Revolutionary Love is a romantic comedy about a spoiled but goodhearted chaebol heir (Choi Siwon) who finds himself having to live among regular working people and takes a liking to a woman (Kang So Ra) who works many part time jobs but just can’t seem to land a permanent one.
Revolutionary Love was an odd drama for me. My feelings were kind of neutral towards it. There were lots of funny moments as well as sweet ones. There was also quite a bit of drama and scheming. But mostly I found myself indifferent towards everything as it was just about as average as it gets.
The main draw for the drama is Choi Siwon who plays Byun Hyuk. Hyuk is our spoiled but goodhearted chaebol heir. He’s not really good at anything and tends to get himself in trouble a lot. He’s also pretty immature. But he has a kind heart.
When he ends up working alongside regular people and seeing their struggles, his eyes are opened, and he wants to help them. This begins a nice journey of character growth by Hyuk that progresses throughout the drama. Choi Siwon was very lively and full of life in this role. He got plenty of opportunities to showcase his comedy skills and to flash that cheesy and endearing grin of his.
Kang So Ra plays Baek Joon, and she did well in this role. She too shines with a bright personality and wonderful humor. I really liked the faces she would make. Joon is a hard worker stuck doing multiple part time jobs. But despite her own problems, she frequently puts others first as she is always ready to rush in and help.
We then have Gong Myung as Je Hoon. He works at the company of Hyuk’s family and basically cleans up after all of his messes. While Hyuk sees him as a friend, Je Hoon harbors some ill feelings towards him.
He’s also a defeated and miserable sort of character. I really didn’t think this poor guy would ever get to smile. He only smiles a handful of times in first two thirds of the drama. I actually made a game out of just watching for him to do so because it was so rare. Thankfully, he gets the opportunity a bit more towards the end, but he’s seriously the sort of character who is always in a constant state of unease.
So as I mentioned, Revolutionary Love was pretty average over all. The first half felt tonally uneven as it swung between zany humor and serious moments. Things do get much more serious in the second half as company, family, and relationship issues come to a head.
The plot seemed to be really lacking in this drama though. There definitely was one, but it felt simplistic and tended to move along very slowly and run in circles. There also ended up being a fair amount of company politics which is something I rarely enjoy. The show really just felt messy as a whole from the characters to the plot to the writing.
Hyuk’s family issues are pretty serious. Hyuk’s father is really the start of him getting kicked out and having to fend for himself. He is a cruel and powerful man who gets what he wants. I felt like the show attempted to portray him as a stern father that did bad things, but who really loved his son deep down. But he was so horribly abusive to Hyuk that I could never get on board with this.
I know many of us are familiar with parents hitting their grown children in kdramas. But Hyuk’s father would beat him until he was bruised and bloodied. On multiple occasions. He also hits other people too. It was just too much for me and thus I was never able to bond with his character or understand his actions. Hyuk’s older brother Woo Sung (Lee Jae Yoon) was also his main nemesis who was pretty willing to cast Hyuk aside to get ahead. At least his mom loved him.
I found the romance to be so-so. Hyuk pretty much falls for Joon instantly and becomes quite devoted to her. It made for some funny moments, but the actual romance angle was slow going. There just wasn’t much development.
Then we had poor Je Hoon doing his second lead thing and pining away for Joon. But that too was slow going. Of course, these things do move forward in the latter part of the drama, but again, it took a while to get there, and it all felt pretty meh.
The friendship between Hyuk, Joon, and Je Hoon was probably a more interesting aspect. Hyuk and Je Hoon definitely had some issues to work through concerning their past and present as well as their affections for Joon. It’s a difficult situation, but I liked seeing them grow together and work through these things.
The drama does feature some nice camaraderie between Hyuk and Joon’s fellow cleaning workers too. They all team up to make things better for everyone, and it was interesting to see them come together and support each other.
So in the end, Revolutionary Love had a fun cast that delivered some laughs and heartfelt moments on their journeys of growth. But the sloppy writing, simplistic circular plot, and company issues left it feeling oh so average.
My Rating: 5/10
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