Love to Hate You || Kdrama Review

I started watching Love to Hate You without knowing anything except a 2 line synopsis about that Netflix showed. 

I wanted to binge a Kdrama and it showed up in some Netflix list on my home page so I clicked it. Based on the title, I expected a hate-to-love romance. The synopsis mentioned something about a stunt double. I didn't spend any time to find out more and just went for it.

The drama pleasantly surprised me. 

what is Love to Hate You about?

Yeo Mi-ran is a badass and confident lawyer who has absolutely no faith in men because every man she has come across has disappointed her. She thinks they are trash and never gives them the benefit of the doubt because of her past experiences. When she comes across Nam Kang-ho—a popular romance actor—badmouthing women, she decides to put him in his place.

Nam Kang-ho had a bad experience with a woman before and it has literally shaken him up. He tries to have a confident and polite look but actually cannot stand women and thinks that they're all gold-diggers. It does not help that he is a popular actor in romance media and has many women throwing themselves on him. 

Yeo Mi-ran and Nam Kang-ho essentially hate the opposite gender but take a liking to each other when they realize that the other person isn't like their expectations. It's a hate-to-love romance drama with several plot changes that puts them together more often. Some of them are coincidental and a lot of them are by choice for different reasons.

my thoughts on Love to Hate You

Here's the biggest downer of the drama—it does not start well. The beginning was choppy and not well done. It wasn't subtle at all. It wasn't friendly to viewers. It showed scenes and the viewers have to figure out the setting and the characters.

I go into a lot of shows without knowing anything about them and have never felt as lost as I felt with this one. In fact, I wondered if I was watching the right drama because the synopsis mentioned that the main character was a stunt double but she was actually a lawyer. The stunt double part came into pictures only halfway into the drama, and by then the romance was quite developed.

It took me the first two episodes to get a proper understanding and not feel lost. That was two hours of watch time before I began to like anything about the drama. And considering that this has a total of 10 episodes, that's a huge bit. If I wasn't in an open mood that day or I was ready to go on the hunt for another show, I might have dropped this one.

However, after the initial couple of episodes, it was easy to like the drama. The setting and the characters "settled down" and the scenes made sense together. The drama got into a proper flow, and it really impressed me.

We have a bad lead in Yeo Mi-ran, who is so different from generic Kdrama leads. She is confident, stubborn, gets riled up easily, and will fight for her loved ones (physically or otherwise) in a heartbeat. She's a lawyer who doesn't hesitate to throw punches if the situation warrants them. She absolutely refuses to be a meek woman in need of a knight in shining armour. Mi-ran would rather be the saviour.

I've seen a few dramas where the women are fighters but they have always been depicted as "soft." For example, Park Shin-hye's role in the drama Doctors. She could be a motorcycle-riding thug and her fighting skills and personality set her apart BUT she is still a "soft" person for most of the drama. And often, her love interest is depicted to be "stronger" than her.

Although dramas have tried to break away from gender stereotypes, they still follow them for the most part. No character has so fully broken out of that mould as Yeo Mi-ran in Love to Hate You.

Mi-ran is, without a doubt, the saviour and the hero in this show. She fights well, saves people from getting beaten up by beating up bullies, and does random heroic acts. It never occurs to her to stand by or call for help, she jumps in and does what needs to be done. More than once, she questions why when people (including her love interest) ask her to be more careful or let others be heroes. She refuses to be a damsel-in-distress and has literally physically trained to be otherwise. 

One very noticeable pattern in the drama is the way Mi-ran is often the only woman in a male-centric space. She gets a job in a law firm that notoriously hires only men, fights well enough to have camaraderie with mostly men stunt doubles, and more. She never shies away from male-dominated spaces and demands her space among them.

The main difference between her and most Kdrama leads is that she wouldn't be described as a "soft person." She is hard and harsh. She becomes a little soft with her partner when she's in love but never becomes a meek woman. She never stands secondary to him in anything. In fact, he learns fighting from her. 

So, I was basically in love with her character. Mi-ran is not a flawless person but I absolutely loved all of her—the good sides and the bad sides. She was a refreshing character and an inspiring one. 

I especially liked how she always stood her ground even if it was against her own father—even if she would never have a good relationship with him as long as she refused to be a stereotypical woman. I am disappointed that his influence on her personality and how she clearly became the opposite of his perfect daughter wasn't delved into, but considering how short the drama is, I will take it.

In contrast to Yeo Mi-ran stands Nam Kang-ho, a popular actor known for his roles as the perfect lover and is hailed to be just as perfect in real life. However, he is very much flawed off-screen. Whenever a female actress is unyielding to anything, he insults them to their faces and has burned several bridges. Although he can act well, he is basically an ass in real life and requires guidance from his agent/best friend to have a reputation. 

He hasn't had a good experience with a woman before and has since scorned every other woman around him. He doesn't believe that any of them are well-intentioned. He even has major anxiety when he comes in contact with a woman and has to take pills during shoots to pull off the romantic scenes.

Although he has achieved fame in the romance sector, Kang-ho wants to break out of it to prove that he's capable of much more. When he finally gets a role in an action film and gets some criticism about not fighting like a street thug (like his role), he asks Mi-ran to train him because of her fighting style. 

And that is the biggest difference between him and leads in other dramas—although he hates every woman on principle, he clearly recognizes talent and does not hesitate to ask a woman to teach him. When he sees her fight, he immediately respects her for her skills and effort. Mi-ran pretends to like him so he initially doesn't trust her but when he notices that she isn't vying for his attention like other women, he is okay with her. 

Another difference in his character was his softness. Other male leads are soft to a degree but they aren't like Kang-ho. He does not put on a show of masculinity and is perfectly okay showing his vulnerabilities and being a simp for his girl.

I really liked his character growth. He starts out as a rude man but we soon realize that underneath the protective armour, he is a soft man who earnestly cares about his people and his job. He puts so much effort into his career and genuinely wanted to do his absolute best.

I have seen many dramas with celebrity heroes and this one wasn't like any of them. I didn't feel like anything was recycled or resembled something that's been done before.

The only disappointment was the lack of attention to his anxiety and healing. We saw a little about how he dealt with anxiety with women and that's it. There was nothing about its background and his issues disappeared after he started liking Mi-ran. I am not a fan of the "romance cures all" trope. 

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