Korean Drama: Marry Me Now (같이 살래요)
Broadcast Date: March 17, 2018
Airs: Saturday & Sunday
Total Episodes: 50
Leads: Han Ji Hye and Lee Sang Woo
As per K-family drama, Marry Me Now has quite a few different love lines. So I figure instead of a short fuzzy synopsis or a long character intro I will go over the various love lines instead.
Love Line #1: Heroine’s Dad’s romance with his first love
A widower, Daddy Park is a shoemaker who has devotes his life to raising his four kids on his own. Seemingly content to spend the rest of his life with eyes only for his precious children, Daddy Park’s life suddenly gets an unexpected spark when his first love shows up in his life after disappearing from sight for many years. Mistakenly believing that his first love who grew up as a rich princess is now a poor woman who has to survive by being a scammer, Daddy Park wrecks his brain trying to figure out a way to help her. Unbeknownst to Daddy Park, his first love, Madam Jang is, in reality, the president of a large conglomerate.
I have to admit that I usually have a difficult time getting interested in the romance of the older generation but this one is REALLY good and makes me quite excited to see the chaos that would ensue once Daddy Park marries Madam Jang. Things will get chaotic because Madam Jang’s adoptive son is currently using his status to torture Daddy Park’s youngest son at work. Also, Daddy Park’s other kids are having various challenges due to their humble background so things will get interesting once Madam Jang becomes their new mom and their status gets an instant makeover.
Love Line #2: Heroine’s older sister with a much younger man from work:
As the eldest daughter and “mom” to her siblings, Park Sun Ha is used to putting her own needs behind those of her family, but the time has finally come for her to also form a happy family of her own. A manager at a clothing company, Sun Ha doesn’t quite know how to break it to her family that her brand new fiancé is a much younger co-worker who is still just a small fry in her company.
Knowing how much his mother would disapprove of Sun Ha because of her age and humble background, Sung Wook (the fiancé) manages to convince his mother that Sun Ha’s younger sister (heroine) who married into a chaebol family would be a great help to him only to find out later that our heroine has already gotten divorced.
This one is probably my least favorite couple for now since the fiancé comes off rather useless. Sung Wook is super sweet and it seems like he certainly loves Sun Ha but he is still not a very endearing character at this point. I do like Sun Ha’s character quite a bit though so while her romance line is not my favorite but I don’t feel the need to fast forward through it either.
Love Line #3: Heroine’s youngest brother with hero’s niece:
Filled with glee when she unexpectedly meets her college crush Park Jae Hyung, Yeon Da Yeon (hero’s niece) can’t help herself but wants to do everything to help Jae Hyung, especially once she figures out that he is having little luck landing his first job. Not connecting the strange woman who keeps popping up to the overweight girl he used to know in college, Jae Hyung loses all patience with Da Yeon when she tries to convince him to give up on the job he desperately needed so he could stand up for an injustice he witnessed. Disappointed that her once shiny idol has now become someone who is willing to look the other way for his own selfish interest, a dejected Da Yeon vows to give up on her crush…only to squeal with joy hours later when she finds out from the news that Jae Hyung’s sense of justice did triumph over his own desire in the end. Still unable to recognize the now slim Da Yeon as someone he knew back from college, Jae Hyung finds his own attitude softening (just a tiny bit) towards this strange woman who seems to have this unfathomable belief that he is some great guy instead of a desperate newbie who would do anything for a job.
This couple looks super cute. I am a softie when it comes to first crushes so I am hoping this love line would continue to be refreshing and cute.
Love Line #4: Park Hyun Ha, heroine’s youngest sister (Jae Hyung’s twin)?
As of right now, there is no sign of who Hyun Ha would be paired off with…or if she will even get a love line of her own. Hyun Ha has a fireball temper despite her glamorous appearance. If I had to take a guess who she might possibly have a romance with from the current cast line up, then I think Madam Jang’s spoiled adoptive son might be fun since I could see a fierce fight happening the moment they meet.
FINALLY! Our Two Leads!
Heroine Park Yoo Ha starts off the show as an ever obedient wife who is treated more like a servant by her husband’s chaebol family. Resolutely getting a divorce when her precious adoptive daughter is about to be taken away from her, Yoo Ha has to rely on her medical degree to find a job. Forced by her ex-husband’s family to keep her divorce a secret for the time being, Yoo Ha has to stay silent about her real situation even if everyone else believes that she is just a bored chaebol wife seeking a job to pass the time.
Relying on his brother-in-law’s promise that he would get some much needed aid money for his charitable work overseas if he is willing to help out at his hospital for an agreed period of time, Jung Eun Tae, who was nicked named by the hospital staff as Mad Dog, becomes furious once he is informed that his aid money has just disappeared because of some spoiled chaebol wife’s insistence that there is no profit in it.
Unable to explain to our hero that she is no longer a chaebol wife or that she didn’t mean to give his brother-in-law the perfect excuse to renege on his promise, our heroine realizes with a sinking heart that this Mad Dog is not going to leave her alone especially now that he has become the key to her getting the job she desperately needs.
Ninja’s First Impression:
It took a while to get the feel of this one but I am pretty hopeful that Marry Me Now will stay on my watch list. Marry Me Now took an interesting approach on the story set up that is different from most K-family dramas. Instead of using the two leads to capture the audience’s interest right off the bat, Marry Me Now had instead chosen to focus more on the secondary characters and left the two leads’ story (especially the hero’s) more as an afterthought at this point. The problem with this approach is that the first couple episodes felt really scattered and a bit of information overload since so many characters were introduced at the same time. It was especially difficult to be patient when our two leads’ had pitiful little scenes together. Thankfully, the secondary love lines were plenty interesting and held my attention so that my impatient heart was soothed quite a bit.
I do see some very good possibilities with the show’s unconventional approach with its main leads. The issue with family dramas or really, any show that has a long episode count is the risk of the story becoming stale once the main leads’ are past the fun “First meeting to Oh! I think I like her/him” stage.” A lot of shows would try to introduce a new secondary love line at this point to try to revive the audience’s interest but of course most times those are never as interesting as the main love line. My fervent hope right now is that since Marry Me Now is taking the slow approach on our two leads’ romance hopefully that means once the show reaches the usual “draggy” stage in most of the other dramas, this particular one would’ve just gotten to the swoon worthy part.
One of the thing that makes me most excited about this drama is that despite the few scenes the two leads have shared, it is easy to tell already that their on screen chemistry is great if not sizzling. I also love that both of our leads have an equally “scary” side to their personality. Our hero is the most caring and kind man to all his patients but that also means that he can turn into a “Mad Dog” whenever he sees those of medical profession (especially those who works with him) fail to take care of the patients as he thinks they should. As for our heroine who at first seemed like her personality has been wiped out by her husband and snobbish in-laws, I was happy to see that once she left the marriage her real spunky side finally has a chance to be resurrected.
All in all, I am quite happy with Marry Me Now and has been following it faithfully. It is difficult to find 50 episode family dramas with so many interesting secondary love lines so I am very hopeful about this one.