Ri-cheu Maen (2018)
9/10
Surprisingly good
21 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A romance series about Lee Yoo-chan (Kim Jun-myeon) who used his genius level programming skills to become a young CEO of his company, Next In. His co-founder and Vice President friend, Min Tae-joo (Oh Chang-suk) is as warm and personable as Yoo-chan is cold and rude. Yoo-chan is a highly charismatic and successful CEO who hides the fact that he has a facial recognition disability from those he seeks to do business with. Kim Bo-ra (Ha Yeon-soo), is seeking employment and most are quickly dismissive as her near super human memory skills. However, while dismissive at first, Yoo-chan has a project where Bo-ra's skill is a perfect fit. His plan is to utilize her skill to land a big contract and then let her go. Bo-ra's goal is to get hired permanently and she has an ally in Tae-joo. Yoo-Chan has money to spare and often buys people off to appease and/or win favor. Bo-ra values more than money and calls the arrogant and snobbish young CEO to task about his values and treatment of others. Can two such seeming opposites find a path to love? Can Bo-ra show her real worth and be more than just a memory machine for Next In?

I expected this to be a fluffy, predictable romantic comedy and it was that in a lot of ways. Which is just what I felt like I needed after watching some heavier shows. It actually had a lot of surprising surprising depth and insight into being a human and interacting with others. it is true there is a cultural divide when someone is extremely wealthy and someone else is not. But when you truly love somebody those types of things can be overcome. I liked the interplay and development of all the characters. The romance was sweet and believable. The female lead grew and evolved as well. It was fun seeing her go from someone with no real self-confidence and no idea what she was capable of to someone who is extremely capable and determined. It is amazing and true what everyone can learn from other people. Someone who is cold and does not empathize with other people can learn a lot from someone who is kind, warm and thoughtful. That is not incredibly surprising. What is surprising is that someone who is kind, warm and thoughtful can also learn something from someone that is cold and confident. Goes to show if we were all the same that we would not grow as a people. You often hear that everyone can learn something from someone else. At times it can be hard to believe specially if you're someone who is sensitive and kind and you encounter someone who seems to just be awful. We can probably all think of someone in our lives like that. If you think long enough about it you might be surprised what you learned. And I find that I can relate and learn something even from dramas that I think are going to be pretty surface level. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would recommend it.
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