Business Proposal is a K-Drama produced by Netflix. It was released worldwide on 28th February 2022 with the final episode airing on 5th April 2022. Directed by Park Seon Ho and it is based on The Office Blind Date by HaeHwa.
Business Proposal K-Drama Cast
- Kim Sejeong as Shin Ha-ri
- Ahn Hyo-seop as Kang Tae Moo
- Seol In-ah as Jin Young Seo
- Kim Min-kyu as Cha Sung Hoon
Business Proposal K-Drama Plot
To appease his grandfather and continue his trend of working hard, Kang Tae Moo decided to meet up on the blind dates set up for him. Realising that the only way to not waste time would be to settle for the first date itself. Shin Ha-ri, is convinced by her best friend who had posed as her friend on the blind date and now, Kang and she are trying to fool everyone while she herself is fooling Kang too.
Business Proposal K-Drama Review
Clichés and tropes are always a hit or a miss. If the build-up of the show doesn’t use a trope well, then the audience can easily get disengaged and switch to a series that does utilise popular tropes well. Two tropes that are pretty common are Fake Relationships and Office relationships. Throw in clichés like the two persons being of different financial standing, one being super stoic and the other being equally chirpy and you will have the Wattpad dream. If you don’t know, Wattpad, what did you do in middle school? What else was there to do in middle school? Did you not know of fanfictions?
K-Dramas are known for being a haven of cliché and tropes. Many popular K-Dramas have nailed getting these tropes right. Not too on the nose and not too masked out. Maybe it is because of how seamlessly they incorporate romantic tropes, that it doesn’t become a cringe-fest of love. While I can’t really call it subtle, these series charm the viewers with their innocence. Nothing does slow burn better than K-Dramas. Honestly, the tension of it all can make one wonder why all series don’t do that.
Business Proposal is One Charmingly Written K-Drama
While I may not be an avid watcher, let me rephrase that, I had never watched a K-Drama till Business Proposal. A new Netflix production that was the least disappointing one I have watched in the past few months. Business Proposal is a 12 episode series that has made me shout at the screen a lot more than I imagined myself doing for this show. The reason for such a reaction is the series has several surprises throughout and it forces the audience to engage with every scene.
No conflict in the series seemed forced and they didn’t make a mountain out of any mole holes, which is saying a lot for drama shows. Like every drama show, the series has also made my expectations from men a lot higher. Which is a key feature of a drama series. The side characters, as well as the protagonists, are all so charmingly written, that one can’t help but root for all of them. Such writing is necessary as the series spans 12 episodes of 1 hour each. In addition, the important moments of the series incorporated art pieces in the scene’s background that were relevant to what was going to happen.
Taking a Look at the Relationship Between Mr Kang & Ms Shin
Moving on to the earlier point, Business Proposal is about the relationship between Mr Kang and Ms Shin. What starts off as a fake relationship becomes a multitude of things including the fact that Ms Shin actually works for Mr Kang. She is a researcher in the company where he is the president. It is because of the grey area that an employee and employer relationship falls under that would make one say how they can predict the entire show. Yet from the very first few episodes, I knew I couldn’t.
Every storyline had its respective tangents that when interlinked, didn’t do so in a manner that seemed forced or awkward. The same workplace dynamic between the two characters factored in naturally. From the office relationship stories I have encountered, the superior ending up at the subdivision as often as they do doesn’t seem practical at all yet this show made it extremely natural and it helped sell the plot. In addition, the brewing romance between the side characters was not forgotten halfway through, which is saying a lot.
As we know, drama shows love a good carnival scene, and no, not the Euphoria kind. This show set up many small moments throughout. It did get annoying to see so many clichés incorporated into one series but I would also factor in the fact that I had watched the entire series in 2 days. Or less.
Another point that kind of irked me was the promotion of obsessive love. Mr Kang had mentioned how he would persist in letting Ms Shin know of his feelings till the day she felt the same. In my opinion, relentlessly pursuing a person is not a depiction of love but more of an obsessive toxic habit that needs to be addressed by the person who thinks it is alright to do so. It was funny to see something like this because in the same series, when the side character, Ms Young developed feelings for Mr Cha, she too tried her best to get him but after a point decided to respect the line drawn and stay within. Though they went on to have a cute story later.
The show also did not compromise on the animations. It used a lot of flowers and dinosaurs to remind the audience about the various relationships in the show. Unnecessary because the chemistry of the characters was too good to require further help that seemed more annoying than cutesy.
The Movie Culture Synopsis
Overall this series was super cute but it didn’t manage to convince me to watch other K-Dramas. I loved how well the tropes were used even though by the end I felt there were way too many clichés. If you want to watch a good office romance, then this would definitely be a part of my top 5 of those recommendations.
