A Good Day to Be a Dog is a romantic comedy that tells the story of a woman (Park Gyu Young) who is cursed and transforms into a dog at night whenever she kisses a man. She accidentally kisses a man (Cha Eun Woo) who is afraid of dogs due to a past trauma and needs his help to break the curse.
Park Gyu Young is Han Hae Na who is a high school teacher. She and her family going back generations have been under a curse that causes them to transform into a dog when they kiss someone. She is dismayed after she accidentally kisses a fellow teacher who is afraid of dogs and needs him to break the curse.
Cha Eun Woo plays Jin Seo Won who is a math teacher at the high school. Because of a past trauma, he is terrified of dogs. Unaware of Hae Na’s curse, he is confused when she starts hanging around him and more dogs start showing up in his life.
Lee Hyun Woo is Lee Bo Gyum who is a history teacher at the high school. He is nice, popular, and Hae Na has an interest in him, but there seems to be some mystery surrounding him.
A Good Day to Be a Dog was such a fun watch. It’s a mostly lighter romantic comedy that had a really nice progression. The first third leans pretty silly, the middle third brings in some more serious plot elements, and the latter third gets noticeably heavier.
The romance was super cute with this one. They start out a bit at odds, but Hae Na needs Seo Won’s help, so she tries to get closer to him with humorous results. I really enjoyed all of the fun shenanigans during this time period.
Then as they draw closer, they develop a very sweet relationship. I liked exploring Hae Na’s fear of telling Seo Won about her curse as well as how she helped him with his dog phobia. And seeing him grow to care for her so deeply was nice to watch. Their solid communication with each other grows throughout the drama which really made for a healthy relationship.
Both Seo Won and Hae Na have nice individual character journeys. Seo Won had a nice growth arc of coming out of his shell and dealing with his fear of dogs. Hae Na had to work through trust issues and the scars that have come from her and her family being cursed. These were great issues to explore, and the drama did it nicely without feeling too heavy.
I liked the supporting characters who added in a lot of humor to the show. I particularly enjoyed Hae Na’s family and Seo Won’s nephew. They all helped propel the story forward with little stories of their own as well as by helping Seo Won and Hae Na.
We also get an interesting story involving Bo Gyum. He’s a man of mystery, but peeling back the layers of his story gives us a lot of answers as well as adds conflict to the story.
We get to see the story of our character’s past lives which details their relationships and what led to Hae Na being cursed. It’s nicely spaced throughout the drama, but we do end up spending a large chunk of time in the past in the later part of the drama.
I don’t always love this, but I thought it worked well here. I knew enough about the past story before that time, and then I was provided with solid answers when we went deeper. The past story was also well done, and I just enjoyed that story in and of itself.
I would keep a few things in mind with a drama like this. The early episodes are very silly, and I wouldn’t take them too seriously. Just enjoy the fun. The drama is not heavy, but it does get progressively more serious. Comparing the latter episodes to the earlier ones, there is a sizable difference. So be prepared for that. I personally enjoyed the progression.
So overall, A Good Day to Be a Dog was a very nice drama. I liked all of the characters and enjoyed all of their stories, present and past. There was a great mix of humor and more serious plot elements. The show had a lot of heart, and I laughed and I cried with this one. I stayed engaged with the story all the way through and just had a lovely time.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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