Fantastic comedy rom com
Absolutely love a good comedy rom com and this was no exception. The story was probably a max 7.5/10 but the overall enjoy-ability of the show was close to a 10/10. I loved how it didn't take itself seriously, the refreshing take on all the cliches and tropes present in rom coms, and the chemistry between all the characters. The story and vibe of the show kind of petered off near the end where they tried to go a more serious route and it felt kind of rushed, but overall I was satisfied with the ending and thought it wrapped everything up nicely. This is the perfect show for when you just want to wind down after a long day at work, and want to watch something funny and light-hearted.Was this review helpful to you?
2This review may contain spoilers
SWOT Analysis
A business proposal without a SWOT Analysis? Sacrilege. The following are some strengths and weaknesses of the drama; and opportunities and threats to the main couple’s relationship.◾Strengths
The casting of all characters was impeccable. Totally ship the pairing of Ahn Hyo Seop and Kim Se Jeong as the main couple; as well as Kim Min Gue and Seol In Ah as the secondary couple.
A few support characters stand out from the rest as they provide some comic relief and are such a joy to watch. Grandpa Kang, the drama-obsessed chairman, who wants to see his beloved grandson married. Jin Young Seo’s cousin, Jo Yoo Jung, the Konglish speaking and spoilt rich girl with the infamous line “You know I have no 친구 (chingu)”.
12- episode format as opposed to the current Kdrama standard of 16 episodes - it forces the story to move along at a faster rate.
◾Weaknesses
The secondary couple tends to overshadow the main couple throughout the drama. It was love at first sight for both Sung Hoon and Young Seo, and they became a couple before Tae Mo and Ha Ri. Communication between this duo was mature, and any misunderstandings were dealt with on the spot.
Kang Tae Mo is a character who knows and is good at everything. Yet, he could not discern Shin Ha Ri’s disguises at the beginning. Hmmmmm….
The usage of a time skip. I do not mind this trope, however it feels a bit of a cop-out. In a romcom, the last episode is where we get our final warm fuzziness. The time-skip in here is akin to the editors realising they have 10 minutes left in the drama but still have 40 minutes of story to tell.
A few opportunities and threats to the main couple’s relationship:
◾Opportunities
- Goobne chicken (Shin Ha Ri’s parents’ business) should bottle and sell their chicken rub. In episode 10, Kang Tae Mo tried it with his astute taste bud and liked it. If he likes it, it will be a hit!
- Shin Ha Ri’s brother can get a new phone from Kang Tae Mo. Make sure to get a new Samsung, Shin Ha Min!
◾Threats
- Grandpa Kang. Shin Ha Ri needs to put extra effort to get his approval of their relationship.
- The chef and his girlfriend. Either they want or are jealous of Shin Ha Ri
- Daddy Shin. Kang Tae Mo must have a man-to-man talk to his future father-in-law regarding the safety of Ha Ri.
- GoFood employees and netizens. Gossiping about the CEO who is dating an employee.
- Cousin Yoo Jung liking Sung Hoon.
The above SWOT is an incomplete list. What would you like to add to the above analysis?
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about the friendship, generic and boring. forced comedy again (this whole drama is forced, even the romance) and i don’t think their friendship is the best in dramaland, overdone and i’ve seen better. this drama has a lot of sex scenes to get the teenage fire out of their asses and forgot to put in the development, which was ZERO. yes, i want to see love development, i don’t live on crumbs and i want a real cute romance. it can have sex, but please, show some development so that i know how these two fell in love and why they love each other. now, if you put SEX, SEX, SEX and marriage (which NEVER makes sense in badly told stories like this, first of all) i can’t like it because it becomes like an american series/movie. the couple has no love development and they don’t even show it (both couples have no love development, everything is fast and boring) and now you come with marriage? sorry, but this rotten americanized cliché doesn’t go down well. for the babies who are drooling over drama because of the cute oppa instead of knowing how to evaluate by story and acting, grow up mentally and know how to evaluate. being cute doesn’t stop an americanized and badly done plot
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The only thing I truly liked about this show was the friendship between Ha-ri and Yeong-seo. They were such cute friends and both are very good looking. hehehe.
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The worst ending
The ending really left me depressed. It was a great drama what was the rush to just finish it and ruin it. I mean a two three weeks delay would've been okay so that we could finally have an amazing ending. Currently this drama has had the worst ending I've ever seen in my entire life and yet i was so in love with it, did you really had to ruin it in the end. Even the ending of game of thrones didn't depress me this much. The entire series was on a rate of 8+ but the ending has a rating of 1 or lessWas this review helpful to you?
A Hard Watch When You've Read The Webtoon, A Cliche Mess When You've Only Watched The Drama
I don't have much to say when compare to the Webtoon cause they changes almost everything. The Characters are different, they dumb down the male lead, they make the female lead silly beyond belief and the supporting act character feels like stolen from another drama.For the drama, they added every cliche from other romcom drama, she was pretty, secretary kim, my secret life of secretary is all in here. I almost thought they wrote it to cast Park Seo Joon.
The last part is not as good as the beginning, probably they run out plot, male lead can't act to save the lines.
I probably rate it higher had the male lead can actually act but Ahn Hyeo Seob has been bad, Kim Se Jeong is the lifeline in the this drama.
I think it's right in the middle as a drama. As an adaptation, I rate it minus.
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Same-same then product placement… Repeat.
I’m a rookie reviewer for this genre of fluffy romcom. This one seemed standard to me even though it’s the first time I’ve go through to the end of one. Standard plot of misunderstandings, standard character types of rich and ordinary, standard production values, standard slapstick humour. There wasn’t anything that struck me as original about it.I understand that this production was not aimed at me, however, that does not excuse lack of quality. To keep up quick fire momentum takes more than just energy—which for the first half was at a good level—it also requires imagination and inventiveness and I’m afraid this didn’t cut it. About two thirds through I began to find the TV drama everyone was watching more entertaining. Ultimately keeping a flow of fresh ideas is the responsibility of the writer and director and here the treatment was repetitive and unsophisticated.
It made a good start but quite quickly the script and plot became predictable. The acting tended to follow suit, with a lot of stock, same-same expressions and reactions to the manufactured situations. The first couple of times it’s funny, but very quickly becomes irritating. For example, the constant hiding begins to pall during Episode 3, but is still going in Episode 4, and then gets dragged out into Episode 5 by which time it is long past its use-by date. Ditto the pretending to be someone else theme.
There is a heavy emphasis on wealth with a lot of ostentatious display, along with the assumption that popularity and acceptance can be easily bought with a credit card. This message is backed up by the wall-to-wall product placement. Seo Hye Won’s part in the early episodes seemed to exist solely as a product placement vehicle. By Episode 10, scene after scene was built around it, reducing the dialogue to meaningless rubbish, destroying character integrity and disrupting the momentum.
On the plus side… there is plenty of fun with a load of eye candy. The couples have reasonable chemistry but lacked any sort of pizzazz. Kim Se Jeong and Ahn Hyo Seop were most believable in the tender scenes rather than the passionate ones. Seol In Ah and Kim Min Gue were more unevenly matched. I liked Seol In Ah’s performance, it had life and energy, whereas Kim Min Gue struggled to give depth to his more reserved character.
Shin Ha Ri’s family added the warmth and acceptance missing from the others. It’s a common theme that the wealth that is deemed so desirable comes at the cost of dysfunctional family relationships. But here the obligatory overbearing rich parents/family were not too forceful, just enough to provide a reason for our male and female leads to flex their muscles and prove their credentials.
The serious emotional interactions, which happened towards the end of the drama, were convincing. Kim Se Jeong especially made a good job of the hospital scene with Ahn Hyo Seop. But the ending was weak and unsatisfying, it just fizzled out without any real impact and needed to be much stronger to justify the build up given earlier in the episode.
The cinematography is okay, but nothing special. The colour palette was pleasing, with bright, engaging colours and an endless parade of cool clothes.
One of the things I really liked about the subs in this one was what I think is the literal translation of Korean sayings, which totally cracked me up. Thank you Choi Su In! Absolutely loved, “A face like a company perk” and “Like putting lipstick on a pig”.
What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.
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LOVED IT but the ending :(
The fact that I actually stayed up each week to watch the live broadcast/no subs (2AM) brought me back to my high school days!What I liked:
1. Casting, everyone did so well esp the 2nd lead casting was *chefs kiss*!
2. Cliche romcom tropes executed well apart from the rushed end.
3. Changed up a few scenes from webtoon.
4. SPOILER* how they still continued their relationship online despite TM going overseas.
5. Did not drag.
6. Solved most issues quickly.
7. TM and HR hugs!!
8. No romance between HR bro and YS.
What I did not like:
1. Rushed end.
2. I'm all for closures but eh was not feeling the MW closure XD
3. They did not continue where they left off on ep 11 HAHA
4. I prefer the way grandpa approved of HR in the webtoon more, this grandpa was being difficult LOL.
5. Lying/hiding took way too long.
Overall 8.5, was going to be a 9 but the rushed ending was not it. cute but not it. :b Time to re-read the webtoon for the 100th time HAHAHA. I hope for more well-executed romcom soon and not rush the end pls <3
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It was a mediocre drama where FL character is annoying.
A Business Proposal is a Kdrama about Shin Ha Ri, a single woman who works for a company where she goes on a blind date to help out her best friend, Jin Young Seo, and meets a workaholic CEO, Kang Tae Moo.Through many misunderstandings and mishaps, they both eventually fall in love with each other. I did not like the FL character and the actress (Kim Se Jeong) who played her. The actress was not attractive; I think the 2nd FL looks better than the FL.
The FL character is annoying, and the ML character is neither great. The onscreen chemistry between FL and ML (Ahn Hyo Seop) was neither great. The 2nd ML is better; I like the 2nd CP in this drama.
It was a mediocre drama, and I give it a 6.0 rating.
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A fluffy rom- com drama to blow off your stress
So there are dramas that pulls you in and leaves you craving for more. A Business Proposal is one of those drama. It is a cliche rom - com drama you might have seen before but that doesn't makes the drama any less mesmerizing. Maybe it is the cliche scenes in the drama that binds you to your seats. The cast of this drama was spot on to the characters they had to portray.The characters in this drama are the types of character one would expect in rom - com drama. A perfectionist ML(Male Lead) and a bubbly but hardworking FL(Female Lead) and there brother/sister like best-friend SML(Second Male Lead) and SFL(Second Female Lead). So you might be like why should I watch this drama then. Let me give you the reasons why you should watch this drama.
First, the chemistry between the ML (Kang Tae Mu) and FL (Shin Ha Ri) is off the charts. They lit up the scene just by being in it together. Their first encounter had me rolling down with laughter. They have very well acted their parts and the visuals were insanely good too. Kang Tae Mu's jealousy was also a thing to watch.
Secondly was probably the chemistry between the SFL(Jin Young Seo) and the SML(Cha Sung Hoon). Jin Young Seo's aegyo( cuteness) just melted my heart. I never would have thought that Seol In Ah could pull such scenes off. As I have never seen her acting cute in other dramas. She definitely stole my heart with her aegyo. She was definitely a scene stealer in this drama.
Third is the brotherhood between Kang Tae Mu & Cha Sung Hoon and the sisterhood between Shin Ha Ri & Jin Young Seo. Their bond was quite special as they were always there for their friend.
Also the supporting actors in this drama. They were fun to watch. Be it the ML's grandfather or the FL's family members or coworkers. They all were a joy to watch on the screen. Especially the women of this drama were just too cute. A special shout out to Seo Hye Won and Im Ki Hong's characters. They both were just too good.
There are many other reasons to watch the drama which you would only know if you start this drama. So don't give a second thought and start this drama. As I assure you won't be wasting your time.
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The leaning tower of pisa of kdramas
I told my friend just after finishing episode 11 that Business Proposal was much like the leaning tower of pisa. It looks good, it's competently shot, well acted, the music is utilised decently well, but the foundation on which it rests on is extremely shaky.To take from Folding Ideas video on 50 shades, the story is written much like a fanfiction. It follows the structure where plot A connects to B, B connects to C and so on, where you need all of them for the story to make sense, but A and C aren only tangentially related. The amount of times that plotpoints are picked up then dropped is very annoying, it makes the pacing pacing of the show much faster, which is extremely good for the "light, airy" feel it has, but definitely does detract from the story's quality as a whole.
After the reveal early on in the show, the quality of the show seems to dip considerably. The tightness of the first few episodes is very prevalent, minus some scenes that set up something later. It's later on in the show where emotional moments are brought up just for the sake of the story needing emotional beats. The story could have easily been "light and airy" all throughout, but it brings in a very poorly shoved in third act conflict.
If there is one thing that is good about this show it is the acting. The chemistry between the actors is very obvious, and the leads make one of the most natural lead couples I have ever seen. They all play off of each other very well, and with more time I think they could have also done more with other under utilised characters.
It's very difficult thinking about whether or not this show needed more episodes. There is a lot that could have been explored still, Hamin's relationship to the family, more about the grandfather, more with youngseo and yujeong's relationship, but I don't know if that would make the show more bloated than necessary. For the story to work, I think they should've cut the whole Yoora plotline completely. At the beginning of the show I really liked Minwoo compared to his webtoon counterpart who is somehow worse than the show version, but the contrived drama they create for him is so lacklustre, it's actually embarrassing.
Overall, the show is good. It isn't great, and it stems from structural problems that can only really be fixed by rewriting most of the script. If you want a quick laugh or a convincing romance, it is enjoyable enough.
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Heading off to a good start but failed to delivered as the show progresses.
Throughout this entire series, it was filled with cringeworthy moments as well as odd and questionable decisions made by the characters in this drama.The only notable part of this show is the chemistry between the second two leads, which honestly made me not dropped the show.
The story was very bland and uninteresting, nothing really excited comes about in terms of the progress of the story. The two leads spend the entire series hiding their love from one another and the people around them. Shin Hari, the main female protagonist, seems to be a repulsive liar throughout the 12 episodes, doing her utmost best in avoiding the relationship between her and the main male protagonist, but digging a bigger hole for herself as the show progresses. Although sort of justified to do so, her character traits should not be meant for the main character of a show. Moreover, overreaction to everything makes any scene involving her cringeworthy and hard to watch.
Not worth even putting into your watchlist, best to skip the show.
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