Love in Contract is about a talented woman (Park Min Young) whose job during the week is to pretend to be the wife of single men to help them with gatherings, reunions, and other events, but she likes to keep Sunday to herself.
She then gets involved with a mysterious man (Go Kyung Pyo) who is a longtime contract of hers for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as well as a new client (Kim Jae Young) she sees on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Park Min Young plays Choi Sang Eun. She is amazing at her job as she transforms into the perfect partner for each of her clients. But as she prepares to move on, feelings start to surface for her longtime client Ji Ho.
Go Kyung Pyo is Jung Ji Ho. He’s a mysterious man who is quiet and socially awkward. He’s been a client Sang Eun’s for five years and slowly begins to realize that he has feelings for her.
Kim Jae Young is Kang Hae Jin. He’s a popular actor from a wealthy family, but he keeps his identity a secret. He quickly takes an interest in Sang Eun and becomes one of her clients.
Love in Contract is a very entertaining drama that I enjoyed quite well. It has well-developed characters and a decent back story. There were always new plot developments and things going on which made for a great pace.
Park Min Young always has great chemistry with her leading men, and that was the case here too. Her chemistry was nice with both Ji Ho and Hae Jin.
Sang Eun and Hae Jin had a fun relationship. They were more comfortable and playful with each other. I also liked their back story which added a really nice layer to their relationship. Hae Jin is quite an interesting character. He has a lot of layers, and we see a lot of different sides to him throughout the series.
I was rooting for Sang Eun and Ji Ho though. He’s super awkward and that made for some odd encounters between them. But it was so nice watching him slowly open up. Although Sang Eun is a very open and confident woman, she too found herself letting her guard down with Ji Ho. It was great to watch. I found their relationship to be adorably awkward. It was also nice to see Ji Ho develop and becoming a stabilizing presence for Sang Eun.
Sang Eun is of course at the center of the story. She’s a unique character in the drama landscape, and it was fascinating to learn about her. She has quite the troubled past that has led her to what she is today, but she has taken what life has thrown at her and risen above it. We explore her past and how it relates to her today as she works through some deep-seated issues. It was a fun journey to see play out.
Love in Contract was kind of an interesting mixture of genres as sometimes it didn’t seem like it quite new what it wanted to be. The first half leaned towards being a romantic comedy while the second half became sort of a light chaebol melo. Both rom-com and melo elements were present throughout the series, but each one felt more prominent at times.
Looking at where the drama started, I certainly was surprised at the overall direction things went. Sometimes it was a bit odd, but I thought it kept things interesting. While the first half of the drama was pretty fresh and unique, you will find some common tropes surface in the second half. If you don’t like your rom-coms transitioning to light melos, you may not enjoy this one.
I quite liked all of the supporting cast from Sang Eun’s supportive friend and roommate Gwang Nam (Kang Hyung Suk) to all of Ji Ho’s co-workers who added in some great humor. I love a good group like this.
We also have those characters that add a bit of conflict into the story including the woman who raised Sang Eun, Madame Yoo (Jin Kyung) and Ji Ho’s ex, Ji Eun (Lee Soo Bin). They each brought their own individual stories to the show which influenced the happenings between our main characters.
Love in Contract was a nice watch for me. I enjoyed all of the characters as well as the many different plot developments. The mix of genres also worked for me with its humor, angst, and romance. All in all, it was enjoyable.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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