Is the Male Protagonist in "Noble, My Love" Sexy or Psycho?

If a less attractive actor had played the lead role, would viewers still have found his behavior OK?

고결한 그대
☆☆☆☆
Lee Kang-hoon (played by Bang Sung-hoon)
Cha Yoon-seo (played by Kim Jae-kyung)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

This 2015 Korean rom com is very pleasant on the eyes. The leads — Bang Sung-hoon (who was so good in "Oh My Venus") and Kim Jae-kyung — both have model good looks and share some really fun scenes. Though you know going in that the poor-nice-girl-meets-rich-cold-boy storyline will end with a wedding, I was happy to be on board.

But, the main problem I had with this short series was the insufferable control issues that were played off as cute, rather than creepy. More on that later.

Kang-hoon is the CEO of a huge conglomeration. He escapes from a trio of incompetent criminals who have kidnapped and stabbed him. Rural veterinarian Yoon-seo stumbles upon him and stitches him back up. When he asks how he can repay her, she bills him exactly for her services (roughly $700).

Instead of being pleased that he got away so easily, he tells her that the value of his life is worth much, much more. He insists on giving her a more modern clinic in a chic neighborhood on Seoul, even though she doesn't want it.

Coming from a family of poor farmers, it took her eight years working part-time jobs to finish her college degree. On top of her university loans, she has a heavy mortgage on her vet clinic in a rural part of Korea. But, she accomplished all of that by herself.

When she tells him no, he buys her current building in order to kick her out and get his way.

Dude, WTactualF?

This man has control issues and doesn't like getting, "No," for an answer.

Unable to afford another vet clinic in her current city, Yoon-seo finally relents. But because she has always paid her own way through life, she accepts Kang-hoon's offer on the condition that they will be partners, and she will repay him — with interest — for his share of the building purchase.

Because he is in his early 30s and of marriageable age, Kang-hoon is being pressured by his mother to marry. To get her to stop nagging, he hatches up a plan to pretend that Yoon-seo is his girlfriend. He convinces her to sign a three-month contract where he is the "dominant" and she is the "submissive" who must do everything he asks...though none of that will be of a sexual nature.

OK, even with sex off the table... ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. Yoon-seo is a grown woman of 30. Just because she's poor is no reason to treat her like an appliance that needs a service agreement.

I'm not sure whether the writers were trying to capitalize on the popularity of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" books and films , but Kang-hoon's use of the dominant/submissive terms are all kinds of wrong. There are plenty of people who live sham marriages for whatever reasons (hiding their true sexual orientation; immigration fraud etc.). It would've been easy enough for them to pretend they were a couple without even living together in the same house.

Speaking of which, our heroine is homeless now and sleeping at her clinic. The apartments in Seoul are much more expensive than where she previously lived and she can't afford to get a place. When she finally finds a cheap studio, Kang-hoon buys it and refuses to lease it to her. Why? Because he wants her to move in with him. Why? Because he's actually falling for her and has heard that if you live with a woman and see them in their daily habitat doing everyday things (burping, using the restroom, waking up without makeup), you'll lose that attraction.

Again. WTF?

If this series was recast with a male lead who wasn't so handsome, I think the reaction to his actions would be quite different, and viewers would see him as the abusive manipulator that he is.

Meanwhile, a clique of Mean Girls aims to make Yoon-seo's life miserable. One of the only true things in her life seems to be the friendship of an old college flame, who seems so sweet and tries to woo her. But Kang-hoon won't have it and goes all territorial every time he spots the two together.

I know that we're supposed to be rooting for Kang-hoon, but hell to the no. This other guy seems so genuinely kind. More importantly, he's not a domineering creeper-stalker.

Of course, this couple does fall in love with each other.

The best line in the entire series is when Yoon-seo's younger brother asks, "By the way, wouldn't his family disapprove of this, like in all the dramas?"

Yes, they would! Which is why everyone is worried about how Kang-hoon's mother will react.

The only one who's not intimidated by the mom is Yoon-seo's droll cat, who clearly has no Effs to give.

Indeed, the mom doesn't approve and tells Yoon-seo that if she really loves her son, she will sign a prenuptial agreement. Yoon-seo refuses.

This refusal didn't ring true to me. First of all, in the real world, multimillionaires of any gender are going to want to protect their assets. Also, Yoon-seo is the one who refused to let Kang-hoon give her a vet clinic outright. She's the type of woman who, if divorced, would just leave with what she came.

Though with that said, the prenup also stated that if the couple were to divorce after she gave birth to a baby, she would leave the child with him. Considering that half of most marriages end in divorce, I believe financial prenups are a good idea, with each party keeping what they came into the marriage with, and splitting equally what they accumulate during the course of the union (even if only one member worked outside the home). However, there is no way a woman should have to consent to leaving her child with the father in the event of a divorce.

It wasn’t too long ago (the 1970s) in South Korea that if a couple divorced, the man almost always won custody of the children. No prenup was needed for that. The paternalistic obsession with bloodline dictated that the children carried on the father’s name. Therefore, they needed to stay with him.

Unfortunately, not all fathers were suitable men who even wanted to bother raising children. And some of the children were dumped off in orphanages — despite both biological parents still being alive. Since the children had living parents, they also couldn’t be adopted (unless adoption records were doctored to blur the lines of their birth history).

Airdates: This Naver TV Cast web drama aired from July 23 to September 16, 2015. Each of the 20 episodes ran for 15 minutes. This show is available on Viki.

Unfinished business:

I'd like to know what happened to the three goons who kidnapped Kang-hoon. I realize that he didn't want to publicize that he had been vulnerable. But what would prevent them from trying it again? And why wouldn't a man that rich and powerful want to track them down and get retribution?

I also wish the writers would've tied up loose ends a bit better. Instead of just sending her college beau off to England to study abroad (to get him out of the picture), I'd like to have seen a more uplifting storyline for him. Perhaps he could end up with someone who was capable of loving him back...or dating Miss Korea...or finding success in London...or...

Also, I found the couple's younger brothers — particularly Yoon-seo's — to be very interesting and would've liked to have seen more storylines focusing on them. Both were much lazier than their elder siblings. But they were street smart and had common sense, something that the leads lacked.

The K-Drama arm grab: What is with all the men in these dramas aggressively grabbing the women's arms and yanking them into a hug. It's supposed to be romantic, right? I find it overbearing. Is there any series where the woman is so irritated at being tugged at like a rag doll that she gives her partner a good swift kick to the gut? I can’t think of any. However, there is a nice scene in “Descendants of the Sun” where an officer grabs her boyfriend’s wrist, and he complies. Sort of.

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