Love Like a Kdrama Episode 5 to 7 Review: The new Japanese-Korean reality series (韓国ドラマな恋がしたい) on Netflix delves into the curious question whether real love can blossom between actors partaking in intimate scenes in romantic K-dramas. The romance reality TV series stars four Japanese actresses, Rio Yamashita, young, yet experienced stars Ayano Kudo and Honoka Kitahara, and former Japanese group E-Girls member Nozomi Bando, and four Korean actors / models, Kim Won-shik, seen in K-dramas True Beauty and Alchemy of Souls, K-pop group Supernova member Song Ji-hyuk, and models / rookie actors Lee Tae-gyun and Kim Dong-kyu.
In addition to the eight contestants, Yuko Fueki aka Yumin steps in 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. Episodes 5 to 7 were released on Netflix on December 5, 2023, each having a runtime of 40-45 minutes.
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Love Like a Kdrama Netflix Review for Episodes 5 to 7 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 5 to 7 Review
Love Like a Kdrama Episode 5 to 7 Recap
Episode 5 picks up with Ayano Kudo and Lee Tae-gyun’s pairing as they star in the new K-drama episode after having won the audition last time, defeating Kim Dong-kyu and Nozomi Bando, a close second pair that could’ve won. As they’re filming for the fourth episode of the mini series, Tae-gyun and Ayano grow closer off-screen too, whereas, Dong-kyu and Rio Yamashita head out for a secret outing, but refuse to label it a date yet. Rio addresses her new feelings for Dong-kyu, but plays it cool in front of him, while Song Ji-hyuk emerges on the scene with his very visible jealousy, pushing Rio to confirm her thoughts about him.
At the same time, Kim Won-shik also starts wondering how it would be like if he and Nozomi were to be partners, knowing her feelings for Dong-kyu. Without pushing her, he lightly takes a step towards her before another plot twist announces the next round’s pairs in a different way than anticipated. Once the question of compatibility comes up, things start to shake, ultimately leading us up to the next drama’s premise that needed the girls to show off their singing talent. Hearts break in the process, while new developments also stir some things up.
Love Like a Kdrama Episode 5 to 7 Review
The emcees’ conversation really stuck with me this time around. The first four episodes barely gave them enough room to establish their objective standpoints while looking at each of the contestants’ growth. It is admirable to see them not stand by anyone, yet not disregard any of these contestants either simultaneously. This especially comes to the top when Rio is paired up with Dong-kyu, and they bag the next drama episode, again leaving Nozomi Bando as a close second contender almost having won the role.
Neither did they blame Rio and Dong-kyu for growing closer to each other and testing things out since they’re still considerably new to each other’s company, nor did they downplay Nozomi’s talent and feelings. It especially became one of the heartwarming moments when the emcees were also able to reflect what the viewers may be feeling at this point, that it’s not that Nozomi doesn’t have what it takes to win the acting role, but that luck also plays a significant role as a deciding factor in such things.
And so far, luck has just not been on her side. You can’t help but feel for her after these three episodes, especially since she’s equally conflicted about her feelings for Kim Dong-kyu as much as she’s tired of being unable to take the lead. It’s almost like a K-drama playing out in real life for her too, as her life’s chapter has consolidated her as a solid “second lead” here. You can’t stop rooting for her, and are frustrated with her and for her, for everything that’s happened or not.
On the flip side, Won-shik also assumes a similar role as the “second male lead” of a K-drama once he starts developing feelings for Nozomi and follows up with her. However, with Nozomi too preoccupied with the bummer of a situation in her alley, she can’t look out for his feelings too with already too much on her plate to deal with.
Love Like a Kdrama Episode 6 brings about a twist of fate with the whole fortune telling scene fixing up the partners for the new K-drama episode. The dramatic intervention completely shook up the contestants’ expectations and hopes of wanting to have come together with their choice of partners. Yet this welcoming change-up compels them all to figure in other people into an equation with themselves, especially with a fortune teller smooth-talking them into believing their compatibility with someone they probably didn’t think of before.
In some cases, this worked wonders for certain contestants who’d anyway been looking for an excuse to pair up with a certain someone, like Rio joining Dong-kyu, and in other situations, this external push helped reunite those who’d thought they’d seen the last of each other as a team, like Won-shik and Honoka. However, with Won-shik expressing his newfound admiration of Nozomi, I also couldn’t help but wonder how well they’d work with each other.
Won-shik is definitely one of the stronger male acting counterparts on the show owing to his former roles in popular K-dramas, and Nozomi has been consistently pushing herself to win the acting position for one of the mini dramas here. Her never-die attitude and conviction to bag the main character position if paired up with Won-shik’s charming affability and relatively significant experience in the field could become an indomitable force.
Here’s to hoping that with only two more chances left, these two get to work together at least once so that Nozomi also gets the opportunity to explore more options beyond Dong-kyu as her romantic interests, especially since he’s now started to fall for Rio progressively. However, Won-shik working with Honoka again could be a major hindrance in the path of this dream pair coming together.
Love Like a Kdrama Reality Show: Final Thoughts
In some of the most memorable highlights of these episodes, it was laudable to see the girls also channel their inner singing artistic side for Love Like a Kdrama Episode 7, thereby adding a new flavour to the drama scenes we’d been seeing so far. Nozomi has definitely won over the latent position as the real life main character in the show, and her emotional breakdown after losing the gig again was hard to witness, which has only further pushed me to cheer for her in the hopes that she bags the role next time without failure.
Tae-gyun standing beside her as a friend she could count on, as he went on to encourage her, made for a heartwarming mix. Ji-hyuk confronting Rio was another such memorable moments, however it worked against his previously established “gentlemanly” character.
I naturally ended up drawing parallels between him and Won-shik, who was also turned down by Honoka in the initial episodes when he confessed his feelings for her. He, on the other hand, still went on to accept the rejection respectably, whereas, Ji-hyuk found a way to pass off his ungracious words as something he said under the influence of alcohol.
While he does come forward to openly accept his mistakes by apologising to Rio in front of everyone later on, it again also emerges as a though-out means to clean up his act publicly, and not so much as a personal and heartfelt apology, regardless of how the emcees see it as yet another enactment of his virtues as a gentleman.
The show moves forward with significantly slow pace at some points, but to see such questionably real (or scripted, as it may be) drama unfold behind the scenes as well along with the obvious dramas they’re filming for is enough to build up the tension. From my review, it’s quite evident that my new favourites are now Won-shik and Nozomi, but that also goes on to show that these contestants are considerably aware of their roles in this dramatic premise and are making the most of finding ways to win the audience over even if they may not otherwise be winning the acting roles as regularly as others.
Love Like a K-drama is now streaming on Netflix.