A bunch of different people including Ajeong’s sworn enemy who’s constantly talking behind her back and a massive gossip (you know, the guy she offended!) just saw her and Jihan go on a romantic date in an expensive restaurant, meet a famous director together, spend the night in a hotel and act like a quarreling couple in a bar. There’s absolutely nothing private about their flirtation, which was Jihan’s intention. By going along with his nonsense, Ajeong is sabotaging the fake marriage she agreed to. If you’re gonna do a contract marriage, you still have to do it right. You can’t make everyone think you’re fucking your brother in law lmao. Especially when you’re doing your best friend a favor!
ah jeong is literally getting married to do han, i hate how shes just roaming around and even spending the night…
I agree, she and Jihan are both acting crazy. Going on an overnight trip with her fiancé’s brother, who told her directly he would try to seduce her, when she was supposed to be meeting her fiancé instead was total insanity. I hope Dohan lays into her because she betrayed his trust for sure.
She may not be in an actual relationship with him, but she agreed to act like she’s totally in love with him in public and so far that’s not how she’s coming across. A bunch of people just saw her spend the night in a hotel with a different man—with his brother even! What is this, amateur hour?
That said, I kinda stopped being mad at her when she ditched her friends in the middle of filling out her marriage registration form just because Jihan told her to. Like, that’s when it became obvious to me she’s down horrendous for Jihan, just like he is for her. They’re both clowns, they’re in love, they’re not acting rationally and they’re making mistakes. Whatever.
We don’t know the full contents of the contract, but whatever the conditions, she owes it to her best friend whom she’s supposedly saving from a life of misery not to blow up their story before they’ve even gotten married by spending the night with his brother :) Especially when she was supposed to be meeting with her husband-to-be to register their marriage and ghosted him to go on a date :) With his brother :) That just makes her a bad friend :)
Me putting on my clown makeup: Surely they're not gonna waste the premise of girlboss HHJ and shady bodyguard JJH... they'll give us what we want, I know they will...
Putting on my clown wig next: They just haven't added the romance tag yet because they're keeping it a surprise... obviously there will be a kiss scene...
do han and ah jung are both 32 right? How old is ji han?
He was 14 when he graduated from elementary school in 2007 as per episode 2 and the show takes place in 2023 as per episode 3, so probably 30. These are all Korean ages, BTW; in reality they're all a year younger.
I like the acting. But the plot feels is absolutely ridiculous.So she is in a contractual relationship. She signed…
You don't file a restraining order in Korea because a guy declared he'd try to seduce you.
And they didn't mention a fidelity clause in the marriage contract; I imagine the whole point of it is to allow Dohan to be with his boyfriend in NYC, so why shouldn't she also have a sidepiece? Plus, they're not married yet.
In any case, we'll see how Ajeong reacts to Jihan's announcement tomorrow, but I imagine she won't take him seriously given that she's still under the impression that he hates her. Like, can you imagine falling in love with a guy who's only courting you to ruin your engagement with his brother, and also hates you? Obviously not, so she's treating it as some novel form of trash talk/harassment and not as a serious objective... Jihan probably thinks the same way at this point, but we as viewers know he's already down bad for her.
I don’t think a scene in which a disapproving grandfather observes his grandson’s supposed girlfriend flirting…
No, I get it. I get annoyed when the characters are drinking in every episode and it feels like the writer doesn’t know what else to do to force them to have meaningful conversations, but so far I haven’t become frustrated with it here.
Again with the drunk alcoholic scenes. When will Koreans stop glorifying drinking alcohol non stop and their shenanigans…
I don’t think a scene in which a disapproving grandfather observes his grandson’s supposed girlfriend flirting with his other grandson and they’re both blind drunk and acting like annoying children “glorifies” drinking, exactly.
A heartfelt, funny and poignant movie with a truly detestable villain, good taste/a sense of dramatic measure that almost never falters or tips into sentimentality, some wonderful bits of comedy that capture the absurdity of growing up and the pain of loving and living with other people, and... just a little too much fighting, I think.
The authentic, thoughtful and humorous portrayal of adolescence is a highlight, as is the masterful gender swap of the stereotypical shoujo plot about a school bully with a heart of gold obsessing over a pure-hearted classmate and trying to coerce her into spending time with him while she pines after the perfect second male lead. When the obsessive tsundere in question is a girl (and this girl in particular), the familiar tropes become refreshing, thought-provoking and just the right amount of ridiculous.
To reiterate, Gwang-shik fucking SUCKS, oh my god. I haven't hated a villain like this in ages.
So many things in this show don't make any sense, though... It doesn't make sense that the secret government org in charge of shinobi relations would waste their time following and kidnapping a journalist who works for a small magazine that only a few conspiracy cranks read in the middle of a massive security crisis—when the journalist is, moreover, in some kind of romantic relationship with a shinobi and is hiding out at his house after agreeing not to expose him! Like, she should NOT be a priority right now, so why are they going after her so zealously and risking their tenuous agreement with the Tawaras? They could have just talked to her, intimidated her a little and told her to stay put at the Tawara house until they dealt with the, you know, murder cult terror threat hanging over Japan at the same time???
A lot of the details of Karen and Haru's early investigation were totally illogical too... I don't use the term 'plot hole' lightly because it makes me think of pedantic nerds who don't know how to enjoy a story, but this show had a bunch of actual plot holes in the first episodes that I've already forgotten.
Also it doesn't make sense that Gaku would wake up after a two-week coma, realise he's in the secret camp of his mortal enemies and not, you know, immediately kill himself or kill a bunch of them before killing himself. All he did was stare at that Fuma Kotaro guy—NOT a scary or cool villain, by the way—when he could have simply taken his own life to prevent information leaks. And then when he finally tried to kill himself days later, it was with that massive goofy shuriken that was easily knocked out of his hands. Come on! A real ninja would have been able to bite down on his tongue until he died or he would have hidden poison on his body or something. And then he had a private conversation with Fuma Kotaro in a secluded place and didn't make an attempt on his life at all? All it took for him to start questioning his whole life was to hear someone say that killing people for the government is fucked up? Dude, I thought you already knew that?
In general, the ninjas in this show are really not that impressive IMO. They lack the agility and deadly grace I would expect, they don't have preternatural senses or near-magical stealth skills, they're too obvious and clumsy in their daily lives. That stupid daughter was ordering grappling hooks "for ninjas" online to her own house, in her own name! They carry their phones on missions! An office worker with the cognitive capacity of a concussed rat was able to bug their house successfully!
There's so much you could do with a cool concept like ninjas secretly operating in present-day Japan, but this show reduced them to indentured thugs who work for some moron in the government... Which, now that I think about it, is probably what ninjas were like in real life, but I would have liked to see a more romanticised portrayal here.
I'm on episode 5 and so far I'm less impressed by this show than most people, it seems. It's just not that engaging despite the great premise, the characters are not very compelling (especially the father and the daughter, who annoy me immensely without the payoff of being interesting), the story doesn't offer many showstopping plot twists or dramatic set pieces nor does it move at a fast pace or progress toward a palpable culmination/build tension, the action scenes are... really not that great if you're a fan of the martial arts genre, and the western director's hand is evident in the overwrought Umbrella Academy style soundtrack (a big miss for me) and the terrible handling of emotionally/psychologically charged moments, which are dispatched quickly with quips and cliches most of the time.
Still, I'll probably finish it because I love ninjas that much, and the actor playing Haru is doing a good job.
Am I the only who likes the drama for it’s absurdity? It’s not trying to be a serious healing drama which…
It has serious moments that work for me as well as comedic moments that aren't meant to be taken seriously. Drama/comedy is a well established hybrid genre and not something unique to this show; it doesn't mean the show has nothing serious to say or that it's "disappointing" if you take it seriously.
I'm impressed with Lomon's comedic chops here. He's never made a strong impression on me before, but here his acting is natural and engaging. Either he's improved over time or comedy just suits him.
1 
She may not be in an actual relationship with him, but she agreed to act like she’s totally in love with him in public and so far that’s not how she’s coming across. A bunch of people just saw her spend the night in a hotel with a different man—with his brother even! What is this, amateur hour?
That said, I kinda stopped being mad at her when she ditched her friends in the middle of filling out her marriage registration form just because Jihan told her to. Like, that’s when it became obvious to me she’s down horrendous for Jihan, just like he is for her. They’re both clowns, they’re in love, they’re not acting rationally and they’re making mistakes. Whatever.
Putting on my clown wig next: They just haven't added the romance tag yet because they're keeping it a surprise... obviously there will be a kiss scene...
And they didn't mention a fidelity clause in the marriage contract; I imagine the whole point of it is to allow Dohan to be with his boyfriend in NYC, so why shouldn't she also have a sidepiece? Plus, they're not married yet.
In any case, we'll see how Ajeong reacts to Jihan's announcement tomorrow, but I imagine she won't take him seriously given that she's still under the impression that he hates her. Like, can you imagine falling in love with a guy who's only courting you to ruin your engagement with his brother, and also hates you? Obviously not, so she's treating it as some novel form of trash talk/harassment and not as a serious objective... Jihan probably thinks the same way at this point, but we as viewers know he's already down bad for her.
The authentic, thoughtful and humorous portrayal of adolescence is a highlight, as is the masterful gender swap of the stereotypical shoujo plot about a school bully with a heart of gold obsessing over a pure-hearted classmate and trying to coerce her into spending time with him while she pines after the perfect second male lead. When the obsessive tsundere in question is a girl (and this girl in particular), the familiar tropes become refreshing, thought-provoking and just the right amount of ridiculous.
To reiterate, Gwang-shik fucking SUCKS, oh my god. I haven't hated a villain like this in ages.
The ending was perfect.
A lot of the details of Karen and Haru's early investigation were totally illogical too... I don't use the term 'plot hole' lightly because it makes me think of pedantic nerds who don't know how to enjoy a story, but this show had a bunch of actual plot holes in the first episodes that I've already forgotten.
Also it doesn't make sense that Gaku would wake up after a two-week coma, realise he's in the secret camp of his mortal enemies and not, you know, immediately kill himself or kill a bunch of them before killing himself. All he did was stare at that Fuma Kotaro guy—NOT a scary or cool villain, by the way—when he could have simply taken his own life to prevent information leaks. And then when he finally tried to kill himself days later, it was with that massive goofy shuriken that was easily knocked out of his hands. Come on! A real ninja would have been able to bite down on his tongue until he died or he would have hidden poison on his body or something. And then he had a private conversation with Fuma Kotaro in a secluded place and didn't make an attempt on his life at all? All it took for him to start questioning his whole life was to hear someone say that killing people for the government is fucked up? Dude, I thought you already knew that?
In general, the ninjas in this show are really not that impressive IMO. They lack the agility and deadly grace I would expect, they don't have preternatural senses or near-magical stealth skills, they're too obvious and clumsy in their daily lives. That stupid daughter was ordering grappling hooks "for ninjas" online to her own house, in her own name! They carry their phones on missions! An office worker with the cognitive capacity of a concussed rat was able to bug their house successfully!
There's so much you could do with a cool concept like ninjas secretly operating in present-day Japan, but this show reduced them to indentured thugs who work for some moron in the government... Which, now that I think about it, is probably what ninjas were like in real life, but I would have liked to see a more romanticised portrayal here.
Still, I'll probably finish it because I love ninjas that much, and the actor playing Haru is doing a good job.