KDRAMA: Oh My Venus Review - 오 마이 비너스 리뷰

Rating: ★★★★☆

The plot of this K-drama is fairly simple Kang Joo-Eun (Shin Min-A) is a 33 year old Lawyer and a former Ulzzang (1). During the years she gained weight and she seems fine with it, until her boyfriend breaks up with her. During this period she goes on a business trip where on her way home she meets Kim Young-Ho (Jo Ji-sub), the son of a wealthy family but had a difficult childhood due to an injury. Kim Young Ho saves Kang Joo-Eun and after this their life gets intertwined and he becomes her personal trainer.

Oh My Venus is a drama that aired from November 6th 2015 to January 5th 2016, it’s starring Jo Ji-sub and Shin Min-A as the main characters. The writer for this drama is Kim Eun-Ji and the directors are Kim Hyung-suk and Lee Na-Jeong.

The script of this drama is something that you can expect from a drama made in 2015/2016, however the plot of this drama has been heavily critiqued and I as a watcher can agree to some parts of it. The drama shows the beauty standard that the Korean society expects, which in today's society is not appreciated. The drama itself has been criticised for creating a bad look on what is considered “overweight” which in this drama was not bad but a healthy weight in a way. Wanting to lose weight is never wrong but creating an atmosphere where one that is healthy is considered overweight is wrong, and i do agree on that part. Whoever later in the drama her losing weight is justified by doing it for her health because of her health problems. Moving on from the biggest critique of this drama. The layout of the actual drama is pretty good, some dramas can be overbearing and to say the least, annoying when they draw out on the plot too much. This one was pretty straight forward with no annoying and overly screamy and dramatic scenes since the layout is like a korean drama and not a korean soap opera. I did find Yu In-Yeong’s character Oh Soo-jin whiny and annoying which was can be expected for a side character in a kdrama during 2015.

The acting in this drama was anything but bad, this is what I expected from Shin Min-A and Jo Ji-sub, who are two actors that I greatly enjoy and have watched many dramas they have starred in. If there are any kpop fans out there Henry Lau (former Super Junior-M member) was a cast in this drama. For being one of his earlier works, i was impressed, he portrayed the character really well and gave it a personality that i don’t think anyone else would be able to bring. In this drama Sung Hoon is also seen, an actor that i’ve seen a lot in dramas that i have liked, an actor that i highly appreciate and many others do, i did however find his character in this drama rather flat. It was a very obviously a side character, it was not supposed to be the main character, but I do feel like the character could’ve been done or built better in a lot of aspects.

I watched this drama first in 2016 and have seen it 3-4 times since then. It's a solid drama. I apparently loved it enough the first time to then watch it 2-3 more times over the past years.

I definitely think that any kdrama lover needs to watch this drama.

Rating: ★★★★☆

1. Ulzzang - a term that describes someone famous for their looks.