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[Drama special review] Love Attack

Fake dating leads to romance for two adorably suited college students in the newest installment of the KBS Drama Special. Fun and floaty with a fresh-faced cast, if you love old school rom-com tropes as much as I do, this perfectly paced drama deserves an hour of your time.

 
DRAMA SPECIAL REVIEW

Woot! It’s been a minute since I finished a story and couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off my face. I went into this with mild expectations and came out wanting to watch it again. The classic romance tropes are classics for a reason and when they’re done right (with a contemporary slant), count me among the suckers who can’t say no.

Here we’ve got a Candy heroine who’s first in class and her rich-boy rival who’s always stuck in second place. The setup is quick as we watch our hero, CHA SEOK-JIN (Kim Do-hoon), wake at 4 AM to begin studying, with every second of his pressure-filled day accounted for. He has no time for leisure and will do whatever it takes to steal the win from our brainy heroine, KANG KYUNG-JOO (Chae Won-bin).

And according to his best friend, what it will take is a “confession attack.” The idea is that he’ll confess to Kyung-joo in such a way that she’ll be so disgusted she won’t be able to concentrate on school — and then he’ll slide right into first place.

So, Seok-jin does his best, telling Kyung-joo he likes her, trying to be as annoying as he can, except there’s a snag. She says yes, she’ll be his girlfriend. She likes him too. Uh, what? He has no plan for that response. And for a split second we’re left to wonder if he really won her over with his dorky lines — or maybe that charming smile.

But as he gets the idea that being her boyfriend could be even better — because dating is totally distracting — we learn that she’s trying to beat him at his own game. She overheard his plan to fake confess and now she’s going to pretend to date him as a counterattack. Let the fake dating begin!

He starts coming around to all her (many, many) part-time jobs, bringing flowers, ordering coffee, offering a “fighting!” only to find that all this extra work is leaving him unable to study instead of her. Still, he perseveres.

The seeds of a real romance begin when he’s walking her home one night, notices a cut on her hand, and tries to touch it. She thinks he’s reaching to hold hands and thwacks him across the throat, leaving him gasping for air. She runs off embarrassed, but then thinks about how attentive he was to notice the cut. At the same time, Seok-jin realizes he’s found a new tactic to fluster his enemy: skinship. If that freaks her out, then he’ll work harder at it.

He asks her on a date to an escape room and while they’re inside, he kisses her cheek. But this adorable moment turns cringe when she grabs his face and kisses his lips in an overbearing and I’ve-never-done-this-before sort of way. The thing is, the longer she scrunches up her face and pushes it against his, the better it becomes. Suddenly, instead of trying to squirm away, he’s liking it. So much so that they’re gripping ahold of each other in a corner when a voice comes over the loudspeaker: “No skinship in the escape room please.” LOL. Caught!

On the way home, they’re both considering calling it quits on the whole fake-dating fiasco when Kyung-joo gets a call. Her halmeoni collapsed and she needs to get to the hospital ASAP. But it’s too late for a bus. What can she do? Don’t worry, he’ll drive. Cue wrist grab as they dash for his car. Eee! Are you getting the picture?! What a lovable trope-fest!

At the hospital, we learn that Kyung-joo was raised by her grandmother in the countryside and all they’ve got is each other. Seok-jin sees Kyung-joo cry and is obviously moved, and then offers to give the two women a ride home. But Halmeoni can’t have him driving all the way back to the city afterward at this hour. He should definitely spend the night there with them. Hehe. Both students are shocked and try to protest, but halmeonis always win.

Seok-jin stays in Kyung-joo’s old room and in the morning they eat breakfast in the open air, overlooking fields and mountains. It’s so pleasant that Seok-jin decides to put his ultra-planned life on hold for another day and stay there in the fresh air. The three spend time at the farmers’ market (Halmeoni already loves him) and Kyung-joo ends up riding Seok-jin around on a bike by late afternoon. (I am so getting early-episode King the Land vibes from this sequence.)

The bike thing is important actually. Seok-jin doesn’t know how to ride a bike because his parents are so militant about his studies that if he had time to play, he had time to study more. He’s used to putting so much pressure on himself that the countryside feels like an escape. But for Kyung-joo it’s the opposite: the countryside is the place she wants to escape from. To her, success is being able to move Halmeoni out of there. Seok-jin finds this admirable, and by the time she smiles and says she’ll teach him how to ride a bike, he’s got L-O-V-E written all over his face.

The time spent in the countryside is nice visually and narratively, but what it does for the pacing really sets this story apart from some other short-form dramas I’ve seen this year. It breaks up the hour into parts and adds depth to the superficial setup, so that by the time they’ve gone back to the fast-paced city, we’ve had a slowed-down speed to get to know and care about the characters. And we still have half our story left to go! That’s pretty impressive.

Before our leads return to campus, Halmeoni compliments Seok-jin for being so kind and smart. He replies that he’s only second best. But she counters him: “Second best is good. Not everyone can do that.” (Wow, somehow this line split my heart and healed it at the same time.)

With things going so smoothly for our fake couple, we know that Conflict is about to strut in. It comes in the form of a girl with a crush on Seok-jin who wants to know what’s up with him and the smart chick. Uh, nothing, he informs her — they’re not dating. Kyung-joo then confirms this, since she was standing right there when he said it. Oof. In the awkward moment that follows, it’s clear the biggest problem for both of them is that it’s true: they’re not really dating.

The hurt feelings lead to more conflict as each clings to what they know. Kyung-joo admits she knew all along about his plan to distract her with his confession. Seok-jin admits he has other reasons for wanting to be first in class that have nothing to do with her (and we’ve seen his abusive parents call him stupid no matter how well he does). He says he’s desperate just like Kyung-joo is — “Not everything is about money.” But she can’t sympathize since her livelihood depends on her grades. It’s a classic, class-conscious argument and the part that works best is that both characters are equally likable and identifiable.

The end is too delicious to give away (and “confession attack” takes on a whole new meaning), so I’ll let you watch it for yourselves. I will say that apart from leaving me smiley and floating, the drama aims higher than just romance: “We live in a society of endless competition, and it’s hard to take your time. When I’m in bed at night falling asleep, I don’t want to feel guilty. I want to say that I did well today.” Well, amen to that. Falling in love is great, but loving yourself is even better.

This drama hits all the right rom-com notes and the leads have great rapport. While the teary scenes didn’t work as well as the humor, the sweet and fun story makes up for it — and I was rooting for this couple almost from the get-go. If you’re short on time and need a little boost, this should do the trick. Somewhere between the cutesy tone and the attractive leads, I’m still feeling fuzzy a day later.

 
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Woah, that's the girl from My Lovely Boxer! Cool to see her in a romcom, ill give this special a try.

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Love Attack
Public service announcement.
This is on VIKI in the USA. However, if you search "Love Attack" it will not show up. Look up "2023 KBS Drama Special" and this is episode 7.
Maybe everyone already knows this and I'm just slow...but it took me a while to find this.

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Viki could do a better job promoting these specials 🤔

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Viki is doing 10000 times more promotion than Hulu so I won’t complain.

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Finding shows on Amazon can be a chore too.

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Thank you for this! I was wondering how to watch and had searched the title in Viki unsuccessfully.

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Nope, I only know this because of you! Thanks!

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As someone who doesn’t live in the States or has Viki Plus… pain.

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Thank you! I knew I had to search for Drama Special 2023, (Dramawiki site does this too), but the KBS phrase was the key.

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And I thank you for sharing your discovery!

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It was cute. I'm not sure I will keep a lot of memories but it was a lovely moment.

I think I will take a year off too after this confession attack 🤣

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I want to watch this and the other drama specials so badly, but geoblocking and legal access is such a b*tch.

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I need to watch this

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Thank you @dramaddictally for covering this coz I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. This really was one hour well spent. Cute and sweet 🥰

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This was super cute and lots of laughs.

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I really enjoyed this one. Thank you @dramaddictally for bringing it to our attention! I kind of wish there had been a couple more of these type of shows this year--I'm not saying I could live on a diet of straightforward rom-coms, but it sure was nice not to worry about when the next bloody stabbing, beating, poisoning, or brutal bullying would occur.

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omg this sounds so CUTE!! I really want to watch it! Hopefully can find it on a platform I use. Thanks for posting the review @dramaddictally, all these special drama reviews are uncovering gems for me that I otherwise would've been oblivious to!

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This was sweet and cute and thoughtful - and that ending! 😁 Tropes done right, indeed. Thanks, @dramaddictally!

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And I totally did not recognize super-serious Gang-hoon from Moving (Kim Do-hoon) here! What a contrast.

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2023 KBS Drama Special ep 7 Love attack
What a short and sweet show. Totally worth the time.
If you need a quick fix before your 16 ep drama decides to fly off its tracks with a random serial murderer, this is it.
Thank you @dramaddictally for bringing this to our attention.
This show was like a perfect bite sized snack.

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Sigh... it's not in my region. GOSH DARN IT!

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Omg that was extremely cute!

I normally never watch drama specials but wasn’t feeling like watching any of my current shows and this filled the gap very nicely.

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Thank you @Dramaddictally for talking about this show!

What an adorable special it was. I was grinning like an idiot for most parts. How delightful were the leads.. and omg, Kim Do-Hoon ...how is this the same chap from Moving!! He was just adorkable...

And that ending, so so so cute..

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finally watched this one and it lived to my high expectations.
it was everything I love in a romcom, tropes done right for sure. part of me wished it was longer so we could stay a little bit more with them post confession, but I also know that everything fell in place bcs it was a short format. more episodes would drag things and get boring, especially giving more screen time for his parents' toxic behavior. I also liked that she knew from the start what he was up to, it was a nice touch in a classic romcom trope.

I already liked these two actors from other projects and they did well once again. she reminds me a lot of han yeri, especially her age of youth character. and he's just a really charismatic actor. it was nice to see him doing a light romcom too.

where do I need to go to ask for a drama to cast these two together again?

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