REVIEW: So I Married an Anti-Fan
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 3 out of 5 stars
SYNOPSIS
*From MyDramaList
Hoo Joon is a top star and Geun Young is a magazine reporter who both attend a club’s opening night. There, Young witnesses Joon's violent behavior and accidentally vomits on him. Young loses her job and is convinced that Joon has to be behind her firing. She retaliates by demonstrating in front of Joon’s management office, where her picketing eventually garners some media attention and the anti-fan label. A producer approaches her about participating in a reality TV show whose premise is that of a celebrity living with their anti-fan. Unemployed, she jumps at the opportunity. Meanwhile, Joon is offered the same show and accepts, thinking that it could only improve his image. When filming begins, Joon and Young try to give each other a hard time on set, only to fall head over heels for one another.
RAMBLING
*beware of spoilers*
Color me surprised, I actually liked this drama! I hadn’t seen a recent drama in awhile, so I thought I’d hop on the bandwagon with So I Married an Anti-Fan (it lit up social media). I was familiar with the premise after already watching the 2016 Chinese movie of the same name (starring EXO’s Chanyeol!), so I was basically waiting for what else this drama could dish out and its execution.
I immediately liked the characters. Choi Tae Joon (from Suspicious Partner and Missing Nine) was the titular pop star (~~I’M YOUR POP STAR~~) named Hoo Joon. The actor is clearly not musically inclined, although the show tries to establish his credibility with a few scenes of him performing in a large venue. Sure, he’s got the looks, but the pop star moves? Lacking. He looked very awkward on stage.
Although I wasn’t into the obvious subplot involving Chan Sung and his ex-girlfriend In-Hyung OR the missing mom, I really liked the unhappy pop star gimmick. I like to believe that people with immense fame are constantly trying to find privacy and more than anything private moments for themselves. Sure, he got to the top, but everything about his meteoric rise was built on lies. He didn’t even have a birthday he could celebrate truthfully. So much of his personality was based on curating a perfect facade and yet longing for some measure of trust, something real, something he could call his own… which is why I think the central romantic relationship worked so well.
Having never seen Choi Soo Young (of Girls Generation!) in a drama in my life, this show was my introduction to her. I adored her; she played Geun-young, such a great, relatable character. Geun-young: very non-confrontational, a peacemaker, the girl who holds in her emotions even when she’s miserable. Her evolving personality to become an unapologetic dissenter with a take-no-shit attitude was fantastic when paired with Hoo Joon’s hypocritical two-face persona. I loved when she finally speaks her mind and serves it back to homeboy Hoo Joon when he gets out of line; it was so explosive—she was a ticking time bomb.
It’s the classic enemies-to-lovers trope—but done in the context of the entertainment industry and in front of cameras. (I also had the thought Pride & Prejudice—Joon is pride and she prejudice.) The show they both agree to reminded me instantly of the old We Got Married Korean variety show. Their chemistry believably grows from their proximity doing the show and with her temporarily living in, essentially, Hoo Joon’s fortress of solitude luxury condo. Did I particularly like their first kiss, with them smashing lips as she nearly crashes the convertible during their promo shoot? No. But I did enjoy the aftermath, with Hoo Joon nervously reenacting the scene by himself and remembering the placement of the cameras to see if they caught anything.
There were so many moments that I enjoyed. At one point, Hoo Joon desperately gives her a belated birthday gift: shoes that are her size, Goldilocks style. She finally wears them to a talk show he films, and his adorable reaction? Butterflies. I was dying with the running gag of Geun-young’s dad buying an obscene number of biographies. And I was rolling on the floor with Hoo Joon meeting her parents, especially her dad (I see you Park Chul Min!) beating the crap out of him. They share a meal together and Hoo Joon asks, “What should I call you then?” Geun-young’s dad quickly shoots back, “Just don’t speak to me.” Or after he visits her parents and he texts her asking if she put away all of “mother’s” food. CRUSHING MY OVARIES, so cute. It reminded me of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon with the Min Min texts.
Geun-young felt so real to me as a character. She’s so practical, and I love that she gets mad at people and has an attitude—especially after Hoo Joon kisses her, and she thinks he’s toying with her again. My favorite bit of the show was their trip to Japan. Him anxiously waiting for her at the airport after the producers hint that she might quit the show. When he finds her wandering the terminal, he grabs her hand and starts running to the gate. The plane ride is entertaining as well, with the flight attendant assuming they’re a newlywed couple with their obvious chemistry and camaraderie.
Geez, I love when she gets lost in Japan, and he searches for her. When he finds her, it’s a great moment for them; I couldn’t deal with him constantly trying to hold her hand. Hoo Joon filming the commercial in Japan with In-Hyung was pretty funny with homegirl Geun-young and Jae-joon (aka Chan Sung from 2pm!) watching from beach chairs and overhearing each other muttering things under their breath and all the double meaning. The kisses between our leads were QUALITY! I love the one where he’s adjusting her car seat and he purposely maneuvers their lips together? Like come on, my body can’t take that! Once back in Seoul, they have a day-date for the TV show but get caught in the rain. Ugh, them running in the rain with him using his jacket as an umbrella? GIVE ME MORE.
Speaking of romance, the two show producers with a major flirtation between them was great. In the final episode, (time jump: 3 months later) the PDs get married! And it was the cutest proposal with her reviewing his pitch for a new program—plot twist: it’s actually a pitch to spend the rest of their lives together.
The worst part of the show was no doubt Chan Sung’s Choi Jae-joon. He was a total ass hole. His relationship with In-Hyung was all about possession and jealousy and being better than Hoo Joon. After he slaps her, she tries to commit suicide! At one point, Geun-young totally convicts Jae-joon by saying, “It isn’t love if you need to protect someone because you feel responsible.” Although there was seemingly all this bad blood between the boys, once Hoo Joon’s dirty laundry gets aired, he never suspects that Jae-joon did it (it was actually the shady company CEO). So there was still a deep understanding of who the other person was. But that wasn’t the case for Jae-joon and In-Hyung. She does fully believe Jae-joon is at fault; their relationship is too fractured. Ouch. “Because you’re that type of person.” In-Hyung—crazy ill girl that she is—intentionally walks into the road to commit suicide AGAIN as an F-you to Jae-joon, yet Jae-joon shields her as they GET RUN OVER BY A CAR.
So much went wrong with that secondary romance, if you can even call it that. I hated that the show still decided to give the toxic Jae-joon a redemptive arc. He saves In-Hyung’s life, becomes brain damaged, and has to recover from aphasia. Now that Jae-joon has a head injury, he becomes super docile, and In-Hyung inexplicably sticks by him—is this Regarding Henry?
The last subplot was about Hoo Joon’s absent mother and missing father. I didn’t care about his father’s ring, why he never met his father, or why he wasn’t on speaking terms with his mother. It was SO superfluous compared to the main romance. Why must there be a birth mystery as well? It turned out his dad died 10 years ago after getting saddled with a bad marriage by his meddling, disapproving wealthy family. BASIC. WRITE IT OUT. His dad proposed to his mom with some other guy’s ring on which he engraved YAMA? And YAMA stands for “You Are My All.” Ew.
Why did Hoo Joon even bother paying off Shooting Star company’s debt? The CEO was actually another menace, and although Hoo Joon got caught up in the sentimentality, he shouldn’t have been so merciful. That being said, Hoo Joon’s disappearance at the end of the show was more annoying than granted. He kept saying he was selling everything and starting over. He even called Geun-young to say he’s leaving, and he would not go see her, since he probably wouldn’t leave if he said goodbye in person. Where the hell did he go to become “an honorable man”?? Hoo Joon kept saying wait wait wait wait for me, but… just for the sake of a final prestige moment in the finale? When he reappears, it’s a textbook happy ending, complete with a public proposal and a custom YAMA engagement ring. Like father, like son.
All in all, “YAMA” engagement rings and toxic second male leads aside, this show is a stunner in my book. ~~I’M YOUR POP STAR~~
Did you see So I Married an Anti-Fan? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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