A Prefabricated Family (2024)

As a standalone I guess it's decent but as an adaptation I'm afraid it suffers greatly in comparison

**Future me is back to say that the second half of the show, from episode 10 onwards, took a different turn, and it gets better from there; hence, I'm bumping the rating up a bit. I enjoyed the later half significantly more than the first two quarters of the show.

With half the show done now, I have more or less figured out how this stands as an adaptation of the popular C-drama Go Ahead, which to me is one of the greatest C-drama ever produced.

The beginning of the drama had me full of hope for what was to come. I thought the director was spot-on with carrying over the “key events” of the story that were pivotal but giving a small touch of his take. Everything felt familiar yet different and I was glad that I got to relive the beautiful story again in a different manner. I found myself constantly smiling especially whenever the 3 kiddos appeared. I also had a great time noticing things that were adapted over but done in a different Korean style. There were things like the walk-up apartment and its staircase, the long uphill road from the noodle store to their home, the rooftop, and even a rather familiar house layout! Aesthetically, it was very pleasing. I also appreciate the easter eggs placed in the show like how now Hae Jun becomes the "acting" bf instead of the lady later on.

I am glad they got Choi Won Young (the cooking father) and Choi Moo Sung (the police father) to play the two fathers who to me are two of the story's most important characters. CWY as an actor exudes the same warmth as Hai Chao (C-Drama cooking father) and CMS has the same nonchalance but explosive nature as He Ping (C-Drama police father). I really like it when both of them play the father's role in dramas. Little Ju Won deserves lots of applause too and it’s a pity we only get to see her for such a short time. How can someone so young act so well?! While most of the cast carry similar vibes as the original and are all good actors in their own rights, it was not the choice of the actors that was the issue here; the change of characterization is my problem with the drama. That coupled with an uninspired change of script, the show, unfortunately, fell off the cliff very quickly despite me having a strong bias in wanting it to succeed.

While it was preserving most of the original’s core, subtly you can see things changing in different moments. Some of them were done, understandably to better fit the Korean landscape better, but some of them were done simply as a result of being “different”. I get that every director wants to interpret a story in their own artistic manner and I don't think anyone would be satisfied in simply copying something exactly, and I can respect that. After all, it's an "adaptation" not a "copy". I also understand that this is a much shorter story with 16 episodes compared to the original length of 40. They had to remove certain characters from the story and make certain things more direct for the plot to advance in pace. However because of this, many of their characters and dynamics and significantly modified, especially the three siblings, something that I am not particularly a fan of. Many changes were made but whether it would turn out well and benefit the story for the better, is another story.

I don’t like how from the get-go San Ha is behaving more like a lover than a brother and how from this early the motives of many of his actions are out of romantic feelings and not brotherly love. That calm, composed, natural genius and reliable anchor of the sibling's character in the original got dumbed down into a typical K-drama love-chasing oppa. They made his character into this loverboy who is constantly chasing after his sister's attention. The amount of attention he spends on his younger brother and father(s) makes it feel like he is only here for Ju Won since day one. This made the complexity behind his collected nature as someone who carried the burden of being perfect because of the trauma of his past feel so insignificant.

Hae Jun being as outspoken as San Ha and relying less on him was weird to watch and it turns me off whenever I see both the brothers fight and how often it occurs. That reliable elder-troublesome younger brother dynamic is missing and they felt more like friends rather than siblings. That whole sequence of his temporary departure and his fear of returning later on is much less impactful because it now contradicts his new character as someone capable of being self-sufficient. He is talented and popular in school. In the original, he was someone who always had uncertainty revolving around him as he was struggling with abandonment issues and was in a place where he never knew if he truly belonged. That sense of hopelessness and lostness, always wanting to prove his value in the family is no longer defining. He skipped an entire growth journey imo.

I don’t like how insecure Ju Won is about the siblings not having the same surname. In the original that would be the least of her concerns and she would beat the hell out of anyone who says they are not family. The 3 siblings do not even look like they believe they are family to begin with other than Ju Won. The 3 siblings also treat the opposite fathers as just “uncles” and don’t relate to them as the other “father”. In the original, it was never said but always strongly implied that this was a household where one assumed the father's role of providing money and the other took on the role of the mother, caring on a deeper level, providing food and warmth for the kids when they return home. It doesn't feel the same here, something is just missing.

The thing that I dislike the most is how the family-centric theme that was key in the C-Drama is not as present here and they introduced the romance way too early that destroyed some of the innocence of it for me. Many of the emotional scenes just don't hit the same. I get that the director wants this to be its own drama but I don't think he did a great job at trying to blend in his new with the original plot. I feel like the director missed the essence of the original. The decision in most of the change of characterization and the choice to omit certain side characters makes it almost seem like he never watched the original. Many of the events that happened in turn felt like they happened as a tick to the checklist of things that needed to be included in the adaptation. The show focused way too much on the blossoming romance between San Ha and Ju Won and the character development of the rest suffered in turn on top of the fact that the runtime is significantly shortened, making the whole thing feel so underdeveloped, incohesive and rushed. I am unable to feel the bond between the relationships and that to me is one of the core of this story. The drama very quickly dwindled back into the typical K-Drama rom-com with the cliches. Maybe, that's the goal of this director to begin with because it sure feels like it.

If you look at my watchlist you can see that I am very stingy in giving 10/10 because that is the value I want to give to the score. Only dramas that I truly love will receive the rating and Go Ahead was one of them. Go Ahead had such a chokehold of my life back then because of the many parallels I shared with the drama in my own life that I relate to. This was why I was so excited when I heard the news that it would be adapted into a K-Drama and directed by the same director for Twenty-Five Twenty-One; another one of my 10/10 dramas. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a decent watch but from the perspective of someone who has watched Go Ahead, I am fully aware of the potential this beautiful story holds and so far Family by Choice has not exactly lived up to the expectations that I had. New viewers if you do find yourself enjoying(or not), you can always tune into the C-Drama version to see a more "extended" work; damn I'm jealous!

Leia Mais

am i the only one who cry aLOT while watching this series??

this is the first time i cry alot while watching kdramaa!!!??? im on eps 9 & i cried on 4/5 out of 9 episode?the acting really got me and idk about this drama that literally brings my chest to pain :( seing the struggle that the character went through really hurt me so much.

i know this is the remake of go ahead, i havent watch go ahead ( bcs its 40 freakin episode) but bcs of this series, i tried to watch & i think the korean version is better! the storyline is straightforward compare to goahead & the aesthetic of the drama is really great!

[EDIT!!!]
while waiting for new episodes to come out, i continue to watch goahead. the KDRAMA IS SOOO MUCH BETTER IN MY OPINION! the character of li jianjian is too childish imo. i might say the k drama is more realistic irl & i didnt cry a bit while watching goahead :/, even when the 2 brothers leave abroad.

in summary, LOVE that the Kdrama is more straightforward compare to the cdrama & i support the writer’s changes in the kdrama series :)

Leia Mais

Mediocre?

I waited until the last few episodes to write this review and I think there are mainly 2 types of viewers:
1)the ones who have seen "Go Ahead"
2) and the ones who haven't

I am part of the audience that has watched go ahead and that is why I believe I found this drama to be mediocre...So keep in mind that my review will highly be biased based on the original

Plot:
1) As Go Ahead is a Chinese drama it has around 40 episodes and as a result there was a lot of character development and side plots that were important to the story, this drama obviously had to get rid of some of them but for the same reason it felt lacking overall

2) There was also too much focus on the romance aspect and I think it would have been much better if they just took inspiration from the original and focused on the slice of life part...I also felt like the dads didn't give off the same vibe...in the og drama the dads have a whole persona of their own but this show just seems to dumb it down


Acting:
The leads have absolutely no chemistry..Hwang In youp as an actor is fine but in this drama he just looked awkward the whole time
the crying scenes weren't sad, the romance scenes weren't magical and the only saving aspect was maybe the comedy

Other thoughts (may contain some spoilers):
Why were all three of their careers changed? It was such a minor detail that had huge implications in the og because in that drama kim sanha was supposed to be a dentist, her a craftswoman and business owner and haejun was supposed to be a pastry chef, their career choices (especially the brothers) were supposed to show how dependent they were on juwon and it played a pretty significant role

The friend group wasnt the same!!

Haejun's character confessing his love in og shows that he was desperate to be included in their family dynamic and that his abandonment issues forced him to create feelings in order to belong...

The side character were only plot devices for the leads and they lacked depth!

Conclusion:
Anyways to conclude, If you havent watched go ahead you may like this show but if you have its just going to seem like a cheap remake I would recommend that everyone watches the original if they have time, but If you don't this is a decent watch (if you watch with a blank slate with no bias you may like it more than I did)

I doubt there is anyone who can argue that this was better than (or even on the same level as) the original.

Leia Mais

Struggling with this remake

This review is an ongoing reflection, likely influenced by my personal bias against remakes, particularly K-drama adaptations. I’ve never been a fan of remakes, and I hold a special place in my heart for Go Ahead, which makes me cautious about this remake. However, I decided to give it a chance, especially after seeing the cast, particularly Hwang In Youp as the lead.

As of episode four, here are my thoughts:

What I Appreciate:
• The similarities to the original Chinese drama, like the noodle shop, the store's placement, and the open rooftop.
• The female lead's character is more upbeat and cheerful a bit more feminine, a difference from the Chinese drama. I love that she also knows what she wants.

Challenges I’m Facing:
• The shift in genre: This remake leans more toward fun and comedy, aiming for a rom-com vibe. I read an article indicating that it will focus more on romance than family, which disappoints me. Given the title "Family by Choice," I hoped for a stronger emphasis on familial bonds, but it doesn’t feel like a family dynamic so far.
• In the original, Tan had a more tomboyish personality and treated the boys like brothers, which added to the family feel.
• The foreshadowing of Tan’s love for hard candies and the male lead’s eventual career choice.
• The opening song: As I mentioned in my brief review of Go Ahead, the opening song was a highlight for me, something I looked forward to in each episode.
• The length of the K-drama: Condensing the depth of 40 episodes into 16 inevitably leaves out many beloved details, resulting in a loss of emotional build-up and relationship development.

I’m trying to approach this series with an open mind, but I know I’ll likely compare it to the original. So far, I’m not loving it, leading me to rate it 5/10. There are many elements working against it, and I'm struggling to find aspects I enjoy in this remake.

Leia Mais

Remake?.... sorry but maybe we didn't need one!

Q: What's a remake? Answer: cutting out the most important scenes, hiding the emotions, making a realistic drama seem unrealistic :D

I understand it's not easy to remake every episode or dialogues just like the original one but this one is pure nonsense.
1. More than half of their childhood scenes are missing. Their childhood part, how they stood up for each other and never let anyone behind play a major role in building their relationship's foundation. Without this, there's no point in calling them a family.

2. In the original story, all the 3 leads have equal screen times, priorities and affection for each other. In the remake you can clearly see the that the FL is biased towards Sanha. For ex: when they both decide to leave, the FL doesn't shed a single tear for Kang Hae Jun, just asks him "will you come back?". I mean...is that all for a sibling you've lived together for years?

3. In the original story, FL is suppose to be a happy go, cheerful and healing personality (both when she is young and adult) which is also why the 2 boys always feel indebted to her.. but here omgggg I have no words literally!! in the last 10 episodes i have only seen her smile for like 3-4 times max. She has the same poker face in every scene, always either frowning or annoyed lol.

4. The 2 fathers chemistry is also just ok compared to GA. All the characters lack depth, quality and insufficient history behind.
Another funny part is that they all look the same even after 10 years lol. Not even a single strand of hair is different than how it was 10 years ago.

Overall, you cannot even say "inspired by" because most of the inspiring scenes from GA are missing in this remake. Totally disappointed with the selection of the cast as well. WRT acting, except for Choi Won Young and Hwang In Youp, the others are just doing an okok job with their role. The FL casting has gone totally wrong! Everything feels rushed and is performed for the sake of it. So both the head and the tail of the story is missing.

Leia Mais

Perfect Example of How to spoil an lovely Adorable story to a uncomfortable drama

The KDrama started with beautiful caring simple yet beautiful and pure concept of a family where kids not related by blood started living emotionally and share there relationship as pure brother and sister till their teens and schooling. This a clearly evidently mentioned many times in starting 6-7 episodes that they share brother and sister emotions and relation. The story was adorable.

But the story started becoming uncomfortable to watch with family when a brother falls in love with his sister and started looking his sister as lover. May be in many countries, regions and cultures this relation is seen as forbidden.

A family exist when their is emotional attachment and caring among the relations, it doesn't matter whether they are blood related or not. How could a brother emotion changes to lovers emotion for his sister? Isn't it a taboo relation? Its a disturbing relationship. Majority will agree it will impact the mindset of brothers and sisters in a family watching this KDrama. The story becomes even sickening when the sister says her brother that she looks him as oppa (big brother) and still weird minded oppa trying to persuade his sister to change the relationship from siblings to lovers by starting it over again.

I don't understand how actors (Hwang In-youp and Jung Chae-Yeon) accepted such forbidden relation concepts? Are they so desperate to make money and agreed to do the Kdrama?

If the story demanded the romantic relation the director of the KDrama should have taken care of the script and should not have mentioned the relation as brother and sister between the two characters right from the beginning, then this would have been one of the all time great KDrama.

Leia Mais

Watching this is like watching a Disney's Live Action movie. There is no substance nor added value.

Condensing a 40-episode drama into a 16-episode one is no easy feat, it was obvious some scenes were going to be cut, and some characters arcs were going to be altered. But imo they butchered the story.

The acting is not that bad, the kids were great, the dad's okay, the leads meh. The problem overall is in the plot and character development.

In the FBC the family isn't really a family, just neighbors that are friends and eat together. They don't address the other father as dad, they don't address as older brother-yonger sister. Which makes the title of the drama pretty useless, "Family by choice"...what family? I see two families; it should be called "Neighbor by choice".

They made Sanha's mom even worse than the OG and in turn made the son more "well adjusted"/normal and love her more. Let's be honest, the mom in Go Ahead was really unhinged and cruel, well here she is even worse, at least in the OG, when she came back, she was sorry for leaving and wanted to make it up to her son. In FBC she was inches of calling her son a murderer in his face and her excuse for coming back is to "forgive him"....okay...what a way to make a really despicable character even worse but then why is Sanha so normal?, he has a pretty normal relationships with everybody else and even seems to communicate well with his dad, not only that but when the mom has her accident he remembers his mother talking care of him when he was a kid and he decides to care for her out of love. WTH? who wrote this?? he also cares for his little sister (that he barely knows) because it's his family, because he loves her. Where is the family by choice here? Now it should be "Family by blood"?

Some characters just feel like they come out of a comic or something like that. They don't feel like real people.... ahem ahem Haejun's bio dad.

One of the biggest flaws is the development and characterization of Ziqiu, they completely butchered his character. I think this is one of the characters that was miscasted. Zhang Xincheng is in another league of his own, but aside the acting (which to me in FBC his emotional scenes feel cringe), is that they turned the character into a pretty useless one that only know how to whine about his mom, he can't even defend his sister in a school fight.

Additionally, the script is so badly written that the emotional scenes don't hit the mark. For example, the big emotional scene where the dad gets drunk. In the original the whole point is that they are family even if not by blood, but because they care for each other and how much he cherishes his children when their own biological families treat them badly. In FBC while trying to convey something similar, fails to make the point of "family by choice". This is more noticeable in the scenes of Haejun/Ziqiu and his dad, in the OG felt that the words spoken by the dad are truly what a dad would say to his son, nothing fancy but spoken straight from the heart. FBC script just uses the same old cliché lines from kdramas.

And while some of the changes could be considered as nice. Like making Sohee (equivalent of Little Orange) a nice kid, it makes the storyline suffer. There's a point of Little Orange being so unlikeable, she has the accident while bickering with JianJian and it gives a chance for Ling Xiao to again draw the line with his mom that they aren't a family, he is in the hospital because he is responsible and filial but not because he loves them. His line says it best "What belong to JianJian I won't give to someone else, I'm not you." This not only reenforces the idea of who he identifies as family, but also takes us to the beginning of the story when he was first abandoned and show us how the emotional dependence transferred from his mom to JianJian. It's those lines, those seemingly unimportant scenes the ones that carry the show and elevate it to the next level, the ones that are missing in FBC.

The OST as well plays a huge important role in the story, I think the OG having such a great OST that helps framing the emotional scenes. In the FBC they put some generic background music that make the whole scene feel less authentic and emotional.

All in all, the changes don't add to the story, only helping to enhance the romance which isn't even the focus in the original drama. There are too many cliche scenes added to make the romance more obvious and frame it as a typical kdrama.
The problem is that this show doesn't even know the meaning of family they want to convey, or even if family is the core of the story because so far this show is Love next door 2.0.
Perhaps the main fault of this drama is the producers wanting this to be a teen romance drama instead of a serious one, because it lacks subtlety in every way, every single thing they want to convey they give it to you in your face.

Leia Mais

Not The Same As Go Ahead!

When I say it isn't the same - it isn't as great as Go Ahead at all!

It's not bad, but nothing like it's Chinese neighbour.

I have seen Go Ahead maybe 3 times even though it has something like 46 episodes.

Going forward I will refer to Go Ahead as GA and Family By Choice as FBC.

With FBC it misses the humour that GA has when the children were young - even as teens and adults.

In GA, both boys were top students in school whereas the girl wasnt. One boy became a dentist, the other a chef/baker and the girl became a sculptor whereas in FBC it looks like one has become a doctor, one a dropout and the girl a cake maker.

Not sure about the dropout being a proper dropout just yet!

In GA, the one that became a dentist would supervise the girl with her homework at times and around episode 5 told her he was going to marry her someday. There was also this moment he didn't want her sniffing his bed and being in his room as he was starting to develop feelings for her so he told her off. The humour when they were teens in the original version was excellent whether at school, just with each other or at home.

In FBC, the one that becomes a doctor, doesnt say anything about marrying her as teens and doesnt really do too much when she smells something different about his bed which is actually a pertinent moment in the original version. Although they all get along really well - it just isn't on the same level as GA.

When ten years elapses in FBC it seems like the boys have just gone for the weekend then returned as their hairstyles haven't changed nor their faces in age.

With GA they all transitioned from teens to adults which was believable and noticeable like 10 years really had passed.

The good thing about FBC is that it is only 16 episodes so will give you a taste of what the Chinese one is like, but it doesn't have the same depth or characters. One character missing is the one that became a flight hostess in GA.

In FBC, it seems like they are bringing two characters together that were never together in GA. Personally, I don't like that at all.

Another change is the real younger sister of the oldest male seems to be more mature and not so bratty in FBC compared to GA.

Overall, I prefer GA over FBC because of the characters, their stories and the unquestionable dynamics between all of them as well as close bonds - including the parents.

FBC made some obvious changes which shouldn't have been the case - like losing the humour and certain characters, for example.

Still recommended if you want something shorter than the original even if not on the same level.

Leia Mais