Perfect Marriage Revenge is about a woman (Jung Yoo Min) who travels back in time and enters into a contract marriage with a wealthy CEO (Sung Hoon) to get revenge on her husband and family who betrayed her.
Jung Yoo Min is Han Yi Joo. She is a kind woman who was adopted by a wealthy family but was isolated and unloved. As she prepares to get married, she is devastated to find out her husband loves her sister, and her family has betrayed her. After getting killed in an accident, she travels back in time one year and vows to get revenge on all of them.
Sung Hoon plays Seo Do Guk. He is a wealthy CEO from a powerful family. He decides to enter into a contract marriage with Yi Joo to help in her revenge quest, but he soon finds himself wanting the marriage to be real.
Lee Jung Hye (Lee Min Young) is Yi Joo’s adoptive mother. She is power hungry, manipulative, and has never shown Yi Joo any love. Next is Han Yoo Ra (Jin Ji Hee) who is Yi Joo’s adoptive sister. Yi Joo’s husband is in love with her, but she has her eyes set on Do Guk.
Yoo Se Hyeok (Oh Seung Yun) is Yi Joo’s husband who is in love with Yoo Ra. Then we have Seo Jung Wook (Kang Shin Hyo) who is Do Guk’s brother who he is at odds with.
Now that was a fun ride! Perfect Marriage Revenge is the definition of a soapy makjang in the best kind of way. Once we get our characters and the stakes set-up, we quickly go on a fast-paced journey of betrayal and revenge.
Everything in this drama is over-the-top. There are dramatic stares, flaunting money, birth secrets, murder, power grabs, and so much more. It is filled with tropes galore, but it is executed perfectly to keep things exciting. The drama embraces what it is and rolls with it. While the story is serious, it never feels too heavy. It’s a lot of fun dramatics peppered with some comedy and romance.
In many ways, this feels like an old-school makjang, but it has a bit of modern feel which sort of freshens things up. I love this genre, so I had such a wonderful time getting to go on a cracky, fast-paced ride that only a classic makang can deliver.
It was great to watch Yi Joo’s journey as a character. At first, she is basically a doormat to everyone in her life. She is used and abused, and she takes it all with a smile. But after her life takes a tragic turn, we watch her rise up and take control as she begins to get her life back all while getting revenge on those who wronged her.
Do Guk goes along on the ride with her. He’s an interesting character who stays by her side and is more than ready to help with her revenge plans. He’s got quite the character journey to go on too, and there is plenty to explore with him.
This duo as a couple were pretty entertaining. Contract marriages are always a fun trope for me, but this one felt pretty fresh. I liked watching their feelings for each other grow as they drew closer and supported each other. They were also pretty cute during the more lighthearted moments.
This drama delivered lots of very satisfying moments as we watch Yi Joo get continually wronged but then one up everyone on her revenge quest. There’s a lot of back forth here, but the 12 episodes felt just right to not feel overdone and keep the pace moving right along. There are lots of twists and turns along the way to spice things up. The ending also was pretty satisfying all around.
Perfect Marriage Revenge has a whole lot of baddies in it, but these are the kind of villains I love to watch. They are all over-the-top in their own way and so entertaining. It’s fun seeing them scheming and feeling good about themselves, and then watching them in shock as curveball after curveball is thrown at them. Such a good time!
I hadn’t watched a good makjang in a while, so I was super happy with Perfect Marriage Revenge. It did everything it needed to do to make for a chaotic tale of soapy goodness with betrayal, revenge, dramatics, romance, and a side of humor. I had a great time with this one!
My Rating: 8.5/10
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