Devilish Joy (or Devilish Charm) is a romantic comedy about a doctor (Choi Jin Hyuk) suffering from “Cinderella Amnesia” where his memory only lasts one day and then resets who falls in love with a washed up actress (Song Ha Yoon).
Devilish Joy is one of those dramas that has about every cliché in the book: white truck of doom, amnesia, evil mother figures, childhood trauma, and a host of others. But it throws them all together in a pretty entertaining story with an adorable romance, humor, and a decent plot.
Choi Jin Hyuk plays Gong Ma Sung. He’s a successful doctor who is working on developing a big project to help sick poor people. After an accident, he ends up with amnesia effecting his short term memory. But a woman from his past changes things as he finds he is able to remember her day to day.
Song Ha Yoon is Joo Gi Beum. Gi Beum is the woman he fell for several years ago. She used to be a top actress, but a murder scandal caused her to fall out of favor, and now she struggles to get by. When she reunites with Ma Sung, her unresolved feelings for him come to the surface as she tries to understand what is going on with him. And Song Ha Yoon is all kinds of adorable in this drama! Loved her so much.
Then there is Hoya as Sung Ki Joon. He’s Ma Sung’s cousin who is an actor looking to make it big. He has quite the lively and outgoing personality. He is also a very passionate fan of Gi Beum as well as having a crush on her.
Lee Joo Yeon is Lee Ha Im. She’s a top actress who is very high maintenance and demanding. She has some issues with a lot of the people around her. She also develops an interesting relationship with Ki Joon.
I wanted something a bit lighter to watch so I decided to go for Devilish Joy. I loved the first episode of the drama where Ma Sung and Gi Beum first meet. It’s all kinds of sweet as their romance begins to bloom after spending the day together abroad. Very dreamy and romantic.
But then tragedy strikes as Ma Sung gets amnesia and Song Ha Yoon’s life soon falls apart. The drama then takes us back to South Korea where we see their current lives. They are reunited, but he doesn’t remember her. Too sad!
The premise of Devilish Joy reminded me a lot of the movie 50 First Dates which I really enjoyed back in the day. It has the same concept with the lead having his memory reset each day.
Unlike that movie though, Ma Sung is way more on top of his condition. He keeps extensive notes about his days to read each morning so that he can function fairly normally. I was kind of hoping he would struggle a bit more with the memory issue initially, but overall he does fairly well. The struggles do come later though!
It’s fun watching him meet Gi Beum again. She triggers some memories for him but not everything. It takes a lot of navigation on his part to maintain the relationship. Because of course in true kdrama fashion, he doesn’t tell her about his memory problem and keeps it hidden.
But it’s nice watching them reconnect and move forward. These two are super cute together. I particularly liked that they had a good amount of screen time with each other as well as had some really nice conversations. And I loved the height difference between Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ha Yoon. He’s so tall while she is pretty short. They just looked adorable!
The show has plenty of humor too. I really enjoyed a more lively performance from Hoya in this drama. He was hilarious and made for such a fun second lead. I also liked his relationship with Ma Sung a lot. They bickered a fair amount, but it was clear how much they cared for each other.
We do have another story line going on surrounding the hospital Ma Sung works at. It turns out there are quite a few people using his memory condition against him and plotting his downfall. Lots of scheming bad guys and gals running around in this drama!
The first half of the drama was fairly simple and cute, but the plot really thickens up in the second half. There are a few mysteries to solve, and then also we have to deal with Ma Sung’s worsening memory condition. It made things more dramatic. I was surprised how nicely the story developed.
Overall, Devilish Joy is a pretty cute and easy watch. There are plenty of cliches and kdrama tropes present, but they are put together well. The romance is sweet and there’s some meat in the story to beef up the drama. It was pretty entertaining all in all.
My Rating: 7/10
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Kdrama Kisses 
Where did you watch Devilish Joy?
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I watched it very painfully across several sites because they were all giving me so many issues, lol. Mostly Youtube and a site called koreantvshows though 🙂
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THANKS Kay
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You’re more than welcome 🙂
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So you finally watched it. I completely agree with the review, it is a light but entertaining watch. Overall I liked Choi Jin Hyuk’s acting, his character was so pitiful, it made me cry a lot.
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I did 🙂 And I’m glad I finally got to it. It was just what I was looking for being mostly light but having a little bit of dramatics as it progressed. And yes, Choi Jin Hyuk was wonderful. This was a great role for him, and I too felt so bad for both Ma Sung and Gi Beum.
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I was waiting for this review for a long time now…. And it got a 7. This is one of my top choices to watch next. I am not rushing my current drama since I was waiting for this. LOL. I really want to watch this for Song Ha Yoon. Now I am not sure if I will still watch.
And I was expecting it to be a bit cliche since the setting is 50 First Dates. HAHA.
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Sorry it took so long to get to this one. Too many dramas finished around the same time and put me behind, lol. I think you should go ahead and give it a go. Yes, it’s super clichéd, but it is also very cute. Song Ha Yoon is beyond adorable in this too. It’s not one to expect a whole lot from, but it is a mostly enjoyable and pleasant watch overall 🙂
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No worries, Kay. If you say so, then I might watch this next. Thanks! HAHA.
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Well, good luck if you try it! I’m rooting for your success 🙂
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I very much liked this one. Though it was full of tropes and cliches, I found that they were put together nicely. i.e. they didn’t seem forced. The leads were amazing and I enjoyed the OST too – particularly the one sung by Choi Jin Hyuk. This drama is a 8.5 from me based on my enjoyment. 🙂
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I knew you really enjoyed this one as you had me excited to check it out 🙂 And yes, exactly like you said, it’s full of cliches and tropes, but they are put together very well. And Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ha Yoon were so cute together! I really enjoyed the OST too. This drama was just fun all around 🙂
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hi, thank you for the review of devilish joy. I gave 8/10 for Song Ha Yoon adorable’s performance. Every scene when she appears, it makes me smile, how cute she is although she is older than me in reality. The plots, well, like you wrote, a lot of tropes were created in the some last episodes, it might be better to make Ma Sung did not run away but he should survive together with Gi bbeum to heal his demensia.
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You’re very welcome! Thanks for reading it 🙂 Ah yes, Song Ha Yoon was just so adorable in this! I was also smiling constantly because of her. This drama definitely had a lot of tropes and cliches. It did put them all together fairly well though, and I thought the good outweighed the bad 🙂
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Choi Jin-hyuk, Song Ha-yoon & especially Lee Ho-won (Hoya) – what a great performance… loved it…..
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Yes, they were all really great in this drama 🙂
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Mild spoilers ahead. The first episode was great, so I had great expectations for the show. But it was not to be. Choi Jin Hyuk’s performance was cold and stiff. I just didn’t get a sense of passion from him. Hoya’s character was annoying. And worst of all the show had the long separation of the main characters. (I hate long separations!) And for what purpose? He wasn’t cured. The last episode was good. Any romance story that ends in the marriage of the main two characters can’t be all bad. Take my advice, watch the first episode then go right to the last episode. You’ll get the best of the show and save yourself a lot of time.
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Too bad this one didn’t work out for you 😦 It’s definitely not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it for the fluffy melo that is was. I too don’t care for long separations though! But I thought it threw everything together in a pretty fun way and enjoyed the characters. I hope your next watch is a better one 🙂
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