“Marry My Husband” (내 남편과 결혼해줘)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
February 22, 2024

☆☆☆☆
Kang Ji-won (played by Park Min-young)
Yoo Ji-hyuk (played by Na In-woo)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Ji-won is just a mess. Meek and used to being overlooked by everyone except her bestie, she accepts her fate as the wife of a callous husband and the daughter-in-law of a witch of a woman who mistreats her. Work is no better. Her ideas are stolen and her weasel of a boss hates her because, among other things, she’s not pretty enough (in his sorry-ass opinion).

For instance, she will turn in work, which he throws back at her each time, telling her each version is worse than the previous one.

This reminded me of a teacher I had in high school. All students were required to take electric shop. No matter what I turned in, he would tell me to re-do it. My brother had been in his class a few years previously and told me that if I just kept re-submitting the same project without making any changes, he’d give me an A. And that’s exactly what happened.

Like that teacher, Ji-won’s boss is on a power trip and enjoys creating drama when there isn’t any.

Before Ji-won can be liberated from her husband and boss, she has to free herself from her preconceived notions of herself. As I wrote in my TODAY.com review:

The K-drama queen Park Min-young plays a mousy woman who’s bullied by her cheating husband (Lee Yi-kyung) and gaslit by her best friend (Song Ha-yoon). She dies, but mysteriously wakes up a decade earlier. She figures out soon enough that she can change her destiny by transferring her misery to someone else. In this case, she needs to get another woman to marry the man she married. There is a subplot involving a wealthy and handsome man (Na In-woo), who has secrets of his own. But the best part of the series is watching our heroine use what she knows from the future to rectify her past and, by doing so, creating a life worth living.

Though Ji-won’s physical transformation is showcased with each new outfit change and makeup application, it’s really her inner self that was liberated from the shackles of the pathetic life she thought was the best she could ever have.

Airdates: Sixteen hour-long episodes aired on tvN from January 1 to February 20, 2024. (I watched this on Prime Video.)

I included this K-drama in my list of the best K-dramas of 2024 in Teen Vogue:

Office worker Ji-won (Park Min-young) is married and has a stable job and a loyal best friend who is there for her during her cancer treatments. But all is not as it seems. After catching her husband and BFF having an affair, she “dies,” before miraculously waking up in the past. After Ji-won figures out she can change the course of her life by transferring her misery to someone else, she vows to make her boyfriend and best friend pay for betraying her. This fast-paced revenge drama is filled with intrigue, humor, and much-needed girl power. The scriptwriter also includes a meta moment involving a timeline of BTS’ music. Proclaiming hit songs from the future as their favorites, two time travelers realize they have more in common than not. As Ji-won’s boss, Na In-woo creates a character who is awkwardably adorkable, but one that is clearly meant to get the girl. (Prime Video)

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