Family by Choice (2024)

Who cares about the original?

It's natural for adaptations to differ significantly from the original (because why else would anyone want to adapt?!) and it's equally natural for those who have seen the first iteration to compare the following ones. What matters is judging each on its own terms and contexts. I haven't seen the original but I also don't care about a single review that finds this kdrama pale in comparison. In fact, I would say that I've been distracted by such reviews, and this is the danger of reading reviews while one is still watching the drama, because it prevents me from judging it on my own terms.

This easily is one of the loveliest, heartfelt dramas with emotions running the entire gamut of laughter and tears and empathy.

I have two main sticking points in the storyline:
1. The villainisation of all the mothers (regardless of how it concludes and may recuperate them [still on episode 13]). While I very much appreciate the unusual portrayal of maternal and understanding fathers, it grates on me that it's the mothers who get caught between extremes of good or evil, and then you are left with comparing the good mother vs the bad mother. For ex: why does Sanha's mother have to be so obsessive and 'hysterical', we're never told.
2. Kim Sanha being too perfect in all respects compared to the clutzy, simpleminded Hae Jun--nothing in his character development particularly showed why this would be the case. He was sensitive, but how come so perfect? And why doesn't Hae Jun become emotionally intelligent until so much later? Was a bit frustrating.

Apart from this, I do love everything about the show--the cast, the pace, the atmosphere--it is pure comfort, slice of life, family, genre kdrama at its best. I look forward to the concluding episodes!

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Perfect Example of How to spoil an lovely Adorable story to a uncomfortable drama

The KDrama started with beautiful caring simple yet beautiful and pure concept of a family where kids not related by blood started living emotionally and share there relationship as pure brother and sister till their teens and schooling. This a clearly evidently mentioned many times in starting 6-7 episodes that they share brother and sister emotions and relation. The story was adorable.

But the story started becoming uncomfortable to watch with family when a brother falls in love with his sister and started looking his sister as lover. May be in many countries, regions and cultures this relation is seen as forbidden.

A family exist when their is emotional attachment and caring among the relations, it doesn't matter whether they are blood related or not. How could a brother emotion changes to lovers emotion for his sister? Isn't it a taboo relation? Its a disturbing relationship. Majority will agree it will impact the mindset of brothers and sisters in a family watching this KDrama. The story becomes even sickening when the sister says her brother that she looks him as oppa (big brother) and still weird minded oppa trying to persuade his sister to change the relationship from siblings to lovers by starting it over again.

I don't understand how actors (Hwang In-youp and Jung Chae-Yeon) accepted such forbidden relation concepts? Are they so desperate to make money and agreed to do the Kdrama?

If the story demanded the romantic relation the director of the KDrama should have taken care of the script and should not have mentioned the relation as brother and sister between the two characters right from the beginning, then this would have been one of the all time great KDrama.

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Documentation

I watched the drama after it finished and I think that helped me in liking and focusing on the drama more. No stops no nothing just hours of watching. What also really made it enjoyable was the cast. I've seen them from the start of their acting careers. Which is a little bit crazy cause it was only by coincidence that I saw there first gigs as supporting or side characters. I also saw the dating show that Seo Ji Hye joined in years ago and she resembles her characters to a degree, very cute and a little bit naive. It just fascinates me that I grew up with there career's, which is similar to seeing child actors getting older. About the story, I really enjoyed it, that's it, it picks up the pace quite a bit after the time skip. Also the romance is quite fast, which is acceptable as their is a ten episode set up for them to be in a relationship. Really enjoyed side characters like the grandma and Huiju. After a long time of watching dramas ever since I was a kid, I mostly get annoyed with how bad a plot or how bad the editing is rather than intentionally annoying characters. The chemistry between all four was amazing, pretty much the highlight. Also the improvement of the girls in acting was great to see. I wish they the girls could get casted more. Everything was good or great so yeah. This is a great recommendation for beginners. It's not too draggy but not too fast. Also wish the second couple had more screen time such cuties.

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Great remake of a great original...

I was a bit reluctant to watch this since I loved the original drama, for its portrayal of the less fit mother, toxic relationships and found family. So much that it made way to most of my series articles abut family relationships in dramaland. But with that said I did have some issues with the original, issues that I did not have with the remake.

If you have seen the original and loved the story, you will probably love this one as it has just enough (very slight) differences to make you, or at leas me wonder how will they handle XYZ scene... While still sticking to the original story.

The acting and casting is really good, the chemistry is there and while I admit I loved the male lead in the C a lot more this one does a decent job, balanced up by the male leads who I enjoyed watching slightly more then the ones in the C. So basically they made up for it.


For those who have not seen the original C, this is drama that portrays family and bonds from many different perspectives and shows great contrast between different ways to be a parents well. I loved how this drama showed both the scares, pressure and pain created by the combination societies prejudice, expectations about parenthood and lets face it bad parenting as well as the sheltering/compensating affects of the good parenting, the found family and friendships can create.

The first time I saw this story I was obviously upset about some of the parts but it was also the first time I saw a character portrayed that was so close to my own mother, that I could overlook all the issues I had with it...

A good drama, an easy binge, but also a painful watch that is bound to make you feel a lot of things...

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Better Than Go Ahead

Just finished the drama so my opinion is fresh when I write this.

I watched Go Ahead a few weeks back while this kdrama was still airing. And guys, I'd say the cdrama is good as it is and the kdrama is good in its very own way.

Things I love here are:
1. How they have fit 40 eps in 16. I mean the character deletions and additions are on point.
(Unfortunately , Sanha's mom had to stay here for the plot ).
2. The relationship between haejun and dal.
3. The way there is not an actual love triangle but a more family based plot.
4. The close knit bond between Haejun and Sanha as brothers cause I think the original drama didn't potray that too well.

I love the part where Haejun opposes to Sanha and Juwon being together, in a funny way. I love those banters. Its so funny in the last episode he found out where Juwon was all night LMAO.

I also really like listening to the Southern/Busan satoori is so soothing to my ears. Particularly, Haejun's satoori is so pleasing.

Overall, a must watch drama. I really liked it.

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The best Drama to wind up 2024, just go for it....

I watched Go Ahead which is the Chinese version of "The Family by Choice". I really Love FBC more than GA because there was certain scenes where I didn't like in Go Ahead eg. A slight love triangle between the 3, though many of them says that the 2nd brother did it out of desperation, there was a scene in bakery where 2ML looks intimately towards FL. It really didn't make sense to me. 2nd FL fell love with ML in GA. 2nd ML was left alone in GA. These are all the things I didn't like.

When it comes to FBC, woah It was neat and ENDED IN ''PERFECTION''. The ending was so satisfying to me. The entire crew of FBC did a wonderful job in creating this Drama. The actors where carefully chosen to nail each role to the perfection. The Bromance between them was so indulging to watch, making us to think that we need that kind of family.

The emotions they delivered went straight to the heart. Hats off to the actors. I love them. I love FBC. One of the dramas to be cherished.

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The ultimate k-drama remake

Family by choice started of decent, the elder-brother and second brother are kept the same except one thing that they changes, in go ahead the second-brother had no ex-girlfriend and was single however in family by choice he had one. Their might be some slight changes, but the characters are kept the same and the drama gets better each episode and has a lot of potential. Hoping to see the episodes progressing to a good standard, which I don't think will disappoint! Hwang-yeop is finally casted as the ML which I'm quite stoked about, he manages to play high school kid quite well!!

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A masterpiece this far

Even though it’s not finished yet, I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite dramas of all time—and definitely of the year.

The acting is amazing; you can see that not only are the actors super talented, but the directing is on point too. It avoids the usual mistakes you see in a lot of K-dramas. The female lead is especially great—she actually has a real personality, not just the usual extremes of being overly annoying or overly sweet.

And the romance? Perfect. It’s a slow burn, but it never feels boring, so you get to enjoy it at a relaxed pace without feeling impatient for things to happen.

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Not The Same As Go Ahead!

When I say it isn't the same - it isn't as great as Go Ahead at all!

It's not bad, but nothing like it's Chinese neighbour.

I have seen Go Ahead maybe 3 times even though it has something like 46 episodes.

Going forward I will refer to Go Ahead as GA and Family By Choice as FBC.

With FBC it misses the humour that GA has when the children were young - even as teens and adults.

In GA, both boys were top students in school whereas the girl wasnt. One boy became a dentist, the other a chef/baker and the girl became a sculptor whereas in FBC it looks like one has become a doctor, one a dropout and the girl a cake maker.

Not sure about the dropout being a proper dropout just yet!

In GA, the one that became a dentist would supervise the girl with her homework at times and around episode 5 told her he was going to marry her someday. There was also this moment he didn't want her sniffing his bed and being in his room as he was starting to develop feelings for her so he told her off. The humour when they were teens in the original version was excellent whether at school, just with each other or at home.

In FBC, the one that becomes a doctor, doesnt say anything about marrying her as teens and doesnt really do too much when she smells something different about his bed which is actually a pertinent moment in the original version. Although they all get along really well - it just isn't on the same level as GA.

When ten years elapses in FBC it seems like the boys have just gone for the weekend then returned as their hairstyles haven't changed nor their faces in age.

With GA they all transitioned from teens to adults which was believable and noticeable like 10 years really had passed.

The good thing about FBC is that it is only 16 episodes so will give you a taste of what the Chinese one is like, but it doesn't have the same depth or characters. One character missing is the one that became a flight hostess in GA.

In FBC, it seems like they are bringing two characters together that were never together in GA. Personally, I don't like that at all.

Another change is the real younger sister of the oldest male seems to be more mature and not so bratty in FBC compared to GA.

Overall, I prefer GA over FBC because of the characters, their stories and the unquestionable dynamics between all of them as well as close bonds - including the parents.

FBC made some obvious changes which shouldn't have been the case - like losing the humour and certain characters, for example.

Still recommended if you want something shorter than the original even if not on the same level.

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"Blood is thicker than water"? Aniyooo..

"the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" will be well depicted in the drama
Food analogy: Well Balanced korean meal with fried eggs, and lot of other banchans.
I started this with the hopes of watching happy rainbows and pink cotton candy clouds but boy, was I forced in a rollercoaster? Yes. Am I complaining? No. You know, what I like about these "family oriented" stories is that there will be at least one angle (amidst multiple angles and storylines for e.g. romance, tragedy, warmth, distance e.t.c) that everyone could relate to, somewhere or the other, relatibity takes centre stage and strum at out heart strings.
I am solely writing this to tell everyone reading this to dive into this deep warm bubble bath of "family by choice. "

Spoiler ahead:
P. S: I totally relate yo Juwon. She is right to be hurt and angry.

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the only way to enjoy this show is to totally block away the chinese version from your mind. Watching this made me appreciate go Ahead even more. i know it couldn't have been easy to try to tell this story in 16 episodes but there were too many things missing. The periods where it felt like nothing was happening in the original spoke volumes!. Her waiting to hear from them, it being too painful for her to see them go away so she travelled to see relatives, her treating them like strangers(because they had become strangers). I was not a big fan of this translation of her yelling at them, i preferred the original. The mother wasn't some unreasonable idiot like she is portrayed in this one, her character was dumbed down and the essence taken away.
she was a mother who carried around the guilt of leaving her child and blaming him and not knowing how to rectify this, she tried holding on to him in an unhealthy way which was exhausting for him and her, also her trying to set him up with someone else showed her yearning to build something ''new'' with him that didn't include their past. she coped by ignoring things(tearing up pictures of her daughter, leaving her marriage and child, trying to get him away from the girl who knew about their skeletons).

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Remake? No. Adaptation? Yes.

The core story is still the same with Chinese version, but the detailed storyline is more explored.

In my opinion, watching this drama really delivers my emotional feels that made me cry several times, haha. And I like how the three siblings didn't get trapped in a love triangle.

However, the downside for me is that the romance between Juwon and Sanha. I’m not sure if it’s because of their lack of chemistry or if they’re just better off as siblings until the end. Some parts like the kiss scenes, I even skipped, haha. Tbh, the second couple is cuter—they don’t have many moments, but they’re still sweet.

Oh, and regarding the actors’ performances, I think they did well overall. But for Juwon’s teenage character, it would’ve been better if he had been portrayed as more “childish,” especially since his character here is meant to be talkative. His acting wasn’t bad; it just didn’t fully fit the character.

Overall, this drama is still worth to watch! 💛

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