#WouldYouMarryMe

 #WouldYouMarryMe mini review

After Melo Movie, Rom Com King (a title given to him by his Wooga brothers) Choi Woo Shik is back!

Two years after I have seen him in person, I believe that #WouldYouMarryMe can boast of having the handsomest Woo Shik ever. I couldn’t help but mutter “Ampogi” every time he’s on screen. For a change, he comes from a chaebol family. Thanks too to the stylist and the clothing brands he endorses (Ami Paris and Project M), his casual yet elegant outfits mostly in brown, tan, and beige complement his good looks and height, veering away from the usual black and navy formals that corporate executives in dramas wear.   

And so far, this is the only drama where I am so strongly shipping his character to the female protagonist. Or better yet, to Jung So Min herself (I like Park Bo Young as an actress, his partner in Melo Movie, but not for him). 

Initially, I found it so problematic and chaotic. You can already see that Yoo Meri (played by Jung So Min, Love Next Door, Alchemy of Souls) has financial struggles, doesn’t have the happiest relationship with her partner, the first Kim Woo Joo (Seo Bum June, Hierarchy, First Night with the Duke), who is a cheater and whose side chick, it turns out, has a real fiancé. The mother-in-law and sister-in-law are troublemakers who don’t like her because she’s not rich enough. But she has her own design company, and her family loves her.

For the other Kim Woo Joo (Choi Woo Shik, Parasite, Our Beloved Summer, A Killer Paradox, Melo Movie), his parents died in a car accident when he was young and there seems to be a hint that they were intentionally killed. He has anxiety attacks, perhaps due to his childhood trauma. His uncle is a scheming man using underhand tactics to gain control of the family business and has an affair and a son on the side. Woo Joo’s aunt and cousin seem to hate him, maybe because of inheritance issues. He has a childhood friend who is forever in love with him, with automatic approval from his grandmother whose personal physician is the father. Upon his return from the US, he was given the marketing team leader position in Myungsoondang, a popular bakery chain in South Korea, where he is a fourth-generation heir. And there’s the typical back story of him and Meri knowing each other since kids. Turns out she is his first love, the girl he met after the car accident and gave him a plushie toy for hope and strength, and the one he has been searching for all his life.

By twist of fate, Meri, dumped by her partner and left technically married, won a luxurious townhouse in a department store promo for newlyweds. So as not to lose the prize, she “proposed” to Woo Joo to pretend to be her husband as he bears the same name.  At this point, you would agree with me that everything would be chaotic, as pretense is unsustainable and you can only fake things up to a certain extent.

For the second lead couple, the childhood friend Yoon Jin Gyeong (played by Shin Seul-Ki, Pyramid Game) is a doctor who will do everything to win his heart; and Baek Sang-Hyun (played by the ever-busy Bae Na Ra, who has four dramas this year), a department store managing director who also has a back story of his own, including gratitude struggles with his employer.

There are so many subplots, and there’s so much going on that one would find it hard to track them all at once. There are annoying and unbelievable situations and characters, what can you expect from a “fake marriage”, but as a rom com, the chemistry between the leads and the second leads compensate for it, and Woo Shik’s presence and sense of humor is all over. You can tell that the director allows him to be his usual comic self, as seen from behind-the-scenes videos and photos. 

And of course, all loose ends have been neatly tied up. Napagod siguro ang writer sa dami ng subplots.

Why “Would” instead of “Will?” While "Will you marry me?" sounds confident and direct, "Would you marry me?" is generally more hypothetical or conditional, polite and indirect, and because of the fake marriage setup, the question is if Meri "would" marry Woo Joo under these unusual, artificial circumstances. "Would" introduces an element of uncertainty and choice that "will" might not capture as effectively, emphasizing the conscious decision to choose each other.

Interestingly, I read that the drama's title is actually a clever linguistic blend of the character names, Woo Joo and Meri, which creates a hidden layer often lost on international audiences.

All in all, WYMM is one of those dramas with heart and humor, na hindi perfect pero you can live with it. It can be your companion after a hard day’s work, or even in the morning when everyone else is still fast asleep, and kayong dalawa lang ang gising, having coffee, looking out the window or listening to the sounds of the falling rain. It’s a drama that you can be comfortable with, in silence or in chaos. Minsan nakakatawa. Minsan nakakaiyak. Minsan wala lang. Minsan nakakainis, madalas may conflict, merong mga cast of characters na sumisingit. Minsan ayaw mo, minsan pinipili mo, but it’s always a conscious choice. And you get by. You get by. 

Just like what being in a life partnership is all about.

All 12 episodes of Would You Marry Me are available for streaming at Disney+ PH SBS DRAMA #BuhayKPam