Be Melodramatic | K-Drama Review

An underrated Rom-Com K-Drama with an ensemble cast, Be Melodramatic is a story of three 30-year-old bestfriends with their own individual arcs. Dry humor and a fair amount of slice-of-life monologues in between, it’s a slow-paced story you should watch in one go! #bingewatchalltheway!

Disclaimer: This is a long post and may contain SPOILERS since this is a review of the whole series.

Storyline of Be Melodramatic

A plot within a plot, Be Melodramatic tells us a narrative story of Jin Joo, Han Joo and Eun Jung, the three 30-year old bestfriends and their own individual stories.

Jin Joo (played by Chun Woo-Hee), is an eccentric and philosophical writer discovered by a known director Son Beom-Soo (played by Ahn Jae-Hong). Her script is being developed into a 16-episode series entitled ‘It Gets Better when I turned 30’, which is the actual story of the drama itself.

As Jin Joo and Director Son works together for the project, we get to see the bigger picture of how a K-Drama script turns into reality. The writer’s block, competition of time slots, casting decisions, music and overall production, PPLs, we’ve seen it. Even the heartbreaking reality of ratings were shown in the end using the actual ratings of Be Melodramatic as well

Han Joo (played by Han Ji-Eun), is a single mother who works at a marketing & production company. She is in charge of PPLs (product placements) during the production process. Not only she makes sure the product placements are carried out well, she’s doing it passionately and in a clever way.

Han Joo also works with her hoobae Jae Hoon (played by Gong Myung) who is in a toxic relationship with his girlfriend Ha Yoon.

Eun-Jung (played by Jeon Yeo-BIn), is a documentary film maker who lost her fiancé from cancer. Seeing her struggle alone with her coping mechanism (hallucination), we are following her journey while absorbing the magnitude of her pain. As she started to get a grip on her life, actress Lee So-Min (played by Lee Joo-Bin) came into the picture whom she had a ‘frenemy’ relationship.

Working with Lee So-Min is not smooth sailing though but they started to depend on one another. Eun-Jung also met a director named Kim Sang-Soo (played by Son Seok-Koo) while working with So-Min.

Personal Review of Be Melodramatic

The parodies, puns, jokes, and wit of this drama… I can’t contain it. Especially the whispering scene! It cracks me up until now whenever I picture the scene in my head lol. There were references of other K-Dramas in this drama and I was seriously put into test of how many I’ve seen. Plus the funny PPLs (product placements), imagine there’s a PPL scene which is supposed to be a PPL scene.

My favorite joke? It’s these two:

• ‘You look like Jung Bong’. – Jin-joo told Director Son Beom-Soo (played by Ahn Jae-Hong who played Jung Bong in Reply 1988)
• ‘I like Gong Myung’. – Han-Joo* said during a work meeting with Jae-Hoon (who in real life is the actor Gong Myung)

The fun in this K-Drama is endless and contagious. Setting aside the chill pill of this K-Drama, the plot isn’t as shallow as it seems. It shows themes such as Gays, Woman Empowerment, Depression (and seeking therapy), and even Abuse in Relationships where the man is the victim.

Bonus Section: Which story is my favorite?

Definitely Eun Jung and her dead boyfriend. Grieving is a long and sorrowful journey regardless of who left us. Not only their love for each other is making me jealous, Eun Jung’s emptiness and agony is unfathomable.

However, what made me love her is that we’ve seen her stand up once again, on her own. We saw her finally admit her struggles and pain which is a very hard thing to do. She even asked for help and decided she will move forward, with a message that letting go of her boyfriend doesn’t mean forgetting him.

Plus Son Seok-Koo! It’s because of his underrated role in My Liberation Notes that made me watch this. When he finally entered Eun Jung’s life, it’s not the knight in shining armor cliché either. I loved how he waited for Eun Jung to open up to him at the right time. I fell in love one more time 😉

Bonus Section Part 2: Which story is my *least* favorite?

Not that it’s my least favorite, I actually hate these two. Not the actress or the role, but the whole ugly truth of Jae Hoon and Ha Yoon’s relationship (portrayal is so effective btw). It makes me sick knowing that someone out there is probably going through the same f*cked up life as them. Ha Yoon became alcoholic during the course of their relationship and we’ve seen her manipulating and gaslighting Jae Hoon. On the other side, Jae Hoon is 100% aware of what’s happening but can’t seem to break free from her.

What’s sick and sad in this story is that this kind of relationship is prevalent in our society. And it’s not only women who are suffering, men too. Finally coming to the ending, I was heart broken one more time. Jae Hoon asking Ha Yoon to hang out *again* after already breaking up with her. I can’t hate the writer though because in reality, some people do exactly what Jae Hoon did… coming back to what’s comfortable, even if it’s hell.

K-Drama Rating

Initially thought as an ordinary underrated K-Drama, Be Melodramatic left a huge impact to me. Not stupid funny either like Welcome to Waikiki, Be Melodramatic is sensible and remarkably funny K-Drama. This will probably stay with me for a long time. I might re-watch it either.

• Personal Rating Score: 8 out of 10
• Target Audience: Fans who likes dry humor and slow-paced dramas
• Will I recommend this: Yes, only if you can handle its humor

Comedic, sarcastic, yet quite healing… Be Melodramatic is a K-Drama perfect on a cuddle weekend with chicken and beer. Give it a chance. It’s totally underrated.