Before We Get Married Review: A Tempting Love Story Of A Pervert

Instagram is one helluva place to discover dramas if you know which accounts to follow. I follow this one account where the admin updates with some really good dramas. Luckily for me, the admin and I have similar taste in dramas i.e. we love romantic dramas and so whatever the admin suggests I often pick that drama. And that was how I learnt about ‘Before We Got Married’.

‘Before We Got Married’ is an angsty romance where two people are attracted to each other but cannot be together because they already are in their respective relationships. With a unique plot and two sexy main leads this drama pushes all the right buttons to get viewers hooked onto it like a fish.

Before We Get Married (2019) (13 Episodes)

Chu Ke Huan (Jasper Liu) is a successful stockbroker who is in a loveless relationship with his spend-thrifty girlfriend of 10 years. One day he happens to meet Zhou Wei Wei (Puff Guo) who catches his fancy by running after a receipt of a small amount to be able to redeem it later. He happens to chance upon her personal diary, which she forgets behind in the cab that she rode before Ke Huan. Her diary indicates her money-saving plans to be able to have a comfortable retirement in her dream house with her boyfriend. Intrigued by her dedication to her apparently frugal boyfriend, Ke Huan relentlessly chases after her but each time she firmly turns him down. Ke Huan feels obsessed with her but even when he gives up on her destiny brings them face-to-face on one pretext or another. Eventually, he breaks up with his girlfriend and pursues Wei Wei who by then starts developing a soft corner for him.

Let’s weigh this sexy drama on our drama beam balance and see what is appealing and what is not so appealing about it.  

 

 

Good Weights

I enjoyed watching ‘Before We Get Married’ because…

…I liked Jasper Liu a lot in this drama. I liked him so much that I started watching another drama of his.

It’s good to see how his body language and facial expressions differ starkly when he is with Wei Wei than how he is with Gao Zi Yuan.

His evil but loving, despicable but caring character ‘Ke Huan’ is a magnet for romance lovers. Ke Huan is different with different people and Jasper Liu portrays that effortlessly.   

 

 …I loved Puff Guo as the sincere, caring, and loyal Wei Wei. From what I saw in ‘Just You’ actress Puff Guo seems to have improved tremendously.

Puff Guo looks gorgeous in the drama and plays the role of a matured independent girl to perfection. I did have a problem with Wei Wei’s character initially when she seems to develop feelings for Ke Huan despite identifying him as a pervert.

However, the show writers justified her actions whereby she tells her friend that at first she despised Ke Huan but then seeing him care for her she kind of started melting. Which is okay since he later started behaving himself and helped her a few times so it’s natural to soften for such a person. I appreciate the fact that despite all this she does not make it any easy for Ke Huan to get close to her. She stays every bit of the loyal girlfriend that she is for as long as she can.

…forbidden romance is always fun to watch. Ke Huan and Wei Wei are both in long-term committed relationships. Ke Huan is unhappy in his relationship because of several reasons one of which is the fact that Zi Yuan does nothing in life except spend lavishly with his credit card. Wei Wei’s boyfriend Li Hao Yi is not very rich and has chalked out a detailed plan which can help him and Wei Wei live a comfortable life after retirement. A doting girlfriend, Wei Wei thoroughly follows his plans and cuts down her expenses only to be able to help him. Her dedication to her boyfriend and miserly ways to help him moves Ke Huan who has probably never seen such an accommodating girlfriend before. Wei Wei is everything that Ke Huan’s girlfriend isn’t and thus starts his obsession.

There is too much of sexual tension between Ke Huan and Wei Wei because he wants her badly and she does not like him one bit. He wants her at any cost but she won’t give in easily. This hate-to-love relationship is too tempting to be missed.

…Wei Wei’s BFF Han Ke Fei is the bestie anyone would love to have. Ke Fei is that friend who we all want in our lives.

She ALWAYS has Wei Wei’s back. Hell she even takes a hit for her. Literally! Actress Phoebe Yuan was wonderful as the promiscuous Ke Fei who just can’t control her carnal desires.   

 

Bad Weights

I did NOT LIKE ‘Before We Get Married’ because…

…it kind of promotes sexual harassment. All the angst and chemistry and sexiness I spoke about before translates to sexual harassment in the real world. There is this one scene where Ke Huan and Wei Wei are alone in his house and she calls him a pervert. Enraged, he forcibly lifts her and places her on the balcony’s railing. She screams in fright and instinctively clings onto him as he pulls her back in his arms. They then ‘share a moment’ which as viewers we are supposed to perceive as ‘attraction’. He then tries to lock her in the balcony and demands a kiss from her if she wants to be freed. She pushes him away and he pins her to the glass door where she tells him she does not want to date him and he slyly clears the air that what he wants from her is not known as ‘dating’.

This looks great on-screen because Ke Huan or actor Jasper Liu is an attractive young man. But imagine Wei Wei being pursued by a bald, pot-bellied, old uncle. Would it still look sexy and hot?

The writers later try to redeem Ke Chuan’s character by showing him to be a caring person who is always there when Wei Wei is in trouble but the fact remains that he is the same pervert who asked Wei Wei to sleep with him if she wanted his posh apartment at a low price.  

What is funnier is that when his blackmailing tactic works and he has her in his bed he suddenly changes his mind and lectures her for giving in to his demand only to get a discount on his apartment to make her lousy boyfriend happy. So basically, he takes advantage of her situation only so he can chastise her for giving in to his immoral demand. Whaaat?

Also, Ke Huan lacks consistency. First, he is shown to be a sexy bad guy and later he turns sweet and caring. And honestly, this Christian Grey technique almost always works to grab eyeballs because we like to see a dominant rich man fall for the poor damsel. But, drama writers are smart. They know that showing such a despicable character as the lead can raise a furore amongst viewers so after showing the bad side they mellow the guy down and make him appear like a ‘good guy’ to justify his ‘lead’. In short, they dress a sheep in a wolf’s garb to attract viewers and then strip him of the outer façade so anyone having an objection with his misogynistic ways sees that he is actually misunderstood. 

…Wei Wei’s office is more of a drama theatre where outsiders can easily enter the office area and slap employees and no one says anything. Then an ex-employee hacks all the computers in the office to propose to his girlfriend and everyone in the office finds it romantic. Even better is two men hijack a conference room to fight and decide who gets the woman they both love and when that doesn’t help then the estranged couple take over another conference room to sort out their differences. What kind of work do these people do?

 

 

‘Before We Get Married’ starts off well by showing an intriguing character like Ke Chuan fall for a girl he cannot have. Friction between these two makes the drama interesting to a great degree. The storyline seems to lag in between when Wei Wei and Ke Huan decide to be ‘just friends’. But it catches up later on. I personally enjoyed the drama because I loved Puff Guo and Jasper Liu’s chemistry. Despite its flaws, the drama does what it should do i.e. entertain. So, go for it only for entertainment.

I give Before We Get Married 3.5 out of 5 rating. Fans of this drama have loved it and I enjoyed it too. Do give this one a try when in the mood for something hot and sexy.

 

Feature Image and Screenshots Courtesy: Viki.com

 

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