Episode Fifteen Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?
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[Intro Music – “There is poetry all around me…”]
Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I’m gonna talk about the Korean drama, Love In Contract. But first, please listen to a brief disclaimer before we get started.
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Alright! Now let’s get started!
Love in Contract is a 16 episode drama that I watched on the Rakuten Viki App.
The female protagonist is, Choi Sang Eun, a woman adopted into a chaebol family who uses the marriage training she received while growing up to work as a single life helper. What’s a single life helper, you may ask? Someone who pretends to date, get engaged, or marry a single person, so that they can fulfill their family’s or society’s high expectations of marriage. An example of this would be her roommate and best friend, Woo Gwang Nam, an expert at taekwondo and a talented singer, who is also her former client. He’s gay, and he felt he had to hide who he really was from his family, because of their bigoted views, and he felt as if he could not live freely as himself. So, he married Sang Eun, just to make his parents happy, but they ended up getting divorced. In fact, Sang Eun has gotten married and divorced over ten times as part of her job. This is a key part of the story, so keep it in your mind for a moment.
Sang Eun is played by the Rom Com Queen, Park Min Young. I’ve been a fan of hers for years, and she’s been the lead actress in several dramas that I love, including Healer, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and Her Private Life. She’s a very expressive and talented actress.
I’ve seen many dramas with contractual dating, but this was the first where it was a character’s job to enter into marriage contracts in an effort to help people fulfill familial obligations and expectations – like last wishes of relatives for their loved ones to marry, or to help people be accepted by their families and society.
The male protagonist is Jung Ji Ho, a family court judge. The fact that Sang Eun has been married and divorced so many times is a key part of the story because that process is how she ends up meeting Ji Ho. He sees Sang Eun come into his court room several times and becomes curious about her, and ultimately he hires her for a marriage contract himself that – as of the beginning of the story – has lasted five years. His initial goal was to ease her burden in some way.
Ji Ho’s played by Go Kyung Pyo. I first saw him in the drama, Reply 1988, which for me is like such a perfect drama. It’s an instant classic which I would highly recommend, it’s still on Netflix, I think. Anyway, I’ve been a fan of his ever since. He was also in Chicago Typewriter which is an excellent drama, that I also suggest you watch if you’re able to find it. It used to be on Netflix but it was removed last year.
The premise of the show is that Sang Eun is ready to retire from her job, but she finds it difficult to end things with Ji Ho. Once she musters up the courage to do so, she ends up getting roped into another contract with someone else – Hae Jin, a top star that no one knows belongs to a chaebol family, who considers her to be his first love, even though she doesn’t remember him. Hae Jin tells the world she’s his fiancé to stop rumors about him and to stop having to go on blind dates, which is selfish, but at least he covers her face when he pulls her in front of the cameras. Around this time, she has to spend her money to help someone out of a bad situation, leaving her plans for retirement in limbo. This twist of fate complicates things, and she decides to take on one last job with this top star, but Ji Ho can’t let her go.
It’s an unconventional drama, but one that kept my attention each week while it was airing. That’s why I’m recommending it to you now.
I’ll talk about some of my favorite aspects of the show now, but please know there might be spoilers ahead.
Ji Ho’s character is portrayed in a really unique way, and in some ways I could relate to him, so I just appreciate the way his story was developed. At first they’re vague about what his job is, and so it looks like he’s involved in nefarious things, but then we learn he’s just a reclusive judge who’s working on one of his cases, not doing anything wrong. What I relate to the most is that Ji Ho was hurt by love in the past and so he shuts people out of his life now and stays to himself as a way of protecting his heart. He doesn’t talk much to other people, they gossip about him at work because he seems unfriendly, but really he just doesn’t know how to connect with other people. He literally takes a class about how to connect with others because he’s so socially awkward and anxious about how he should act when other people are around.
When Sang Eun ends things with him, and he needs to get her back, he finally realizes what’s most important to him, and he let’s her into his life more deeply than he did before. Instead of just having dinner together three days a week, he asks her for advice about things at work and asks her to interact with his coworkers for various reasons and by doing so she expands his social circle. Her loving him openly, makes other people love him and see the good parts of him as well, and he also learns how to connect with others because of her positive influence in his life. He also opens up his heart towards her, and loves her in a stable and reliable way that she’s never experienced before. They make each other better and we as viewers watch the growth in their relationship, and how they grow as individuals in each episode. It’s just very rewarding to witness and it made me feel as if anything is possible. As if life can get better - even if right now that ‘better life’ might seem out of reach.
I think another great aspect of this show is that no one is quite what they seem. Ji Ho seemed cold and distant to others, but he just needed to figure out how to connect and once he did, he thrived. Ji Ho seemed to be afraid of his boss, but it turned out that his boss was warmhearted and catered to his wife lovingly. Ji Ho’s ex wife seemed like she’d become one of those notoriously obsessive exes trying to get him back, but then she ultimately accepted his decision and helped him when needed, but cared about him from afar. Hae Jin, the top star second lead, seemed like he would be selfish and get in the way of Sang Eun finding love with someone else, but then he let her go for her benefit, and supported her and helped her even after he knew he didn’t have her heart and that she would never choose to be with him. And Yoo Mi-ho seemed like she was going to be the antagonist of the story at first, but she ended up being an endearing character who only wanted the best for Sang Eun.
There are so many small moments that I enjoyed. Like when Ji Ho and Sang Eun shared their first kiss. When she went to a birthday dinner for his coworker and brought a gift because she knew he wouldn’t. When she competed at belly dancing with his coworker when they held an event at his house. When he asked her out to dinner and she expected to see him but Yoo Mi Ho was there instead and they started to repair their relationship. When she picked out his clothes for him, and in anger made him wear a scarf instead of a tie, but he had no clue that it was unfashionable and wore it to work! When she daydreamed about romantic things that they might do together. He hesitated to express himself in the beginning and so each time he told her how he felt - and asked her to be just as transparent with him - felt like a win. I don’t know how to explain it. These little moments accumulated into a larger appreciation of what this show is all about. I also really loved her friendship with Gwang Nam, he was a confidant and supportive person in her life who just depicted what a good friend should be. And Ji Ho’s coworkers were great characters as well. And while I didn’t want her with the top star second lead, Hae Jin, he was wonderfully portrayed, and I’ll certainly be watching that actor in whatever show he signs up for next.
Overall, I just really adored this drama. It isn’t necessarily my favorite Park Min Young drama, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim and Her Private Life are hard to beat, but still I’m glad that I watched it because it gave me hope. That there are good people in this world. That second chances are possible. That the right people will accept you for who you are and love you for who you are, without you having to change a thing. And yet, you’ll also bring out the best in each other and help each other to become better people along the way.
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this episode. As usual, if you’ve also enjoyed this drama and want to talk more about it, please leave a comment on our website hyssopandebony.com, or on this episode’s post on our Instagram page at WhatGotMeThroughTheWeek. You can also send an email to whatgotmethroughpodcast@gmail.com. The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on our website, HyssopandEbony.com.
The holidays are coming up and so this podcast will be on hold until the new year. You can expect new episodes starting April 1, 2023. Happy Holidays to you all, and Happy New Year in advance! I truly appreciate every person who has taken the time to listen to my ramblings about the content that I love, which has helped me to keep going in life each week. I hope at least some of the shows and musicians that I’ve recommended have helped and entertained you like they’ve helped and entertained me. I look forward to bringing you more episodes next year.
Until next time!
[Outro Song – “Ocean waves on busy streets, butterflies on the concrete. The beauty I could not see becomes a deeper part of me. You remind me, You are present in every single thing.”]
Intro & Outro from Magnified (a cappella) © Amber Eboni