연애 말고 결혼 (Marriage, not Dating) is a South Korean drama series that was aired from July 4th to August 23rd 2014 on tvN.
Usually I tend to write about my thoughts at the end of an entry but this time I need to tell you what I honestly think in a really short summary:
This drama shows Korean romance-comedy at its finest.
Story: Joo Jang-mi has been dating Lee Hoon-dong for a while and wants to propose to him. However, Hoon-dong doesn't even think about it and asks his friend Gong Gi-tae who happens to be in the same hotel to help him out.
Gong Gi-tae is a bachelor who doesn't even think about getting married but his family sends him on blind dates often to make him marry a girl.
After Jang-mi is heartbroken because of Hoon-dong breaking up with her after playing around, he decides to help her with revenge but the deal is that she becomes his fake-fiancee so his family would stop making him go on blind dates. Knowing that his family wouldn't accept Jang-mi, Gi-tae hopes that his family would rather see him staying alone forever than marrying someone like Jang-mi.
But because of Jang-mi's revenge Hoon-dong shows interest in her again, as well as his employee Han Yeo-reum while Gi-tae's ex-fiancee Kang Se-ah keeps being around.
Cast: To be completely honest I think I've seen most of the actors for the first time in this drama. For example
Yeon Woo-jin as Gong Gi-tae. He doesn't understand women and openly admits to that at one point. And at some point it is also explained why he prefers staying single. I think Yeon Woo-jin's acting was just very well done and I'll happily watch other dramas with him again. As Joo Jang-mi we see
Han Groo. I did not she was active as a singer so I think I've heard about her back in 2012 for the first time but I didn't know she was acting as well. I shouldn't be surprised anyways. In this drama, she's a professional trouble maker you just need to love at some point. And actually she's pitiful. Being in a similar position with my parents I understand her quite well. I could
connect with her character at some point. And that's definitely a good point, she deserves a lot of attention for her role in this drama.
Jeong Jin-woon of 2AM is in this drama as well as Han Yeo-reum. Despite for me loving his name (that could also translate to "One Summer") he seems to be the perfect man. He's caring, has a nice smile, knows how to cook and would save Jang-mi whenever he's around. But maybe, just maybe, that's why he ends up in the friendzone. However, he's not a typical pitiful second male lead! He accepts the fact that life goes on though he's hurt at first.
Han Sun-hwa of Secret accepted the role of Kang Se-ah. At first I was willing to accept her. Then I hated her. And in the end, I actually came to like her. The way her character developed was actually good to watch though I really thought the writer went a bit too far giving her the typical Second-Female-Lead characteristics. Sun-hwa is a beautiful woman, nonetheless, and her acting just fit the role, I can't really complain about her acting.
Others in the main cast include
Heo Jeong-min as Lee Hoon-dong,
Yoon So-hee as Nam Hyun-hee,
Lim Ye-jin as Na So-nyeo,
Park Jun-gyu as Joo Gyung-pyo and
Kim Hae-sook as Shin Bong-hyang. But to be completely honest, there are too many actors involved in this series to even consider mentioning all of them.
Soundtrack: Let me talk about the sound effects first. I seriously loved the way they used. Be it dogs, cats, Kakao Talk alarm ringtones - it was just to funny! Especially when Jang-mi and Gi-tae were fighting.
The soundtrack is nice so far. There are some songs that just make you feel like it's a summer drama (which it indeed is) like Mamamoo's "
Love Lane". And there are some wonderful ballads like Son Ho-young and Danny Ahn's "
하루만 (Just One Day)". Both songs would be included if I'd ever rank my favorite OST tracks.
At the end of the day, the rating is rather untypical. It's a
10/10, definitely.
Unlike many other dramas, this is not the typical romance-comedy series. Sure, the story isn't the most unique but starting with the setting and ending with the sound effects this drama managed to capture my attention all the way through. And it manages to be cute and funny until the very end. Even the last ten minutes of the last episodes were awesome enough.
What I really enjoyed was the structure of the episodes. In the very beginning, you see an event happening and feel like you've missed an episode or something. How this scene was created - well, that's shown within the episode. And since some of those scenes they used to open the episodes just seemed completely different from the atmosphere you've seen before, you'll want to know what in the world happened.
Much love for this drama. For being different, for being funny, for being cute, with only a few really sad and melodramatic moments!
And a little bonus of Han Yeo-reum and Lee Hoon-dong (or Jinwoon and Heo Jeong-min) bromance. This scene made me laugh harder than I should have.
LOOK AT THIS EXPRESSION! PRICELESS!
