Business Proposal
Welcome back to Hallyu Reviews! We hope you enjoyed Shamra’s review of "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God" - Part 2 last week. If you missed it, be sure to go back and have a read!
This week we take a look at “Business Proposal.”
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Synopsis
“Business Proposal” is about a food researcher, Shin Ha Ri (Kim Se Jeong), who goes on a blind date in her best friend’s place, but is alarmed to discover that the blind date is with the president of her company, Kang Tae Moo (Ahn Hyo Seop). Tae Moo, President of goFood, is interested solely in the family business, despite his grandfather’s pressures to marry. When Tae Moo discovers that Ha Ri is not whom she claims to be, Ha Ri fears retribution if he realizes her true identity, and continues with a fake identity, Geum Hui, inspired by a fictional K-drama character. Despite himself, Tae Moo finds Geum Hui/Ha Ri refreshing and fun to be around, and realizes her presence in his life keeps his grandfather’s pressures at bay. Tae Moo offers a business proposal - if Geum Hui/Ha Ri will pretend to be his girlfriend, then he will forgive her for impersonating Young Seo and pay her twice the amount Young Seo offered. Ha Ri has her misgivings, but reluctantly agrees, because she feels she has no choice. Eventually, Ha Ri’s true identity is revealed, and the couple falls in love. When the grandfather’s health requires a critical medical procedure and lengthy stay in New York, Tae Moo and Ha Ri continue their relationship but are physically separated while Tae Moo accompanies his grandfather. The separation continues for a year - much longer than the couple anticipated. But just as rumors begin to surface that Tae Moo is dating another woman, Tae Moo returns to Korea, and with his grandfather’s blessing, proposes to Ha Ri.
Courtesy of Hancinema
Lead Couple
The Lead Couple of Ha Ri and Tae Moo is very cute, but set up from the very beginning of the series as total opposites. In a tongue-in-cheek manner, “Business Proposal” employs many of the most common K-drama tropes, including that of a superior male/inferior female. Tae Moo is wealthy, handsome, and intelligent, and the President of goFood. Tae Moo is born into a wealthy family and raised as an only heir by his grandfather. He dresses well and drives a Mustang (an American muscle car, a personal favorite). His looks are described by Ha Ri’s coworker as celebrity-like. When Ha Ri first meets him, she is stunned by his hotness. But true to the K-drama trope of a superior male, Tae Moo is also cold, unfeeling, a bit self-absorbed, and lacks in most common social skills.
Courtesy of Hancinema
Ha Ri, by comparison, is the inferior female, employed as a researcher at Tae Moo’s company. She comes from a middle-income family and often helps out at her family’s chicken restaurant. Like her mother and brother, Ha Ri has a fiery temperament. When she loses her temper with the rude fish shop owner across the street, she accidentally knocks him down and agrees to pay his costly medical expenses. Her best friend, Jin Young Seo (Seol In Ah), comes from a wealthy family like Tae Moo’s and is also being forced to attend blind dates. Young Seo offers to pay Ha Ri if she will attend a blind date for her in her stead, impersonate her, and ruin it. Desperate for money, Ha Ri agrees, not knowing that the blind date is with the president of her company.
Courtesy of Kpopmap
When Tae Moo and Ha Ri/“Young Seo” meet on the blind date, Ha Ri employs many hilarious tactics in an attempt to ruin Tae Moo’s impression of “Young Seo.” And yet, the tactics end up having the opposite effect. First, Ha Ri decides on a “strong baddie” character with bold makeup, a wig with highlights, and a revealing outfit. Ha Ri tries to make Tae Moo uncomfortable by claiming that she is hot and takes off her jacket, revealing too much skin, but he notices that she has goosebumps and asks if she is cold. Then, she acts obsessed with her luxury goods, talking in a baby voice to her shoes and purse, but he is responding to a text from work and fails to notice. Next, she tells him that she has had plastic surgery on her breasts, whom she calls “Samantha” and “Rachel.” It seems like this approach may have worked when Tae Moo chokes on his drink, but he tells her that he appreciates an honest person over a hypocrite. Pulling out all the stops, Ha Ri then suggests that they get a hotel room for the night, but Tae Moo can see her foot shaking nervously under the table and decides to call her bluff. Before they make it up to the room, however, (and just as Ha Ri hilariously decides to make a run for it!), Ha Ri is mistaken for another woman by the girlfriend of a cheating man. The woman causes a scene, grabbing Ha Ri by the hair, but Tae Moo intercedes. The scene ends with Ha Ri telling Tae Moo that she dates many men at once, and then runs away from the crazed girlfriend just as Tae Moo’s Chief Secretary and best friend, Cha Sung Hoon (Kim Min Kyu) arrives to give Tae Moo a ride home. When Tae Moo relays the evening’s events to Sung Hoon, Sung Hoon is appalled, but Tae Moo cannot help but chuckle, as he realizes that he found “Young Seo”/Ha Ri’s openness and honesty refreshing.
Courtesy of Pep.ph
One thing I really like about Tae Moo is that he also has a lot of respect for Ha Ri as a researcher. We learn that even before he meets her in-person, he finds Ha Ri (the researcher) quite competent and admires several of her projects for goFood which have proven to be very successful for his company. Tae Moo does not like to waste time and he admires hard workers. After running into Ha Ri at work and witnessing some bizarre behavior as she tries desperately to prevent her true identity from being exposed, Tae Moo says that “she acts awfully strange, but I like the way she works.”
And while Tae Moo is not interested in wasting time with dating, we learn that Ha Ri has a long, unrequited love for longtime friend, Lee Min Woo (Song Won Seok). On her birthday, Ha Ri is crushed when Min Woo gives Ha Ri tickets to her favorite singer’s concert, but tells her she has to take a guy. Ha Ri learns that Min Woo has reunited with his on-again-off-again girlfriend and that he will only ever see her as a friend. This is an important turning point for Ha Ri because it opens up space in her heart for Tae Moo, whom she ends up taking to the concert, and it draws Ha Ri and Tae Moo closer together while unintentionally making Min Woo jealous.
Young Seo/Sung Hoon
The second couple Jin Young Seo (Ha Ri’s best friend) and Cha Sung Hoon, is cute, if a bit on the bland side. To an extent, their situation is the reverse of the Lead Couple’s - Young Seo comes from a wealthy family, and though Sung Hoon was raised by Tae-Moo’s grandfather and embraced as family, he comes from a poor background. They too, struggle with the disproval of a rich relative, Young Seo’s father. The couple ultimately decides to be together, despite Young Seo’s father’s objections, and are a source of support for Ha Ri and Tae Moo. Their sweetest moment is when, before they begin dating, Sung Hoon heroically gives chase to a man who has been spying on Young Seo’s apartment via a lamp with a camera hidden inside. He interrupts an interaction between Young Seo and the voyeur and chases the man down. With the help of Tae Moo, Sung Hoon makes sure that the repeat offender is brought to justice.
Courtesy of Koreaboo
Bromance
One of my favorite elements of any good K-drama is a good bromance, and “Business Proposal” has one between Tae Moo and Sung Hoon. Sung Hoon is Tae Moo’s Chief Secretary and often runs interference for him and his asocial behaviors, as well as with Tae Moo’s grandfather who raised both men. Towards the beginning of the series, Tae Moo’s grandfather asks the men if they are in a homosexual relationship because they are joined at the hip. Sung Hoon answers that Tae Moo is not his style and Tae Moo, offended, asks, “what’s wrong with me?” The two men grew up in the same home, so in some ways, they are like brothers. One of my favorite moments between the two men happens when Tae Moo realizes that he has been fooled by Ha Ri (aka, fake “Young Seo”) and tells Sung Hoon that he wants to have his revenge on the fake “Young Seo.” To which Sung Hoon hilariously states, “that’s a weird direction you’re taking with your anger.” I also love their scene together in the hospital after Tae Moo is in a car accident and suffers an arm injury. Sung Hoon, the good friend that he is, is helping Tae Moo get dressed, only to be interrupted by the sudden entrance of a highly amused nurse. The two men, caught in what looks like a lovers’ embrace, respond in unison, “It’s not…” but the nurse just smiles and tells them that she will come back at a later time. The conversation between the two men after that moment is very comical as they blame each other for the misunderstanding, only to resume the process of getting Tae Moo dressed.
Juxtaposed with their funny moments as family, Sung Hoon is also Tae Moo’s employee, and they often act within the confines of that more formal relationship. It is this part of the relationship that causes issues between Sung Hoon and Young Seo, when Young Seo accuses Sung Hoon of being a servant to Tae Moo and his family. Young Seo fails to realize that Sung Hoon does what he does for Tae Moo out of brotherly love, though it is fair to say that the more formal side of their relationship, can, at times, block the closeness that I have come to love about K-drama bromances.
Courtesy of Leisure Byte
Besties
By contrast, the relationship between Ha Ri and her best friend, Young Seo, is affectionate and family-like from start to finish. The women share a sisterly bond, despite having no blood relation. Like Tae Moo and Sung Hoon, Ha Ri and Young Seo have known each other since childhood. Unlike the men, however, their affection for one another is open and equal at all times, despite their social and financial differences. They defend one another and are even willing to put themselves in ridiculous positions for each other. One moment that exemplifies how much they rely on one another is when Young Seo calls Ha Ri to her home early one morning to remove an “intruder” (aka a cockroach), because she is too terrified of it herself. Ha Ri comes willingly, despite the early hour on a weekend, without judgment.
Courtesy of Soompi
K-drama Tropes
Tae Moo’s grandfather, Kang Da Koo (Lee Deok Hwa), as well as several other of the characters in “Business Proposal,” are fans of the fictional K-drama, "Be Strong, Geum Hui." We see “Be Strong, Geum Hui” throughout the series and it parallels the storyline of “Business Proposal” while taking obvious jabs at the various K-drama tropes found within. Geum Hui is the name that Ha Ri adopts on the fly when Tae Moo learns that she is impersonating Young Seo, but while her situation appears quite similar to that of the fictional character, we see many obvious differences. In “Business Proposal,” we see many of the common K-drama tropes - superior male/inferior female, a wealthy relative who is opposed to the relationship, a childhood trauma that causes asocial behaviors, fireworks during a romantic moment (usually near the Han River), and cherry blossoms falling during a romantic scene - but while the tropes are present, we also see them turned on their heads in “Business Proposal.” For example, Ha Ri points out to her parents that though Young Seo is from a wealthy family, she is just like them, “a normal person.” Her parents love Young Seo and welcome her into their home as one of their own. In addition, though Tae Moo’s grandfather is initially opposed to Tae Moo’s relationship with Ha Ri, it is surprisingly not because he views Ha Ri as inferior due to her modest family and background. And the biggest difference is that, ultimately, Kang Da Koo is willing to accept Ha Ri as his granddaughter-in-law because Tae Moo loves her.
Fashion
One of my favorite things about “Business Proposal” is the fashion, particularly Kim Se Jeong’s. While her style as Ha Ri is plain and leans towards function over fashion, the outfits she wears in her Geum Hui disguise are very fashionable and on-trend. When she first meets Tae Moo on the blind date, the concept for her look is a “strong baddie,” and she mixes heavy makeup with a provocative style of dress. But when she agrees to Tae Moo’s business proposal, we see a slight shift in Geum Hui’s style. According to DianneP_Kim of Soompi, “[h]er dominant style as Shin Geum H[ui] is a ‘rich girl look,’ which portrays her as someone who only cares about brands, luxury goods, and outside appearances. Her alter-ego wardrobe consists of a lot of plaid and striped pieces, perhaps going for a preppy ‘Gossip Girl’ style, and she also wears two-set matching pieces that are actually popular in Korea right now.” Metrostyle.com described Geum Hui’s style as “a mix of classic Korean styles like cardigans, babydoll blouses, and platform heels with sophisticated pieces from Burberry, Valentino, and Prada.” Even when she is no longer disguising herself as Geum Hui, you can see the impact that playing that role had on Ha Ri, as she steers away from the sweats and t-shirts. Probably my personal favorite look of Ha Ri’s is the yellow and white outfit that she wears when heading to the airport to fly to New York. Although I am certainly not a fashion connoisseur, something about the whole look makes me recall Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” And while Ha Ri’s outfit is certainly the scene stealer, Tae Moo’s corresponding gray suit with yellow and white stripes coordinates perfectly, making for the perfect couple’s outfits, and setting up the proposal scene.
Courtesy of Hancinema
Pet Peeve
If you have read any of my previous reviews, you probably know that a major pet peeve of mine is when an actor is passed off in a K-drama as an American, yet they speak English with a non-American accent. When Tae Moo goes to New York on business midway through the series, the “American” he meets there is obviously a non-native English speaker. To be fair, this does not necessarily mean that she is not American as the United States is home to many people who do not speak English as their first language, particularly in large cities like New York. That being said, however, it is a common occurrence in K-dramas to use non-American actors to portray Americans and it bugs me. It is the equivalent to using a Chinese or Japanese actor to portray a Korean in an American series. Ironically, Ahn Hyo Seop, who lived in Canada for 10 years and is proficient in English, sounds more “American” than the actor portraying an American.
Final verdict: WATCH
When I first tuned into “Business Proposal,” I really thought it might end up as one of my favorites, as I am a big fan of Cinderella stories. I will say that this series periodically falls a bit flat, with too much emphasis on the differences between classes and on the opinions of others, while relying on distracting and gimmicky CGI and sound effects. “Business Proposal” also has many similarities to one of my favorite K-dramas, “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?,” but pales in comparison. Although “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?” does not deal with a contract relationship, the storylines are similar - handsome but cold boss falls in love with a beautiful and warm subordinate. Both men have egocentric personalities, exhibit asocial behaviors, and suffer from childhood traumas that have left them scarred. And both men become more “human” through their relationships with their female counterparts. Both series have wonderful relationship arcs for their Lead Couples, but with only 12 episodes, “Business Proposal” ends rather abruptly with Tae Moo’s proposal. I have come to expect my K-dramas to average around 16 episodes per series, though I have noticed a trend amongst recent Netflix Originals like “Business Proposal” and “Nevertheless” for shorter series, 12 and 10 episodes, respectively. Four more episodes would have given “Business Proposal” more time and space to flush out the storyline for both their Lead and Secondary couples. Overall, “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?” is a stronger series, with a more developed story and more time dedicated for the Lead Couple to connect. With all of that being said, a fantastic cast, cute relationships, and a fun storyline make “Business Proposal” worthy of watching!
So there it is, our review of “Business Proposal.” What did you think?! Thank you for joining us on this journey. Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review, comment down below!! We look forward to seeing you back again next week!
Up next, “Forecasting Love and Weather”
