Kdrama 2020

To All The Guys Who Loved Me (Kdrama Review & Summary)

Aka: Men Are Men;  That Guy Is The Guy

Global Granary Drama Recommendation

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  To All The Guys Who Loved Me poster

  Genre:  Romance, Singlehood, Marriage, Strong Female Lead, Comedy, Drama

• Release Date: 6 July 2020
• Origin: South Korea
• Kdrama: 16 Episodes

Cast

• Hwang Jung Eum as Seo Hyeon Joo
• Yoon Hyun Min as Hwang Ji Woo
• Seo Ji Hoon as Park Do Gyeom
• Seo Hyun Chul as Seo Ho Joon (Hyeon Joo’s father)
• Hwang Young Hee as Jung Young Soon (Hyeon Joo’s mother
• Jo Woo Ri as Han Seo Yoon
• Choi Myung Gil as Kim Seon Hee
• Noh Susanna as Oh Yeong Eun (Hyeon Joo’s friend)
• Kim Gyu Seon as Song Jin Ah (Hyeon Joo’s friend)
• Song Sang Eun as Kang Min Jung (Hyeon Joo’s friend)
• Lee Hwang Ui as Nam Yoo Cheol [Ji Woo’s assistant]

 

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Quick Precis

Due to past unsuccessful relationships, Seo Hyeon Joo had convinced herself that remaining single is the best option to not getting hurt ever again.

But there are two men who wanted to change the way of her thinking.

Yey, loving it already.

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Episode 1

The first episode is pure Hwang Jung Eum and I am loving it.  Love her. Hope she is being offered another drama right now.

Anyway, Hwang Jung Eum plays Seo Hyeon Joo who was a confirmed bachelorette, a spinster.

She was not even in her teens when she told her parents and anyone else who would listen that she will never going to get married, ever.

This started when as a very young girl, Hyeon Joo fell into the water and almost drowned.

She was in a coma for a while and when she came to, she was speaking like an adult and the very first thing she told her worried parents was that she was never going to get married after having been made broken-hearted in three lifetimes by the same man.

And she made good of this promise much to her parents regret and consternation.

She had had boyfriends over the years but they all made her unhappy which only made her more resolved in her decision.

But there was a man who almost rocked her determination.  He loved her and they even decided to hold an engagement party.  But it was not meant to be.

Because in that party, in the absence of her intended groom and his family, Hyeon Joo said that she was going to be with the person she loves and understand her the most and that was herself. She decided that she will not live for a husband or children but for her self.

She started talking about a Millenium flower that comes every thousand years…

There was a man who heard her and said mysteriously that at last, he found her.

There was also Do Gyeom who just finished his military service and who clearly adores her the most and supported her in all her schemes.

Four years later…

Hyeon Joo was a successful but rather forceful webtoon producer but she really wanted to become a webtoon illustrator.

Her boss, In Gyo Seok, promised her 5 years ago to become the best webtoon producer and in five years’ time, he will make her into an illustrator.

She counted the years, months until there were only 6 days left before the 5 years is up which will culminate into realising her dream.

She was so glad that 5 of the webtoons she was in charge of were in the top ten.

Surprisingly, she was fired rather than promoted and her dream as a webtoon illustrator was gone in a flash!

Do Gyeom, their top artist, was the only one who stood by her.

There was some mystery, someone really wanted her fired.

She was in the elevator after she was just fired when it suddenly stopped.  There was another person with her who collapsed right in front of her.

He was Hwang Ji Woo, CEO of a pharmaceutical company.

She gave him a mouth to mouth resuscitation and suddenly memories of the three lifetimes failed romances overwhelmed her.

Loving it.  The two male leads are gorgeous and the pacing is fast and furious.

Exciting!

Episode 2

OMG!

If you are new to Kdrama, there is no better place or rather drama to start with than this one.  It has everything and more.  Hilarious.  Dramatic.  Mysterious.  And the cast is well assembled.

Although, I would have prepared that Hyeon Joo had longer hair.

I must say the second male lead, Seo Ji Woon who plays Park Do Gyeum is absolutely adorable.  He has loads of chemistry with his Noona.  They are so adorable together!  Yap I have used adorable again because they really are.

Noona, Hyeon Joo, does have good chemistry with Hwang JI Woo but Park Do Geum is so adorable, sorry really cute. LOL

Anyway, Hyeon Joo and Hwang Ji Woo got rescued from the broken down lift.

Park Do Gyeum was so worried about his noona.  He was rather suspicious and a little jealous of Hwang Ji Woo he couldn’t get noona to leave with him fast enough.

With the tumultuous events of the day, Park Do Gyeum took noona drinking.  They got talking about her ex of five years ago.

Do Gyeum asked her why she broke it off with her ex.

Noona said that it was she who was the problem.  She can’t seem to love anyone with all her heart.

An eternal romance starts with yourself.
– Park Do Gyeum

Do Gyeum told her that she was good at everything and she can certainly fix herself.

Anyway, she asked Do Gyeum not to tell her mother that she had been fired.  Because as soon as her mother and father know she will be sent to endless blind dates.

Unfortunately, her mother found out and she did manage for Do Gyeum to agree to attend at least ten blind dates in return for Do Gyeum not having to pay yet the $50,000 she borrowed from her parents to buy her own house.

Her first blind date was the perennially gorgeous Lee Jong-hyuk who plays a doctor.  The date did not go well because the doctor wanted a housemaid, carer, child-bearer/childminder, filial, thrifty, and self-sacrificing wife.

She was rescued by Do Gyeum who came as her toy-boy who was pining for her.  He said she dumped him to find an even younger lover.  He was shocked to see the doctor being so old, he was practically one foot in the grave.  This scene was hilarious and yes, Do Gyeum was particularly adorable.

Because Seo Hyeon Joo had been fired, Do Gyeum resigned from the company and landed himself into having to pay the exit penalty.

To help him, Hyeon Joo invited Do Gyeum to move into her extra bedroom in her house.

He flirted at her saying, “Noona, you trust me too much.”  So cute.

Meanwhile, Hwang Ji Woo was looking at his musical globe which was playing Plaisir D’Amour.

Hyeon Joo was having a dream set in Joseon period, where she was doing water colouring under a cherry tree.  A gust of wind blew her drawing into the branch of the tree.  No matter how high she jumped, she cannot reached her painting until a hand got it for her.  We can just about see the lower part of his face which looked like Hwang Ji Woon.

The man was apparently the son of the Vice Prime Minister who came to town to study for his exam.

They became inseparable and he wrote her calligraphy which says:

A tie of a married couple is like a millenium flower.  So it is the most precious.

Hyeon Joo asked the man if it was for her.  They looked lovingly at each other but alas he had to leave but she gave him an embroidered hanky with the Millenium flower.

Hyeon Joo woke from her dream thinking it was so realistic.  She then drew the flower from memory and asked her online followers if they knew what flower it was.

Hwang Ji Woo saw her post and smiled mysteriously.

Hyeon Joo had been headhunted by Sunwoo Webtoon Planning Team.  She asked if she could bring a webtoon illustrator with her which was gladly and immediately complied with.

Hyeon Joo was on her second blind date. She was waiting for an average looking man to turn up but instead a very handsome man appeared.  He was so handsome, men and women on their blind dates stared at him.

Hyeon Joo told him that he was on the wrong table, she was waiting for someone else.  He said that it was a misunderstanding, he was really her blind date.

It was Hwang Ji Woo.  He introduced himself as the CEO of Sunwoo Pharmaceutical and Sunwoo Webtoon, her new boss.

They were getting along fine when the adorable Do Gyeom appeared in his cute gangsta outfit. Despite Hyeon Joo signalling for him to stop, he ignored her until he finally noticed that her date was Hwang Ji Woo, the man on the elevator.

They ended up going to a picnic at the Han River which ended in the most hilarious way where security guards warned Hwang JI Woo and Do Gyeom to behave properly in a public place.  They were just too handsome to be into each other and should find a nice girl.

This was a laugh out loud moment because the men got trapped inside the tent due to its broken zip.

Hyeon Joo can’t open the tent for them so she left to find a knife but when she got there the security guards and aghast onlookers were already there.

Suddenly Hyeon Joo was suspecting that the rumour of Hwang Ji Woo being gay was true. She heard that he was popular with the ladies but he had no time for them.

Anyway, she was a bit worried about Do Gyeom.

Do Gyeom, however, seemed to have bonded with Hwang Ji Woo as he moved in the latter’s mauve mansion by the hill, which slightly shocked her.

In the periphery was a side story.  It was about Kim Sun Hee and her daughter, Han Seo Yoon.

Kim Seon Yee looked like a university classmate of Hwang Ji Woo’s doppelganger father.  Seon Yee had a massive crush on Ji Woo senior and regretted not ending up with him.

She is now trying to match up her daughter to Hwang Ji Woo and it seemed she will not take no for an answer this time.

Han Seo Yoon is Hwang Ji Woo’s private secretary.

This drama is just addictive.

Episode 3

Loving it so much… Perfect love triangle.

Do Gyeom is seemingly happy to move in with Hwang Ji Woo which worried Seo Hyeon Joo to the point that she agreed to pretend as Do Gyeom’s girlfriend after she told Do Gyeom that there are whisperings that Hwang Ji Woo was not into women.

I have to say that Park Do Gyeom is stealing all the scenes he was in with his utter adorableness.  You can’t help but root for him to get Seo Hyeon Joo in the end. They do have the cutest likable chemistry.

But having said that Seo Hyeon Joo and Hwang Ji Woo were not bad either but they are still on the aloof side, need more development.

Anyway, to take Seo Hyeon Joo away from Hwang Ji Woo, Park Do Gyeom proposed that they should go to places where they can get inspiration for his new webtoon.

They decided to visit Mt Hanbaek which got to Hwang Ji Woo, who suddenly had an attack of deja vu of what happened in the 1970s.

Suddenly he was his father and he was in love with Min Ju (Seo Hyeon Joo).  Their class was on a school trip to Mr Hanbaek when Min Ju and a guy can’t be found.  Ji Woo Senior was told that Min Ju was out with the guy, who was planning to confess to her.

Ji Woo Senior did not waste any time and went to look for them and found them together in a cabin.  The guy was a 70s version of Park Do Gyeom.

This was almost the same scenario as he found Seo Hyeon Joo with Do Gyeom at present time.  For some reason, Seo Hyeon Joo was rather wary and almost frightened of Hwang Ji Woo and told him that Do Gyeom was her boyfriend starting that day.

Hwang Ji Woo was gutted thinking that he may have come too late in this lifetime as well.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Do Gyeom with the help of his friend managed to retrieve the deleted photos in Ji Woo’s computer.

The photos where of Seo Hyeon Joo and some with Do Gyeom with her.  The photos were taken over the years.

He showed this to Seo Hyeon Joo and they realised that everything that happened to her in the last few months had something to do with Ji Woo.

Ji Woo saw though his hidden camera what Do Gyeom had found out in his computer and decided that the only thing to do was to speak with Seo Hyeon Joo.

Meanwhile, Kim Seon Hee was still very much in love with Ji Woo Senior and now obsessing with Ji Woo.

Though she wanted her daughter to marry young Ji Woo, Kim Seon Hee is much more interested in Ji Woo than what’s is normal as a potential son-in-law.  She promised herself that he will not get away this time.

She told her daughter that she will propose the marriage of her daughter and Ji Woo to his mother.

So watchable.  Loving it.

Episode 4

It is getting more complicated and mysterious.

Ji Woo confessed to Seo Hyeon Joo everything that he had done that he was instrumental in getting her fired because he wanted her by his side.  He couldn’t be without her any longer.

Seo Hyeon Joo was not impressed and told him that she had a boyfriend already, Do Gyeom.

Meanwhile, Do Gyeom was getting more proprietorial towards Seo Hyeon Joo.

Seo Hyeon Joo’s mother even saw Do Gyeom kissing Seo Hyeon Joo on the cheeks and went home immediately to tell her husband the shocking development between their daughter and Forster son.  It was so hilarious this scene when the husband said that she might be blowing things out of proportion.  So his wife demonstrated kissing him on the cheek.  He said that was nothing and then kissed her also on the cheek.  Then the mother said that she thought that there was a bit of tongue action with the kiss….LMAO.

Ji Woo took the newly created SunWoo Webtoon Planning team to dinner.

Ji Woo ended up getting drunk which was instigated by Seo Hyeon Joo.  But in the end she secretly helped him home.

Do Gyeom met them outside the mauve mansion and carried JI Woo to bed but he left the rest to Seo Hyeon Joo, taking off JI Woo’s jacket and tie and tucking him to bed.

Do Gyeom was not very happy about this so Seo Hyeon Joo told him that they need to have a talk.

They ended up in the playground.  Do Gyeom finally confessed to her.  He said that looking at her makes his heart flutter.  He likes his noona very much like a man likes a woman.

By this time, JI Woo who got up from his bed had also wandered down to the playground and overheard the confession.

I am really torn.  Seo Hyeon Joo has so much chemistry with the adorable Do Gyeom but JI Woo had been trying to make up for the hurts she suffered in their relationship over three lifetimes.

The epilogue of this episode was Ji Woo excitedly went to a shop to a shop to have his customised design of a music box to be made.

The shop keeper commented that the design was beautiful, his girlfriend must have been sn outstanding woman.

But the music box ended up in the hands of Kim Seon Hee.  Intriguing.

Episode 5

Seo Ji Hoo is a very charismatic actor.  When his baby face seriously confessed that his heart flutters every time he looks at Seo Hyeon Joon, my own heart melted.  I want them to get together.  He loves and adores her.

Someone overheard Seo Hyeon Joon and Ji Woo talking about the night before when Ji Woo got drunk and Seo Hyeon Jin had to put him to bed and take off his clothes.

Suddenly, it went viral the shenanigans at Sunwoo Pharmaceutical that Seo Hyeon Joon was in a relationship with the CEO who created a tailor-made position for her.  Everyone was gossiping that she got a job for sleeping with the boss.

This got to Ji Woo and arranged for his secretary to post anonymously that he was seen meeting a lover, a man, somewhere.

This, of course, invalidated the rumour that Seo Hyeon Joon was sleeping with the boss who was into men.

The really hilarious part of this episode was with the parents again.  They are so great.  The two invited adorable Do Gyeom to dinner to quiz him about his real relationship with their daughter was so rib-tickling.

For dinner, the mother made brood chicken in ginseng they told Do Gyeom that this Baeksuk recipe is only made by mother in law for their son-in-law.  Do Gyeom who was getting flustered was save by a call by Seo Hyeon Joon who said that she was on her way at her mother’s and in fact, she was at the doorstep.

The three cleared the table and hid in the bathroom.  They were all crouching inside the bathtub with Do Gyeom still holding onto a chicken leg and Father was armed with a frying pan.

Do Gyeom can’t find anyone and went to the bathroom to make a poo.  The faces of the three were just hilarious.

Seo Hyeon Joon arranged a team-building away day.  She made sure that it would be a day where Ji Woo would be busy with meetings so he won’t tag along with them.

But she was wrong, he canceled all his meetings to go with them.

The team-building was really eventful for Seo Hyeon Joon by trying to separate Ji Woo from Do Gyeom as they seemed to fight and bicker all the time.

This got so bad when a dodgeball game between Ji Woo and Do Gyeom ended hitting Seo Hyeon Joon in the forehead instead and flattened her in the ground.

Anyway, she got over it and for their last activity, they had to make a wish which will be granted in they find the key that opens the wish box.

Everyone made a wish and the person who found it was JI Woo.  He found it by the lighthouse.  But the door of the lighthouse suddenly shut, locking him in.

He was panicking and collapsed on the ground.  Thankfully Seo Hyeon Joon found him.  She gave him a mouth to mouth resuscitation which brought back memories just like those she had when she first gave him a mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Ji Woo came too but they could not get out of the lighthouse as the door was shut again so Seo Hyeon Joon helped him to climb the lighthouse and into the light.

Poor Do Gyeom could see them looking friendly.

Do Gyeom was further perturbed when he read the wish made by Ji Woo to Seo Hyeon Joon.

Episode 6

This episode is about Seo Hyeon Joon trying to kiss Ji Woo again to find out more about the memories.  But at the last minute, she would chicken out.

Do Gyeom went looking for Ji Woo and gave him a right hook.

It turned out the contentious wish was perverting on Seo Hyeon Joon according to Do Gyeom.

The wish was that Ji Woo wanted Seo Hyeon Joon to spend the night with him at a hotel. 🙂

Anyway, Seo Hyeon Joon tried to ignore both the men because she was just so busy micro-managing the fledgling Sunwoo Webtoon.

One potential signee as an illustrator was absolutely bonkers about her tarantula pet spider that Seo Hyeon Joon had to climb a tree to retrieve it.

One of her friends called at that time wanting to borrow $10,000 from her.  Poor Seo Hyeon Joon got so distracted she fell off the tree and yet she soldiered on and gave the tarantula back to the illustrator who promised to sign the contract.  This was later unwittingly sabotaged by her staff when they visited the illustrator’s house with the contract. They found the spider and thought that they should get rid of it.

Poor Seo Hyeon Joon was writhing in pain when she got home.  Her friend who wanted to borrow money was waiting for her at her doorstep.

When Seo Hyeon Joon asked her friend what she needed the money for, her friend became stroppy and told her that if she will not lend her the money then she was no longer her friend.  She then left Seo Hyeon Joon in pain.

Seo Hyeon Joon called another friend to take her to the hospital. This friend was out of a field trip so she called Do Gyeom, who left his phone by the coffee machine at the mansion.  The phone was answered by Ji Woo who rushed to Seo Hyeon Joon’s house and took her to the hospital.

The hospital was owned by Kim Seon Hee, mother of Han Seo Yoon. Kim Seon Hee was still obsessed with Ji Woo’s father and seemed to have transferred both of her unrequited love and obsession to the young Ji Woo.

She started crying as she saw Ji Woo lovingly looked at the unconscious Seo Hyeon Joon.  It brought back to her that moment when she saw her old crush Ji Woo senior lovingly caressing the face of the sleeping Ming Ju (reincarnation of Seo Hyeon Joon).  Kim Seon Hee was totally heartbroken and looks like she would not leave it at that.  There are more ten episodes to make sure that the lovers will not progress to a happy ending without many upheavals up ahead.

It seems her daughter inherited her love obsession because Han Seo Yoon was chasing Do Gyeom with everything she’s got.

I want Do Gyeom to have a happy ending but somehow I want the ongoing love triangle, therefore I don’t want another woman to break the love triangle!

Episode 7

Seo Hyeon Joo was put under surgery for acute appendicitis.

Ji Woo kept a vigil on her and would not leave her alone.

Do Gyeum was understandably upset that Seo Hyeon Joo did not call her for help and it was only the following morning that he got to find out about her condition.

He raised to the hospital to see her but he saw him as well and  again started the one-upmanship between Do Gyeom and Ji Woo.

Poor Seo Hyeon Joo got tried trying to act as the referee between the two. She can’t take it anymore so she told them to go.

Meanwhile, strange lady Kim Seon Hee was becoming more pathologically curios about Ji Woo and Seo Hyeon Joo.  She could not understand why the spitting images of her batchmates would still fall in love and get together in another life.

It was so poignant thought when Do Gyeom finally told Seo Hyeon Joo that he was resigning as her younger brother because he felt more for her now and nothing brotherly about it.  Anyway, Seo Hyeon Joo was firm telling him that she does not feel the say.

Do Gyeom was not giving up immediately thought because he had a make-over to look more mature just like Ji Woo.

Ji Woo gave the hotel door key to Seo Hyeon Joo for their rendezvous.

She turned up and why the song Misty was being played, she started remembering a different life.

Ji Woo advised her that perhaps she need to go back to therapy to sort her memory out.

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