[HanCinema's Drama Review] "It's Okay, That's Love" Episode 14

Provided you saw the preview last episode, it's pretty easy to guess every major storyline event that happens this episode. Consequently, up until Jae-yeol finally gets committed, the proceedings are pretty uninspiring, and at their worst even invoke shades of the sociopathy that has defined the drama up until this point. Jae-yeol may not be consciously dangerous, but he's definitely a threat to himself and others and it's easy to feel sorry for the passerby minding their own business who got stuck into this, even if we never see them.

Advertisement

There's also a few more annoying scriptwriting coincidences. Enough discussion of that, though, since that's nothing new. What is new is that, for the first time since the drama started, we actually get a very good look at how the mental hospital works. I don't think it's any exaggeration to note that we've already had more serious doctor time with Jae-yeol than we've had with all the other patients put together. Indeed, it's become increasingly clear that these patients were only ever discussed in the context that they all had problems which compare to Jae-yeol's in some way.

This naturally didn't make these instances particularly interesting or important at the time, but the relevance is very sharp here now that the drama's cut away most of the lighter material. For all intents and purposes, we're watching the story of Jae-yeol realizing that he's mentally ill logically while not being able to process it literally. Hae-soo in particular is about the only thing keeping him grinded in reality, since he doesn't trust any other character to the extent he trusts her.

From a critical perspective this is a bit annoying, since in my opinion there relationship progression has not been at all convincing, and Jae-yeol in fact treats her in the same rude disrespectful way he treats everyone else. It's just a matter of production values that says otherwise. But in the context of this episode and this crisis, it works. The acting may not be as sharp as possible, yet it's a convincing portrait of a situation that's getting worse in the short term on the promise of getting better in the long term.

There's maturity in the subject matter at this point which belies the overall status of "It's Okay, That's Love" as a romantic comedy. Even if shades of the drama's past obnoxiousness show up from time to time, right now we're dealing with effective psychiatric melodrama, and this is actually a pretty good format combination. Mental conditions are practically melodrama by definition- it's not like we can completely cure them.

Review by William Schwartz

"It's Okay, That's Love" is directed by Kim Kyoo-tae, written by Noh Hee-kyeong and features Zo In-sung, Kong Hyo-jin, Sung Dong-il and Lee Kwang-soo.