A Prefabricated Family (2024)

#haedal4ever

nunca assisti a obra original, mas fui assisti os primeiros eps dessa adaptação e eu fiquei tão impactada pela história que já fui emocionada dizendo que seria meu top 3 do ano.

E de fato, foi uma história linda, muito gostosinha de acompanhar e com várias cenas que me marcaram, mas que com o tempo ficou claro que uma adaptação de 16 episódios seria muito pouco pra uma história que originalmente foi feita em 40+ episódios. Infelizmente o maior defeito foi realmente esse, o que é uma pena, porque eu sei que se tivesse um pouco mais de tempo o desenvolvimento seria muito melhor.

Além disso, o arco de redenção final da mãe do Sanha foi completamente desnecessário, já que não tinha nada no mundo capaz de mudar a minha opinião (acredito que a de todo mundo) sobre ela. Acho que esse tempo que deram de tela pra ela podia ser trocado por cenas do Haejun e da Dal que na >minha opinião< foram o melhor casal (torci horrores e senti falta de mais ceninhas, não vou mentir)

De forma geral, sou uma grande fã de dramas familiares e family by choice aqueceu meu coração, não entrou pro meu top 3, mas com certeza estará no meu top 10 do ano!

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funsies kdrama def recommend

family by choice is a fun drama centered around the relationships of haejun, juwon, and sanha who have a sibling-like bond but have no blood relation to one another.

what this drama does great:
- gives us a multifaceted view of all the main characters. we're able to see life/the timeline of the drama from all 3 of them which i thought was great! getting to know each character felt so personal.
- haejun and juwon's dad had some of the most sob-worthy scenes ever. their relationship was so heartwarming. haejun's healing journey was so great to watch and also to see dal and him help each other through hardships throughout their lives.
- their take on familial troubles wasn't shallow and actually felt very realistic.
- every episode while all having pretty sad moments at times always felt really giddy it's just a really fun watch overall it makes you wish you could be there too
- NO love triangle thank the lords

what could've been done better:
- while sanha's 14 year long or however many year long crush on sanha was well drawn out, we never got that from juwon. it was just her being flustered by sanha's confession(s) and then dating him. i wish they could've either added scenes where maybe in their younger years she thought of him that way too or have done like flashback scenes idk it just. for a childhood friends to lovers trope was not a very deep romantic relationship
- haejun's america storyline was idk all over the place and needed better integration to the plot. also similar to my issue w juwon he should've had a gradual liking to dal while im happy they got together at the end he literally said in that ep that they aren't good together and then later asked her out

overall lovedddd this show chaeyeon is such an amazing actress

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Heartwarming family drama with touches of romance, and a lot of tears

*** SPOILERS ALERT ***

I started to watch the cdrama Go ahead before Family by choice because I wanted to compare the remake with the original story and to be perfectly honest, I dropped it after ep 6 /7 and skipped to later episodes to see how the story will develop and what I saw didn’t convince me enough to continue watching… It’s not because it was bad, but I feel like the pacing was so slow and I simply don’t have the patience to watch 40 episodes of the same series. Furthermore, I had a hard time connecting with the Fl characterization, too childlike in comparison with her “brothers”. Certainly, the cdrama had more time to explore in depth the relationships between all the characters and felt more “raw” in its characters and emotions whereas the kdrama felt like it was a prettier and “polished” version of the story. (Please don’t attack me because I like the remake better, it is my opinion, and I still respect the original story and those who love it.)

So, here’s a quick review of what I liked/disliked in this remake:

Pros:
- The acting is phenomenal! Especially the main trio, they were absolutely perfect! Big kudos to the Fl’s actress, I’m not very familiar with her but she was convincing and her acting kinda reminded me of the actress in Lovely runner, who I like very much. Her character was overall very loveable and caring, a little childish sometimes but it wasn't too extreme. Of course HIY was a safe bet, I adored him in True beauty and his acting here is so touching, especially when his character showed despair in difficult moments. Then we have Kang Hae Jun’s actor who was a total revelation for me! His duality convinced me entirely and I will keep an eye on his future projects for sure.
- Great chemistry between all the cast, be it platonic or romantic relationship, it all felt very natural and mature.
- Speaking of romance, I actually really liked the romance between the main couple, I knew it was gonna happen since I read some spoilers in the Go ahead MDL page. Personally, I don’t think their relationship was weird, because I considered them more as very close childhood friends than the brother/sister type of thing. Also! The Fl wasn’t just a wooden plank when it came to intimate scenes and it was very refreshing to see. The second couple, Hea Jun / Dal, truly developed their relationship in the very end of the series, so we didn’t get to see much of them together but they were still cute nevertheless!
- The friendship between Ju Won and Dal was so cute!! I was afraid of a possible love triangle between Ju Won / Dal / San Ha but fortunately they chose to keep it simple and that was a very smart decision coming from the writing team.
- The OST and cinematography are also great, and I also really liked the fact that we could hear them speak a dialect different from what we are used to hear in kdramas.
- Of course, the other star of the show, Ju won’s dad! Such a generous and selfless individual! I’m sure such a person can exist in real life and I wish them the very best.
- Great balance of humorous and sad scenes. The sad scenes were STRONG that’s for sure but the humor was there to lighten up the mood without being forced or out of place.

Cons:
- Some scenes/events were a little repetitive in the end, especially with Hae Jun’s storyline, but I’m still glad they didn’t add 36 subplots to the main story.
- For the romantic relationship between Ju Won and San Ha, I agree with some comments that Ju Won accepted San Ha’s feelings a little too quickly, we saw that he had a crush on her since high school but for her it wasn’t shown at all. They should have added some little scenes in which she questioned her feelings for him way before his sudden confession. Of course, they had to concentrate all the story and character development in only 16 episodes so the pacing was understandably very fast, but I still liked it very much because their chemistry was still great in my opinion.
- I didn’t understand the final development between San Ha and his mom… She threatened Ju Won and asked her to put an end to their relationship (fortunately she didn’t listen but still) and we saw San Ha begging her to…. what? Love him finally? After all she put him through? And then she flew to the UK with his sister, leaving him alone (at last!!) on a whim? The last episode was a little disappointing in this aspect, and I sincerely hoped she would seek psychological help in the end to become less of a burden to her son and make amends… But alas it didn’t happen. I guess they wanted to show that some people don’t want to heal themselves and prefer to continue their toxic relationship with their family. IDK but the pacing here was way too fast for my taste.
- Finally, the 10 years or so of no-contact between the main trio was a little hard to believe, especially for San Ha because he was only in Seoul whereas Hae Jun stayed in the US for a few years so it was a tiny bit more understandable but still… They tried to give explanations later as to why they wouldn’t/couldn’t maintain any contact with Ju Won and her dad but yeah, I understand it was necessary for the story to properly develop but it was still weird.

So that’s all for me! Give it a try because it was still a great and entertaining watch, despite some negative aspects. Especially if you didn’t watch the original series already, or if you like a more fast paced family story with great acting.

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Interesting premise

I am not going to wade into the "which is better, the original Chinese drama or this" controversy. I have never watched the Chinese original (and don't intend to) so I can't comment.

The only thing I want to touch on is the mental and social commentary stemming from this drama. First, I find it interesting that this 'alternative' family arrangement has been highlighted, perhaps as the writer's hope that single-parent families and alternative family arrangements will one day become normalised in Korea. It is often not their fault that such families end up the way they are, and they shouldn't face discrimination because of it. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a happy 'standard' family and as society, we shouldn't comment on what makes another family happy.

Second, what really bugs me is the lack of acknowledgement of mental health. San Ha's mom clearly has narcissistic personality disorder in the way that she manipulates everyone around her and never admits her responsibility for her own situation. Threatening suicide is one such example of manipulation. She needs psychiatric care. This in turn has caused San Ha untold mental anguish as manifested through his constant anxiety and insomnia. Just 'talking it out' won't make either sets of symptoms go away. This is unrealistic and I wished the drama could have handled it better.

Especially in a high pressure society like SK where there is already such a high incidence of suicide and other undiagnosed mental health ailments, this is the best opportunity to normalise help-seeking. As a doctor, Sanha really should have known better than to play to manipulation. There isn't even a need to make a big deal out of it - him putting his mom in a psychiatric ward would have made me feel so much better about her ending rather than letting her run away again!

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3 no-sibling

Beautiful relationship of these 3 "no-sibling", so different but so close and protective each other.
The meaning of family in this case is a choice of a "protective community" and not blood relationship.
A truly touching drama that made me cry for the difficult situations these abandoned kids found themselves in.
I appreciated how they gave continuity to the daughter's character, who was strong and determined when she was little with a predilection for one brother (the little girl was so cute) and she also had this character trait when she grew up.
I like hear dialect slang with different inflections.
I loved seeing the father who raised 3 children as his own.
I love the cast in generally.

On the contrary, it was a bit fantasy that after 10 years in contemporany come back the mother with a new child (a little sister), the other mother to pay the debt and also an unknown father.
Then the two boys left on the same day but even after 10 years they return on the same day?!
I hated the mother who pointed the finger at her poor son, again and again, even 10 years after abandoning him. Crazy! A toxic person.

PS: Bae Hyeon Seong looks a lot like Park Bo Gum.

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Light hearted and easy to binge watch

As a huge fan of the original C-Drama, I was really looking forward to the Korean remake. Knowing that the kdrama would have to fit in the entire story into 16 episodes, I was quite intrigued as to how the producers and writers would do so whilst still keeping the main themes of the story.

This was in general a good watch and I would recommend to anyone who wants a light drama. I won't go too much into the differences between the two dramas, but if you want to watch the one with more emotional scenes, then watch the CDrama. FBC was lighthearted and easy, every episode had a pivotal moment and there wasn't anything that I felt I had to skip.

I sympathised slightly more with the "bad guys" in this adaptation than the other which shows that the writers did a great job in making the characters human with flaws. The acting of the main 5 characters was good, nothing felt too awkward. The second lead couple were very cute and I personally would have liked to see more of them.

Overall, FBC was a nice watch, it wasn't heavy and I didn't cry while watching this in compared to the other adaptation. I liked how the big theme of family was the central point in this and that it was evident throughout the show. I also like the chemistry between the ML and FL way better in this drama than the other so in the romance side of things, FBC wins. But this was definitely a "watered down" version of the original. If you want a drama that has emotional impact, this one doesnt have it. Like stated before, this was an easy watch.

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it gets better!!!

alright so im 12 episodes in and can i just tell you this show took a dramatic turn for me halfway through. i was thinking about dropping this show when i was around ep 6-7 because i couldn’t connect properly with the characters but oh GOD.

all of a sudden im sobbing my eyes out and can’t stop watching it. first of all i just wanna say i LOVE the relationship between kang haejun and juwon’s father. i feel like they have the most beautiful relationship amongst everyone and i cry every single time i see them together. the way juwon’s father truly raised haejun as his real son and cares so much about him melts my heart.

HWANG INYEOP. oh my god this man is absolutely insane. HE IS SUCH A GREAT ACTOR IM ACTUALLY IN SHAMBLES. his acting skills are so underrated in the kdrama world. the way he portrayed sanha’s character SO WELL, i was crying along with him. also, he is such a TEASE when it comes to juwon. he was literally giving me butterflies i haven’t felt in a LONG TIME. AND OBVIOUSLY HE IS SO HANDSOME I WAS SCREAMING INTO MY PILLOW EVERY NOW AND THEN

in conclusion, it gets better. i didn’t expect to be hooked so tightly when i first started the show. just hold on and enjoy the journey together with the characters.

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Picked up this drama as the plot line seemed quite engaging. Although I have never the highly rated and nostalgic original, I knew that this would be a great watch. The story is pretty self-explanatory and throughout the series we are introduced to both some very unlikeable and likeable characters, various issues surrounding family, health, social status, pride etc. Seems like a typical good ol' Korean drama. I really loved the cast at the beginning as well, but towards episode 8-9 I really dropped the engagement and wasn't looking forward to Wednesdays as much as I used to at the beginning when this first aired. Both couples just did not have any chemistry at all, so it was slightly hard of a watch. Safe to say it has been done and dusted, after this maybe it is actually worth watching the original and comparing the two, although I would assume my opinion would remain the same as most fans of this drama.

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Inicio promissor, porém....

Um drama que começou com um brilho promissor nos primeiros episódios, entregando uma narrativa bem construída e cheia de potencial, mas que na passagem de tempo tropeçou feio. O ritmo acelerado e a edição desleixada acabaram comprometendo a experiência, deixando as construções afetivas tão rasas que quase passam despercebidas. O casal protagonista, SanHa e JuWon, foi praticamente jogado junto na reta final, como se os roteiristas tivessem entrado em pânico: "Vamos juntá-los agora, ou não dará tempo!" O resultado? Uma química que beira o inexistente.

Por outro lado, me deixei cativar pelo casal HaeJun e Dal, mas a execução da relação deles conseguiu ser ainda mais desastrosa. O texto, especialmente em momentos cruciais, era de um nível quase embaraçoso. A cena do pedido de namoro é o ápice do constrangimento: HaeJun diz algo como "Meu sentimento por você não é tão forte quanto o seu por mim, mas vamos namorar mesmo assim." Sério? Que tipo de ogro acha que isso é uma boa ideia para um momento tão importante? Alguém precisava dar uma pausa no chá de cogumelos alucinógenos da sala de roteiristas.

No campo das atuações, o destaque absoluto vai para Choi Won Young. Mais uma vez, ele mostrou por que é um dos melhores veteranos em atividade. Seu desempenho como o pai de família foi impecável, talvez o personagem mais bem construído de todo o drama. No balanço geral, foi uma obra com um começo muito promissor, mas que perdeu o fôlego no final. Um bom drama, mas com ressalvas que não dá para ignorar. É isso.

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Everything I hoped it would be

I love this kdrama.
The two main leads were so cute and I really loved their family by choice so much.
Sometimes it was a little boring but the good acting and the chemistry of both couples made up for that.

I liked the fact that kang hae-joon did not fall in love with yoon joo-won and that they stayed brother and sister throughout the whole drama, which is not common in kdramas.

I would have liked to see a little bit more of park dal and kang hae-joon and him falling in love with her/ him being head over heels in love with her.

I absolutely loved park dal and she is one of my favorites characters in this drama.

The actors were so good. They carried this drama and really put a lot of feeling in it.

I really enjoyed watching this kdrama and for me it's become a new comfort kdrama.

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