I didn't know I needed this but here we are
If you're looking for something totally new and fresh, this may not be the drama for you. The story contains all the tropes you've come to expect, even if it makes fun of them, and there's nothing to it but the romance and friendship between the characters. But if what you're looking for is something to lift your spirits on a rough evening or to bring a smile to your face, you're looking in the right direction.
Scripting Your Destiny is a quirky, fun take on the overused notion of 'fate' in Korean dramas. It puts a face to that unchangeable fate in the form of deities of destiny, beings who exist to write a person's fate the way a writer does their characters. Over the course of this short but sweet series, we get to see a mess of ways these deities can affect their charges using their books and how the people being written about can both conform and change the destiny they've been given. This is all centred around Shin Ho Yoon, a deity seeking to write the perfect destiny for his charge Jeong Ba Reum. That includes the perfect romance, of course. The problem is that Ho Yoon has no experience with romance nor the skills to write the best romance it can be. To solve this issue, he plagiarizes Ba Reum's love interest Go Chae Kyung's old writing in an attempt to bring the couple together. In doing so, at some point, in some way, he finds himself becoming her love interest instead. This is a problem as deities of destiny must remain impartial to their charges and feeling anything for a human risks elimination.
This drama is great at setting a mood. The cinematography is really good for such a small, short drama, the OST perfectly suits the story and the actors do a great job. Everything comes together well and the best part of the story is the fact that it's so short. Because there isn't much time, it focuses on progressing the plot and building character relationships rather than adding in unnecessary conflicts like a lot of long-running romcoms are so prone to do. While it at first seems like the start of a love triangle is forming, it never gets there. There are no backstabbing friends, no parents trying to get in the way of the characters, and really, no unnecessary complications to the plot. Well, mostly. There are some moments towards the end that feel a little muddied as they try to up the severity of the one big conflict the drama does have, but they're rectified and didn't derail the story.
Even if there's nothing new, the story stays true to what it intended to be and knows what it is. It's character-driven. There's comedy, there's the overused notion of fate, and there are characters that you really grow to like over the drama's short run time. My one gripe has to be that I wish it was just a little longer. A little more detailed. I wish we got to learn more about Ba Reum as his character doesn't get the same sort of conflict and growth that I thought he was going to have in the early episodes, and I wish we saw more between him and Ho Yoon as their dynamic of deity and charge could have been really fascinating to explore. And, well, I liked the characters. I would have loved seeing more of the two deities interacting and their history or had more detail on the flashbacks that are shown. And it would have been nice to have more concrete knowledge on how the deities function themselves, how they come to be, how it's decided that they're eliminated, and the inner workings of their world. It's mentioned that there are deities for more than just destiny, but we're never shown them. The world this could have created could rival many big fantasy dramas of the past if given the chance, but well. That was never the drama's intention. It didn't want to be the next Hotel Del Luna or Goblin. Still, it would have been nice to see.
If you like calm romcom settings with a bittersweet twist, give this one a shot. It won't take up much of your time and you may find something memorable along the way.
Scripting Your Destiny is a quirky, fun take on the overused notion of 'fate' in Korean dramas. It puts a face to that unchangeable fate in the form of deities of destiny, beings who exist to write a person's fate the way a writer does their characters. Over the course of this short but sweet series, we get to see a mess of ways these deities can affect their charges using their books and how the people being written about can both conform and change the destiny they've been given. This is all centred around Shin Ho Yoon, a deity seeking to write the perfect destiny for his charge Jeong Ba Reum. That includes the perfect romance, of course. The problem is that Ho Yoon has no experience with romance nor the skills to write the best romance it can be. To solve this issue, he plagiarizes Ba Reum's love interest Go Chae Kyung's old writing in an attempt to bring the couple together. In doing so, at some point, in some way, he finds himself becoming her love interest instead. This is a problem as deities of destiny must remain impartial to their charges and feeling anything for a human risks elimination.
This drama is great at setting a mood. The cinematography is really good for such a small, short drama, the OST perfectly suits the story and the actors do a great job. Everything comes together well and the best part of the story is the fact that it's so short. Because there isn't much time, it focuses on progressing the plot and building character relationships rather than adding in unnecessary conflicts like a lot of long-running romcoms are so prone to do. While it at first seems like the start of a love triangle is forming, it never gets there. There are no backstabbing friends, no parents trying to get in the way of the characters, and really, no unnecessary complications to the plot. Well, mostly. There are some moments towards the end that feel a little muddied as they try to up the severity of the one big conflict the drama does have, but they're rectified and didn't derail the story.
Even if there's nothing new, the story stays true to what it intended to be and knows what it is. It's character-driven. There's comedy, there's the overused notion of fate, and there are characters that you really grow to like over the drama's short run time. My one gripe has to be that I wish it was just a little longer. A little more detailed. I wish we got to learn more about Ba Reum as his character doesn't get the same sort of conflict and growth that I thought he was going to have in the early episodes, and I wish we saw more between him and Ho Yoon as their dynamic of deity and charge could have been really fascinating to explore. And, well, I liked the characters. I would have loved seeing more of the two deities interacting and their history or had more detail on the flashbacks that are shown. And it would have been nice to have more concrete knowledge on how the deities function themselves, how they come to be, how it's decided that they're eliminated, and the inner workings of their world. It's mentioned that there are deities for more than just destiny, but we're never shown them. The world this could have created could rival many big fantasy dramas of the past if given the chance, but well. That was never the drama's intention. It didn't want to be the next Hotel Del Luna or Goblin. Still, it would have been nice to see.
If you like calm romcom settings with a bittersweet twist, give this one a shot. It won't take up much of your time and you may find something memorable along the way.
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