KDrama to Miss: Was It Love? (2020)

 

Was It Love? (2020)

Grade: C-

16 Episodes, 1 hr each

Viewing Platform: Netflix

Single mom Noh Ae-jung lives with her mother and young teen daughter and is striving to follow her dream to become a top movie producer. Her boss at the tiny production company Thumb Film tricks Ae-jung into co-signing a billion-won debt and goes into hiding, leaving Ae-jung with an impossible problem to solve. Meanwhile, her daughter is starting to wonder who her father might be when she stumbles across some clues that point toward Ha-nee's school PE teacher and possibly a famous actor. What happens when Ae-jung finds a contract for the production rights of a vastly popular yet vengeful novelist? Will the scary loan shark coming after her settle on a new deal, one where he actually gives her MORE money to invest in her movie idea, as long as she signs on his favorite actor?

*This kdrama is basically the plot to “Mama Mia!” if it were fleshed out into a miniseries, which sounds cute at first, but it turns out to be pretty sad and unnecessarily dramatic. This doesn't follow the traditional kdrama formula, and they included some pretty big swear words (annoying, and not true to kdramas). I couldn't stand how “progressive” Ae-jung's character is in * spoiler alert * refusing to let the father know about their daughter. Let's say she's right and the daughter doesn't really need him – what about HIS need to BE a father/have a daughter to love and care for? Such a selfish perspective fostered by her ignorant mother. It would be a different situation if he purposely ignored her for all that time, but he didn't even know she existed! And then they had to do the trope of a 1-2 year separation for the two leads – that is a traditional kdrama thing, but I hate it. A separation like that isn't healthy; if they love each other, they should stay and work out their problems, together! There's also some hinting that one of the other characters had an abortion, which, while she seems to regret it, it still feels like just more western/worldly influences creeping in to further destroy the original charm of the kdrama. I won't watch this again, nor would I recommend it – despite their use of the really cool Cranberries song, “Dreams.”*