I’ll be the first to admit that I often pick up a drama simply because a favorite actor or someone I noticed in a previous project is starring in it, and that’s exactly the case with this lovely drama.

Our male lead, Lee Jun Young was in Brave Citizen, which is one of my top 10 Korean movies of all time, so it was a no-brainer that I would watch this drama. Pyo Ye Jin, our female lead, on the other hand, you might recognize from Moon in the Day, Taxi Driver, or Our Blooming Youth.

I started watching this drama weeks after it finished airing because I was busy with exams and also because many people were talking about it, so I thought it might be too interesting and distracting for me as a student. I decided to wait until it had finished airing and somehow forgot about it until now.

Needless to say, I had expectations, and while not every single one was met, this was still a pretty decent drama that I would recommend as filler content because it’s rather lighthearted. It definitely feels more like a web drama than a full-length series, and I’m curious about the budget that was allotted for it.

I feel a little guilty when discussing budgets, but being a Netflix kid, I’ve become accustomed to lower-budget dramas at this point. With my many years as a devoted K-drama watcher, I can be unforgiving of low-budget productions sometimes.

That’s not to say low-budget dramas are the worst, especially when it comes to Korean dramas where they often do their best — I mean, I once watched a Chinese drama where the main lead literally wore only four suits rotated throughout the entire series. But Koreans can act, no matter what, so I’m just being a bit picky.

What Is Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale About?

This drama is literally about Jae Rim whose father dies, and part of his last words is that she tries to make a life for herself where she is Cinderella. Essentially, this Cinderella is a poor girl who ends up marrying into the rich class and retires to live a life of luxury funded by her husband’s wallet.

After trying and trying to find a job because she blatantly disregards her father’s request at first, Jae Rim decides to do as he wished and gets employment in a place that puts her in proximity to rich people, hoping to seduce and marry one of them.

It is when she gets employed in an establishment that functions as an adult playground of sorts that she meets our male lead, Cha Min (as in Prince Charming), who is the 8th generation heir to the biggest conglomerate in South Korea.

Both of them do not have the best first impression of each other because she thinks he is arrogant while he finds her audacious. However, he can’t get her off his mind, so he decides to employ her and keep her beside him until he gets tired of playing with her.

She knows this but is happy to go along with his schemes because it still gives her what she needs. It’s while they are in proximity to each other, and he even decides to help her find her ideal husband, that they fall in love with each other.

This is one of those dramas where the male lead totally falls in love first but hesitates to acknowledge his feelings until others point it out and he gets jealous enough to start sabotaging the matchmaking efforts that are already in place.

The mother of our male lead abandoned him with his father when he was a child, and one thing his father drummed into his head right from childhood was that he needed to protect himself from love and any other related emotions because they were the downfall of a man.

This is something he took very seriously, which accounted for his pushback against his emotions when he realized he genuinely loved our female lead. So, his drama or his conflict in this drama was basically about coming into his own as an heir to a conglomerate and grappling with his feelings after figuring them out.

My Review 

One unique selling point of this lovely drama has to be the funny, irreverent, and sarcastic narrator who followed us from the very beginning up until the end. I haven’t watched a drama with a narrator before, so this was refreshing and very interesting to witness, and I hope we get more of this in the future.

As I mentioned earlier, our female lead’s dream in this drama is to become Cinderella, which might sound a bit cliché, but I feel the drama executed this trope without making it look too childish or annoying to watch.

There haven’t been many Korean dramas about fairy tales, but one that gives off a similar fairy tale vibe to this drama is It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, which featured several fairy tales. This drama, however, particularly by the third quarter, became much more about empowering our female lead, which I appreciated, though it felt a little rushed. 

You know, there’s a big difference between living a life that someone might describe as being Cinderella-like and actively working towards it, because the latter can be seen as gold-digging. This was the case in this drama, but I liked the light-hearted approach to it all.

At every point in time, everyone knew of her goals, so it never felt underhanded or secretive. I understand that this contributed to the immaturity at the core of the drama, but it definitely helped to reduce some of the stigma associated with intentional social mobility.

Just as I mentioned in the introduction, our male lead is an actor who captivated me from the very first time I saw him in Brave Citizen, and I have followed him everywhere. This drama happens to be his fifth project I am watching, and what stands out so much is that he has the best range.

His most popular past project is Brave Citizen, and in that drama, he played a vicious bully who had the students and teachers in the palm of his hand. In this drama, however, he played a cute, shy, and totally adorable 8th generation chaebol who fell in love for the first time and didn’t know what to do with himself. 

Trust me when I say you’ll be shocked if that’s the only project you’ve watched of his. If you do watch this one, don’t hesitate to explore his other works because he is definitely a very talented actor, even though he is young.

When Brave Citizen aired last year, a lot of viewers and reviewers praised his chemistry with the female lead, who is the teacher he had a crush on. Now that I think about it, he could literally have chemistry with a tree.

It was clear from the beginning that he was absolutely smitten with our female lead, and in subsequent episodes, his periods of jealousy and moments of selflessness showed his growth as a person. Throughout the drama, his chemistry with our female lead shone brightly at every single point in time.

Another point in favor of this drama was the side characters, who I genuinely felt were interesting enough to explore because they felt totally unique. When I say side characters, I’m referring to his fiancee, her eventual target, and her sisters, whom I loved and rooted for from the beginning.

This is something I absolutely loved and appreciated about this beautiful drama because chemistry, especially in a romantic drama, basically drives everything forward, and I think they did an amazing job in this drama.

The biggest surprise about this drama, though, turned out to be the wonderful character growth from both our protagonists. For our female lead, it was learning to love herself again, becoming more in touch with her feelings, and taking a chance on herself; And, for our male lead, it was finally taking charge of his future and becoming more responsible for his decisions.

If I could change something, though, I would make it a little more serious. That doesn’t mean the hilarity and comical aspects of the drama don’t work, because they do, but I would have definitely made it a little less comical.

Final Thoughts

After watching this drama, I’m very happy because everything came together for the better of the drama and the characters. I truly believe anyone who watches this drama will enjoy it.

You will like this drama if you’re in the mood for a light-hearted show that is funny and philosophical at the same time, and a drama where the leads have the best chemistry.

As always, if you end up watching this drama and want to discuss whether or not you enjoyed it, let me know in the comments below, and we can organize a chat or simply talk about it whenever you want.

If you’re looking for recommendations for more dramas or movies to watch, check out the reviews below because I’ve talked about many other dramas and I’m always on the lookout for drama recommendations.