeling her with the scarlet letter. So, there was no compelling reason for them to separate and it just seemed very dramatic at that point. Immature. Ji han’s press conference where he emphasized that he was the one to pursue her and seduce her was pointless. First, there were pictures of them having a passionate kiss and she was obviously just as involved with him as he was with her. And second, Do han confessing resolved the entire situation. All he had to do was have a real conversation with his brother and her and that press conference would have been completely unnecessary.

I am still trying to reconcile how a child could be held responsible, at all, for the death of their parent simply because they were the first one saved, and the car exploded in fire. The mother specifically requested he be saved first. The grandfather basically said he treated him the way he did not because he blamed him but because seeing him made the grandfather feel guilty and remorseful. Selfish much? And they never explained why the mom was in the car, why was he in the car, and who was the man driving that car. Did she really have a scandalous affair that produced the two boys. Was she just a trash person or was her husband always a violent maniac? That was such a key aspect but we really got nothing in the way of explaining the situation around the mother.

The ending was not fully satisfying because she was in a wedding dress but it turns out that was for a role she was playing and not that they were getting married. I don’t always need to see the leads get married. Often just the confession and them indicating they stay together is enough to feel fully wrapped up. In this case though the leads were so wishy washy with their relationship I would have liked to see them actually marry. It shows them running away together in the end but you aren’t tricking me a bit he grabbed her and they ran away when she was in a wedding dress before and they still split up.

There is the weird stalker level ex Jung Dae Hyun (ShinYongBum) who apologizes and is “redeemed” at least in Do han’s eyes. I could nit figure out why they made Do han’s ex such a creepy character. They could have gave him a happy ending with a great life partner. It could have been a sweet bonus romance. But that character was so creepy I did nit want to see Do han even forgive him.

I really debated what level of liking I had for this because it had so much potential. If it weren’t for that episode or so of them breaking up and pretending like they had moved on I would have liked it far more. So like 75% of it was really good, would have rated as one of my top favorites, but that 25% really did have an impact on how much I enjoyed the series. I wonder if the surprising cameos of some of the top talent was due to poor viewer response to the episodes that they broke up and the script drifted. I really liked Yon Chae Won (Bae Yoon Kyoung) character where she played the Chaebol of an adjacent conglomerate who was originally affianced to Do han but wound up in love with Ji han. She remained nice even when she was jealous and did not let others speak badly of or mistreat others without cause.

So it was nice that they had Kim Bum step in as a romantic potential for Chae Won. Lee Soo Hyuk also appeared at the end of the series playing the role of an onscreen bridegroom. And they had Ryu Kyung Soo in for a cameo appearance as well playing the onscreen lover of Ajeong’s drama character. In addition there was Lee Chung Hyun who played the role of a director for Ajeong’s current drama and he was/is her real life boyfriend. So it was a lot of cameos thrown in at the end and thought the characters played key roles in reigniting the leads relationship, it was very noticeable because it was so many in a short span.

#JeonJongSeo #WeddingImpossible #KimDoWan #MoonSangMin #BaeYoonKyung
#KimBum #LeeChungHyun #LeeSooHyuk #ShinYongBum

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Surprisingly good rom-com

I went into this series with fairly low expectations, because I'd seen the 7.8/10 average score on mydramalist (which is below average). First of all I don't agree with that score, this was actually pretty good! It's once again proved that the 12 episode-format is truly superior, the show never dragged. I'm not saying that every single 12 episode-series is good, but the good ones definitely benefit from not being stretched out to 16 episodes. When I think of a kdrama then this show is kind of the definition of what I have in mind. The concept was intriguing and a very smart choice, because they were able to get tons of entertaining or funny situations out of it. The screenwriting was definitely above average. The actors did what needed to be done as well. I'm also in love with the ost and added some songs to my playlist. The ending was also satisfying. Some may have an issue with Do-Han's ending but I thought it was fittint. Overall I definitely recommend this if you're in the mood for a good rom-com with some brains.

Story: 15/20
Acting: 8/10
Music: 7,5/10
Visuals: 6,5/10
Replay: 7/10
Entertainment: 15/20
Pacing: 15/20
Impact: 19/20
Overall: 7.2/10

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