I have the same misgivings about #1... although I'd love for it to surpass all expectations! Haha one of the reasons I finished May It Please the Court was to see if they'd pay out more than the crumbs of potential romance from their magnetic chemistry!

Even though I find Wie Ha Joon intriguing (Little Women for one) I struggled to get through May It Please the Court because of Jung Ryeo Won and her smug antics. So when I read it was a clear noona story, I said "pass".

Matchmaker is on my list and clearly marketed as "lighthearted". However, lately it seems that every recent romantic comedy on my list begins with the comedy (1st 8 episodes) and then whatever romance may have bloomed is quickly overshadowed by thriller/evil spirits/past lives/ghosts (take your pick) instead of good old-fashioned "mystery" or plot twists.

1. JRW taking a break from the courtroom 🤣 she could be a legit lawyer now

1. I only liked two dramas of this type: I do I do (2012) and High School King of Savvy (2014). In both dramas, the age gap between the leads was 10 years (or more). In the latter, the leads met when he was still in high school, he was probably 18 or 19 years old. For most of the drama he was in high school. If this drama were created today, the Internet would probably want to destroy it.

I agree, I was so excited to see Wi Ha-joon in a romance but I don't usually like noona romances. Can we just get a short sequel to Little Women focused on his romance? Lol

Very sus 🧐

It is naive to hope that we will be pleasantly surprised with the writer reveal.

2. They are giving very sibling rather than couple vibes. 🤣

Hope they show better chemistry in the drama.

He is the one PD I'd love my faves to work with. I hope we'll see the best version of Wie Ha-joon, like Lee Joon in "Heard It Through THE Grapevine" and YAI in "Secret Love Affair."

I've been avoiding the dress-up-type sageuks for that reason. Most of the younglings can't do sageuk properly.

He was NOT stoic in Bad and Crazy 😁
I loved him there... and can imagine him as this wild youth riding with his noona on the bike. 😁😁
(Though true, that may not fit the PD's style. 🤔)

@laurensophie: Let me be a grump with you re KYD. His co-star stole TFM from right under him. I found Kim Wooseok’s acting poignant and memorable, and because I’m impressionable, I couldn’t take it that he played such an awful character in “The MP Doberman” so dropped it.
It would be so disheartening to be a much more skillful and emotionally resonant actor and to lose roles or only get cast as second leads to other actors who are clearly inferior.

"I'm also sorry to be a grump about Kim Young-dae, but I think there are other young male actors--including his co-star in "The Forbidden Marriage"--who should be offered leading roles before him."
He has a lot of fans. His Instagram is followed by 5 million people. I have often read articles or interviews with the creators of Korean dramas that sponsors look at how big a following actors have on social media when offering roles. Sometimes, this is the only reason why a better actor loses the fight for a role to a worse actor.

When I learnt the noona is Jung Ryeo-won, I just accepted it. They have a 10 year difference IRL. And with the plot summary I read on Asianwiki, it makes perfect sense if they choose to keep the age difference at 10. A lot if things happened between Wi Ha-joon's character meeting Jung Ryeo-won's in the academy and he coming back as a tutor so 10 years makes sense for the whole journey.

I just hope the Korean audience do not pull a CCIR stunt in here as they did in CCIR. They should really stop unnecessarily pressurizing already decided planning stage decisions.

"but everyone else, what happened to yall?"

We're here, waiting patiently...don't you worry 🤣

1 - Is this why the say be careful what you wish for! 🤣 We may be reassured by the PD - noona romances seem to be something of his specialty. Writer is still under the wraps … so … wait and watch?

I actually have no issue with the Noona romance aspect, I do have issue they meet when she is a teacher and he is her student, why couldn't they just be colleagues, lol

It's funny, but I just glossed over the "noona" part as a) 10 years doesn't seem that significant to me and b) I never thought I'd get behind a romance between a 20 year old man and 40 year old woman, but "Secret Love Affair" is one of the best romances I've ever seen, and it's thanks to this creative team. ("Something in the Rain" was an interesting failure, imo, but not because of the "noona" aspect--the story fell apart for other reasons that had nothing to do with the age of the leads). So the age difference here doesn't both me at all.

As I said above, I have a slight concern about the ML for other reasons, but as @kiara pointed out, this PD has a history of bringing out truly revelatory performances in a range of actors, so I'm hopeful that concern will end up being unfounded.

So agree with you
I loved "One Spring Night" to pieces and watched it 2 or 3 times but I couldn't get pass from "something in the rain" ep1 ....idk what was the difference .....maybe I wasn't in the mood but anyway I hope PD just make it good.

👋🏿👋🏿👋🏿

Not alone. Just in case, I’ll add a tissue box and soft slippers to your popcorn (for when the angst gets too much).

You’re not alone at all. Honestly, all this discourse around the pairing makes me disheartened. There would NEVER be so much conversation if Jung Ryeo-won was the one ten years younger. Women cannot catch a goddamn break.

While I do believe each couple dynamics is unique but I'm sure the age gap studies may offer a commentary on our social prejudices and behaviors.

I know a couple of families where the female was over ten years older than their male partner they both remain married approx 30 years later. One they had children together in the other she already had children from her ex husband. In the latter case she only agreed to them being married if he paid for a face lift when she reached a stage of ‘needing it to not feel like the whole world would know there was an age difference’ I met her 20 years later she had had the face lift.

In both cases the men had facial hair which I think makes men look more mature. In the dramas we watch the men look boyish but I don’t think the women look significantly older in appearance.

I think if people can accept the fantasy of a completely made up world, then having the age be the only thing that makes it somehow unrealistic and unappealing points to blocks people have in their own mind because of their own biases that should not be catered to. I feel the same when I see complaints from (usually men) about women or minorities showing up in historic fiction or sci-fi with prominent/interesting roles, because somehow magic is acceptable but a woman with agency and sword skills, or a ruler who is Black is too far.

The only way to fix this is to just keep pushing out more fictional content that breaks those nonsensical barriers. Women having to "mother" men in heterosexual relationships is kind of a constant refrain in society across all ages, chronological age is not a factor at all.

There are many things in society that people accept as "normal" but fiction should be the first step to consider some of the more internalized social backwardness as flimsy constructs and create a rich universe without it.