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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "It's Okay, That's Love" Episode 10

We get into more of Jae-yeol's tragic past in this episode, as the murder is shown in almost complete detail, at least from Jae-beom's perspective. But was it a murder? The more I think about it the less sense the whole situation makes. Their father was a known abuser. This can be corroborated, making it trivially easy for any half decent lawyer to make a claim of self defense. And even if Jae-beom refused to make that defense by insisting he didn't do anything, at the very least it would be a mitigating factor in sentencing. Add that in to Jae-beom being a minor and the lenient nature of the Korean criminal justice system in general...

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Look, what I'm getting at here is that this entire portion of the plot only makes sense from a screenwriting perspective. Trying to apply any lateral logic to the situation at all just serves to demonstrate how little sense any of it makes. I know dramas aren't supposed to be realistic but this is supposed to be the entire moral conflict of Jae-yeol's character. That's pretty badly undermined by the fact that it isn't really much of a moral conflict at all.

Speaking of awkward moral dilemmas, I realized with some disdain that I sympathize now with Hae-soo's scummy ex-boyfriend. Even by the standards of this drama the guy's not a likable character. But there's a scene where the guy realizes how close Jae-yeol has gotten and you know, honestly, I can empathize with his anger. He tried to be respectful of her problems for nearly a year, then this lady's man shows up out of nowhere, shoots off some pseudo-psychological claptrap, and bam, problem solved?

The drama itself practically acknowledges this. Jae-yeol's not a doctor. He's a writer. This is what I mean about the scripting issues. "It's Okay, That's Love" is perfectly acceptable entertainment provided you don't put any deeper critical thought into it at all. But any kind of prodding toward the premise exposes some fundamentally creepy ideas about romance which I, at least, really don't like.

It's frankly a relief when we get to some more relatable problems, like the lover's spat Hae-soo and Jae-yeol have over his change in living situation. Although even then the situation isn't that relatable. Who moves out right after starting a romantic relationship with a roommate? Well, actually, I might as well ask who starts a romantic relationship with a roommate in the first place, since that's a pretty explosively bad idea. But there's only so many mental knots I can subject myself to with this drama at a time, lest I become as psychologically unbalanced as the characters themselves.

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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