Valid Love (2014)

I just finished watching this drama and I have a headache, and a heartache.

Before starting to watch this drama, I was a bit skeptical because the reviews weren't singing glories of this drama, and most people haven't heard of it. I went for it anyway because a trusted friend recommended it to me, and also because of Uhm Tae Woong and Lee Soo Hyuk.

WARNING: This drama is not for everyone.This drama is not for people looking for a lighthearted romcom. This drama is not for people who do not want to deal with heavy subject matter.

The drama deals with a very intense and heavy content, that of adultery, but it deals with it with great finesse. It is very easy for us, as the audience, to look at it from the outside and take a moral stance regarding adultery. It is very easy for us to blame Il Ri, or Hee Tae, or Joon - especially, Il Ri and Joon for crossing the forbidden boundary. However, life is not always so easy and straightforward. Feelings and emotions can be a murky place to navigate through. This drama unfurls and explores those complicated feelings, those taboo feelings, slowly and with great detail and exposes us to the raw guilt and pain that comes with adultery. A majority of the audience tends to blame Il Ri, for leading both the men on, for not stopping before it got too late. However, I felt that each of the three were to blame in one way or the other; it was a series of events that led them to the situation - events that could have gone different ways, but perhaps were necessary for each character to find themselves and their relationships.

The drama doesn't really take an overt moral stance regarding adultery; it won't try to convince you that adultery is wrong or right. This drama is about growth, about negotiation, about understanding, about acceptance, about confrontation with ugly and painful feelings. The drama doesn't just make the characters undergo these, but the audience as well.

The acting is stellar. Uhm Tae Woong is spectacular as usual. Lee Soo Hyuk gave me so many feels, so much heartache. Lee Si Young could have been better but I honestly cannot imagine anyone else as Il Ri. But really, Choi Yeo Jin mus be applauded for portraying that role with such aplomb. I am in awe. They played the flawed, and fragile characters with such conviction. The same goes to each of the supporting characters.

The drama has a very autumnal/winter concept, which is further emphasized by the fact that it is set in winter and the warm colours that are used throughout the drama. I believe the cinematography focused on an autumn colour palette because of the mature subject of the drama. The soundtrack sets the perfect ambiance for the drama - rather than being jarred with a loud song suddenly playing at dramatic moments, the music and songs just blend into the background, adding intensity to the scenes. There is also a certain nostalgic vibe to it; I don't know how else to describe it.

I will always be partial to this drama for hitting so close to home, for being so raw. Honestly, it is one of those life-changing dramas that make you question, to debate, to deny, and then to accept - much like most of the characters in the drama. I have always maintained that cable dramas (especially TvN and OcN dramas), despite not receiving much attention, are changing the landscape of Korean drama. Valid Love is one such drama. It slows down in the middle, but keep watching. The ending is worth the length of the drama.

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Wasted potential

I really like the affair, but I don't like how everyone treats her as a maid and how they speak with her. Also, what I hate the most is that she lets them treat her like that..... it's not her dutty to be a maid for his family, for f*cks sake. So overall, this is a series with wasted potential, because even if she was mistreated, with a different character, reactions and stronger expressions she could have changed everything. And because the affair doesn't really have so many scenes (feeling sorry for the pretty boy and his first love), most of my memories are occupied by her shitty life. Also, the description is shit...he decides to keep his family? why not say the reason she had an affair in the first place and what kind of person she is. This type of description makes the viwers believe without prior info that the wife is scum and he is a kind, great husband who kindly forgives her, because that's how much he loves her.....bu hu hu BULLSHIT
PS: I honestly finished it just for the pretty boy and beacuse I was hopefull things would change ..... but the inner screams and frustrations this drama awakens really breaks the balance

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Love triangle …. High Ego Husband vs Devoted Housewife vs Young and Handsome Lover

This review may contain SPOILERS.

I just completely watched this drama in July’22. I loved the great actings of all ML, FL, and second ML in this drama.

IMO … The wife IR loved her husband HT but might be infatuated by Carpenter KJ whom she could talk and cried with him. She felt remorseful to her husband in thinking of and loving another man. IR begged for her husband’s forgiveness several times but the husband did not accept her “emotional” affair guilt although the affair relationship between IR and KJ was not up to the unforgiven level that they slept together.

Although IR tried very hard in begging her husband’s forgiveness, her husband was so stubborned and did not listen to her. He insisted to not forgive and want to divorce her. Then after he realized how much IR loved him and devoted for his family, he wanted her back and stay with him. BUT she denied b/c she was hurt and still believed that her husband could not forgive her guilt.

After she denied staying with her husband, Carpenter KJ re-approached her and she started to gradually reconnect to him. If her mom-in-law did not start to have memory loss and KJ did not much show his childish behavior, I wonder that she “might” choose him. I did NOT like IR much in the story. It seemed that IR always thought of Carpenter KJ as her second home b/c she always gave hopes and cares to Carpenter KJ while she did not want to divorce or leave her husband. When KJ asked her “whom he was to her” during their big argument in KJ’s workshop. She replied that she “followed” her heart to be with Carpenter KJ and the reason that she wanted to stay in the in-law’s house was that she did not want anyone to think that she avoided her husband’s family b/c of KJ. If she really followed her heart to be with KJ, she should ACCEPT her husband’s divorcing paper proposal at the beginning and left him to happily stay with Carpenter KJ.

Again, IR showed her care and apologized KJ that she had not listened to him and stayed in the in-law’s house. However, it was clearly shown that she did not want to stay with Carpenter KJ as a family b/c she did not want to leave her hometown. After KJ ended the relationship, she called him the next day after thinking and talking with her best friend on “what she had done” but KJ did not accept the call. WHY did she call KJ …. To excuse and reconnect with him again?

Then the drama showed that IR always thought of and loved her husband more than the Carpenter. A hint was when she was awakened from her coma, the first face that she thought of was her husband although the one who stayed next to her was the Carpenter. That was a wake-up call for the Carpenter to leave her.

Anyway, I did not well understand the early IR’s thinking of her wordings “I was sorry” which meant that “she would not love her husband any more” in this drama. In EP19-20, after she left the Hospital, she decided to END her relationship with both her husband and KJ. Later IR met and talked with KJ face to face to end the relationship and she left a letter in her husband’s house to say good bye with her written wordings of “I was sorry” at the end. Her husband also narrated that IR’s “sorry” meaning was that she did NOT love him any more. Hence, if IR no longer loved and decided to leave the husband, WHY and HOW did she decide to reconnect and offer to make him a dinner in the last EP after seeing the Rocking chair? ….. OR did the story want to show that IR still loved her husband the most and when she saw the Carpenter’s Rocking chair, she clearly believed that her husband forgave and would not hate or resent her affair guilt any more? Then IR decided to go back to him.

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Confused Housewife Looking For Herself Finds Hot Carpenter Instead

This is a story, narrated by the wronged husband of a wacky wife going through a mental breakdown by cheating.

Her husband thinks she's happy because he is busy putting his career first, while she is stuck at home, being bullied by her in-laws.

She meets a devastatingly handsome carpenter, who "gives her permission" to complain about her life, and so she does, with wicked abandon.

The amount of chemistry between the wife and the carpenter? 0.

Carpenter: Aren't you tired of being a doormat for your in-laws.

FL: No

Carpenter: Are you sure?

FL: Alright, alright! I don't want to be a doormat anymore!! Waaaaa waaaaaa waaaa

Husband: Why did you cheat on me?

FL: Because I was a doormat. Waaaaaaa

Husband: OK.

Wife: Can we still stay together, because it's embarrassing for me to be divorced. Waaaaa

Husband: OK.

The End.

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