The Interest of Love

Today finished k-drama 'The Interest of Love'

Based on book, This romantic drama is understated.

It's not the typical cliché romantic genre kdrama with hyper energetic characters doing random things in the name of love.

It's a portrayal of love, inexpressive love n longing, yearning, heartbreaks n melancholy.

This actual slice of drama shows, how social status, wrong decisions, past events, affects future n makes you regret.

All characters are flawed which makes them human. Leads specially female has complex character. Leads unable to do things directly. They are emotionally, socially fearful ( like most of US),

All lead actors performed well with subtle emotions, neither overdramatic nor poker face. Leads has intense chemistry which is undeniable.

Drama's trailer was misleading, made viewers think that it's about adultery n cheating but nothing sort of happen. It's a very unpredictable drama.

Drama has slow pacing, I'm OK with it but someone might find it watching paint dry. Might be frustrating at times. Drama has melodious OSTs, good production design, cinematography n overall good direction. Supporting actors also performed well.

I want to be very clear: this is a superb series for whomever is looking for a westerner, social + romantic, full of very very interesting ideas type one. However, the problem is that k-drama watchers are mostly the ones watching it, so the rating is low because of this: they expect a nice bubbly story, with all kind of hidden relations that are going to be revealed in the end, full of romantic, unexpected turns, so of course, for them this is going to be boring. Again, the series is superb, depicting perfectly the social segregation, power abuse, difficult to reach relations, but the final idea that a relation should be stopped after an amazing climax has been reached is stunning (and it's so very difficult to stop...) despite there are counterexamples when two people live happily ever after (yes, you can count them on the fingers of a single hand, but... there are!!). An excellent director, who used picturesque effects to show a large variety of feelings on the screen. It's absolutely everything else but boring!

What a great story of 2 hearts. They hide their feelings so deeply made me myself feel affected. All assumptions went south.

All hope seems to have been destroyed. Then brought back before being destroyed again. This feeling is like being hit many times on a stone plain. Until the end, it is left up to one's own imagination.

The performance of the characters is very good with facial expressions and body language that make a very strong impression.

Only in the final episodes, the pace slows down a bit and makes the soul struggle to know what's next.

I hope for more great stories like this in the future.

I have 3 episodes left and am really enjoying this show. The actors have a lot of depth and the story is engaging. Having watched Yoo Yeon-Seok in Mr. Sunshine (a must watch!), he is not disappointing in this show and I mainly watched it to see him at first. He conveys the implied emotion on his face without even saying a word, he is a very good actor!

This is a show about love and discrimination based on upbringing and the amount of money you have. It also shows us how important timing can be to a relationship and how the choices we make affect not only ourselves, but can have a profound impact on others.

I am puzzled by the low ratings given by other viewers. Perhaps they like action or crazy storylines, or perhaps they like popcorn shows where they dont have to think much and where there isn't much character development?

In any case, go into it with an open mind and don't let the other reviews prevent you from watching. At least give it a chance.

If a romantic drama series is going to conclude with an unresolved ending that leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether the couple end up together or not, then the journey toward that ending has to be sufficiently rewarding. I don't think that it is in this case.

The series is very well acted, and has a good ensemble cast, however i found the scriptwriting very disappointing.

This series would have us believe that nearly every Korean lives with their head in the sand, and is unable to carry on a frank conversation, even when they are in private.

I found the main relationship to be unrealistic, with the primary couple failing at every opportunity to behave in a normal human manner.

They appear to prefer talking in riddles, than hashing out their situation like regular people would.

In fact the only main character that seemed to behave in a rational manner was So Kyung Pil, who was too often portrayed as the villain for only being honest to himself and others.

When i compare the writing here to two of my favourite Korean romantic dramas - One Spring Night (Bombam), and Something In The Rain - i find that it pales in comparison.

It is at least better than My Liberation Diary, which meandered along and went nowhere, but not by much.

Despite my frustration with the actions and decisions of the characters, I watched it all the way through in the hope that I would at least be rewarded with a satisfactory ending. Alas i was again disappointed. It is possible to conclude a romantic story successfully with an open ending - watch My Mister for a prime example - however The Interest Of Love fails in that department too, due to the inferior writing.

In the end I felt that my time could have been better invested elsewhere, and am still craving to find another Korean romantic drama of the standard of the aforementioned three series.