Charming92
Greece
Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce)
I think it can be safely said that S. Korea is a conservative country of timid nature, or at least that is what they like to present. Taking this as a fact, I can easily call this drama revolutionary, not in terms of story-telling, concept or development , but rather in the form of radical society re-formation - if I'm allowed that term.
Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce)'s writer has earned by deepest respect, because of how she tackled the concept of adultery in a very conservatives society, and managed to create a hit out of it without putting any classic kdrama troops in it - revenge, melodrama, sad backstories, excuses, makjang shit, nor Americanizing the genre by selling sex. Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce) is a true kdrama but does not feel at all like one. No magic romance, no flashbacks, no sad back stories, no melo, no funny comic relief, no antagonist ect. Sounds boring? Yeah, i cannot argue with that. So if this sounds boring to you, you can really ignore this drama and move on with your life. However, if you think you are ready to watch something different and/or have gone through something similar in your life please do watch this, it's not profound but it's so well crafted that will, and i strongly believe it, win you over.
First things first. The drama doesn't glorify cheating husbands. It doesn't want to glorify adultery. What it wants to do is normalize the idea that infidelity is part of life -and it is, if we want to face it or not- and, at its very core, normalize divorce - which is also all around us (but maybe still a taboo is korea?). The drama basically conveys the message that making a mistake in choosing a partner, can happen, and that is ok. The question is what we do about that. And this is where the drama (could) become unbearable to watch. It's just too real. Too real for the average viewer, who wants to shut their mind off and watch a fairytale, to deal with. However it's so intense in the most soothing way. I was shocked at the amount of messages it relays in the form of everyday life situations. Could be considered a boring drama by most, but it targets mature audiences. At the very end I do believe, you need to have felt that (infidelity), to understand it, but it's a great way to learn about human relationships too.
Now, a little bit about the drama itself. It revolves around couples, married couples. At the center we get 3 couples (in their 30s, 40s and 50s) and as supporting characters we get 2 couples in their 60s+ and a single man. Basically this is a story about relationships, love and the marriage or divorce that could come out of it. One couple phases irreconcilable differences, one is the seemingly perfect couple with a perfect life, and the last one basically features male middle life crisis. As for the supporting cast, they show the other side of the spectrum in which marriage has seemingly succeeded but.... not that much - and then if married life sucks so much is the sworn single man actually happy?
Yes, brace yourselves, EVERYBODY is cheating or has been cheated on in reality or platonically. Does it really matter? No. The drama takes its story seriously, doesn't excuse what is happening, doesn't make it funny, or dramatic. It is solely character driven so do not expect any huge revelation mid way or any major back story to drop and wow you. What should wow you though is the characterization and character building.
The drama can be broken down in 2 parts. First 8 episodes, final 8 episodes. I could roughly say the first 8 episodes show what happens after the wife learns about their husband's questionable extramarital activities and the 2nd part how the husband gets there. However, the midway mark honestly made me sincerely reckon what happened in the writer's mind. Wouldn't be a stretch to say that it soft-reboots midway. At the same time it does feel like it was on purpose just to see the same thing from other perspectives. The drama isn't biased towards anybody, which was a magnificent way of story-development. It shows different sides of the same characters- layering them, and then it lets you understand and pick sides. I felt like the jury in a court room. I felt like a psychology major in couple's therapy 101. Magnificent development.
We get to see many different sides and stories of adultery. Reasons, thoughts behind it. Different examples, different perspectives. I loved how characters i liked or felt close to in the first half, i grew to detest in the 2nd and vice versa.
The drama made me evaluate several times what is wrong and what is actually worse than wrong. Made me think and rethink what I accept as "decent behavior" and obviously relays the message that things are way more complicated than "you cheated you a bad person, you can burn in hell" at the same time without excusing or glorifying a single thing. Simultaneously, I loved he constant play with the grey area of what is right and wrong. Cheating or getting in the middle of a couple is a bad thing, but does that automatically make you a bad person? Choosing a person to become your partner for life and then realizing you made a mistake. Is marriage a one time thing? Is it like jail? Are you forced to stay with that person forever because you married them, or you had children. And, is forcing yourself to stay with that person just because of all the aforementioned reasons, the recipe for a happy life? Deep shit right there.
I honestly applauded the drama in some subtle - or not- mainly female-targeted points like: take care of your self, strive for personal success, love yourself. It strays away from the classic expectations the korean (and not only) society has of women who basically revolve around family and housekeeping. Yas gurl, me approves.
I sincerely enjoyed some archetype cliches that were swapped here (dad is angry at a son cheating while mom is understand - we expect men to be more understanding of men cheating and women to not be. Women being the "man" of the relationship, caring and providing ect). There are no archetypes in real life and we shouldn't expect real people to act like that. There should be no exception based on gender
In its core i think the drama wants to change norm when it comes to marriage and relationships in general. I think this is something that the Korean general public needs to move from the "taboo" side to normal way of life. Yes cheating sucks, but could happen. What happens after that is what matters. The goal is for us to be happy and relationships don't always work the way we want them to. The drama deals with that in the best way possible. Totally worth the investment - just know what you are getting yourself into.
Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce)'s writer has earned by deepest respect, because of how she tackled the concept of adultery in a very conservatives society, and managed to create a hit out of it without putting any classic kdrama troops in it - revenge, melodrama, sad backstories, excuses, makjang shit, nor Americanizing the genre by selling sex. Love (Ft. Marriage and Divorce) is a true kdrama but does not feel at all like one. No magic romance, no flashbacks, no sad back stories, no melo, no funny comic relief, no antagonist ect. Sounds boring? Yeah, i cannot argue with that. So if this sounds boring to you, you can really ignore this drama and move on with your life. However, if you think you are ready to watch something different and/or have gone through something similar in your life please do watch this, it's not profound but it's so well crafted that will, and i strongly believe it, win you over.
First things first. The drama doesn't glorify cheating husbands. It doesn't want to glorify adultery. What it wants to do is normalize the idea that infidelity is part of life -and it is, if we want to face it or not- and, at its very core, normalize divorce - which is also all around us (but maybe still a taboo is korea?). The drama basically conveys the message that making a mistake in choosing a partner, can happen, and that is ok. The question is what we do about that. And this is where the drama (could) become unbearable to watch. It's just too real. Too real for the average viewer, who wants to shut their mind off and watch a fairytale, to deal with. However it's so intense in the most soothing way. I was shocked at the amount of messages it relays in the form of everyday life situations. Could be considered a boring drama by most, but it targets mature audiences. At the very end I do believe, you need to have felt that (infidelity), to understand it, but it's a great way to learn about human relationships too.
Now, a little bit about the drama itself. It revolves around couples, married couples. At the center we get 3 couples (in their 30s, 40s and 50s) and as supporting characters we get 2 couples in their 60s+ and a single man. Basically this is a story about relationships, love and the marriage or divorce that could come out of it. One couple phases irreconcilable differences, one is the seemingly perfect couple with a perfect life, and the last one basically features male middle life crisis. As for the supporting cast, they show the other side of the spectrum in which marriage has seemingly succeeded but.... not that much - and then if married life sucks so much is the sworn single man actually happy?
Yes, brace yourselves, EVERYBODY is cheating or has been cheated on in reality or platonically. Does it really matter? No. The drama takes its story seriously, doesn't excuse what is happening, doesn't make it funny, or dramatic. It is solely character driven so do not expect any huge revelation mid way or any major back story to drop and wow you. What should wow you though is the characterization and character building.
The drama can be broken down in 2 parts. First 8 episodes, final 8 episodes. I could roughly say the first 8 episodes show what happens after the wife learns about their husband's questionable extramarital activities and the 2nd part how the husband gets there. However, the midway mark honestly made me sincerely reckon what happened in the writer's mind. Wouldn't be a stretch to say that it soft-reboots midway. At the same time it does feel like it was on purpose just to see the same thing from other perspectives. The drama isn't biased towards anybody, which was a magnificent way of story-development. It shows different sides of the same characters- layering them, and then it lets you understand and pick sides. I felt like the jury in a court room. I felt like a psychology major in couple's therapy 101. Magnificent development.
We get to see many different sides and stories of adultery. Reasons, thoughts behind it. Different examples, different perspectives. I loved how characters i liked or felt close to in the first half, i grew to detest in the 2nd and vice versa.
The drama made me evaluate several times what is wrong and what is actually worse than wrong. Made me think and rethink what I accept as "decent behavior" and obviously relays the message that things are way more complicated than "you cheated you a bad person, you can burn in hell" at the same time without excusing or glorifying a single thing. Simultaneously, I loved he constant play with the grey area of what is right and wrong. Cheating or getting in the middle of a couple is a bad thing, but does that automatically make you a bad person? Choosing a person to become your partner for life and then realizing you made a mistake. Is marriage a one time thing? Is it like jail? Are you forced to stay with that person forever because you married them, or you had children. And, is forcing yourself to stay with that person just because of all the aforementioned reasons, the recipe for a happy life? Deep shit right there.
I honestly applauded the drama in some subtle - or not- mainly female-targeted points like: take care of your self, strive for personal success, love yourself. It strays away from the classic expectations the korean (and not only) society has of women who basically revolve around family and housekeeping. Yas gurl, me approves.
I sincerely enjoyed some archetype cliches that were swapped here (dad is angry at a son cheating while mom is understand - we expect men to be more understanding of men cheating and women to not be. Women being the "man" of the relationship, caring and providing ect). There are no archetypes in real life and we shouldn't expect real people to act like that. There should be no exception based on gender
In its core i think the drama wants to change norm when it comes to marriage and relationships in general. I think this is something that the Korean general public needs to move from the "taboo" side to normal way of life. Yes cheating sucks, but could happen. What happens after that is what matters. The goal is for us to be happy and relationships don't always work the way we want them to. The drama deals with that in the best way possible. Totally worth the investment - just know what you are getting yourself into.
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