There are many Korean dramas with good endings but some narratives just convey a more fulfilling process and a satisfying character breakthrough.
Hence, here are five romantic stories that departed with a meaningful and rewarding finale:
5. 18 Again (2020)
18 Again talks about a couple who married young due to pregnancy. Their story was a bittersweet journey of immense love for their twins while living a personal life of shattered dreams and unmet expectations that led them to pursue divorce. However, living separately enabled them to reflect about their relationship, reminisce about the good times and why they chose to love each other in the first place when they were younger. That’s the moment they decided to date again and renew their vows.
The drama was a beautiful process of breaking, letting go, losing, reflecting, learning, and choosing each other again.
“If everything ended there like a movie, my life would’ve had a happy ending. However, at times trouble finds us. We fight. We get disappointed. Some days, we hated each other. But we understand each other more. We are more thankful. We love each other more,” the husband said.
It was a tearful journey that delivered a rewarding finale.
4. Our Beloved Summer (2021-2022)
Our Beloved Summer talks about two high school lovers who broke up without a proper closure and unexpectedly encountered each other again when they were working young adults. The unprocessed pains of the past including crumbs of personal insecurities began to resurface while they got stuck in completing a documentary project for a common friend. Amid working together professionally, their inner worlds went through an emotional tug-of-war between fully letting go and giving the relationship another chance. Several hurdles discouraged them to continue—differences, broken needs, distance, and mistrust.
However, true love is about choosing to mature together through the ups and downs of life, including their flaws. And they compromised to choose this path. “If we fight or break up again, just come to me like you did today. And then I’ll grab onto you and never let go,” Kim Da-mi as Kook Yeong-su said.
From the school interview at the beginning of the story, it ended with them being interviewed as a married couple.
It was an excellent storytelling that demonstrated a sweet and delightful ending.
3. It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)
It’s Okay To Not Be Okay talks about three individuals with a traumatic past—a famous author whose childhood was molded to become a monster by a manipulative mother, a mental health worker who felt neglected as a child and avoided intimate relationships growing up, and a younger brother who has autism and witnessed the murder of his mother that caused him panic attacks. As their lives intertwined, their hidden dark past and broken needs also emerged that led them to a rollercoaster ride of emotional detachment, attachment, quarreling, hating each other, and coming to the rescue in times of needs and nightmares.
Amid the dramatic journey of highs and lows, they found in each other a family to lean on—the kind of love that cuts the leash of the horrors of the past, frees them to live anew and choose what they really aspire to become.
In the end, they chose to face their childhood trauma and grow together as a trio family, “So don’t forget any of it. Remember it all and overcome it. If you don’t overcome it, you’ll always be a kid whose soul never grows.”
It was a beautiful healing journey enabled by love with an ending that was truly inspirational.
2. Crash Landing On You (2019-2020)
Crash Landing On You revolves around the forbidden love story between a North Korean soldier and a South Korean CEO. Their journey began in a paragliding mishap where Son Ye-jin accidentally fell and landed on Hyun Bin’s arms. After a series of plans to escape from North Korea, the duo started to cultivate feelings for each other. However, power and politics had to halt their relationship and so they had to separate ways and move on in their personal lives.
But true love always wins in the end. And sometimes, it takes another place and time for a love story to progress. It’s all thanks to Switzerland that became their safe place to meet and hold each other again and again.
Hyun Bin as Capt. Ri said, “Even if I have to worry about losing you every day, I want to have you in my life. Even if it breaks my heart because it’s a dream that can’t come true, I’d like to sincerely dream of the future.”
While Son Ye-jin as Se-ri said, “At the end of that long dream, I finally made a choice. That even if I go back in the past, even if I do for a hundred more times, I will still choose to meet you.”
It was a swoonworthy, romantic, and flawless ending that conveyed no distance nor barriers could ever stop them from choosing each other.
1. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (2021)
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha narrates the story of two opposite lives who grew from strangers to lovers. A Seoulite happens to encounter a countryside handyman when her pair of heels got lost by the beach. It was followed by a series of unfortunate events that drew them closer to each other. Despite their differences, they fell in love and dated officially. However, the handyman played by Kim Seonho who appears to be loud and outgoing, hides an inner battle that caused their relationship to fall apart.
And yet, a person who genuinely loves someone always seeks to listen, understand, and accept. At the end of the day, the heart that truly loves always comes running back to embrace that someone as he is. This kind of patient love from Shin Mina as Hye-jin became an instrument in healing the broken past of Kim Seonho as Chief Hong.
From the lost shoe at the beginning of the story, it beautifully ended with two pairs of shoes that found each other and chose to stay side by side for life. “I’d love it if our shoes were always side by side at the door together. So that neither of us would be lonely,” Hye-jin said.
The shoe was a wonderful portrayal of their love journey from start to finish. Dressed in a wedding gown and suit, the story ended with a timeless moment of two individuals happily healing, sharing, running, and holding hands together on the road to forever.
It was the most heartwarming and romantic finale ever told. La-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaaa… romantic Sunday. 🎵
KORB 