My Unfortunate Boyfriend

My Unfortunate Boyfriend

3.5/10

My unfortunate Boyfriend 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Yoo Ji Na is a driven, determined woman who will do whatever she needs to do in order to succeed at her internship in a large advertising company. Things start to get complicated when she makes the acquaintance of Yoon Tae Woon, a florist who has earned the name ‘Mr. Unfortunate’ at the office due to misfortune often befalling those who interact with him.

Cast:

No Min Woo (Yoon Tae Woon)

Yang Jin Sung (Yoo Ji Na)

Yoon Hak (Kang Hee Chul)

Han Hye Rin (Jung Hye Mi)

General Thoughts:

It’s basically cliché soup. There are no new ideas or characters presented and no surprises in the plot. We have a woman who will do whatever it takes to succeed in her job- and we actually have the romance taking a backseat to Yoo Ji Na working. Yawn.

Three guesses who the main character is

No Min Woo is an innocent klutz who develops a crush on the female lead. Why? Because that’s what happens in K-Drama so logically it should make sense, right? Right? No. We need an actual reason why our leading man gets the hots for our leading lady- and in ‘My Unfortunate Boyfriend’ none were given. Kang Hee Chul is your typical boss trying to get ahead in his career, ready to throw anyone under the bus to make that happen.

Boss Kang has Wanker's Cramp- the most deadly of all Second Lead Diseases

I think the writers were trying to play some sort of sympathy card here- like he’s worked so hard all his life for what he’s got he doesn’t know how to enjoy his life (or something), but he just came across as a giant wanker. Lastly, Jung Hye Min is your classic K-Drama b*tch- only the writers seemed afraid to make her a total b*tch so she just came across as this wishy-washy half-assed b*tch. But a b*tch all the same. As for the acting…well Yoon Hak does a great job. I really disliked his character (though I’m not sure that was the point) so he was able to construct a manipulative boss out of the nothingness that was Kang Hee Chul’s ambiguous character. Han Hye Rin was confusing. I couldn’t quite read her expressions all that well. Sometimes when she looked at Ji Na or Hee Chul I couldn’t really tell if she was trying to convey anger, jealousy or sadness. I feel conflicted about No Min Woo as well. I know he’s a good actor, and sometimes I was able to see it, but there were a lot of scenes where he came across a little awkward- not for lack of trying either.

An accurate depiction of how much weight Ji Na pulled in their relationship

He dove in 100%, and it was nice to see him playing a normal, regular guy, BUT the problem came when the writers made him do ridiculous, outlandish things under the guise of being ‘innocent’ or ‘naïve’. The issue here lies less with his acting and more with his face. He did all the right expressions and all the right movements, but the thing is- he just has such a unique, handsome, masculine face that didn’t really fit with the character. Once the story settled down and the characters became far less ridiculous he was able to play the sweet florist quite convincingly. And that brings us to Yang Jin Sung. Hoooooo, okay.

My thoughts about Yang Jin Sung after finishing this drama

I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of Yang Jin Sung, and I’ve yet to find a drama where I actually enjoy her in a leading role. I’m not sure if it’s something about her acting, or if she just plays strangely dislikeable characters, but she always comes across a tad stand-offish and abrasive. In the end, Yoo Ji Na just became a screechy, work-focused, not-cute heroine. The supporting cast were all adequate, but not outstanding. Then we have the plot, which does nothing and goes nowhere. We get a lot of footage of Yoo Ji Na working and schmoozing up to her boss, who is using her for some reason or another, and being hindered by Jung Hye Mi. Yoon Tae Woon just sort of flits around the edges interacting with the other characters every now and then and giving awkward diary monologues. Then he’s the nephew of the chairman (which surprises no one) and starts working at the firm too. Yaaaaawnnn. I don’t care who inherits the company, because it’s not interesting either way. Either Kang Hee Chul gets it- which is so painfully obvious, or Tae Woon gets it- which means karma’s doing a nice job of letting Yoo Ji Na have everything by turning the guy she maybe likes into a rich man that she’ll definitely like, which would’ve just sat wrong for all kinds of reasons. The drama did have lots of pretty scenery though.

Let's just ignore all the people and focus on the pretty

What Was Great:

Misunderstandings:

Some of the only comedic scenes that really hit the right note were the scenes involving Tae Woon and a huge misunderstanding. Sure it’s a little lowbrow, but I found it hilarious. In a drama crammed with unrealistic events and unrelatable characters, these scenes were probably the most plausible of the lot. Plus, sex jokes are just so unexpected in K-Drama- it just came out of nowhere and it was hysterical.

Hur hur hur

Office Couples:

The office couples were adorable. The tension between the males and females in the workplace was always present, but I never actually thought anything would come of it. It was cute and unexpected that the drama hooked up our support cast. 

What Wasn’t:

Starting on Steroids:

Goodness, I nearly quit after the first couple of episodes. It’s just plain ridiculous. All the overacting paired with bizarre situations are bad enough, but when delivered by slightly uncomfortable, mildly robotic actors it’s…painful.

Basically my face when I started this drama

It’s as if the writers were trying to make the drama funny by using ludicrous situations that would never ever happen, rather than thinking about how the differing character dynamics could bring about humour. While we do have these two polar opposite leads, none of the ‘funny’ events that happen to them at the start are actually character specific- any two characters could be slapped with the hair-caught-in-belt scene and produce the same result. It just felt like a whole lot of noise that didn’t further develop our plot or our characters. Once things settled down a bit and characters starting acting like actual humans, the drama became much more bearable.

Overacting:

Oh. My. God. Yang Jin Sung in basically every scene she was in was almost unbearably overacted. People just don’t react to things that way. Whether it was her getting angry, surprised or cringing in embarrassment, it was all insanely over the top. In some cases No Min Woo acted similarly, but this dropped down after about episode 3 or 4. I suppose the tone of the overall drama was outlandish and whacky, and sometimes overacting can fit in well to the tone of a scene, but not that much and not that often- particularly when it’s coming from only our main leads and no one else in the cast!

Please just stop.

Unbalanced Relationships:

The relationships were messy and sloppily constructed. Yoo Ji Na had more romantic scenes with Boss Kang than she did with Tae Woon.

C'mon player, at least change your setting

Which became increasingly more irritating once it was revealed he was just using her to get ahead in the company, particularly when Tae Woon was doing such a surprisingly good job of bringing the cute in the chances he was given. Yoo Ji Na’s different reactions to the romance bothered me too. She was totally smitten with Kang, but seemed taken aback and a little uncomfortable with Tae Woon- which made it confusing and weird when she chose to leave Kang for Tae Woon when she didn’t even know about the depths of Boss Kang’s douchbaggery. There was a similar feeling with Kang and Hye Mi. When Ji Na walked away from Kang, he always had this look on his face as if he was sad to see her go. I suppose this was meant to be his feelings of guilt for using her, but really it just made it look as if he really was into her on some level. But whenever he was with Hye Mi he was cold, distant and distinctly unromantic. And then throw in Hye Mi’s warped logic and it’s just one giant clusterf*ck. ‘Oh, I just want to have him even if it means destroying him’. What the hell woman? One- that’s not how love works. Two- why would losing the election make him turn back to you? Oh, wait no, it worked. Apparently that is how love works.

I'm still convinced this pairing makes the most sense

The 'what the f*ck' expression we were all wearing

The Bloody End:

She disappears, end of story. While I wouldn’t exactly call it a time skip- because it doesn’t have the telling ‘However Many Years Later’ tag, it was just as annoying. It could have been one year, it could have been one week. All I know is that Ji Na quits the job she worked all drama-long for and ditches the man she chose. What even. Bloody K-Drama heroines. Granted, Tae Woon does come back and find her and they snoodle on the beach. Meh. Also Boss Kang and Hye Mi get engaged. Congratulations- you two terrible people deserve each other.

Re-watch?

Never. It’s not the worst thing ever- as is shown by the fact that I actually finished it. No Min Woo was cute at times, and I did adore the tree kiss. But there’s really nothing in the drama to recommend it.

Best part of the whole thing