So I Married the Anti-Fan is about a reporter (Sooyoung) who gets fired from her job after an incident with a popular star (Choi Tae Joon), so she becomes his anti-fan. Unexpected circumstances lead the pair to star in a reality show together where they share a house and romance blossoms.
Choi Tae Joon plays Hoo Joon. He is a top star and loved all across the world. He is a bit cold, but he does have a softer side. A misunderstanding between him and a reporter lands him on a reality show with her which he is less than thrilled about.
Sooyoung is Lee Geun Young. She is the reporter who has a misunderstanding with Hoo Joon. Her becoming his anti-fan leads to more problems in her life as she also becomes an unwilling participant in a reality show with him.
Next, we have Hwang Chan Sung as Choi Jae Joon. He used to be close with Hoo Joon but is now at odds with him. Finally, there is Han Ji An as Oh In Hyung. She also used to be close with Hoo Joon, but circumstances led them to having a complicated relationship.
We really had to wait a long time for So I Married the Anti-Fan to finally make it to our screens. It finally did though, and overall, I enjoyed the drama. It feels very much like a classic style romantic comedy in just about every way.
We’ve got the rich male lead who is a complete jerk to our hardworking and nice female lead. Of course, he has a story and hurts from his past. Add in some fun cohabitation hijinks with a hefty serving of tropes and cliches, and there you have it.
I personally enjoy this style of drama, so it all worked pretty well for me. Nothing riveting, but mostly enjoyable. The story had a solid progression from start to finish with some building of the intensity towards the end.
Something many will find challenging in a story like this is how big of a jerk Hoo Joon is in the beginning. He’s really not nice to Geun Young and causes her a lot of trouble. I don’t usually mind that plot point, but his jerk phase does go on a bit long for my liking (like half the drama!). We do get those tiny snippets of him showing an interest in her and a window into his backstory to develop sympathy for him, but his jerk side definitely comes out the most by far.
While I don’t love that he does that, it does leave room for some of character growth which we do get a bit of. It was more in the form of his walls coming down to Geun Young where we could see his softer side and then finally some true growth towards the very end of the drama. It was definitely nice seeing that change in attitude.
The romance was quite a slow burn though. Since our couple gets off on the wrong foot right at the beginning, they are very at odds for a good chunk of the drama. Combine that with Hoo Joon’s attitude issues, and well, there wasn’t much romance until about halfway through the drama.
Then things begin to take off. We get the sweet moments and an overall pretty nice relationship between Hoo Joon and Geun Young. You’ll find some cliches, but aside from taking longer than I would have liked in the bickering phase, I liked the classic romance here.
There’s a conflicted bromance of two old friends who are now at odds between Hoo Joon and Jae Joon. Past conflicts have really placed them against each other, particularly involving their relationship with In Hyung.
Jae Joon was an interesting character for sure. On one hand, I really liked Chan Sung in this role, and he made Jae Joon very fun to watch as our villain. We did get a window into his feelings and hurts, but he is definitely an extremely problematic character who is very controlling, manipulative, and has anger issues. His story has a lot to explore though.
Then our second leading lady In Hyung has all kinds of issues involving both Hoo Joon and Jae Joon. She gets conflicted quite a bit and experiences a lot of heartache. She always seemed to be in a difficult situation that she just couldn’t quite handle. The relationship between her and Jae Joon was quite toxic for sure.
So overall, I quite liked So I Married the Anti-Fan. It has a solid story that moved nicely along with some romance and a bit more angst in the latter third. It really felt like the quintessential kdrama style romantic comedy. If you like that, then this would probably be a good fit for you.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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