“Forecasting Love And Weather” Review- Is Park Min Young In A Slump?

Published Categorized as Kdrama Reviews
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JTBC is starting off 2022 in a relatively better position than it had in 2021, with the release of some kdramas featuring immensely popular Hallyu actors, this includes the recently concluded drama “Forecasting Love And Weather.”

I know I am late, like, really late to the party but here I am. I am here to discuss my thoughts on “Forecasting Love And Weather” and how I changed my mind after the second half concluded.

Note: this will be a spoiler review of the entire kdrama. This is a subjective review.

The plot

“Forecasting Love And Weather” has an okay plot aside from a few cases where it stands out, but the overall picture ends up being average at best. Its nothing groundbreaking but still, could become something that is memorable and super entertaining if done right. To me personally, what matters isn’t an original idea, if that even exists anymore, but a fun well-written script that fulfills its purpose depending on its genre, whether to entertain, educate or more.

“Forecasting Love And Weather” started out with a bang, it took a serious turn almost immediately with the couple sleeping together so soon, something that is relatively unheard of in kdramaland. And because of that, despite starting out at 4% in ratings, the drama ratings ended up skyrocketing and it did mostly well throughout its run.

I definitely believe that had it been better written, it would have surpassed the 10% mark easily.

The screenwriter behind “Forecasting Love And Weather” made many of what I can only call ‘odd’ choices, choices I’ll touch on below.

“Forecasting Love And Weather” spends nearly half of its run with its main couple and the other half with that couple broken up.

Now, I’ve been watching kdramas for over a decade, so I’ve seen everything, however, I rarely see a screenwriter deliberately separate the main couple for nearly half of the drama’s run time.

While cliché and stereotypical, generally speaking, screenwriters would only break up or suggest a breakup towards episode 12 or 13 in most kdramas. There are many reasons for that so its very odd that screenwriter Sun Young ran with the plotline that its a good idea to separate the couple over the dumbest of situations since episode 8 and/or 9, and to spend the second half of the drama going over that situation to the point that people were begging for a resolution.

Ha Kyung’s character and issues

The script has some interesting ideas, its just not done as well as it should have. One of the things that particularly caught my attention was how the screenwriter is indecisive on what do with her, between calling Ha Kyung a borderline genius all-around perfect director or a newly appointed director who is deeply under prepared for the duties she was assigned.

I had hoped the screenwriter would make it clearer for us that while some people are great employees, they’re not suitable to be in a leader’s position. She toys around with that idea but never fully commits to showcasing she’s flawed in that area but gets better or educated to be better with time.

The lack of clarity in that particular plot point annoyed me. It reduces Ha Kyung into an almost flawless character who is deeply wronged by society without much depth. This also made her character feel boring.

Another issue with Ha Kyung was how she suddenly comes to certain decisions, especially the one pertaining to kids, she just suddenly decides against it because her current boyfriend doesn’t want marriage. I wanted this point to be better explored but it wasn’t.

And another issue with Ha Kyung was how her interference with Lee Si Woo’s character’s issues with his father carried on with the screenwriter emphasizing on how kind she is for her behavior, especially in the second half when they’re broken up but she continues to play the bigger person role by interfering. I found it deeply annoying.

Why they broke up

When boiled down, Si Woo and Ha Kyung break up was over some of the dumbest reasons ever disguised as a good reason, and due to pride from both parties. Here is why I found it absurd.

The thing I liked about “Forecasting Love And Weather” initially was how good the couple communicated together. I really really loved it. I almost wrote an article praising the drama on this one point alone.

Now considering the fact that the couple ended things initially the way they did rubbed me the wrong way mostly because they have always been upfront and honest with each other, thus, it made no sense to me that they would break up like that and remain broken up for such an extended period of time too when this entire thing could’ve been discussed and resolved if they had discussed it.

This is why it felt half-baked. The screenwriter spends most of the time trying to justify keeping them apart and justify why their relationship might not work only to turn around and give a very expected cookie-cutter ending. I honestly would have wanted them not to end up together mainly because I don’t think they’re suitable for each other considering all reasons and counting their characters too.

For you to spend 8 episodes focusing on a couple breakup, a couple that had dated so briefly, a couple who don’t know each other that well, is, to me, absurd. If they had been dating for 1 year or so and this happened, I’d get it but not in the way she wrote it.

Exes befriending each other

One of the ridiculous plot points that I think most will agree with me on is the fact that the main couple exes become friends, sort of.

Ha Kyung and Ki Jun were preparing for marriage, she walks on him having sex with someone else but for whatever reason, they actually become friends later on, and grow closer as the drama progresses becoming each other’s confidant.

Exes can become friends again in reality, no biggie, it depends on many things but that happens when couples break up on good terms or amicably. I’ve never seen a couple where someone cheated on the other become friends again like that when they were preparing for marriage, thats like the biggest stab and the dude goes around and marries someone almost immediately adding insult to injury so the fact that Ha Kyung becomes closer as a friend to him is beyond me.

Its just bizarre. To me, it felt like the screenwriter wanted some sort of plot devices to add to the script without properly taking into account how they’d mix with other ideas she had. By plot devices I mean the ‘cheating’ part and how Ha Kyung’s marriage crumbles because of it. Its a big part of her story but the way she handles the rest of her relationship with Ki Jun was bizarre.

The same goes with Lee Si Woo and Yoo Jin, but I can sort of picture that happening because they hadn’t dated for as long and were not planning marriage either.

Also, I didn’t like how Ki Jun and Yoo Jin manage to actually save their relationship especially considering how selfish and dumb Ki Jun is. A couple who began a relationship by cheating on their respective other don’t end well, such relationships don’t tend to last in reality. I would have loved for her to focus on how having the foundation of your relationship be based on cheating doesn’t work, instead, we get this. It almost as if she says cheating was a one-time event for these two. Again, I can see how that could be reality with Yoo Jin since she was looking for marriage but I can’t see it with Ki Jun, mainly because he’s truly not husband material, he’s barely good enough to be a boyfriend to somebody. And suddenly, he just grows up because he finds out she’s pregnant which I also found super odd considering how his character has been until now.

Park Min Young’s choices

now onto the juicy part, and the reason why you clicked on this article.

Park Min Young is one of the most recognizable faces in kdramaland and for a very good reason. Nothing can take that away from her, but as with any actor who has been at it for a long time, a slump is bound to happen at some point and I think it is whats going on with her right now.

There has been some discussion among k-netizens about how repetitive her roles have become and how she ends up playing the same character and I must say, I agree. This is the first time that I’ve seen the topic of her characters get brought up like that, I guess people are catching on.

I never looked at it that way prior to this drama either, but now I can’t for the life of me tell her characters apart, they all feel and dress the same, they’re all the same except with different settings. She always plays the goody two shoes character who has overbearing parents who is all around a good emotional person who just wants to be loved and not get hur. I wish to god she’d spice it up.

She also always plays rom-coms or slice-of-life dramas, she hasn’t done action since Healer or has done anything that goes against what she’s known for.

For some, this isn’t a big deal, but for Park Min Young, this will become an issue as it means she’ll remain type-cast. This also could backfire in the near future because if she’s always playing the same thing, people will get tired of it eventually. The same thing is happening with Song Hye Kyo and Jun Ji Hyun.

The reason why it took me and others longer to notice how similar her characters were is because she does such a good job. The dramas also mostly ended up becoming successful. Thus, it doesn’t justify thinking about it at the time. And to be real, “Forecasting Love And Weather” is not a failure, it did well and is one of the top 10 most-watched JTBC dramas I believe. Regardless, I think she’s reached a point in her career where she needs to spice things up, possibly take on a villain role, a role of a crazy psycho, or anything that is exactly the opposite of the type of characters she’s played until now.

Song Kang’s acting and choices

As I said in my previous reviews, I think that Song Kang is trying to stack up his resume with as many different types of projects as he can. I think in 2021 alone, he’s been in three projects which is A LOT by kdrama standards.

I also think its related to his pending military enlistment, I think he’s trying to also showcase himself in different lights that can be remembered when he returns from the military.

I liked Song Kang’s performance of Lee Si Woo and how childish the character could be, this is personally my favorite character Song Kang played. The character seemed like an actual real person, he’s not rich, he’s just starting his career, he sometimes lacks the social skills to properly gauge how he should behave in certain situations too.

I rarely see male lead characters portrayed as flawed as Lee Si Woo. I really liked this approach because it felt so real and I know men who behave like him.

I thought he did a great job with it for the most part, except for the emotional scenes.

His acting was brought up again here too but not as much. I think he was within his range here in this drama which helped mask some of the issues he has. I still think he can’t fully grasp emotional scenes. The scenes in which he’s agitated, conflicted, and sad because of his father were not up to par. You can see him struggle to properly express those deep emotions of resentment, fear, and love all at the same time.

I hope he gets better in that regard in the future, aside from those scenes that were a bit rare, I’d say I liked him a lot here.

Conclusion

“Forecasting Love And Weather” feels like a wasted opportunity. Something that started out being so unique only to end up being bizarre in some places and very cliché in others. Its sad because it isn’t really the actors’ fault that the writing ended up like this. I think they did the best they could with the material they got.

The drama still has beautiful moments, the dialogue you hear in voiceover when characters relate their situations to the weather is done beautifully.

This could be Park Min Young’s slump depending on who you ask but I don’t think she’ll pick a shocking role next despite some of the discussion around her roles. I still hope she would because she’s a gem who has always done a good job.

So these are my thoughts on the drama, so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.

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By Jass K.

Hi, I am Jass k. I discuss some of the hottest currently airing kdramas on this site in form of reviews an/or recaps, join me in the discussion~

3 comments

  1. The moment when I thought that Park Min Young will probably never play any action drama character again, was during the episode during which Ha Kyung bravely announced that it will be her who will launch that meteo sond (or whatever it is called) in the air on the Jeju Island. What happened next is that it was Si Woo who launched it and Ha Kyung was sitting inside the booth the whole time in front of the computer and she did not have a single hair wet.

    As for Song Kang, he has proven that he can be quite a versatile actor, he can play a “guy next door” such as Si Woo or he can play in the Sweet Home. He is interesting to watch.

  2. I completely agree with you this drama I dropped out on episode 9, she has been doing similar roles since what’s wrong with secretary kim. I will love to ask some questions to the writer in particular on her management position at the weather center. Being smart doesn’t equal to have a management position her behavior was a little disappointing, also I believe this my personal opinion that the male lead needs more acting lessons is really hard to watch. I believe she is in a slump always going for the same characters it could be boring for the viewers. I enjoy her in healer such a refreshing role totally different, in what’s wrong with secretary kim also I enjoy the very predictable drama. But after that I haven’t seen anything special on her acting or choosing a great drama. I have also been watching korean dramas for over 15 years and I can be also extra demanding when I decided to watch a korean drama. To be honest for 2022 I have not been that impressed with the dramas currently. I don’t want to compare her with actress Song but lately I have been reminded of her by her acting and role decision. I haven’t been impressed not the she needs to impress me but as a viewer with many years of watching, I was expecting more. Love the review

  3. Park Min Young is such a boring actress! The actors always shine and she falls flat with no emotion and inability to deliver her part. Too bad, to have such gorgeous competent male actors work so hard, but in every scene, she drops the ratings, and make them look bad.

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