maybe if I stopped pausing every time the camera panned to hwang in yeop I'd get through why her..? quicker

watched in 2023  → unintentional love story (south korea - 2023) 

Bonus:

"We all have... more than one side. There could be dozens... No, hundreds. So having a couple of lame sides really isn't a big deal. You're still cool."

hwang inyoup at the paul smith store opening [040623]

he's always hiding, so whenever he shows up i shed a tear or two

soo jae the epitome of the terrifying ordeal of being known chan the epitome of hot and respectful i was not expecting to like this drama as much i do or ship them as much as i do

'Why her?' proves once again that found family is the best trope ever

The roles are truly reversed in Why Her. Soo Jae is such a badass, morally grey character who gets shit done, and Gong Chan is the supportive, sweet partner who reminds her how awesome she is.

It's just a plus that Hwang In Yeop is in this. 😍

I think a lot of audiences tuned into SBS Why Her? for the male lead and were disappointed. I didn't know anything about the male lead and was quite happy with the younger female as eye candy trope being reversed. It's not often we get a bad ass female lead who's on her path to redemption and gets a happy ending.

Was it unbelievable that Gong Chan who gets screwed over calmly accepts it when he is told Oh Soo Jae did him dirty? Yes. If this had been an older man taking revenge and the younger softer female being told she'd been screwed over by the male lead audiences will accept it as the female HAS to forgive and be accepting.

I think most of us find it unbelievable that a man can accept and forgive a woman's motives especially when she has so much power over him and ruining his life.

What I would have done differently if I were the writer for Why Her

Okay, so the drama ended months ago. But I still have a lot to say. Probably because it didn’t lived up to my expectations. It started off with so much potential but quickly fizzled out as the episodes progressed. I feel like the writer, in general, does well when it comes to writing the ‘crime/legal action’ part of the drama but absolutely fails when it comes to writing the romance part. As an avid romance drama watcher as well as romance fiction reader, here are some of the things I would have done differently:

1. Gong Chan’s Past (Teenage Gong Chan)

Firstly, I would have Hwang Inyeop play his high schooler self. It just makes it easier to connect to his character if we were to actually recognize him from the get go. I feel like the show’s first mistake was casting another actor to play his childhood counterpart. I would understand if his backstory took place a significant amount of years before, which would require a physically younger actor to play. But, in this case, his backstory took place only a few years before. Specifically during his high school years. So it wouldn’t make sense for him to look that different. Honestly, they could’ve just styled Hwang Inyeop in a way that would make his past and present self different enough for Soo Jae not to immediately recognize him. I mean, Soojae’s a lawyer and she would’ve met countless of people and handled thousands cases and has been through A LOT within those years before she met Gong Chan again. It would have been perfectly understandable that she would not have recognized Gong Chan. While, yes, Gong Chan or Dong Gu’s case has a major impact on her but I would believe that it’s an event that she would want to forget so it would have been perfectly alright for her character to completely erase any memory of Dong Gu who was the first client she took and (purposely) failed on. Plus, Dong Gu legally changed his name to Gong Chan so I don’t think it would have clicked for her anyways. I would actually picture Hwang Inyeop to be styled like the current Gong Chan (with the sleek coconut hairstyle) as the teenage Dong Gu/Gong Chan. Just imagine him in a school uniform instead.

2. The Main Characters’ Reunion (First Meeting)

This is how I would picture their reunion to be like:

Instead of making them meet as a lecturer and student, I would have made them meet at a later time. What I meant by that is I would not make them cross paths in law school. It would have been better for Gong Chan to have normal student life and Soo Jae is never a lecturer in the law school. It would make their relationship easier to digest for most viewers. Also that first meeting in the market and that slap should not have happened. It’s weird and doesn’t make sense that Gong Chan would not recognize her. I would make Gong Chan’s feelings for her more of an admiration rather than outright romantic. It would make a lot more sense this way. He admired and saw how she tried her best to defend him and was the only one who believed in him. Eventhough she lost the case, he saw how genuine she was. So when he got acquitted and got out from jail, he was determined to be a lawyer just like her and give others the same hope and trust she gave him.  I, personally, would have made Gong Chan know that Soo Jae works under TK and he studied hard in law school to get a spot as an intern at TK law firm so that he’ll be able to meet the person who he has looked up to for years. So he went into the law firm expecting Soo Jae to be the lawyer who believed in him years ago only to be disappointed once he became an intern and worked under her because she’s so different and cold now. Just style up Hwang Inyeop’s hair to expose some forehead and maybe throw in some glasses and nicely fitted suit. He would look like the perfect adult Gong Chan. Different enough to not look like his teenage self for Soo Jae to put two and two together.

3. How the romance will progress 

Okay, since Gong Chan is an intern working under Soo Jae in this re-imagined plot, this is how their dynamics is gonna be. Just imagine Gong Chan in Song Mirim’s place. Lol. Except we are gonna throw in some love-hate dynamics in there as well. Remember how Gong Chan is gonna get disappointed because the Soo Jae he knew is not the Soo Jae now? So he’s gonna be working under Soo Jae reluctantly but will get constantly confused by her behaviour. There will be times when he will find her unlikeable but there will be times when there will be glimpses of her past self. They will one day be assigned to handle the ‘suicide’ case which Soo Jae will be accused of instigating. While Gong Chan may find Soo Jae ‘unlikeable’ at this point but he believes in her innocence just like how she believed him years ago. So they worked on the case together and slowly, in the process, started being closer. At this point, Gong Chan’s crush on Soo Jae blossomed because now he knows that the 'cold’ Soo Jae was just a facade whereas Soo Jae started developing strange feelings but felt conflicted because of her past.

4. The Big Reveal

Now that we have already build a foundation for their blooming relationship, this is where the all the angst can come in. In this case, I would probably start with the reveal of Soo Jae having a hidden child. Because I feel, at this point, Gong Chan would just do anything to protect Soo Jae and her having a child would not damper his feelings for her. He would embrace it wholeheartedly. In fact, while it did not happen in the actual drama, I would make it so that Soo Jae would take over custody and her daughter went to her safely. Keyword: SAFELY. Then we would be able to possibly have cute moments of Gong Chan bonding with Soo Jae’s daughter and in the process, gaining more brownie points from Soo Jae. *Cue Soo Jae looking at Gong Chan bonding with Jae Yi(her daughter) and cue a montage of her imagining scenarios of them as a family unit*

So how is the Gong Chan/Dong Gu reveal gonna be like? It would roughly go the same way with a few changes. So Gong Chan entered TK Lawfirm with 2 agendas in his mind, One is to meet the person he admired and the second one is to investigate and secretly gain intel regarding his sister’s murder. So when the news of his sister’s remains being discovered came out, Soo Jae got reminded of the past and the kid she defended. Gong Chan was, of course, devasted and went to his secret lair. Just like how the original show went, Gong Chan left his secret room door opened. That’s when Soo Jae discovered it when she was searching for him and found out that Gong Chan was the Dong Gu from years ago. This new information shooked her and she got overwhelmed with guilt. Because what Gong Chan didn’t know was that Soo Jae was threatened and was forced to purposely lose the case relating to him. THE ANGST. So now cue Soo Jae trying to distance herself from Gong Chan. So remember the whole thing between Soo Jae and Choi Tae Guk? Choi Tae Guk is pissed at Soo Jae and is especially more pissed now that Soo Jae has custody of his granddaughter. So he decided to find out out Soo Jae’s weakness and finds out about the relationship between Gong Chan and her. In the process, he also discovered the identity of Gong Chan as Dong Gu because he was the one who framed Dong Gu years ago to cover up his son’s crime. 

Gong Chan is now even more confident that Choi Tae Guk has something to do with his sister’s murder and him being framed and sent to jail for it so he came to confront him. In order to destroy Gong Chan’s psyche, Choi Tae Guk revealed that Soo Jae lost the case on purpose and was the one who sent him to jail. This revelation wrecked Gong Chan because all along he believed that Soo Jae believed in him but now he doesn’t even know if it’s true. But Gong Chan wanted to know the truth from Soo Jae directly. And so he confronted Soo Jae and Soo Jae told the whole truth about her being threatened and that she was sorry. Gong Chan forgave her because he loves her and promised that they will work together to bring Choi Tae Guk down. And the rest of the story will follow the original. Except the ending epilogue would be a time skip of Gong Chan and Soo Jae getting married and being a cute family together with Jae Yi. We get to see Soo Jae working as a lecturer now in a law school & we also see Gong Chan opening his own law firm. The End :)

WHY HER REVIEW AND SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

So WhyHer?/Why Oh Soo Jae? ended today and I could honestly say I'm happy with it. I didn't expect it to get so heavy but it was great nonetheless. Plot was a solid 8/10, pacing was a 8/10, characters were a 9/10 and the cast was a 10/10. The actors and actresses really drove the plot and characters home for me. SEO HYUN JIN DESERVES SOME AWARDS FOR HER PERFORMANCE. Let's not kid ourselves here, she took the character Oh Soo Jae and did it absolute justice. Hwang In Youp also did Gong Chan justice. KUDOS TO THEM!!!

Gong Chan honestly has my heart😭. Some people said Choi Tae Guk went out to easy and I could see why they said that but honestly no, he absolutely suffered. He trampled over people's lives without remorse or simply just because, for his own personal glory, gain, amusement and vindication and he went out absolutely pitiful. It was so satisfying to watch how everything he worked for crumble around him. His goal was within grasp and to watch the rug be pulled out from under him left him absolutely tormented. He couldn't face it. His death was fickle and satisfying. Juwan and his buddies are most likely suffering and in jail for what they did to Eunseo and it is deserved. The assemblyman and the Ceo of Hansu are also in the dumps. Couldn't have ended better. No doubt they're also in jail. I didn't have a problem with the romance aspect of the show either. When I read the genre of drama and saw who the male lead and female lead were I put two and two together. Besides I've seen enough older man/younger woman tropes, I was kinda glad to see it reversed for a change. Plus Gong Chan had his life together and he was pursing her so it was a win for me. I don't go into a show with romance as a tag and then complain about it, I knew what I signed up for. It would've been weird if he was fresh out of high school but that wasn't the case. He's 28 if I remember correctly and she's 37. Two adults so it didn't bother me.

The legal clinic is honestly squad goals and the found family trope for Soo Jae with them, Gong Chan brothers, Song Mi Rim and Doc Joon Hee is honestly *chef's kiss*. She got people who would have her back regardless. Yoon Sang was being a little shit but he came through in the end, I hope he's happy.

Y'all look at the material 😭😭😭😭. They're healing, happy, healthy, together and thriving and that's honestly all I wanted. Some viewers were disappointed with the lack of the "I love you" scene but in my opinion it would've been cliche and over-rated. Gong Chan has been declaring his love for her since the beginning and she returned the favor in episode 9. Besides I think "I'll always be by your side no matter what", "you could hate me just don't go anywhere" and "the same goes for you too, don't go anywhere" is so much better than "I love you". It wasn't an opening ending which I'm also grateful for cause those two, with everything they've been through, deserve a win. Safe to assume they've been together for the entire 6 month period timeskip. I'm glad Oh Soo Jae is happier. Her character development was stellar. She was never a cold character, it was just the environment and the people she was around. My only complaint is the way they did Jae Yi. I have never and I mean never sobbed like that for a character that had less than 15 minutes of screen time. It literally came out of nowhere!! I was expecting Chan to die cause he was so damn protective of Soo Jae, was mentally preparing myself for it then the writer took the kid. I was flabbergasted!

Anyways the show gets a 9/10 from me and I would watch again (just not episode 11, 12, 13, definitely 14 and maybe the first half of 15) cause I'm gonna protect my peace🤣🤣😭😭. I'll miss them! Also this calls for celebration HWANG IN YOUP CHARACTER FINALLLYYYYYYY GOT THE GIRL😭😭😭😭.

220516 SBS drama #WhyHer releases Hwang In Youp first still cuts as Gong Chan. First broadcast is on June 3!

https://mobile.twitter.com/SBSNOW/status/1526067979922075648?cxt=HHwWgMDT5cCv160qAAAA

He look amazing as always. Can’t wait. 💙🥰

→ unintentional love story (south korea - 2023) 

I’m putting you through a lot of things. Sorry.

"Had I known, I would have worn a better one."

so i started why her and i just finished ep 3 i have to say that desk scene did something to me like there was something about the combination of the manhandling with the formal speech and the soft way he always speaks to her that was absolutely delectable