K-Drama Review: “Devilish Charm” Casts Endearing Love Spell That Feels Good While It Lasts

Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ha Yoon sustained the energy of their love pairing which kept Devilish Charm a love drama for viewers to watch with a smile.

Everything is familiar with the narrative of Devilish Charm, a weakness that can easily tire out the series. However, through the right concoction of heart-fluttering scenes, following those old school romance novel themes of fated love and lingering memories, MBN’s offering managed to secure a satisfying love story.

Title: Devilish Charm
Distributor: MBN
Theme: Romance, Drama, Comedy
Length: 16 Episodes
Broadcast Date: 5 Sept 2018 – 25 Oct 2018
Main Leads: Choi Jin Hyuk, Song Ha Yoon
Highlights: Endearing love pairing, Supportive secondary cast
Drawback: Flat ending, cliche conflict
Overall Rating: 
Re-watch Value: 
Related Dramas: Save The Last Dance For Me, Legend of the Blue Sea, Beloved Eun Dong

Easy to watch and banking on its strong love couple, Devilish Charm stayed on my radar after it won me over with its simple and romantic narrative.

No matter how trite it has flowed until its 10th episode, I remain a steadfast follower.

Seel Also: K-Drama Mid Series Check: “Devilish Charm” Continues To Enchant Through Fetching Love Pairing

Highlights

Endearing Love Pairing

The fated encounter premise for the love couple who got tied up in a whirldwind one day romance, but lost contact and meet again, is a common storyline. The twist of the hero’s suffering over Cinderella syndrome, a short-term memory loss medical condition, spiced up the fulfilment of the romance between the two. Amidst his deteriorating health, he embarks to continue the romance to the woman he can’t remember, but his heart feels familiar with.

The heroine’s life also changed since the vile CEO of the entertainment agency managing her pinned her as a murderer three years ago. She had to climb up from rock bottom to regain her life dream and popularity.

Ma Seong and Gi Beum’s love tale felt good to watch on screen. The evident chemistry between the two laid a feast for the rom-com cravers. The fiery kissing frames plus the ordinary sweet scenes strengthened the grip for viewers when the the series struggled with tidying the conflict up.

Abundance of fan service

In a way the journey of Ma Seong and Gi Beum in fulfilling their love, along with their personal dreams, is the main drawing factor for the drama’s following. In all honesty, there’s nothing spectacular with its premise. Nonetheless, the sketching of the romance between the main leads is fetching.

Drawback

Flat ending and cliche conflict

For the record, the play-it-safe ending did not disappoint me, because for series like Devilish Charm, it is a kind of story that warrants a happy ending come what may. As a viewer, I would gladly take the resolution as long as the lovers are back to each other arms, no matter how vague the solution of the conflict is.

The miraculous cure of Ma Seong’s illness was explained to have been treated when he left the country and was found later by his doctor. The very person who connived with his aunt to cause the accident that led to his health condition.

True, it is hard to reconcile this safe and illogical answer. Just like it is hard to comprehend how the redemption for the half-hearted villains was just too easy. The writing was so forgiving on justifying the actions of the antagonists leading to an imbalance treatment of the good-versus-evil depiction in the narrative.

Spinning the rich household power struggle conflict, that resolved itself in a lukewarm manner, kickstarted the dwindling shift from endearing to oh-no-this-is-not-happening moments past the 12th episode for Devilish Charm. It would have been nice to focus on Ma Seong’s cure than aggravate it with the disconnected reasoning of the antagonist’ greedy nature. Because, hey, love can cure anything so it would have been acceptable and safe to have the couple struggle together after a trial surgery (which the writer could have thought). Instead, they made the hero run away somewhere to bump into a possible cure.

Recommendation

Lucky for the abundance of adorable scenes, Devilish Charm reached an engrossing story dedicated to people who seek feel-good romantic stories.

Despite the messy ending which relied on viewers’ understanding nature to accept whatever road to happy ending scenarios thrown in the concluding episodes, Devilish Charm is still a safe bet for a romantic treat.

Credit to Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ha Yoon’s spot-on portrayals and a reliable support from the secondary characters, this drama is perfect for a weekend binge if your set theme is romance.

Fans can watch it on K-Plus Channel.

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About the writer

abbyinhallyuland reads and sleeps a lot when she is not traveling. Her calendar reminders are mostly K-Drama broadcast schedules and birthdays of her favorite Korean actors. Promoting watching K-Dramas as stress therapy is her life advocacy. She is fond of Spencer Reid, Kenshin Himura, Starwars saga, Haruki Murakami and Hunter x Hunter.

• Favorite Korean Dramas: Reply 1988, Nine, Misaeng, Gaksital, Discovery of Love, Because This is My First Life, Descendants of the Sun, My Love from the Star, Healer, Punch, You’re Beautiful, Coffee Prince, Princess Hours, The Greatest Love, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and City Hunter