The Interest of Love (2022)

Pity me please!

This must be the most frustrating series I have ever watched.

I dont know how many times I wished to flip the table, chairs , tv and everything around me because of frustration.

The characters are walking on eggshells around each other the entire time and makes me want to pull out all of my hair.

The level of self pity and the need for sympathy by all of the characters is just depressing!

It would make a world of difference to everyone's lives if they'd stop walking on a tightrope and grow some balls and be honest to each other.

The only saving grace in the entire series thus far is the pilot ep. I'm not even a fan of cringey kdrama romcoms but I wanted that fluffy, cutsey and happy vibes back again but instead as the show went on it just got slower and depressing.

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A relationship black hole that sucks the joy out of everything it touches

This show is a melodrama build upon notions of love. Note that I didn't say a romantic melodrama because in a way, this show is the antithesis of romance.

I watched 11 episodes before deciding to shelve it until it finishes its run. After reading final comments and reviews, I’ve decided to drop the show as it is actually worse than expected.

The setting of the drama is rather claustrophobic. It is a suburban bank branch with about 10 workers. The work environment is not particularly harmonious. There is a degree of workplace harassment and obvious office politicking. The employees have a propensity to gossip. Dating rumours springs up all the time. In this melting pot we find our leads.

The FL is smart and capable but only has a high school diploma. She came from a poor family and has a tragic backstory. Possibly suffering from PTSD after her brother's untimely death. The ML is a bit bumbling and was trained by the FL and yet he was promoted ahead of her by deem of his college degree. They worked together for several years before the ML finally decided to confess to the FL but she rejected him because of her inferiority complex and it is her way to avoid being rejected later.

Into this already sad state of affair is airdropped the rich and entitled SFL who was a classmate of the ML. If this is not enough, they added a SML who is working part-time at the bank as a security guard while he tries to pass the police entrance exam. He is struggling financially and surviving hand to mouth while support his parents. You can imagine his outlook on life. It definitely does not involve rainbows and unicorns. This square shaped cauldron is fast boiling over.

The writer-nim gave this witches' brew a good stir and we ended up with two tenuous and unfulfilling entanglements and a two-timing third (up to end of ep.10). The relationship between the ML and the SFL is a cat and mouse game of desire, greed and loathing. The SFL showers the ML with expensive gifts and the promise of a fast track up the corporate ladder. The ML is on a rebound and the honeytrap is hard to ignore. Nevertheless, his pride is hurt and he knows that he is hitting above his weight.

On the other hand, the FL reluctantly accepted the SML because she needs someone to distract her from the ML. On top of that, she sees the SML being in a worse position than her and for once, she can help him and claim the moral high ground. In both relationships, love or its facsimile, is overshadowed by a plethora of mixed feelings and twisted rationales. Needless to say there is constant foreboding as we watch on with tenterhooks.

By now, the show has created a pressure cooker where all those flawed characters are forced to live and work. Is this realistic? I'm not convinced. It is overbearing and distorted. There are tendrils of reality but the weightiness is too much for such a small space so it collapsed into a black hole. It sucks all the joy from the characters and much of the viewing pleasures.
We are confronted with situations where lies, disdain, trepidation and regrets sour and poison relationships at every turn. This is angsty, frustrating as well as unrewarding for the viewers. The writer-nim baits us into shipping the CP's only to offer up heartbreaks instead. Cobbe could have used this show as case study for schadenfreude.

It is a real struggle to keep watching by the end of ep.11. The dread is palpable. I'd return to the show in a heartbeat if there is even a hint of a happy ending or a satisfying but sad conclusion to the OTP's love line. Alas, from what I learn from feedbacks, the writer-nim double downed on the tortuous plot and littered the rest of the narrative with sad, broken and disillusioned people. I gather the show is unsatisfying and ambiguous to the bitter end. I suppose when you are in a graveyard spiral, you can't expect a soft landing.

The sad fact is that both the production and acting from most of the cast are good, especially the ML. He got put through the spin cycle and have to slog through a range of heighten emotions. The FL is not wooden, but she has distilled the essence of self preservation into her pose. Not much chance of second lead syndrome, no sir.

In the end, the script is the main culprit. Too much is never enough for our writer-nim so we ended up with this tsunami of relationship woes that spreads and consuming all before it. Love, desire, longing and fulfilment are cornerstones of a romance drama and this show is largely an antithesis of that.

To those who has finished this show, Salut! Thank you for taking one for the team. Peace out.

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Give me my time back

I should have known from episode 1 that this series was not for me. I love fairy tales, happily ever afters, empowering, concrete endings and etc but I can also enjoy a decent bitter sweet series but this one was one of the worst experiences for me in the supposed romantic genre. In all fairness, just because the word love is in the title should not grant automatic permission to be placed in the romance genre. Whew!!! This was a depressing toxic mess.

We have a male and female lead who clearly like each other but they never get together. Why? The FL got issues…….
Just because she’s calm and quiet doesn’t redeem her at all.

ML like female lead, very evident. She goes through great lengths to push him away, only to slightly give hope again. So what you’ll view is a man in love with a woman getting disregarded, then given hope, then being hurt and pushed away. No dating. Just a guy falling in love with someone who got emotional issues. Never really getting accepted.

From the female standpoint she didn’t do anything g wrong by not being with a guy.

From a viewers standpoint we watch a sincere mans ‘ affections get trampled. The end.


There’s no healthy love here. There’s no dating. This is one of those experiences someone has gone through that you remember but it’s certainly not something you’d want to watch.

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Sad and Frustrating

I seen the finale at least 10 times, and I probably continue trying to reconciled with facts that they stoped loving each other. I feel so sad and frustrated at the sane time.
I have reading again the lyrics of the songs to realised that they were down the hill from beginning. The writers played with us from day one and give us some sort of hope in the chapter 16 finale.
Too late !!! Unfortunately my hope for a love history was just down the rubbish bin.
Although in my desesperación for them to find their love back, the open ending give me the opportunity to dream
- If they could have a fresh beginning after opening they’ hart’s realised finally after get to the top of the oblivion they were destined to be together.
I hope the writers would give us a better ending in the future when they write a Drama like this. We need a closures as well however I fund the acting and the production excelente!!!

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fantasy or reality

It will be a little harsh. Many don't like this drama and give it a bad score because it doesn't satisfy their fantasies. This drama is enough to describe the characters that exist in the real world. And storylines that happen a lot in the real world are also unfinished stories. Unlike other fantasy dramas that always finish the story. That's why this drama did not get good marks in the eyes of the audience. Of course I understand this. Many drama viewers want to run away from reality a little with the fantasy offered by drama shows. But unfortunately they were disappointed because they didn't get it in this drama.

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It was good drama

I am here to write a review as I don’t agree with the rating and honestly I put all 10 so the rating will go high but my actual rating is like 8 to 8.2

This drama is okey with me or let me say my rate is 8 out of 10. I was hesitant to watch because of the low rating but I still watch because I love both the leads.

It’s melodrama that’s why it’s slow phase.
It’s so low rating because MAYBE some people are used to see the Female lead in school or teen set up drama like or not sure. Actually the Female lead role in this drama is in the mature role (Mature in Life) and I just now realized that matured role (Mature in Life not like sex and kissing scene mature role LoL) is okey with the Female lead.

And for the ending, I think it’s a bit of happy ending because the Male lead made her feel that he loves him and so the female lead do so. They let each other know that they still love each other in a different way.

So for anyone doesn’t like melodrama then don’t watch:-)

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Implicit explanation of an implicit idea

Since ep5 I’ve been shouting at TV. The story is infuriating.
Absolutely infuriating. Throwing in a few class differences, sexism issues, bad biz practices doesn’t make it a good story!

What a sh*t character she has!
Her character is beyond comprehension. She came across so bad to me! He is a bit better, but not much!

What saved it for me was the acting.
Kudos to the two leads, it carried a story that could have easily be done in a film!! And all supporting roles were good.

It will be interesting to see if people who can watch it in one go think - watching it weekly was ok, tho the writes ears are probably burning!

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Do introverts mate? Not in this drama

This is another one of my hormone-driven viewings (I am seldom proud of them) I convinced myself to undertake with the sole purpose of reliving the strong feelings Yoo Yeon-seok elicited in me during Mr. Sunshine. I was hoping for a modern Dong-mae and, predictably, was disappointed.
Sadly, no character in this drama is supposed to be charming. Also, do not be deceived by the word "love" in the title. It may lead you to believe this drama is about the birth of a love story when in fact it is about an aborted one.

We have two introverts that start liking each other and, as tortuous and difficult as their path toward a relationship is, it's not interesting enough to fill 16 episodes.

All the things that are said about introverts and their problematic approach to reality are true, though.
To the unsuspecting eye of an extrovert, the behavior of the characters, the female lead in particular, may seem senseless if not cruel. However, an experienced introvert, like myself, knows that 99% of her choices derive from the fact that she wants but can't let the world see that she does because she thinks she's not allowed to want. So she tries to be content and devotes herself to the next best thing and all her actions hinge on the subsequent guilt and bullheadedness that chains her to her choices. At the same time she is not able to kill the hope of getting what she truly wants and can't lie convincingly.
The male character is just as cowardly and twisted, of course.
Obviously, this is all very toxic for the people involved yet it is not senseless.
These characters' motives are clear to me.
I must be just as damaged as them.

I think this drama gives a realistic, albeit depressing, point of view on adult relationships (romantic relationships as well as workplace relationships). Nonetheless, it gets boring to watch this asinine mating dance of adult insecurities and emotional damage.

I guess the performances are good, yet not outstanding. I am still a fan of Yoo Yeon -seok though.

The ending is as lukewarm as the rest of the series. I don't think there's any true character growth except maybe for Jong-hyun who manages to find his self worth and build on it (and Soo-young is a bit responsible for this growth despite the mess she made of him).
There is no real take home message here save only for the fact that the interest of love might be just as burdensome as the interest on loans. (I wanted to end this with a wise adage or something, but I came up with this cringe motto. I guess it goes well with the realistic and depressing tone of the drama, though)

Female Empowerment Score 3/5 : the women here try to help each other in a difficult, chauvinistic, work environment

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The Trouble with The Class System

Having watched the 8 episodes and the preview to episodes 9 the writers have done a masterful job in depicting the wrongs and hardships living in a "Class" based society. The rich and powerful are revered and honored receiving what they at times aren't even qualified while the poor, no matter how hard they try will always be overlooked and held back simply because they are who they are.

The misunderstanding between the FL and The ML is not that they don't have an attraction for each other but rather the FL has made the assumption that the ML is part of the upper class because of where he lives, the college school he went to and some of his friends he associates with. She holds a resentment in that she was his superior when he entered the bank and three years latter he is her superior. Her hard work and efforts are continueously overlooked , while her looks are what her superiors deem worthy.

To better understand the series and the characters a breif discription of each would be necessary

The ML is the basic good guy who has a hard time talking about himself......... he lets his actions speak for themselves. Raised by a widowed mother whose husband's actions placed the family in hardships they couldn't imagine. The ML became the devoted son that didn't whine and cause trouble for his mother but rather worked hard and helped by not getting in trouble, getting scholarships to elite schools and being liked by everyone that comes in contact with him.......... He is a good and kind man.

The FL is a beautiful, talented and very driven girl who only wants to be recognized for her efforts and not her family background. After her brothers death that she idolized.......... she blamed her father for his death and distanced herself from them, leaving herself to be all alone in the big city. With her efforts and hardwork always being overlooked she appears to project herself as cold and aloof and jumping to conclusions if she would've taken a breath and just listened........ Her biggest problem in dissing the ML that truely cares fore her.

The SFL is not what she appears to be......... she is the spoiled rich girl who is use to getting everything she wants. Working as Assistant Manager as her father says working for "Jump Change" she loves the attention of the lower class and is willing to use them to achieve her goals. From day one transferring to the Bank........ she resented that the FL was considered the " The Goddess" ......... that was unacceptable for a vain spoiled girl like her. Everything she does for the FL in the name of frienship is only done to make the FL feel even more inferior than she already is.

The SML is also a good guy, but not in the realm of the ML. He is a dreamer that has accepted his place in the class system making himself feel good with his dreams. This was seen in how quickly he wanted to return to his former life after a setback. The FL though she wanted some form of attachment to allieviate her loneliness quickly realized that ML is the one even though she still refuses to admit it.

What I found interesting each week is how the previews to the next episodes are deliberately shown to misdirect the viewers attention. How the the romances will revolve ....... It is my opinion they will come about once the parents of each have their say.
The mother of the SFL has become besties with the mother of the ML ......... that friendship will come to an end because she can't have her daughter marry the son of someone that washes her feet. The parents of the FL will give praise to the ML lead in how often he takes the lead in helping whenever he is in the restaurant.

The Next 8 episodes should be rather interesting in that the misdirection that was shown in the first 8 episodes will slowly unwind. If It doesn't pan out that way I will have fun in making it happen in fan fiction.

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One of the best series on Netflix, but not a typical k-drama

I want to be very clear: this is a superb series for whomever is looking for a westerner, social + romantic, full of very very interesting ideas type one. However, the problem is that k-drama watchers are mostly the ones watching it, so the rating is low because of this: they expect a nice bubbly story, with all kind of hidden relations that are going to be revealed in the end, full of romantic, unexpected turns, so of course, for them this is going to be boring. Again, the series is superb, depicting perfectly the social segregation, power abuse, difficult to reach relations, but the final idea that a relation should be stopped after an amazing climax has been reached is stunning (and it's so very difficult to stop...) despite there are counterexamples when two people live happily ever after (yes, you can count them on the fingers of a single hand, but... there are!!). An excellent director, who used picturesque effects to show a large variety of feelings on the screen. It's absolutely everything else but boring!

Long time ago, when I was a teenager, I was discussing a lot with my best friend about a climax in love and the meaning of marriage after that. The truth is that a relationship can go only down from reaching a top. Everyone knows that all marriages have problems, misunderstandings, etc. Why continue something that was extraordinary, just to drag it to trivial? My ideas changed while aging, but the questions are still there. I guess this is the only show which bluntly treats the same problem in the same way. That's why I loved it. Of course, I am subjective, but this show impressed me a lot.

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What did I just watch?

Ngl, I am so confused with this k-drama. Read mixed reviews, before watching it, thinking people are being too harsh on it. But for me, the 'quality watch' ended with episodes 9/10. It honestly just goes downhill from there.

From the start, I liked the idea, that finally, a kdrama is normalising couples living together without getting married, and talking about people's previous relationships etc., but oh boy why would fl ruin so many lives without any deeper motive? If the writer's main objective was to make people think about the consequences of their actions and to bring as much controversy as possible, then well done... But I wouldn't say that was the right way to do it.

Maybe I am not understanding something here, and there are some hidden meanings behind it, but overall I would end watching this drama at episode 10 - a tip for everyone who doesn't want to get confused and disappointed with the plot and main leads' actions.

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