Love to Hate You K-drama: All About the ‘Wronged’ Men

This K-drama is the very definition of a female-centric subject done wrong. You might be fooled to think that this is another story about women empowerment. But it revolves around the most ridiculous argument feminists face – yes – the ‘Not All Men’ argument. The writer of the drama is  Choi Soo Young and director is  Kim Jung Kwon. Here is my review of the K-drama Love to Hate You.

The title itself makes it clear that it is a tacky romantic comedy. Though it is not so in the beginning, it eventually becomes so. These kinds of thoughtless narratives are not what we need, especially when feminists in South Korea are protesting a wave of anti-feminism.

A Man Praising Storyline

So, in the drama, we have a protagonist, Seo Mi-ran who does not trust any man and almost hates them because of her life circumstances. She meets and starts hating a superstar actor, who detests women, only to find out that his ‘past’ experiences made him like that. As the cliché goes, both of them fall in love and it is ‘happily-ever-after’ for them.

This storyline is not the only problem. Everything here is to please a patriarchal majority while trying to satisfy a female audience. The protagonist is bold, daring and does everything that men conventionally do in the movies. She is the ‘bad guy.’ But she is not the quintessential bad guy whom everybody loves. Because, you know, she is a woman.

She tries to ‘trap’ this woman hater of a man only to find out that it was merely her misunderstanding. And this guy, who mistreats women, gets a clean chit because of his supposed ‘issues’ and gets the ‘best namja award’ – courtesy of the writer of the drama. Consequently our heroine not only falls in love with this ‘perfect’ man but also declares him as the best man among all men she had ever met.

The funniest part is that her ex-boyfriend who cheated on her comes to her rescue at a pivotal moment of the narrative and he also becomes a ‘nice’ guy. Our heroine, now that she is in love starts behaving like a ‘woman’ that is to say, she gets jealous and makes baby voices (the eponymous Korean aegyo which women do and men love).

The who -said -all -men -are- bad Narrative

So, in short, the audience believe not only that all men are not bad but also most women misjudge men. There is no single full fledged male character that is bad. Even the sexist father’s arc is peripheral and is underdeveloped to give more prominence to the romance part and subsequently the ‘men praising’ part.

Now, let us talk about the supporting characters. The heroine’s best friend is the anti-thesis of her and swoons over every good-looking guy she comes across even when she is having a serious conversation. The hero’s best friend is the ‘kindest’ guy you would ever meet and his ex-girlfriend is the stereotypical woman who screws over his life.

And there is this ‘bromance’ poking fun at the LGBTQIA+ community, which repeats itself without fail in every K-drama. That part is just there for comedy and entertainment purposes. But credit should be given to the actors for their attempt in making this a funny piece. My favorite performances are that of Kim Sung Ryung and Kim Ok Bin.

The Writing

The characters are all poorly written. None of the characters are developed and the writer’s focus was mainly on the genre and romance. The subject has potential but you cannot even see that here. Instead of focusing more on the protagonist’s past experiences which supposedly made her what she is today, the writer simply chose to ignore it.

Need I say more? I know I can go on and on. This is such a poorly written and the most irresponsibly executed piece of K-drama that I have seen in recent times. I would say, don’t waste your precious time on this one. And don’t fall in the trap thinking that this is a female centric narrative. It is not. It is all about men.

Arya

Arya is a curious soul and nerd who loves books and cinema. You can read her articles on Medium. You can also follow her on Instagram where she talks about her favourite books and movies.