Marriage Contract

Marriage Contract

7.5/10

Marriage Contract

Genre:                               Episodes: 16                          Year: 2016

Romance

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Once Han Ji Hoon learns that his mother has a liver disease, he is determined to get her a transplant, but he himself is not a medical match. Kang Hye Soo is a single mother with a young daughter, who discovers that she has a brain tumour and does not have long to live. Hye Soo decides to do the surgery for Ji Hoon if he gives her enough money to provide for her daughter until she becomes an adult. As selling organs is illegal, the hospital only accepts transplants from family members, so Ji Hoon and Hye Soo write a contract and get married in order for the surgery to go ahead.

Cast:

Lee Seo Jin (Han Ji Hoon)

UEE (Kang Hye Soo)

Shin Rin Ah (Cha Eun Sung)

Kim Yong Gun (Han Sung Kook)

Lee Hwi Hyang (Oh Mi Ran)

Kim Young Pil (Han Jung Hoon)

Kim So Jin (Hwang Joo Yeon)

Kim Kwang Kyu (Park Ho Joon)

Kim Yoo Ri (Seo Na Yoon)

General Thoughts:

Although the drama presented nothing new plot-wise (neither contract relationships nor cancer are rarities in K-Dramaland), the characters had a feeling of uniqueness that gave the drama a fresh feeling, despite not presenting much new information. The three main characters were a loveable lot, and all I really wanted out the drama was to see them all become one big, happy family.

Just love each other already

Shin Rin Ah was adorable and perfect as the sassy little girl who stole hearts and made a family all her own- because while I don’t doubt that Ji Hoon loved Hye Soo, we all know that Eun Sung was the number 1 lady in his heart.

This kid is just plain delightful

And that actually added a fair bit of tension to the series, because no matter how much Ji Hoon loved Eun Sung, the only way he could have a relationship with her was through Hye Soo. Ji Hoon himself was a pretty fabulous character. It’s no secret that hard-ass men with squishy, emotional hearts are well loved by viewers, so watching Ji Hoon fall head over heels for the sweetness that was Eun Sung was just the most adorable thing. I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding men at the beck and call of a child fun to watch. Considering that it was the relationships that were the best parts of the drama, there weren’t very many of them. Besides the main three, no one else really got all that developed. We had some nice moments with Ji Hoon’s mum and Hye Soo’s step-mum but that was about it. Kim Kwang Kyu and Kim So Jin were entertaining as the best friends of our two leads, but never really developed much themselves. Joo Yeon was a great support for our heroine and their friendship was enjoyable to watch, but I started to dislike our heroine a bit when she didn’t tell anyone that she was sick- not even Joo Yeon who she’s wanting to look after her daughter when she dies.

'I want to prepare for my kid's future when I'm dead, so I won't tell anyone I'm dying or find a suitable guardian.'

In fact, I found the dragged out way Hye Soo dealt with her illness to be a tad exasperating. The issue was really pushed to the side and ignored a lot in order for Ji Hoon’s family plot-line to play out, but it meant that there was a significant portion of the series where no one but Hye Soo knew she was ill. While Hye Soo’s original break-down then picking herself up was done well, I did find myself getting more and more annoyed with her character when she refused to tell anyone that she was dying.

Just look at all that figurative and literal distance between them

I’m glad she ended up telling Joo Yeon, and wished she’d had the balls to tell Ji Hoon herself, because I do find it to be a bit of a betrayal when one side of the couple withholds information that huge. I can’t really stand Noble Idioting, so I would have preferred if Hye Soo had just outright said she was sick and that Ji Hoon could take or leave it, rather than having him find out from a third party- cuz that’s pretty sh*t.

UEE sure has become a pretty decent actor

Noble Idiotng aside, Hye Soo was quite a nice heroine. She was a bit of a Candy character, but not in the annoyingly useless way, but more of the loving, tries-her-best way. I’ve liked UEE in other dramas as she’s a competent actress, but she played Hye Soo with a depth and maturity she’s not displayed before. She embodied Hye Soo's struggles and it was easy to connect to her without the use of dialogue. The drama was very good at being quietly compulsive, and a lot of it’s powerful, quiet moments were Hye Soo’s, meaning UEE really had to step up her acting and deliver- which she did. She never seemed like a child or a teenager, and turned out to be a perfect fit for the character. Lee Seo Jin was wonderful as the man beside her, and could do cold chaebol who learns to love splendidly. The chemistry between the two was surprisingly good- able to capture the more mature feel of an adult relationship, but also the happy, giddy feel of a new relationship. The gradual softening of Ji Hoon’s heart towards Hye Soo and Eun Sung was done perfectly, and was just too cute. Kim Yoo Ri was supposed to be our second female lead, but really, she was hardly in the drama, and the bits she was in you could easily ignore and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Excuse me while I stop caring- oh wait, I never started

She’s so textbook second female lead, with her unexplained, unwanted love for the hero that leads to her desire to posses him rather than be in a mutual relationship. Any scene with Na Yoon was pretty boring to watch, as she mostly interacted with CEO Asshole and all they did was stand around and swap pretty talk about how Ji Hoon will eventually calm down and marry Na Yoon. Yeah, whatever, let’s go back to the child and the kittens please. The whole chaebol story was really not all that interesting.

Asshole is as asshole does

The two antagonists were pretty unreasonably unlikeable. Like, they seemed to be heartless wankers just because it’s easy for the story if they are, and it’s an easy cop-out because chaebols are usually always heartless wankers (except for when they're the heroes). I didn’t really care about Ji Hoon’s father, brother or company, and honestly it baffled me why Ji Hoon didn’t just walk away from the company a lot sooner (except that it would have sucked all the conflict out of the series). There wasn’t really any benefit to Ji Hoon’s father and brother’s meddling, unless they really hated seeing Ji Hoon happy that much. Their actions had no motivations and they were pretty weak villains. The momentum of the plot did start to drag on the far side of the halfway point. It was never exactly a drama that raced along, so at this point the drama slowed to crawl. Thankfully, it was able to pick itself up again to finish on a good few episodes. Normally I find it a bit of a cop-out when a main character has a terminal illness and then doesn’t die, but in this case I’m glad Hye Soo survived the duration of the drama. There wasn’t some magical cure and money didn’t somehow find a brilliant doctor who could make her live. It was plainly obvious that at some point Hye Soo would die- but the drama made a very quiet point of saying that everyone will. It finished on a nice note with our two leads accepting Hye Soo’s mortality, and just living normal lives together (with the addition of a few complications from Hye Soo’s tumour).

A Cancer Drama without too much cancer drama

The drama didn’t go full on into the issues with Hye Soo’s sickness, but nor were her symptoms ignored. The effects of radiation and pressure on her brain were touched on enough for the audience to have an understanding of what was happening, but it never really became a ‘Cancer’ drama- which is fine, that’s not what I was expecting (or wanting) it to be. It was a sweet love story about family and two people who found each other for necessity and stayed together for love. And Eun Sung.

What Was Great:

Happy Family:

The greatest parts of this drama were always the parts about Eun Sung, Ji Hoon and Hye Soo becoming a family.

It's pretty darn adorable

It was wonderful to see the way Ji Hoon fought to earn Eun Sung’s love, and the way he treasured it once he had received it. The two made an adorable, inseparable pair and they were always enjoyable to watch. The relationship between Ji Hoon and Hye Soo developed much slower, but was just as enjoyable. The love they ended up receiving from each other felt so well earned- Hye Soo because she always saw the best in everyone and loved unconditionally, and Ji Hoon for the love and support he poured into Eun Sung and Hye Soo. It was sweet and felt totally natural the way Ji Hoon’s mother eventually became a part of the make-shift family- Eun Sung’s charm is hard to resist. The drama was really a quiet look in on how this man built his own family from scratch- and it was an adorable, sweet watch.

Marshmallow Man:

Ji Hoon was a great hero for our drama. He was so sweet and squishy on the inside, and it was lovely to watch how what was inside was brought out. Firstly by Eun Sung, and eventually by Hye Soo. Ji Hoon was the type of character who gives 100% to everything he does, and it’s so hard to fault heroes that do that, because it’s so clearly obvious that they’re doing their best. All things being said, Ji Hoon was just a marvellous character that you couldn’t help cheering for- and you really wanted him to get the girl. And her mum.

Our grumpy prince charming tries so hard

What Wasn’t:

CEO Asshole and Co.:

Sometimes K-Drama leads me to believe that 90% of Korean fathers give zero f*cks about their children. I mean really, there can’t be that many horrible old men in one country can there? Ji Hoon’s father was your typical K-Drama chaebol old man who doesn’t care about anything except his company.

Generic bad father character

The problem here is that the CEO isn’t really given any characterisation that went beyond ‘I’m an asshat just cuz’. The main point of the drama was the contract relationship- not the cancer, and not the chaebol-ness. Which means the the plot-lines around the CEO are pretty thin, and basically just there because I suppose we can’t really have 16 episodes of one happy family.

Is it wrong for me to wish he'd get cancer and cark it? Probably...

But because it isn’t a chaebol drama, the company goings-on are given no stress. So while the Asshole CEO is very present and gets a lot of screen-time, his company doesn’t. Which kind of makes you wonder if anything Ji Hoon does actually has any effect on the company at all- because we never actually see any company backlash to Ji Hoon’s actions. Ever. So while every other drama I’ve ever watched is telling me the CEO does what he does to protect the company, I didn’t really feel it in this one. It just kind of seemed like CEO Asshole got off on making everyone else miserable and telling them to just go off and die quietly. Which he did frequently. I honestly don’t believe how he was ever likeable enough to have two women think he was decent and have children with them both. I’ll admit I was pretty chuffed to see him all alone and lonely at the end there though. The eldest son didn’t really make a lot of sense either. He had a bit more motivation than his father in that it appeared (to him) that Ji Hoon was given everything and he got nothing. So for an immature man-child it made sense for him to want to ruin his smarter, more successful, better looking sibling. The problem with the brother is that he’s really just thick.

He just bumbled around drunk half the time

There were no lights on upstairs. He was honestly one of the dumbest antagonists I’ve watched in a long time. He couldn’t hatch a deliciously despicable plan even if he were sitting on a deliciously diabolical egg. It didn’t help that I found neither of them acted all that well.

Re-watch?

Mmmmmm…probably not. I did enjoy the characters a lot, but the momentum of the series was probably a touch slow for watching a second time.

So cute