Stream It Or Skip It?

Most romantic K-dramas are pitched to audiences as fantasies, even if they take place in the here and now. So they can take some liberties when they get their main characters together, as we see in the new Netflix series Can This Love Be Translated?

Opening Shot: A woman walks up a long bridge towards a castle. She’s told that her mic is about to be turned on and to hold up her selfie-cam. She wonders if the shoes she scuffed are borrowed or not.

The Gist:  Cha Mu-hee (Go Youn-jung) is a superstar Korean actress who has been shooting a dating show all over the planet. Her co-star, Hiro Kurosawa (Sota Fukushi), is Japanese, so back in the production truck, translator Joo Ho-jin (Kim Seon-ho) helps them communicate with each other through an earpiece. As they’re near the end of filming, Hiro expresses that he wants to see more of Mu-hee, but Ho-jin pauses when it’s time to translate. He does express loving feelings towards Mu-hee, but it may be coming directly from him instead of from Hiro.

One year earlier, in April, Ho-jin is in Tokyo, translating for a Korean author who has used him before. Mu-hee, then a little-known actress, is in the city to confront the owner of a ramen shop, for whom her boyfriend has seemingly left her. While the two of them encounter each other on the train, she notices him again at the ramen shop, when the multilingual Ho-jin talks to an Italian family.

When she realies he’s Korean and can speak Japanese, she asks him to talk to the woman at the ramen shop. He agrees, under the condition that he will not translate anything disparaging or said out of anger. The confrontation goes about as well as can be expected, interrupted by the son of the Italian couple having an allergic reaction and Ho-jin carrying him out to the main road so the ambulance can get to him.

After the confrontation, the two of them part ways, but not for long, as Mu-hee realizes she has Ho-jin’s phone. They end up spending the day together, but finally part ways when he finds out his old girlfriend, with whom he’s visited the city before, might want to see him. But neither of them realize how much their worlds are going to change by the time the holidays come around.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Can This Love Be Translated? is similar to other romantic Netflix K-dramas, like Business Proposal or Forecasting Love And Weather.

Our Take: Can This Love Be Translated?, written by Hong Jung-eun and Hong Mi-ran, takes some very big leaps and spends its first episode going down a tortured path to bring Mu-hee and Ho-jin together. But the charm and chemistry between Kim Seon-ho and Go Youn-jung is undeniable.

The typical K-drama “meet cute” is much more emotional than usual, mainly because Mu-hee is looking for Ho-jin to translate some very intense feelings towards the ramen shop owner. She doesn’t even realize that the person she thinks is her ex’s new woman is actually someone else… and she’s pregnant. Sorting out all of that , with Ho-jin in the middle of it trying to keep things civil, is a heck of a way for two characters to enter each other’s lives.

At least the first episode doesn’t show them sniping at each other; there is definitely a vibe between the two of them as they spend the day together. When they finally separate, though, the only life we see it Mu-hee, who is severely injured on the last day of filming her first featured role, in a zombie film she thinks is ridiculous.

She’s in a coma for months; in the meantime, the film comes out and becomes a global phenomenon, and her fame rises with it. She wakes up to a different, much more public life, which of course is the huge leap that the story takes. This takes the leap that the effects-laden zombie film could be thrown together, released and become a massive hit within six months, but it does create the effect that Mu-hee wakes up into this fame instead of experiencing the rise of her profile, even if it was quick. Will it keep her down-to-earth?

The show has to take a few more steps before we get to that scene at the beginning of the episode, like Mu-hee getting the dating series and Ho-jin signing on as a translator. Let’s hope that these steps aren’t belabored and we can see the two main characters and their chemistry together sooner rather than later.

Performance Worth Watching: Go Youn-jung plays Mu-hee’s self-deprecation perfectly, which sets up how she’ll deal with a world who got to know her while she was in a coma.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Mu-hee sees how popular she is now while sitting up in her hospital bed, and has a look of wonder combined with horror.

Sleeper Star: Sota Fukushi’s character Hiro will be the wrench in the romantic works, and the character seems like he’s a charmer, albeit a bit vapid.

Most Pilot-y Line: Before she realizes Ho-jin can speak multiple languages, she tries to see if her translation app can curse by saying “fuck bitch.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the first episode of Can This Love Be Translated? is a bit convoluted, but the chemistry between its leads transcends that. Fans of romantic K-dramas aren’t exactly looking for gritty realism in their shows, anyway.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.