More Than Friends Review: Honest Characters Trapped In A Clichéd But Watchable Romance

Just as the title suggests ‘More Than Friends’ is the story of a young girl named Woo Yeon who wishes to come out of the much dreaded ‘friend-zone’ and be something more to her friend, Lee Su. Such strong are her feelings for him that she holds on to her one-sided love for over a decade. If anything, this show is to be cherished for the special moments and heart-melting dialogues. There is a lot to remember and a lot more to forget about this unrequited-turns-undying love affair.

 

More Than Friends (2020) (16 Episodes)

When Kyung Woo Yeon (Shin Ye Eun) was in high school she fell in love with her classmate Lee Su (Ong Seong Wu). She confesses her feelings for him but he turns her down saying he sees her as only a friend and nothing more. She accepts his rejection and they continue being friends. But deep in her heart she still has feelings for Lee Su hoping that someday he might come to like her.

Lee Su returns to South Korea after spending seven years abroad. Seeing Lee Su, Woo Yeon’s suppressed feelings resurface and she proposes to him once again. Sadly, his feelings for her have not changed and Woo Yeon is left heartbroken yet again. Over the years, she is unable to maintain a long-term relationship with any guy because she is badly hung up on Lee So.

A couple of years later, Woo Yeon once again bumps into Lee Su, and this time she decides to end her longstanding crush. And the moment she does that, it stirs feelings in Lee Su’s heart, and their story changes from thereon.  

I enjoyed watching ‘More Than Friends’ because…

…it was a decently good watch. Before watching the drama I read a lot of viewers bashing the show for being unrealistic, the male lead being a jerk, and the female lead being a doormat. And they are not wrong. The drama does show a lot of unrealistic coincidences, silly scenarios, and all the possible clichés. Apparently, the male lead, Lee Su is indeed a selfish and self-centered jerk while our female lead, Woo Yeon is a complete pushover in love who has no sense of self-worth.

So, what did I like about the drama? Let me explain.

Our female lead, Woo Yeon suffers from low self-esteem. She is a people pleaser and wants everyone to like her. In school, she tries to fit in but her classmates only mock her for trying too hard. Lee Su sees how the girls mock Woo Yeon and he tries to protect her for reasons best known to him. His kindness moves Woo Yeon and she falls hard for him thinking that he likes her too.

When she confesses her feelings, he politely refuses her saying he sees her only as a ‘friend’. She accepts it but finds it hard to move on and often drunk dials him cursing him for being heartless and then begging him to love her.

Lee Su lives abroad so he does not really hear her drunken pleas. When he returns, he seeks her out and is nice and sweet to her like always, which again gets her hopes alive. Sadly she gets rejected once more. But eventually, when she decides to move on, he once again enters her life and refuses to make way for another guy.

The problem with Lee Su is that he likes Woo Yeon but is not aware of his own feelings. As a child, he was starved of love as his parents were too involved in their own lives fighting each other. They were never there for him when he needed them and so he learned to be self-reliant. He is now afraid of being hurt so he keeps an icy wall around him so that no one hurts his feelings.

He keeps coming back to Woo Yeon because he craves her attention and affection. In one episode, his parents come together to celebrate his birthday but he prefers to stay away from them and steps out of the house without any plans for the day. He then calls Woo Yeon because it’s better to spend the day with her than alone.

Lee Su is not emotionless. He feels betrayed by his parents for not being there for him when he was a child and needed them the most. This aspect is not emphasized clearly through the narration and so viewers wonder why he is so sulky after his parent’s divorce. He is simply afraid of being hurt. He feels that if he does not look after himself, no one else will and so he comes across as selfish.

His idea of love is also impaired because of his parent’s volatile relationship. He wonders if they love each other then why did they divorce in the first place.  

Even if he is selfish, he is not inconsiderate. He knows he can’t give Woo Yeon more than his friendship and is also always clear about it. He is nice to her. He treats her well. He helps her without making a show of it. He is just unable to express his feelings.

He never tells her to wait for him when he is away. He gives her complete freedom and space to move on in life. But when he is around, he obviously is not able to see her with someone else because he does indeed have unacknowledged feelings for her.

As the show progresses, we see Lee Su’s relationship with his parents improve gradually and so do his feelings for Woo Yeon. We see the change in his behavior and how his character develops through the course of the story.

I may come across as a Lee Su sympathizer and I am because he shows tremendous character development and I love him for that.

Coming to our female lead, Woo Yeon is not essentially a doormat but simply a girl in love. Once she falls in love with Lee Su, she does not know how to ‘unlove’ him. For instance, in school Woo Yeon tries her best to be nice to a group of girls so they accept her as their friend. But they are mean and take advantage of her. So, she comes to dislike them and does not want to be their friend anymore.

Lee Su is never mean to her so why will she dislike him? Even if he rejects her, he is still nice to her. Had he been demeaning and rude, then I too would consider Woo Yeon a fool for still being in love with him. But he is not and I feel for my girl. Of course, staying hung up on someone for so long is not right but that’s how Woo Yeon is as a person. One may wonder what is so great about him that she feels so attached to him but I feel this isn’t about him at all. It is just how Woo Yeon loves.

For instance, if you look at celebrity couple Selena Gomes and Justin Beiber, they too were known to have a tumultuous affair. They broke up and patched up several times till Beiber finally moved on to marry someone else. Throughout the ups and downs of their relationship, Selena was known to keep going back to Beiber despite their differences. What does Selena lack in life? Is she a doormat too for going back to her ex? This is simply how she loves. Charlie Puth famously quoted that “It’s about a particular moment in my life when someone very close to me wanted the attention of somebody else”. You see!! It happens in real life too. Some people can move on easily while some cannot.

…apart from the main love story, I loved Woo Yeon’s friend, Kim Young Hee, and her boyfriend, Shin Hyun Jae’s love story. I loved it so much that I often jumped through other parts of an episode only to get to their story sooner.

Young Hee comes from a humble background. She studies hard to be able to get a good job someday and support her family. She is in a long-term relationship with Shin Hyun Jae who comes from a regular middle-class family. Both their families and friends know of their affair and even want them to get married. However, Young Hee has been postponing her marriage plans for years because she has a lot of family responsibilities and cannot afford to get married.

I personally loved Young Hee’s story the most because of its realistic approach. Young Hee is a self-respecting girl who loves her boyfriend but her circumstances constantly pull her down. But her amazing boyfriend, Hyun Jae understands her well and always does everything to make her happy.

I want to especially mention Hyun Jae here for being such an amazing character. I wish I could steal him from Young Hee. Young Hee often pushes Hyun Jae away from her but since they have been dating for over ten years, he understands her better than anyone. He does not cling to her forcibly but is always there for her and also her family. He respects her immensely and you can see it in his actions.

In an episode, Hyun Jae’s sister tells Young Hee to back off from the relationship if she cannot marry Hyun Jae. When he learns about this, in an extremely emotional dialogue with his family he tells them why he cannot leave Young Hee and what she means to him. Seeing the young man cry moved my heart. Their love is so sincere it made me want to weep.

I did NOT LIKE ‘More Than Friends’ because…

…I loathed the second-lead, On Jun Su. I have never despised a second-lead as much as Jun Su. This guy is a CEO of a successful publishing house. He happens to see the vulnerable side of Woo Yeon and falls hard for her. Woo Yeon rejects him once, twice, thrice, and I don’t know how many more times but he still comes back.

Initially, I thought that he has had his heart broken in the past and so he understands Woo Yeon’s pain and so he feels so attached to her. Her loyalty to her ex probably impresses him as he would also want someone to love him the way she still loves her ex. But the kind of clingy stuff he does in the show is unbearable.

When Lee Su rejects Woo Yeon she does not go to him begging to be loved. Of course, she drunk dials him but he does not really receive her calls. She keeps her distance after he rejects her. But the case is different with Jun Su. The more Woo Yeon rejects him the more he insists on dating her. He does not understand what her ‘no’ means.

I hated him so much that after a point I skimmed through his scenes because I could not tolerate a character so weak only for a crumb of affection.   

…illogical scenarios. My biggest complaint regarding the show is the crazy amount of coincidences. Our leads are always bumping into each other. ALWAYS! Is South Korea really that tiny that you cannot help bumping into your crush? I see this in almost every romantic Kdrama that I watch and now I’ve grown tired of it. I wish writers would come up with something better to have our leads meet.

…the leads keep talking about the past all the time. Woo Yeon was in a one-sided love with Lee Su for over ten years. Lee Su made it clear at the very start how he feels about her. But if she hung onto him then why is he to be blamed? Why should he feel guilty for her one-sided love? But no. The fact that he rejected her and she could never get over him, is seen as an atrocity and he is constantly reminded of it. It’s painful to see Lee Su apologize time and again for something that is not even his fault.

 

 

‘More Than Friends’ is a draggy affair but once you come to like the characters you might not be able to detach yourself easily from their lives. Lead actors, Shin Ye Eun and Ong Seong Wu acted well enough to keep me invested in the drama that despite its slow pace I watched it till the end.

I give ‘More Than Friends’ 3 out of 5 ratings. If you like poignant romance then you might like this show. Watch it for the hard-earned sweet moments that Woo Yeon and Lee Su share. 

 

Watch this show on Viki

 

Image Courtesy: JTBC

 

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