A Business Proposal (2022) - Kdrama Review

-May contain major spoilers-

Photo source: SBS

A Business Proposal (사내맞선 literally: The Office Blind Date) is a 12-episode SBS romatic comedy Kdrama based on a novel and webtoon of the same name. Starring Kim Se-Jeong, Ahn Hyo-Seop, Seol In-Ah and Kim Min-Kyu.

Summary

Shin Ha-Ri (Kim Se-Jeong) works at the company Go Food as a researcher for the food development team and, after work, helps her parents with their fried chicken restaurant. On her birthday, she gets "friendzoned" by her crush of 7 years, and to make matters worse, she has to pay for the broken sign and back injury of the owner of the neigboring fish restaurant, who she accidentally pushed while he was having an altercation with her brother Ha-Min (Choi Byung-Chan) over a fish-reeking trash can. 

Ha-Ri's best friend, Jin Young-Seo (Seol In-Ah), offers her money in exchange for going on a blind date and getting rejected on her stead, as she believes in ~true love~ Ha-Ri who is in debt, accepts.

Ha-Ri, with the help of Young-Seo, dresses up as a femme fatale with a crass attitude to drive away "her" date partner, who turns out to be her boss, the newest CEO of Go Food Kang Tae-Moo (Ahn Hyo-Seop), who is forced by his Kdrama obsessed grandfather (relatable), Kang Da-Goo (Lee Deok-Hwa), into going to the blind date as he wants to see the workaholic Tae-Moo get married.

To Ha-Ri and Young-Seo's misfortune, Tae-Moo had already decided before the date that he was going to marry his first blind date partner so his grandfather wouldn't annoy him into going to more blind dates. Meanwhile, Young-Seo falls in love at first sight with Tae-Moo's secretary, Cha Sung-Hoon (Kim Min-Kyu), who she met at a convenience store.

Ha-Ri can't confess the truth to Tae-Moo as she heard a rumor that he hates liars and previously fired an employee who had lied to him, so Young-Seo meets up with Tae-Moo and confesses to "hiring someone trough an agency" to act as her in the blind date. Tae-Moo tells Young-Seo he will tell all the truth to their elders unless she arranges a meeting with the woman he "almost married."

Young-Seo tricks Ha-Ri into going to a meeting with Tae-Moo; Ha-Ri apologizes to him and promises to help him if he ever needs a favor. Before leaving, he tells her he is going to call her back again and asks for her real name, Ha-Ri, to hide that she is his employee gives him a fake name "Shin Geum-Hui" (the same name as the female lead of grandpa's favorite Kdrama "Be Strong, Geum-Hui")

After his grandfather makes him go to 10 blind dates in a row, Tae-Moo decides to hire "Geum-Hi" to act as his fiancée so he can get his grandfather off his back...

Thoughts

"A Business Proposal" is a light, easy watch, and to be sincere, the only part that I felt "lacking" in this Kdrama was the ending -it is not a bad ending; it's just there- I enjoyed the ending of the webtoon a lot better (which I read after watching the Kdrama). There are a lot of differences between the webtoon and the Kdrama; for example, Go Food doesn't exist in the webtoon (the only food-related stuff is Ha-Ri's parents' fried chicken restaurant), Tae-Moo webtoon counterpart is not as "angry" -probably because in the webtoon Ha-Ri didn't compare him to an archaeopteryx- and he also didn't have the [SPOILER] rain trauma [SPOILER ENDS] background story, Ha-Ri's parents are bigger characters in the Kdrama than in the webtoon where they became characters towards the middle-end of the webtoon, and there are a lot more differences... But that doesn't mean this Kdrama is a bad adaptation.

When I first watched this Kdrama in 2022, it reminded me a bit of the Jdrama A Warmed Up Love (Review), although the plots aren't similar in any way. Kiki and Ha-Ri have similar jobs, so if you're interested in food development, also watch A Warmed Up Love, it's really good.    

The cinematography is really well done, and it's the part where "A Business Proposal" shines the most with the hilarious and detailed editing that feels very webtoon-like. A scene still stuck in my mind is the one from the first episode where Young-Seo appears behind Ha-Ri as a train announcer (I think?) announcing the transfer from the friendship train to the boyfriend express. 

The acting is nice, and the cast has a great chemistry. I loved the friendship between Ha-Ri and Young-Seo. Kim Se-Jeong and Seol In-Ah did an amazing job of making the friendship feel believable. 

Kim Se-Jeong's comedic timing is really good, especially during the blind date scenes. Ahn Hyo-Seop was not bad, but I felt like he was the weakest link in the cast. The chemistry between Seol In-Ah and Kim Min-Kyu was fantastic, and their portrayal of Young-Seo and Secretary Cha felt like the most similar to their webtoon counterparts. 

The OST is good. My favorite song of the soundtrack is "Love, Maybe" (사랑인가 봐) by MeloMance and the other versions of the song by Secret Number and Kim Se-Jeong. Another of my favorite songs in the soundtrack is "Fall in Love" (사랑이 내 안에 들어와) by Jihan and So-Eun of Weeekly.

I recommend this Kdrama if you like a good comedy, good secondary leads, and a work romance.  

Rating

Acting - 8/10

Plot - 8/10

Romance - 9/10

Soundtrack - 9/10

Cinematography - 10/10

Overall Rating - 8.5/10

Extended Drama Info.

Quantity of Episodes: 12.

Run Time: 60min/each.

Release Date: February 28, 2022.

Network: SBS.

Directed by: Park Seon-Ho.

Written by: Han Seol-Hee and Hong Bo-Hee.

Music by: Park Se-Joon.

Starring: Kim Se-Jeong, Ahn Hyo-Seop, Seol In-Ah and Kim Min-Kyu with Lee Deok-Hwa, Kim Kwang-Kyu, Jung Young-Joo, Choi Byung-Chan and Song Won-Seok.