After seeing the high ratings the newest Korean BL drama Love for Love’s Sake got, we had to, of course, check it out and bring you our review of the new hit among viewers.
This show completely flew under my radar while it was airing at the beginning of 2024 and I’ve only recently discovered that it was quite a hit among viewers and that it managed to gather a rather high rating from them as well. Needless to say, I was excited to check it out, especially since I was in a bit of a slump and needed something that didn’t have 16 one-hour-long episodes to keep me going. Love for Love’s Sake was an enjoyable watch, although rather undeveloped as it tends to be with this format, but it had me glued to my screen and made me binge the whole show in 2 days. It also brought some unexpected plot twists to the table which had me intrigued so without further ado let’s get into the review.
From MyDramaList: Twenty-nine-year-old Tae Myung Ha experiences a bewildering twist of fate when he suddenly finds himself transported into a fictional online game where he inhabits the body of a nineteen-year-old character. Soon, Tae Myung Ha embarks on a quest within the virtual world to bring happiness to a character named Cha Yeo Woon. Despite his humble upbringing, Cha Yeo Woon has managed to excel in the national track and field championships, maintaining a remarkable reputation among his peers due to his handsome looks and athletic physique. Cheon Sang Won hails from an affluent family and becomes emotionally entangled with Tae Myung Ha. His involvement adds complexity to the developing relationship between Tae Myung Ha and Cha Yeo Woon. Ahn Kyung Hoon, introverted and reserved, supports and assists Tae Myung Ha on his mission within the virtual world.
No spoilers ahead:
As you can tell from the synopsis, Love for Love’s Sake is portrayed in the form of a video game where our main lead has to complete a task if he doesn’t want to die. I thought the concept was fun and exciting as it really feels like you’re following a game and wondering whether the protagonist will manage to fulfill his journey successfully. I really liked Lee Taevin’s acting in Love for Love’s Sake and I think he hard-carried the show on his back. He was convincing, and realistic, and still managed to keep this mysterious note to his character because, after all, we don’t know his story that well right away. The rest of the cast was sweet as well as their characters, especially Oh Minsu as Sang Won who I definitely didn’t expect to become one of the cutest characters in the drama. I love good character development! This was Cha Joowan’s first leading role if I’m not mistaken and I think he did a solid job as Yeo Woon – he was troubled and distant, but also adorable at times and it was nice seeing him open up more and more.
The chemistry between the leading trio was great as well – whether they were bickering or flirting, it was fun to watch. I rooted for Yeo Woon and Myung Ha the entire time, especially as it seemed that both of them were troubled and full of grief and disappointment. The more the story progressed the more layers to this presumption we got to see and understand these two better. They were cute together and I think both actors suited their roles and portrayed this relationship well. Sang Won was, like I said, an unexpected but pleasant addition to the main storyline and I liked him a lot, as well as the fact that we ended up getting a small but cute friend squad out of all of them in the end.
The story is easy to follow, although very lightly described and explained because I was following the plot but I still kept asking myself… okay, why is this thing even happening in the first place? The ending portion of the drama unexpectedly pushed the story in a completely unexpected direction for me, pleasantly surprising me. I thought they might even just leave things unexplained but they actually decided to show us what happened before the whole game simulation. This is where my comparison to the incredible (and criminally underrated) Life on Mars comes from. If you’ve watched Life on Mars, then I’m sure you can guess what I’m talking about and I think it was done quite well! Of course, unlike Life on Mars, Love for Love’s Sake goes for a more idealistic ending and decides to gives us some happiness instead of an existential crisis which is sweet.
I enjoyed Love for Love’s Sake but I also think it could’ve used some better writing and maybe a better transition between the stories – sometimes it felt like we were jumping from one side to another without any clear focus or goal and at times that made it hard for me to connect to the characters no matter how sweet they were. Of course, such stories probably would’ve benefited from a few more episodes actually, just to properly explain and wrap up things but I think Love for Love’s Sake did a solid job. It’s nice seeing Korean BLs getting more of a screen run – we’ve come a long way from 10-minute episodes without any logical plot. Love for Love’s Sake gets a 7.75/10 from me for its genre mostly thanks to its great lead portrayed by Lee Taevin – the absolute highlight of the drama for me. If you need something short and interesting to watch – I’d recommend it, why not!