ザラ Notes: 로맨스가 필요해 3 I Need Romance 3

06 March 2014

로맨스가 필요해 3 I Need Romance 3

Title: 로맨스가 필요해 3 Romaenseuka Pilyohae 3
English Title: I Need Romance 3
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2014
Episode: 16
Cast:

김소연 Kim So Yeon
성준 Sung Joon
남궁민 Nam Goong Min
왕지원 Wang Ji Won
박효주 Park Hyo Joo
윤승아 Yoon Seung Ah
박유환 Park Yoo Hwan
정다빈 Jung Da Bin
최로운 Choi Ro Woon
정윤석 Jung Yoon Seok
유하준 Yoo Ha Joon

SYNOPSIS
Shin Joo Yeon is a successful career woman, working as a marketing director at a home shopping network. Independent and intelligent, Joo Yeon is also at times catty and cold. After going through many failed relationships, she has learned over time to not invest too much of herself in romantic relationships.

She has known Joo Wan since he was born and she took care of him when he was younger. He has come back to South Korea after seventeen years of living abroad. Wan's career is in music, from composing songs to disc jockeying, and he goes by the stage name Allen Joo.

Wan came back to South Korea to fulfill a promise he had made with Joo Yeon, who he fondly calls Sing Sing. She was his first love and he is surprised to find out that Sing Sing grew up quite differently from how he always knew her in the past.

REVIEW
I liked how I Need Romance 3 tackled the complications of one's relationship with one's colleagues, including superiors, staff, and clients. Although a person is with her colleagues for at least eight hours per day for a week or around 40 hours, it's quite hard to become close friends because it is important to maintain that professional relationship.

I think it's also good how the drama was more realistic in its portrayal of dating and romantic relationships, as it also discussed sex and living together. There are a lot of couples these days who are intimate with each other, and who decide to live together despite not being married to each other or at the very least sleep over at each other's places sometimes.

Anyway, I'm not really into the characters in I Need Romance 3 because although they are quite interesting, there are some aspects of their characterization that I do not get, which ultimately means I cannot really get invested into them.

Shin Joo Yeon is a fascinating character and she's portrayed well by charismatic actress Kim So Yeon but I can't really relate to her. The person that she has become is completely different from the person she's supposed to be as remembered by her childhood friend Joo Wan, and the changes are initially attributed to her many broken relationships but are later said to be influenced by her boss Kang Tae Yeon.

However, it seems that Wan remembered things differently from what actually happened in the past, and now I'm left wondering if he also didn't remember Joo Yeon as she actually is but as he wants her to be and maybe the Joo Yeon as she is when she was 32 years old is how she has always been more or less.

Wan, also known as Allen Joo, is also a confounding character for me. His life revolves around Joo Yeon, and it seems he's always been in love with her but I can't help wondering just who he is in love with: Joo Yeon as she actually is or Joo Yeon as he may falsely remember her to be. He is still in love with her even though she is supposed to have changed drastically, and I can't help but ask how that happened.

I Need Romance 3 is the third show of the I Need Romance series, but I haven't watched the other two dramas so I can't really make any sound judgment as to how it fares against the other similar dramas. After watching this drama though, I'm not really inclined to watch the other two, and I can't really explain why. It's probably because it's just not my cup of tea, so to speak.