Quick Review #143: "Watashi no otto to kekkon shite" - Summer 2025

Title: Watashi no otto to kekkon shite / 私の夫と結婚して　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 8 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who are fans of the original webtoon and/or Korean drama series OR like time-travel second-chance-in-life revenge stories OR are fans of the main leads

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I have not read the original webtoon nor watched the Korean drama series.

Liked:

- While I am not a fan of time-travel second-chance-in-life stories and did not want to start watching the Korean series because it had so many episodes, the fact that the Japanese version was much shorter at just 10 episodes definitely lowered the barrier to entry. And as a result, the pace of the story was fast, especially in the first half and in a way, prevented the developments from being too drawn out. Although I was initially a bit concerned about this being a direct copy-and-paste from the Korean version, I'm glad to see that this Japanese version had the typical elements of Japanese-style storytelling and retained the Japanese societal traits so the story was a lot more palatable than I thought.

- The acting of the 4 main leads i.e. Koshiba Fuuka, Sato Takeru, Shiraishi Sei and Yokoyama Yu was simply brilliant. If not for the four of them, this story might not have been compelling enough for me to finish watching everything in 3 days. Koshiba's transformation, not just in the external sense but also the internal emotions of her character, was believable and extremely interesting to watch. Shiraishi went all out to play such an obnoxious woman throughout most of the drama but towards the end, managed to show the pitiful side of how her character became so warped. Yokoyama definitely showed very convincingly how his character pretended to be smart and had an inflated ego based on empty confidence yet was downright dumb till the end. And for Sato, I'm sure many female viewers will be quite besotted with him not just because his image this time was visually appealing but also because his character was so much in love with the heroine and did so much for her. I also thought that the chemistry between Koshiba and Sato was very good and they did look quite compatible with each other.

- Perhaps due to the fact that this was an Amazon Prime drama with a top production house in South Korea so the production did come across as more polished and refined in terms of its visuals, cinematography and art design (costumes and sets in particular). Guess having lots of resources (or rather money) does help in making things better than the norm. The BGM and songs used in the drama were rather suitable for the story developments as well. If joint productions do bring out the best from both countries, I surely wouldn't mind seeing more of such collaborations. However, that would only work if neither side tries too hard to push for their influences to be highlighted more prominently than the other despite the story not being positioned to accommodate that. 

Disliked: 

- I'm still not a fan of this genre despite the quality of this drama. It will take a lot more novelty and a refreshingly different approach to change my mind about this because I've seen so many of such stories over the years.  And if you are looking for a revenge tale which will be gratifying enough to see the evil being punished for their deeds, I think this drama did end on a rather meek note especially the parts which tried to "redeem" or justify the deeds done by the baddies. They might have certain experiences which you can sympathise with but still, it doesn't make their actions understandable nor forgivable.

- While I do think that Sato's character would be pretty appealing to most female viewers, I felt a bit uncomfortable about him trying very hard to suppress and lower the tone of his voice when he was speaking. Perhaps the script was designed in such a way that he had to act in this way to show the aloofness of his character so as to contrast against the strong love he had for the heroine (he spoke very nicely and often gently to her compared when talking to others). This is just me but I actually prefer a male lead who can be effortlessly kakkoii without having to speak in such a low tone on purpose and coming across as awkward. As such, I think not being swept off my feet by this loving buchou probably lessened my level of enjoyment while watching this drama.