One of the things that kept me going during the pandemic was watching K-dramas. I have been a fan of Korean shows for years, but I did not get hooked back then. It was only during the pandemic that I found myself watching to relax and unwind after a long and stressful day. One of the shows that I watched during the pandemic was the show Love in Contract, starring Park Min Young. In this post, I'll share my review of the show and give you an update on what the cast of the show is up to today.
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| Photo Credit: CJ Entertainment |
I watched Love in Contract on Amazon Prime, which now streams Korean dramas. I have been familiar with Park Min Young because of her previous shows that I liked. She was on favorites like What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (with Park Seo Joon) and Her Private Life (with Kim Jae Wook). two shows that I enjoyed watching, so I was curious about this show.
Plot
The show is about a young woman named Choi Sang Eun, who works as a sort of “professional wife.” She hires herself out to men who need to show other people that they have wives for several reasons. Some do it to get a work promotion, and others do it so their families will stop pressuring them into marriage. One dad hired her so his child would have a mother to show to other kids at school. Take note that not all the men marry her. Some just use her to show people that they are in a relationship with someone.
The process goes like this: she interviews the men to make sure that she is safe to enter a contract with them. She then agrees to a certain period of marriage or relationship, thus making it a love contract. She stays in a relationship or is married for the agreed period, enough time for people to believe that she is this man's wife. Once the contracted time is up, they split up or get a divorce and explain that the marriage did not work out.
It is later revealed that Sang Eun is the adopted child of a wealthy conglomerate (chaebol) family. They adopted her so they could marry her off to another chaebol family as a business merger in the future. She rebelled against this setup and left that family to fend for herself. Her means to survive? She used the only asset she had: the training she got to become the perfect wife.
At the start of the series, they show that Sang Eun was planning to retire from her work. She had saved enough money and was moving to Canada with her gay best friend/ex-husband. Her plans do not work out because the woman who raised her went to jail and she had to use all her money to bail her out.
Because of this new development, she extended the contract with the man who was her last client: Jung Ji Ho. He is a judge whose only request was that she have dinner with him three nights a week.
My Review
The premise of the show was a little weird, but I went on watching it anyway to see where it goes. I had so many questions about the premise because it seemed to defy logic but I went with it anyway.
It was puzzling how she was able to marry and divorce all the men that she had contracts with. Was it possible to get married and divorced that often without raising any legal red flags? It was also confusing that she had all these “husbands” that she married at such close time frames. How is it possible that none of the family and friends of these men met and out about what she does? Korea is not that big of a country. And it seemed that most of the men she married were from a similar general area. It's weird!
The whole client factor was also questionable for me. How she was able to maintain a “professional” relationship with all these men? She was doing this on her own. It does not seem realistic that none of these men would take advantage of the situation.
To be fair, she did have a couple of stalkers and obsessed ex-husbands. The explanation that she checked on these men before she pretended to be in a relationship or married them seemed too easy. Even showing that she knew how to defend herself doesn't seem enough to justify how this was possible.
There was also the factor of Sang Eun agreeing to a contract with popular actor Kang Hae Jin while “married” to Jiho. What she was doing was risky already when she was dealing with normal people. Agreeing to a contract with a celebrity made it even worse.
As expected, it was this contract that blew everything up for her in the end. A celebrity will always have fans and reporters ready and willing to dig up information. Posing as his girlfriend/fiancee was like an invitation for trouble. Luckily for her, she ended up finding love and settled down in a real marriage with him. I will not say who she ended up with in case anyone hates spoilers!
I am not sure if I can say that I enjoyed the show. I thought it was OK. I did not love it, and I did not hate it, but it is not something that I would recommend. As I said, there were so many questionable parts in the story for me.
I did not care much for Ji Ho as a character despite the sad backstory that explains his oddness. I also felt more for Haejin wanting to be independent of his family than I did for Sang Eun despite her struggles. My favorite character was actually her gay best friend, Wook Kwang Nam. He is the ex-husband who hired her so that his family would not find out that he was gay. He stood out to me whenever he was on screen. I thought he played his role so well!
Another thing I did not like was that there were too many supporting characters in this show. It felt like something that helped to fill up the episodes more than anything. I did not care for the extra stories and they were unnecessary. To me, they used these characters as episode fillers. When I look back on the show as a whole there was not much going on if you focused on the lead characters alone.
One thing I realized about Park Min Young is that she portrays her roles the same way. Her portrayal of Sangeun seems to be the same person from the two previous shows that I have seen her in. That was disappointing. I was a little bored watching her. I felt the same about Go Kyung Pyo, who played Ji Ho. If you think about the character without watching him act, he can be endearing and you'd feel for him and his story. But watching Kyung Pyo, his acting felt a bit stiff and I found it so hard to feel anything for him.
Where are they now
Park Min Young
After Love in Contract, she is set to appear in a new series called Marry My Husband.
Go Kyung Pyo
In the same year as Love in Contract, he was in films such as Decision to Leave (I will review this later!), 6/45, and Seoul Vibe. He will be in a movie called Amazon Whal Myung Soo. He was also in the series No Secrets and Connect post Love in Contract. As of 2023, he was also in the show D.P.
Kim Jae Young
He was in the audio drama Sometimes after Love in Contract and will appear in the series We Will Replace the Trip.
Kang Hyung Seok
In the same year as this series, he was in the film Ajoomma. There are no future TV shows listed for him after Love in Contract.
Jin Kyung
This lady has been in several shows I've seen already such as Queenmaker and My Lovely Liar. She has also appeared in The Story of Park's Marriage Contract and Black Knight.
Ahn Suk Hwan
This is another actor I have seen in a lot of K-dramas. His latest work has been in the series The Uncanny Counter.
Park Chul Min
Another K-drama veteran who I have seen a lot of and has been in several shows during the year of Love in Contract. These shows include Ghost Doctor, Again My Life, The Killer's Shopping List, and Mental Coach Jegal. He was also in the 2023 series Doctor Cha.
Lee Joo Bin
She appeared in Doctor Lawyer and Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Era the same year she was on Love in Contract. She was also in the cast of the 2023 series Love to Hate You. In 2024, she will be in the new series Queen of Tears.
To sum up, I watched this series and felt that I could zone out at random moments and not miss a thing. If not for the subtitles I would have watched it at 2x speed. I only stuck with it to see how it would end, but even that ending was too boring and convenient for me.
There were moments when it seemed I would have been better off watching something else. It had a lot of promise and it did have its moments, but it did not live up to my expectations. If you are willing to forgo the lack of logic in some parts of the story, you can still enjoy this. If you're curious about K-dramas and a fan of the actors, by all means, watch the show. Don't expect too much and don't focus on the parts that seem to defy logic.
Have fun with it! After all, for a lot of us, it's fun to let loose and enjoy the entertainment. Throw away any logic concerns you have and it can actually be enjoyable to watch.
Has anyone else watched this show? Share your reviews in the comments section! I would love to hear another take on this series!
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