Love to Hate You (2023)

Fun and Breezy Romantic Comedy

At ten episodes around 45 minutes long, it’s a quick and fun ride. I almost think this drama would have benefited from one or two more episodes as the conclusion to the two main love stories felt a little too rushed to make for a satisfying ending. Nam King-ho and Yeo Mi-ran have a typical romance with some nice skinship scenes, but their romance didn’t feel fully fleshed out by the end of the series. Even less so was the romance between Do Won-jun and Shin Na-eun. What did the second leads really like about each other besides them being hot? No clue, friends.

While the romances were enjoyable, the true intimate connections were felt between the main leads and their best friends. Teo Yoo and Hi-hoon Kim had insane chemistry together, and the story points this out with plenty of romantic beats between the two. It’s queer baiting for laughs and giggles, which is a bit disappointing. It could have so easily made for a contemporary and fun BL romance. Mi-ran and Shin Na-eun also had a kindred spirit connection that felt genuine and heartfelt. I always enjoy a good sismance and bromance, which this show did well. It was fun and quick so I have no complaints, but I'm not sure it was all that memorable.

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“Femme Fatale vs Homme Fatale”

From my perspective, the show has a rough start. A lot of the issues comes down to the characterisations of the leads. The ML is fairly straightforward, he is portrayed as a handsome movie star that distrusts women on the whole and despises those he considered to be parasites. His psyche is so damaged that physical interactions with females can bring on physiological reactions. Because of this, he puts up a brave front but is secretly an introvert and shies away from contacts other than his close friends and relatives.

On the other hand, the FL is an extrovert who is good at many things including martial arts, motorbike racing and stint driving. She never does anything by half measures. She always hone her skills to the best of her abilities. Interestingly, this mirrors the actor who plays that role. Kim Ok-bin is very accomplished in all those areas and more. In the drama, she is layered with a very strong sense of justice, and she sees bad men everywhere and is more than happy to step in to give them their just dessert. While she is happy to use her fists, she doesn’t shy away from unconventional methods like seducing a cheater and then dumping them just to give them a taste of their own medicine. I love how strong and powerful she is and she is not dependent on any man for her identity. Hurrah!

Just to mix things up, the writer-nim also put the ambiguous relationship between the ML and his male BFF on full display. Maybe she is trying to create more interest with the complex interplays so that the various characters will spark off each other. Unfortunately, that approach didn't gel with me. It feels like busy work and fire off conflicting messages.

The OTP's meet-cute is built upon the mistaken intention trope but is stretched to its limit. This makes it hard to ship the OTP from the start. Fortunately, the misunderstanding is cleared up quickly and we soon moves on to the contract dating trope.

Round 2!! The OTP's romance is now on track. At the same time, we learn more about the leads’ backstories so that we can understand why they behave the way they do. Honestly, while I accept their backstories on face value, they do feel like being engineered to fit into the narrative.

Acting is very good and the action sequences are highlights. The FL is the star of this show, and she excels in so many different disciplines. The ML is handsome but carries a lot of baggage and he did well in that role. We are lucky that this is not an idol drama so that while the actors are good looking, they can back it up with their acting abilities.

Furthermore, with good, seasoned actors, it is not hard to ramp up the OTP’s chemistry. Their skinship is certainly much more natural and intense than the usual perfunctory stuff. Their love line helps to lift the show above average but that is assuming the first few episodes did not dent your enthusiasm.

Two other minor points, the show can’t help itself from adding a cacophony of cute animal sounds, dings and clangs after every “humourous” moment or dialogue. It gets old pretty quick. The 2CP’s romance is too draggy. The show made it clear that the FL broke too many hearts while the 2FL has her heart broken too many times. So she decided to push the 2ML away at all cost. The problem is that it is obvious to the audience that both are pining for each other but this charade went on until the dying minutes of the show. It would have been nice to see more 2CP sweet moments.

In the end, the second half of the show is very entertaining and swoon worthy. I am happy to rewatch that but I’d skip the first half. Peace out.

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Live your life

After watching only two episodes of the series almost two months ago, I decided to pause the series and watch other programming instead. At the time, I was not in the mood for the genre and decided to revisit it at a later date. I am glad that I did. I enjoyed watching Love to hate you despite its brief length. The characters each had their own lives before circumstances and life brought them together. During their time together, they even developed their own identity as a couple.

There are times when I like watching shows where the passionate lovers take a short break from each other and are not in each other's faces almost all the time. It seems that they are more refreshed when they are together.

Celebrity lives are forever changing and public opinion is always an issue. It is no longer possible to exist with privacy dating in its normal form. In spite of this, the leads built a strong foundation of love. The fight scenes and comedic tone were enjoyable.

If you are in the mood for a cool series that has love, a tad bit of action, comedy, and strong female lead, this may work well for you.

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Watch it definitely!

"Okay, so 'Love to Hate You' ? It's like they bottled up that perfect buddy vibe.Their chemistry is next-level. They've got this banter that's so natural, you almost forget they're acting. When they get all serious or share a moment, you're right there with them. The way they play off each other? It's what makes this show addicting. Plus, the storylines? Keeps you hooked episode after episode. If you're into shows where the leads just click and make you laugh and feel all the feels, this one's gotta be on your watchlist. Seriously good vibes!"
And the chemistry is good 🔥 and as for comedy it is so on 🤣 you will laugh at almost in each episodes
So,give it a go!
Oooohhhhh writing it while laughing about its scenes 😅😂🤣

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Love to hate relationship

This is a show, I can say I have a "hate-love relationship", hate and trash the characters but love the story🐻

The characters have lowkey trash mindset on certain topics, but that's precisely what sets this show apart—they're raw and real, unlike the typical sugar-coated leads.

This reminds me of lakorns, except without the constant screaming 🤣 The show is wild, prejudiced, biased, sexist, misogynistic, and what not, but it does provide a somewhat realistic portrayal of human behavior. Specifically, it acknowledges that people with such attitudes exist, both among men and women.

My favorite part was FL's character; she was independent, hardworking, and had a great deal of self-respect for herself. Although I didn't always agree with ML's opinions, he still had endearing qualities, and I appreciated his character growth by the end of the show.

This is the NOT a type of show where you hear comments like "Oh, ML is such a nice person," or "He does so much for her," or "I want someone like him." Instead, it's about learning how people typically behave in the real world and not glorifying or romanticizing it, but rather calling it out for what it is.

Overall, one should watch it for the plot not characters because I was amazed by how non-cliché it was; it unfolded in ways I never expected. The characters do have problematic mindsets, but as I mentioned, it's reflective of how many people are out there. And the ending was satisfying!

Thank you for reading my review^^
END

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MI RAN IS JUST AMAZING!

I absolutely loved it!!! So refreshing and incredibly well-done.

Mi-ran was just amazing! Her character was so uniquely strong and kind—a perfect combo. And can we talk about the whole cast? They were all spot-on, like their roles were made for them. Kang Ho was a pleasant surprise for me; it was my first time seeing him in a drama. Did some digging and turns out he's mostly known overseas. Watched a film of his too, and I found him even more charming and lovely here! His real-life story with his wife? Adorable. Total respect for him as a person. His acting was so interesting too—goofy in a good way. I feel like that's probably his real personality shining through: a lovely, loyal lover and kind-hearted guy. He nailed it! But okay, confession time:DO WON JIN STOL MY HEART EVEN MORE !!!! He's just so charismatic and seriously, sooo handsome!!! Yep, his looks initially drew me in, but he's also an awesome friend and manager—super sweet, caring, smart, funny, and a true gentleman. Ugh, can't get enough of him!!!

Overall, loved every minute of this drama except for the last two episodes. The writing took a weird turn and had me cringing hard. I also skipped through a bunch of Mi-ran and Kang Ho's moments—they felt unnecessary to me. So yeah, adored it up until ep8. Definitely going to rewatch it over and over though!

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3RD Time watching this drama (totally worth it btw)

This drama is a sweat critic to current k-dramas and how they portray female leads. I believe it also showcases the problems that the Korean society has towards patriarchy. I can't believe the rates for this drama aren't higher.

I love the chemistry between the leads and the way they showcase that respect is the first step into building a valuable relationship and it shouldn't revolve about saving a damsel in distress. It also has laugh out loud moments which will make you enjoy it and romance is obviously a part of the equation.

Enemies to fake dating to lovers.

Just watch it if you want a bit of taste of what it actually is to be a women en Korean society.

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Enemies to lovers is possibly my favorite trope of all time and I also love fake dating, so a combination of the two was right up my alley. I was not immediately sold on the show and it took me a couple of episodes to feel invested, but I ended up loving the leads and romance. I did feel like the reasons they hated each other at the beginning felt a little bit forced and didn’t resolve in a very satisfying way but I always appreciate the tension that enemies to lovers trope brings.

The show does have a pretty progressive and feminist lens, at least by kdrama standards. The male lead is fully aware of the female lead’s past and he stands by her completely. It did bother me that the show seemed to really harp on how he was drawn to her because “she’s not like other girls”, but it did bother me a little bit less because to her, he’s also not like other guys, so at least it went both ways.

I love when dramas don’t stick to the 16 episode model and allow themselves to be shorter, but the characters backstories were not as well-developed as I would have liked. It seemed pretty obvious that her issues with men stemmed from her dad’s treatment of her mom, but it was never really explored in detail. The male lead’s issues with women seemed to stem from his mother but they seemed so extreme and then just resolved immediately, with very little explanation about how his ex played into it.

I love when dramas show adult relationships in a complex and realistic way, which this show did really well. Once they get together, the main couple is very affectionate, they communicate well, they tease each other in a very sweet and good-natured way, and they very clearly support and trust one another. I would have liked to see more of them being happy in a relationship, but I do appreciate that this was a legit rom-com, with no wild unnecessary side plots. This was a super fast watch and it was overall a great time.

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Fun rom-com with a baddass female lead

Enemies to lovers? Fake dating? Male lead with an illness/trauma that the female lead magically cures? You got it! This has every cliché k-drama trope in it but it's done right. Light, engaging and funny from the beginning to the end.
Things I absolutely loved about this show:
1. Ms. Choi Soo-Jin
2. Fl who beats people up.
3. Fl and Ms.Choi's camaraderie.
4. Second ml's hair.
5. Ms. Choi.
Oh did I mention Ms. Choi?

All the actors did a great job and the chemistry between the leads was great too.
There were a few scenes where the fl made me roll my eyes but she makes up for it by kicking ass!
And I'm very happy to tell you (this is very important to me) , I didn't die from the cringe! In fact, this had no cringy scenes at all and it was a nice surprise.

We have a straight forward fl and ml who don't beat around the bush and actually communicate about what they want. The mature relationship they had was nice to watch.

Loved the stunt scenes too. I was hoping the movie director would talk in the end but I was disappointed.
I wish we could've seen more of the fl handling cases and beating up thugs.
Those were the only disappointing things about this drama.

This year has been great for rom-coms. First Crash course in romance and now this one!
More Rom-coms of middle-aged people please!!

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A character’s story

This has some of the best character development ever written. Each character starts out with deep seated and earn prejudices. Through mature dialogue the characters begin to see things from a different point of view.
The writers pull out all of the stops to bring forward a story that not embroiled with jealousy, backstabbing, and petty behavior. The main couple overcome adversity with maturity and humor.

The story is simple and basically unoriginal (but what story hasn’t been told a hundred times already). What sets this one apart is really understanding how an individual character comes together with another to create a true companionship with someone they were originally closed off from. Their relationships are refreshing and delightful.

This one will show you that with open and honest communication relationships can stand against any storm. Misunderstandings can destroy happiness, therefore communication is essential. That is what this drama brings that most purposefully avoid.

It is was incredibly fun to watch.

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