Love Like a Kdrama Episode 12 Review: The final episode of the Japanese-Korean reality series (韓国ドラマな恋がしたい) on Netflix resolves all the drama and messy love triangles and restores order in love as final confessions take centre stage. Episode 11 was all about Kim Won-shik trying to come to terms with his innate feelings, and in the last episode his heart finally has the answer as to whom he feels more profoundly for between Honoka Kitahara and Nozomi Bando.
The romance reality TV series stars a total of eight contestants – four Japanese actresses and four Korean actors. In addition to the aforementioned trio, the others are Ayano Kudo and Rio Yamashita, and K-pop group Supernova member Song Ji-hyuk, model/rookie actors Lee Tae-gyun and Kim Dong-kyu.
Additionally, the cast also includes Yuko Fueki aka Yumin steps as the host, with studio members, Haruna Kondo, Aa-Chan, Shusuke Fukutoku, Hayato Komori (GENERATIONS), and Maria Tani, offering live commentary. Directed by Yoshiaki Suzuki, the series consists of 12 episodes, and has been produced under the banner of TV Man Union. Episode 12 was released on Netflix on December 26, 2023, and it has a runtime of 55 minutes.
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Love Like a Kdrama Netflix Review for Episode 12 Contains Spoilers
Love Like a Kdrama Plot
A group of eight male and female actors is enlisted to live together as they all pair up for auditions to star in mini romance K-dramas. As four Japanese actresses arrive in Seoul to manifest their acting dreams, they have to overcome the language barrier as they join Korean crews for filming, and also Korean male partners, with whom they also have a chance to engage in real romance off-screen.
While some of these actors stay focussed on their aspirations to take flight as budding actors, others are also simultaneously caught in the love network. Some develop genuine bonds with their partners, while others vie for a place beside the ones they admire as someone else comes closer to their crushes.
Love Like a Kdrama Episode 12 Review
Love Like a Kdrama Episode 12 Recap
All contestants get one final and fair chance to confess their feelings to the one they hold dear at the airport before the women return to Japan. Even though Kim Won-shik has been tossing and turning about his decisions of the heart, he starts seeing a clear picture after shooting the drama episode with Nozomi Bando. Happily resolving what he first began with Honoka at the very beginning of the series, the two get to clear the air and find their happy ending together.
On the other hand, Ayano presents a heartfelt letter to Tae-gyun, while, Rio and Dong-kyu openly weigh out their feelings for each other one last time.
Love Like a Kdrama Final Episode Review
All in all, this Netflix reality series has been an endearing addition to the genre’s category, and, like always, Asian dating shows have retained their softness and emotional compass when it comes to portraying the gradual process of contestants falling in love with each other. There’s no place for vulgarity or any other such explicit developments, which keeps the entirety of the reality show’s season a simple call for love.
In Love Like a Kdrama‘s case, love isn’t the sole point of attention, as equal importance is accorded to these contestants’ creative professional journeys. The idea of switching up their pairs each week was a great way to test each of their compatibilities through various permutations and combinations.
There’s no doubt that certain cast members won over greater screen-times than others; Nozomi may not have won love in the end, but she clearly became one of the central figures throughout this collective journey who stole the screen in her favour. It’s quite wholesome to see her build her morale up by seeing herself as a pivotal figure who ultimately worked as a catalyst to deepen Honoka’s bond with Won-shik, instead of breaking down.
Ji-hyuk, unfortunately, got boxed in and wasn’t able to escape the “older brother” label that got associated with his name early on. Even he realises this in the end that he would’ve been a better fit for a similar show wherein the cast members were in their 30s instead.
The other couples had already been locked in during the previous episodes, but among all the final confessions of the day, it was Tae-gyun and Ayano’s connection that completely won me over. Despite the show not having actively invested in their side of the story, and seeing them playfully go about everything so far, it was stirring experience indeed to see Ayano come forward with her confession and see Tae-gyun open up emotionally the way he did. Even when looking back at all the episodes that passed before this, their pair was the only evident island of safety and stability that had no interest in building up unnecessary drama.
This sort of reality format doesn’t exactly announce “winners” per se, but for me they’re clear winners. Even though it took some time for them to realise their feelings for each other, once they did, they embodied playful lovesickness and had eyes only for each other even if they didn’t always go about announcing it in the open. With the smallest of gestures they expressed their admiration for the other and stayed beside each other.
Love Like a Kdrama Finale and Show Format: Final Thoughts
As far as the other couples of the show are concerned, there weren’t any last minute surprises. Audiences may have already anticipated what the finale was going to bring about, and in that sense, the last outing delivered exactly what we’d been looking forward to. Despite it delivering the result on this level of predictability, the finale will get the loyal viewers of the show smiling because regardless of that expected resolution, it’s heartwarming to see the couples finally confess their true feelings and clinch their respective “happy endings”.
The cross-border romance series has reeled in a decent watching experiences, keeping up the sincere softness linked with the feeling of liking someone, while striking a healthy balance with the professional side of casting them in the episodes of mini K-dramas.
All Love Like a K-drama episodes are now streaming on Netflix.
Also read: Read Our Other Love Like a Kdrama Reviews
