Gae-in-eui chwi-hyang

I watched it again after many years, and though I love the leads, esp. SYJ, and the series has sweet moments, for me, it definitely has cringe-worthy scenes and others that simply do not hold up well.

Lee Min Ho and Son Ye Jin are so good at acting in love that the chemistry is one of the best in all of the rom com K dramas. There is a top 10 kiss scene in episode 10. Son Ye Jin is great at acting goofy in this show. The comedy is quite funny with all the gay jokes and innuendo. But the obstacles dramatic part before the end is slightly draggy but at least there is a nice conclusion.

The soundtrack is nice. Like a Fool is outstanding.

One of the better rom com dramas.

The reason I watched this drama is because of the leads. But it has one of the worst writing. The writers always used accidents to tell the story. It was really frustrating. A series of childish misunderstanding between the leads and second leads makes the story lot worse. Had the writers paid a bit more attention this could have been lot better drama. Whenever anyone was to reveal anything important there will always be an accidental happening or someone else listening to it, who is not supposed to be. For me it is one of the worse drama in terms of story telling. Also there was a scene in which the camera man's legs and camera and some other setups are clearly seen, meaning the editing was awful as well. Felt like they paid very little attention to the drama and rushed everything. But because of the leads, acting, good comedy scenes, okay story (although ruined by bad writing) I gave it 7/10. If you want to to have some laugh and don't mind the bad writing and common kdrama cliche then watch it.

At viewing, this drama is 15 years old so it IS dated. And while I don't mind the older fashioned hair, wardrobe, music, or cinematography it was the cartoonish representation of several characters that made it hard to watch. The lead female character in particular was written in a way that was beyond silly. Absolutely unbelievable and in no way likable or sympathetic to this viewer. Several other roles suffered the same unappealing characterization.

The story format of "My Fair Lady" has been redone in countless movies and dramas, yet the level of "woman as unrefined idiot" in this one is in no way ingratiating. I watched this to the end because I was sure the character transformation needed for this dramas success would be worthwhile. Sadly for me, it wasn't.

What saves this drama from the abyss of having a style "too old to watch" is Jin Ho (Lee Min Ho). His role is believable, complex, sympathetic and frustrating enough to be appealing.

End Comment: to each his own. While the complex story content and dialogue was high quality, the dated stereotyping of women was utterly unsatisfactory.

Core part of the plot was the male lead pretending to be gay as described in the synopsis, however, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but naming the female lead 'Gae In' was seriously tripping as it was pronounced very similarly to how the characters saying the word gay. Anyway, the drama followed the typical romcom formula of the early 2010s while having a play around the cohabitation of opposite sex and pretending to be gay. This setup spawned all kinds of predictable shenanigans yet they were somewhat entertaining, solely thanks to the leads. While sometimes irritating but they had a good dynamic going on between them. The character Jin Ho was written as a reserved guy who doesn't open up or show his feelings but Lee Min Ho in this drama was way too subdued and static beyond what the characterization mandates for his character, combined with sometimes questionable production, it had created some awkward scenes and deliveries. The drama featured a love square to anchor the drama but this love square was plain stupid. It served its purpose to kick start the story but any involvement after that was a poor decision. I found the ending to be a little bit weak and boring, they played it safe and predictable. Both parents of the leads were brushed off quickly to wrap it up despite being a reasonable point of tension prior to that. Overall, it's a decent watch with nice moments here and there but lacked a lot to be recommendable or rewatchable.