Having watched the original show “Jane the Virgin”, I was, at first, a bit hesitant because I liked that. But then I thought I should check out how the Kdrama essence changes it. And I am sadly (not really) declaring that they did fail and this was entirely a horrible attempt. It was obvious to compare this with the previous but then I thought I should actually consider it as a separate show because things must have changed with given circumstances, which did happen. Either way, it did disappoint.
Developed by ‘Studio S’ & ‘Lifetime’ and produced by ‘Group 8”, “Woori the Virgin” is a comedy melodrama plus partly romcom drama, adopted from the American satire telenovela “Jane the Virgin”. Written by Jang Ah Mi and directed by Jung Jung Hwa, the drama was broadcasted on SBS TV and internationally distributed by “Viu” in limited countries. Notably, this is not a remake of the original show, rather an adaptation since all the 5 seasons from have been summed into a single season. Also, the show reunites Sung Hoon and Im Soo Hyang after 6 years who, again, happen to have debuted together 11 years ago.
Oh Woo Ri (Im Soo Hyang), daughter to a single mother and raised alongside her grandmother, is a woman in early 30s who has been virgin due to her religious beliefs. During a regular checkup, she gets pregnant due to medical malpractice at her OB-GYN clinic. To her surprise, the sperm owner turns out to be a man Rafael (Sung Hoon) with whom she had a momentary fling five years back. As she decides to keep the baby and the story follows the consequences and unfamiliar events she faces.
Lee Kang Jae (Shin Dong Wook) is Woori’s boyfriend and a detective. Other familiar faces in the story in various major roles were: Hong Eun Hee, Yun Won Kyung, Kim Soo Ro, Lee Do Yeon, Nam Mi Jung, Hong Ji Yoon, Joo Jin Mo and Yun Woon Kyung.
Plot development was the entire problem with the drama. The remake was a bad idea; they could have made a story based on the concept but they went for an adaptation, making foolish decisions. The pilot episode did its job of creating an impression at the end but the episode, as its own, was not very pleasant. However, the furtherance following that and the set of events became interesting with plenty of comic elements and revelations done for the major characters. To my disappointment, it didn’t last long; it seemed smooth till 5th but what happened in 6th and the way the episode ended, I was skeptical about the rest of the show, because it hadn’t even reached its interval.
With only the crime scandal and the main culprit left to be unveiled, everything else became stupid and not worth of watching as soon as the 7th episode started. I can’t say that the mystery plot and the investigation process kept me engaged, it’s just I wanted to know the culprit’s face even when the show had already fallen through, that’s it. It kept getting stupider and logic-less towards the ending and for my habit of not being able to leave anything unfinished, I watched 7th-14th at 3x, ngl.
Emphasizing on my opinion, once again, adaptation isn’t an easy job as it seems. Even if the audience doesn’t expect you to justify the originality, as a writer, you must be careful not to mislay the essence of what’s been presented earlier, which the debutant Jang Ah Mi jakka-nim clearly failed to accomplish. First of all, the idea to adapt a 5 seasoned show was stupid to begin with; secondly, it could have simply referred to the story and created one of their own; finally, bringing all the 5 seasons into one was where they stooped to rock-bottom.
With not being able to create something noteworthy in his almost 15 year caarrer, Jung Jung Hwa PD-nim has again failed to bring another drama to justice. The flow of direction was inconsistent, very much. Things like screenplay management, sound editing and screen editing might have been handled to par but the erratic pacing and irregular development come as annoyances. While the first half was smooth and worth the patience, the latter half becomes too rushed in order to include everything within the predetermined quota. Imo, they could have made to more episodes, minimizing the damage.
Composed by Choi Seung Kwon, the show has a total of 5 OSTs and my ‘Kdrama OST Sucker’ heart couldn’t bring itself to love any single of them. I would say ‘”I’m In Love” by Sin Ye Young was the only likable track which also fits to the drama. While “Gosh” by Jessi is a fabulous track individually, this has no particular essence to be contributed to the show. Other 3 tracks are: “Sunday to Monday” by Woody and “I’m goin’ crazy” which has both male & female versions, sung by Kim Bum Soo & Lee Young Hyun, respectively.
What I liked…
Nothing really
What I didn’t like…
# Sung Hoon’s acting doesn’t improve remarkably even though he has been acting for a while and his irregular casting should be the reason, but it’s obvious he isn’t getting many offers bcs there seems no will power to improve. He could utilize his time in taking classes. (Some of y’all will come at me foe this but fact never changes.)
# Character arcs for many were shoddy; not even the 3 leads had anything significance. Flaws make characters realistic but for a 14 episode fictional drama there were way too many flaws, provided they didn’t have a single fraction of development. In the second half, it wasn’t even funny rather ridiculous.
# Kang Jae’s character was horribly written with no particular sense. As a cop, he didn’t show any trait that would make him a good detective. The number of times he and his wit failed, implied his incompetency and also showed how incapable the police is. In short, this was so very unrealistic and had no logic.
# Chemistry between the 2 possible pairs were zero. While Im Soo Hyang did click with one showing little compatibility, pairing her up with the other was so useless and was presented with cliché elements as fillers only. The original show was convincing, but as the culture and essence have changed with the remake, the same felt extremely stupid here.
# The illogical plot devices were irritating in the sense that they did repeat few just to stall time and match the timelines of different subplots. Then, they used some just to fill the gaps created due to the removal of major events from the original show. Finally, the way of representation was choppy.
Final remarks... Overally, “Woori the Virgin” is not only a bad remake but also a poor quality show if you don’t take the original show into consoider. I came here knowing I might get bored but the stupidity and failures have made me mad. I understand the low budget is where the problems stem from but we have seen enough such cases, where makers have aced the race despite every hurdles. Since the show has way too many cons and almost no pro, I decline to acknowledge it as an average show, even. Don’t watch.