Serendipity's Embrace (2024)

Good romance with a happy ending

8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean Romantic Drama with 8, 63-71 minute episodes.  Based on the webtoon “Is it Fate” by Nam Ji-eun and Kim In-ho. 

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

 Synopsis

Lee Hong Ju (Kim So Hyun) fell in love with Bang Jun-ho (Yoon Ji-on) the last year of high school.  He is an accomplished author but very narcissistic and broke Hong Ju’s heart when he just up and left to research a novel in the middle of their relationship. At the same time she was initially pursuing Hong Ju, she was also trying to help her best friend, Kim Hye-ji (Kim Da-som) confess her love to Kang Hoo-yeong (Chae Jong-hyeop) one of the most popular boys in the school who was known for coldly refusing the many love confessions he received.  Hye-ji was too shy to approach Hoo-yeong so Hong-ju was delivering love notes on her behalf.  And Hoo-yeong was uncharacteristically accepting the notes from Hong-ju (as he had secretly fallen for her).  Ten years have passed and Hoo-yeong is back in South Korea after spending his college years and early career in the United States.  He is now an ace financial planner for a company that has interests on both sides of the ocean.  His first goal is to see Hong Ju who was his first love he very got over.  Hong Ju is now an animation producer which puts her back in contact with Junho who would like to just take the relationship up where it left off.  Hye-ji is eager to re-unite with Hoo-yeong in the hope of finally winning his heart.  Can Hoo-yeong finally get Hong Ju to realize he has feelings for her not Hye-ji?  Will Hye-ji give her narcissistic ex another chance or finally give her heart to Hoo-yeong who has stayed in love with her all these years?


Review

 I had reservations as Kim So-hyun has been hit or miss in the roles she has taken recently.  I did not like “Love Alarm” at all.  Like it almost makes me angry when I see that title I disliked it so much.  I also did not like “My Lovely Liar” at all.  When the last few roles of an actor have been premises or, particularly endings, I do not like it leaves an impression.  It makes me think they are not choosing roles/scripts I would like.  So, it was with reluctance I watched this as I was concerned it may not end well or the premise may be “off”.  With this one it was good.  It didn’t have a lot of the problems that were off putting for me in the last couple she has done.  All in all it was a pretty straight forward predictable romance.  Which I often like.  I am a romance fan.  I can see the same basic thing repeated over and over.  No huge surprises, relatively heart warming and ended well  I thought their chemistry was really good and Kang Hu Yeong (Chae Jong Hyeop) was like the perfect boyfriend/husband material.  He was so sweet to her most of the time.  .  I would watch it if someone turned it on, would not seek it out to re-watch, but do recommend it for anyone that likes this genre or any of the actors.  It was well acted and reasonably well written.  The ending is relatively happy although I would have liked to see a few things go a slightly different way. 

Spoilers

 I get that it happens, but I found it annoying that her friend, Kim Hye-ji (Kim Da-som) kept having Lee Hong-jo give Kang Hoo-yeong love letters.  I totally understood what he said, no answer is an answer.  I have no idea if it accurately depicts South Korean culture at all that if someone likes you, there is a responsibility to them.  A few love letters, okay whatever.  But the number they did, that starts to become no means no.  The fact that Hye-ji acted like she had a chance with Hoo-yeong when he came to South Korea on business was a little bit irritating.  She acted as if she had not been rejected in high school.

 Teenage girls are notoriously oblivious to when guys like them.  Some, young girls in particular, think a guy will hang out with a girl strictly for friendship.  Not that it never happens but it is rare.  When a popular guy, like he was, is hanging out with a girl, it is because he likes the girl (so rarely the case otherwise might as well say it isn’t the case).  But she totally did not get that.  Not even later when she first reflected on their time together in high school.  I thought she was rather inconsiderate of his feelings.  When he came back to South Korea and showed no interest at all in Hye-ji, Hong-jo continued to push her friend on him.  I think, at one point, any reasonably emotionally intelligent person would have known who he was interested in or, at minimum, that he was not at all interested in Hye-ji.  When she got him to come out to meet for drinks then ducked out and left him with Hye-ji it was rude.  It made me not like her character as well.  When she gave Hye-ji his phone number without asking him if it was okay, that was also inconsiderate.  “Stealing” his dream was an odd thing to do.  And it was not very realistic that someone with such a thin resume, and no real skills, would land that sort of job.  I get it is fiction, and I don’t want it to perfectly replicate reality all the time, but it has to be at least within the realm of possibility.  She was someone who cut class, did not focus at all on academics, then just walked in and got a job people with far more credentials and experience would struggle with?  Just not believable. 

 Bang Jun-Ho (Yun Ji On) was such a poor second male lead character.  I was with everyone else in the drama that said he was no good.  He had the typical personality of a narcissist.  He leaves her with no word when he should have known her past given the length of their relationship.  If he didn’t know she had abandonment issues, then he never cared to learn much about her and if he did and ignored them then he was just an unfeeling jerk.  I never got a sense for how their relationship developed and what they were like when they were together.  But he was a selfish narcissist to the end.  Kim Bok Nam (Kim Won Hae), his uncle was rather harsh with him and said look you were a complete jerk leaving her like that so just leave Hong-jo alone at this point.  So, he even had another perspective on his behavior and chose to still try to get her back.  He, as is typical with narcissists, tried to turn it around and make it about him.  “Oh you don’t feel sorry for me because look how sick I am?”  I was so glad she did not fall for it.  They did a good job with making him a completely undesirable character.  I did not think they did a very good job explaining why she was so attached to him.  We really only saw her fan girl following him, then he says this is day one basically, then them broken up.  The missing middle made it hard to understand how she had such a hard time getting over him.

 Baek Do Seon (Kim Jung Nan), Hu Yeong’s mom was also completely unlikable.  She was the typical overbearing mother who totally disregards their child’s feelings.  He never told her “look, I have loved this girl for a decade and finally have a chance to be with her.”  I did not like that she essentially won in the end forcing him to go back to the United States.  That was not a happy way for that to end in my mind.  He told her he missed South Korea and she just completely disregarded his feelings.  That is going to be Hong-jo’s mother-in-law at some point and so a happier ending would have been he or she put her in her place or the mom had an epiphany.  But neither of those things happened.  The whole here’s my credit card thing was just bizarre.  It was a pride/pity thing and maybe that is what they were trying to show as revenge when she spent it on the convenience store items.  I don’t know.  But that was not what it accomplished.  It was like why did you spend on it?  It actually made you look lower.  Like you were accepting her pity.  Or just after money.  Why didn’t you reject it with dignity? 

 So, Hong-jo surprises him and she is going to the USA with him.  But, only with the leave she cobbled together.  So that means she has to go back and he will still be in the USA for an indefinite amount of time.  I mean I like she didn’t give up her job and all that but stay or go.  You love each other then one of you need to fully commit one way or another. 

#SerendipityEmbrace  #KimSoHyun   #YoonJiOn   #KimDaSom  #ChaeJongHyeop

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Awww a MUST watch :):)

Only 8 episodes so you KNOW it won’t be draggy ;)

Absolutely very sweet and giving the tingles! High school friends, who are more connected than it seems in first episode; 10 years apart and are reconnected by COINCIDENCE! :) the main couple did a great job, both very lovable characters and strong in their own way. I’m glad Hon Ju didn’t take nonsense when the mother tried to break them up ;) she stood her ground! The ex-bf tried to manipulate his way back into her life, but what she said to him was very wise and she also stood her ground there. Good writing!

The supporting cast, friends, Uncle Wook all very lovable and funny as well. The final episode was a tad disappointing, with the mother suing her own son?? So ridiculous! But Definitely a good watch :)

P/s the only thing I didn’t quite like were the PE teacher’s red leggings and shorts matched with bright yellow hugging shirt! ;);) LOL. ENJOY this one!!

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The tried and true kdrama formula

This drama is proof that you can take all the formulaic kdrama tropes — first love meet again, disapproving parent, ex returns — and still make an incredible show.

The first thing this drama got right was the vibes; it felt extremely cozy throughout and hit the right spot between being a melodrama and a rom-com.

I think the leads had amazing chemistry and I felt like both of them were given subtle but ample character development and backstory. It's interesting because this drama only had eight episodes, which I'd normally consider too little, but I felt like everything was paced perfectly and the short length actually worked to the shows favor. There wasn't time for misunderstandings to be drawn out or for traumatic backstories to drag everything down. Everything was just the right amount.

I'm also impressed with the friendships in the show. A lot of short dramas stumble into the pitfall of only having enough time for the main romance and not for any other characters or any friendship scenes, but this show didn't have that issue at all. We had the amazing main couple but we also got scenes of our main characters having heart-to-hearts with their friends and supporting each other. It really helped in making everyone feel well-rounded.

The only part I'm iffy on is the two side ships. They had some good moments but overall I just didn't care much for them. It's not too bothersome because they also don't take up a lot of screentime, so I would still fully recommend this drama for the main couple.

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Not the best... not the worst either. Just something simple and refreshing. ^^

I've been trying to finish all of Kim So Hyun's dramas and so far, this is one of the decent dramas she had. The good thing about this drama is it's simple, nostalgic, and short. If the story were extended up to 12 or 16 episodes, this would drag the beauty and simplicity of this story.

This is my first time seeing Chae Jong Hyeop's (Kang Hoo Young) drama. I was not that impressed with his acting, good thing I did not have a lot of expectations regarding the acting and its overall production. His visual is good, too, but not my type, tbh. His chemistry with Sohyun is great, tho I kinda expected it since Sohyun has always had good chemistry with her co-actors. Sohyun's acting meanwhile, it's still a bit disappointing to me. While I did not have any high expectations regarding the acting skills of the male lead and the other characters, when it comes to Sohyun, I always have higher expectations and hopes that "Is this it?" or "Will I finally be able to see again the true potential of the Kim Sohyun when it comes to acting?"... but unfortunately, this is not it. I've never been moved by her acting here, I was actually moved more by Kim Da Son (Kim Hye Ji) and Yun Ji On (Bang Jun Oh) with their skills here, or maybe because I did not know them that much, I only saw Ji On once from 'My Lovely Liar'. Overall, the acting is pretty decent, not overly dramatic, and not also that bland.

Unexpectedly, it's the supporting characters that added more to this drama. Without them, I would have dropped this already around episode 3 or 4. This is one of the few instances where I loved the supporting characters more than the lead ones.

Its OSTs are the best here. Well, I guess when it comes to OSTs, Korean dramas do not disappoint most of the time. The OSTs here fit the atmosphere of the drama, they give you a feeling of cozy and nostalgic feeling.

My favorite character: Kwon Sang Pil (he's adorable!)

Is this highly recommended? Not really.

Is it worth to watch? It depends. If you just want to take a break from dramatic, heavy, and complicated stories, then give this a try.

For you to enjoy watching this drama, DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH. Again, this is just a very simple romantic comedy drama.

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I enjoyed the first 6 episodes, sure it's been a bit lukewarm & nothing unique or out of the norm, but at the very least the drama is relatively free of annoyances up to that point & it`s still somewhat funny with acceptable chemistry between the leads & decent-ish acting. The second FL is also really funny, though I always liked Dasom before..

Unfortunately the final 2 episodes are similar to what we usually get in 16ep dramas. Meaning it`s complications leading to an arbitrary separation culminating in a 3 minute long happy ending, if this is even that.. I always hated that formula, here though it's even worse, since having 2 trash episodes out of 8 has twice the impact.

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Cute but cliché

Rich boy meets girl at school, has no guts to tell her about his feelings and has to move.
He comes back, still has the love for this girl and this time he gets his girl.
That's the short version of this plot. It has not much substance and the end is more disappointing then I excpected otherwise it was enjoyable to watch. Why does a woman has to follow the man? Some minutes before she told him, she could not follow him because she still has dreams, but I guess she fulfilled them? We have no clue.

One side couple has an arc, the second side couple is much too short to know what has happend in their past. And then there is a poor loner who only gets the misery if one of his friends is in a slump.

I'm not a fan if actors have to play their version 10 years ago, it brakes the believability. So to have similar but younger cast for such scenes would have been much better. Overall it puts a smile on your face watching it even with such a weak plot. So for me it's a bit above average because the acting was very good.

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3 Reasons you can skip Serendipity's Embrace

The eight episode mini series Serendipity's Embrace recently ended on a happy note. The Jong Hyeop and So Hyun starrer made quite an impression ever since it went on air. But the charm left visibly in the third episode.

Here are 3 reasons why you can skip it.
1. The shallow plot

Who does not love childhood friend turned lovers. It's one of the favourite genre of Asian story. And this one is no different than that. However, given the writer is taking the favourite theme of audience special attention was necessary for the narrative. Keeping the FL naive and ML too loyal made it cliche and unconvincing. The over supportive best friend and light interested second ML was only water on the fire.

2. Thin twist line

When Hye Ji falls for Mr. Son it not only gave frown to Hye Sun but also us. Just why? If her love for Hoo Yeong was that shallow and meaningless, it should not have been dragged till the date. She also never tried her luck with anyone. Why all FL and ML are trying this hard to be pious and thus making themselves appear unconvincing.

3. Smallest story ever

Right episode series.....this is too much. Korean dramas are reducing episode number every year. But eight episode chronicling life from school days to present time is too much. Lack of time is another reason for the poor story frame. Neither characters nor plot got time to get a shape to keep audience hooked.

If you love childhood friend turned lovers there are bunch of beautiful stories out, go and check them. You can start with Casteaway Diva and Love alarm ;)

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LOVED ITTT

i was gonna give it a 9.0 but that last episode was soooo cute and soo perfect i loved it sm i had to give it a 9.5 overall. i loved the ending actually, it was nice to see the FL doing her part too to keep the relationship and not just the ML always doing the most in relationships, for me it just showed that truly they both loved each other and it really was fate and not just coincidence, especially that last scene omg i kinda was speechless cuz how it all happened was just pure fate😭 also their chemistry was soo good, i was giggling in every scene😖 mr.son and hye ji were so so cute too but i wish they has more scenes😣 their scenes is this ep were so so cute omg i think i love them as much as i love the main couple lol, anyway totally recommend if you’re a sucker for fated romance🫶🏼🫶🏼👍🏼👍🏼

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