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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "It's Okay, That's Love" Episode 2

Jae-yeol and Hae-soo have a natural dislike of each other, among countless other obstacles, and "It's Okay, That's Love" is doing everything it can to slowly whittle these hindrances down. First up is the inconvenient fact of how both Jae-yeol and Hae-soo currently have significant others. The drama wastes no time in destroying both these relationships quite spectacularly. I mean, wow, yeah they were in the way, but wasn't this a little harsh?

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Actually no. Consider the main personality traits our two leads have so far- they're both very brash and aggressive. It is, in fact, well within both of their temperaments to take apparent evidence of an unfaithful partner and make a violent surprise attack before the other person has any time to formulate an emotional counter-move. The results are some very brutal, if somewhat comical scenes which resolve conflicts in a few seconds where most dramas would require several episodes.

This is not necessarily a good thing. The ability of Jae-yeol and Hae-soo to sever these attachments so quickly and with so little apparent emotional damage seems to beg the question of whether either of them were particularly attached to these people in the first place. They're attractive, I guess, but it's hard to imagine either Jae-yeol or Hae-soo really being capable of making the concessions necessary to have a fulfilling emotional relationship. They're both just way too busy acting superior.

The lack of sympathetic character traits on their part continues to be a problem, as does the chemistry which, again, just hints at their being enemies, not romantic partners. For the most part, though, this episode is actually quite engaging. Interpersonal conflicts proceed at a quick pace, and it's very clear that long term fallout is going to be the problem here rather than any sense of immediate villainy. This is all too appropriate considering that that the timeskips we've seen mainly serve to emphasize that very little has changed over the course of these characters' lives.

It also helps that the humor is improving. In the more psychotic moments, it's hard to see the situations that arise in the wake of these various crises are anything except well-deserved. There's also the obvious irony inherent in the fact that Jae-yeol and Hae-soo are much better at noting the mental deficiencies and problems in other people than they are at noting the same basic psychological issues in themselves. It's much more interesting stuff to chew on than what we got last time.

Review by William Schwartz

"It's Okay, That's Love" is directed by Kim Kyoo-tae, written by Noh Hee-kyeong and features Zo In-sung, Kong Hyo-jin, Sung Dong-il and Lee Kwang-soo.

 

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