Gwaenchanhah, Sarangiya

It's Okay, It's Love: 2014 Korean TV melodrama,16 episodes.

Story: Relationship adverse psychiatrist meets popular playboy novelist. They are seemingly mismatched for one another, but they end up having to live together as roommates due to some contrived circumstances. They soon start to develop feelings for one another, and thus, another K-drama love story is underway.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

If the story sounds familiar to you, well, of course it does; many of these K-drama shows invoke the same basic story being retold again & again with just slight variations. This show involves two thirty some year old leads that fall in love and try to stay in love, overcome obstacles along the way, and eventually try to find some peace or happiness at the end of it all regardless of what happens. For these shows to work, all you really need is some experienced leads and some decent writing, and, you need to keep the show at a minimal number of episodes that include enough interesting auxiliary characters and side stories to keep everything moving along when the lead love story isn't the focal point. This particular show, while nowhere near the best K-drama I've seen, accomplishes enough of the aforementioned ingredients to be above satisfactory at the very least.

Aside from the love story, the overall theme of this show focuses on the general healing of past & present emotional wounds among the characters. Along with the female lead, 2 of the secondary cast members are also psychiatrists, and many of the side stories occur in a hospital dealing with random patients that need some help. The psychiatrists aren't much better off than some of their patients though, and the same goes for everyone else on this show, as they all have their own deep seeded personal problems to reconcile (some more than others). Most of the interaction with the patients is just window dressing & filler, as the docs diagnose a different disorder for each weekly new patient, then fix 'em up and send them on their way. Don't expect to gain any deep insight about the field of psychiatry when you watch this show; it's pretty clear the writers and cast are just winging it as best they can after briefly perusing a Psychiatry for Dummies book.

Jo In-sung & Gong Hyo-jin are your two leads. Neither is a stranger to this genre, and they've each played similar characters many times before. Jo In-sung has long since mastered playing the suave & smug handsome guy who comes complete with a past tragedy and stoic underlying intentions. Gong Hyo-jin is an expert at portraying the attractive & caring, yet somewhat flawed & vulnerable woman that just needs to find that one special guy that truly understands her. They work very well together, but it's not so much that the two stars have some searing on-screen chemistry, as it is that they're both just real solid pros who know what's needed to play these parts. In an indication of how professional these actors are, Gong Hyo-jin doesn't delay or disrupt the series at all when she breaks her arm off set in an accident; she just shows up for work as usual, the writers hurriedly fit this mishap into the daily script re-writes, and the show doesn't miss a beat.

The rest of the cast is all right. No complaints really. There are number of solid veterans on hand, along with several other interesting characters, and two younglings who get the resident flower boy and snotty hottie roles while they work on their acting chops. A lot of these side characters have their own relationship and or emotional issues to deal with as the show progresses. There are really no secondary love interests that compete for the leads' affections though; one dude tries to "re-involve" himself with Gong Hyo-jin occasionally, but she ain't having none of his nonsense. This character also serves as somewhat of antagonist, albeit a very meek one, in a story that has very few of antagonists at all...the only true antagonist in play is Jo In-sung's older delinquent brother, who's soon to be released from prison and is determined to cause some trouble with his family secret & desire for justice. This show doesn't really put its focus on love triangles or ridiculously mean/evil peopleit's much more about relationships and healing and that sort of thing.

One thing I really liked about this show, and deserves special mention, is its idea of giving Jo In-sung's character a "hidden alter ego" (so to speak). I can't say too much about this without spoiling things because it's somewhat crucial to the story. It won't take you long to catch on to it though if you're paying attention, and, eventually it's made blatantly obvious later on. This story line could have even been better implemented if more time was allowed to think it through a little more, but this is KTV "on-the-fly", so I must commend the writers for even trying to implement it and for pulling it off as well as they did.

Summary: I don't really have many complaints with this show to be honest...Everything is pretty good, and it makes for a pretty decent & solid K-drama overall. Probably best suited to late 20's-mid 40's viewing crowd, but there's very little vulgarity or violence as usual, and no sex; so, just about anyone can watch it and not be overly offended.

Bottom Line: 7.5-8 out of 10 stars on the KTV drama scale!...I'll recommend it!

Not since queen of the classroom (Japanese version),has a drama made me think the way this one has. When it started off first, i thought i might just give it a 5/10, then it veered between 6 and 7, for a long time, then 8. But I still wonder why i didn't want to rate it higher. It's one of the best written dramas I've seen. The two leads are excellent and for the most part are backed up a wonderful cast. Being specific, the punk girl isn't really in the same league. It seems to be going in one direction, then goes in another unexpected one. Well at least for me, who hadn't read much about it before. I don't know how anybody who deals with mental health issues would rate this, but i thought it portrayed them honestly. It brought home to me the fact, that anyone can suffer from mental health problems, and just because you look okay, doesn't always mean you are okay. PS. Reminded in the "currently watching forum" about the soundrack. The poster said he liked it. So did i. Update. I see it won a plaque of appreciation at the Korean Society for Schizophrenia Research. Second update. Lee Sung-Kyung (the punk girl) is actually 24. Maybe her acting deserves a bit more credit, than i was giving her..

Jo In-Sung and Gong Hyu Jin's chemistry are just magnificient! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE this kdrama so much. Really good storyline and superb acting!! Highly Recommended!!!

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This kdrama was pretty interesting. It had a more adult content especially with the topic involved. Mental health are the main part of the story. Most of the characters had issues they had to deal with. It was interesting to see them deal with what they have. The bond that the four main character developed was enjoyable to watch. Jae-yeol and Hae-soo's relationship was adorable and had a more adult perspective. They had to face many challenges and it was entertaining to see how things would unfold. I had issues with some scenes because it seemed like to lack coherency.

I generally dislike older k-dramas, but I heard good things about this show and decided to give it a shot. What a pleasant surprise!

This show has more mature themes and plot lines than almost any k drama I have ever seen, but for the most part these were handled maturely. I was particularly taken aback by how good the acting was in this - both the ML and FL were outstanding. I found the FL to be quite irritating for about the first half of the show - spoiled, temperamental, and unfair to the ML most of the time. What was really refreshing was how the ML handled the FL, I absolutely loved his "give as good as he got" attitude. He was mature but also fair in their interactions.

I also thought all the mental illnesses were handled very well! There was a lot of professionalism and realistic portrayals, so I was very impressed with that. A lot of shows (including Hollywood shows in particular) tend to portray mental illness, especially schizophrenia, as an illness that manifests as aggressive and dangerous. I really liked how they showed how most of the time these illnesses are not dangerous to other people, if anyone its to the patients themselves.

Overall this was a really enjoyable watch, I am so glad I gave it a shot!