Monday, February 2, 2015

A Witch's Romance : A Story of Letting Go


Title: A Witch's Romance 마녀의 연애
Network: TVN
Episodes: 16
Starring: Uhm Jung-Hwa and Park Seo-Joon
Aired: April 14 - June 10, 2014



A Witch's Romance is an entertaining romantic comedy that pairs an older woman with a younger man.  Although this pairing isn't anything new in the drama world, this particular drama does a very good job of avoiding all the cliche's that comes from such a story.  The older woman isn't clingy and desperate, she isn't struggling with her career or trying to find herself and the younger man isn't power hungry or surrounded by people telling him that he should think of the age difference.  In fact, the only one who mentions the age difference is Ban Ji-Yeon, the lead female, and it isn't a subject she harps on it's just one of the obstacles that they have to overcome.
I found this to be a very entertaining and easy drama to watch.  I didn't struggle to finish it nor did I struggle to keep interested.  The characters were likable and the only character I wanted to punch in the throat wasn't in the drama but for a few episodes and for a few minutes. 
The chemistry between Ban Ji-Yeon and Yoon Dong-Ha was very natural and their relationship developed organically without anyone pushing them towards each other; they were just two people that seemed right together.  They could be themselves with each other and not pretend to be someone different like we saw when Ban Ji-Yeon was with the ex-boyfriend.
And why couldn't the ex be some conniving asshole, the former boyfriend comes back into Ban Ji-Yeon's life six years after he left her at the alter.  Easy to hate, right?  But in the end he turns out to be a pretty good guy, who's biggest fault was that he wasn't Yoon Dong-Ha.

The ending of this drama reminded me a lot of the ending of My Lovely Samsoon.  Of course the leads ended up together, but it was very open-ended. Kinda like real life.  Was their relationship really going to last for more than right now, Yoon Dong-Ha was pretty sure that they would be together till the end of time, but Ban Ji-Yeon was happy with knowing that for that frame in time she was with the person she really wanted to be and she was the person that was happy with who she was.