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You can only pick one: Noona romance
by DB Staff
You can only pick one, and boy the pressure is on. The DB team will answer a new prompt in each post, and you’re invited to do the same in the comments. Ready to play?
You can only pick one noona romance
missvictrix: Oh boy, I’m torn. I have a few oldie-oldie contenders for this (Dalja’s Spring, Woman Who Still Wants to Marry), but I’ll have to pick Witch’s Romance. While Witch’s Romance didn’t dig as deep into the depths of the significance and emotions of a woman’s romance with a younger man, it certainly was a memorable one that quickly became a classic. This is largely thanks to Uhm Jung-hwa and Park Seo-joon’s amazing chemistry — and Park Seo-joon’s performance as a totally squishy, sincere, and delightful hero. Though the drama did some silly things that were totally unnecessary (seriously, the complexities of their huge age gap romance were more than enough for the entire plot without the dreaded Return of the Exes cliche), the relationship and hijinks and fluttery moments did everything that a good noona romance requires.
quirkycase: I’m going to go perhaps a bit unconventional here and choose Secret Love Affair. This drama checks a lot of boxes for me: fantastic performances, understated and cinematic style (tt’s an Ahn Pan-seok drama), and nuanced character exploration. That said, this isn’t your typical swoony noona romance; as the title implies, it does involve cheating, and it’s a very slow burn drama. However, it’s a great character study of a woman (Kim Hee-ae) trapped in a stifling life of her own making who meets a young man (Yoo Ah-in) who represents a riskier, more passionate option. Classical music is incorporated beautifully into the story itself – Yoo Ah-in’s character is a piano prodigy, while Kim Hee-ae’s character is a former pianist who works at the conservatory he attends – and serves as the primary means of emotional expression for the characters (and drama overall). It’s a drama that’s probably not suited to everyone’s taste, but it hit all the right notes for me.
mistyisles: I Hear Your Voice, hands down! In fact, it’s the only noona romance that comes to mind, no matter how hard I rack my brain. But just because it wins by default doesn’t mean it wouldn’t win if it had competition — I loved everything about this show, from the fantasy and thriller elements to the side characters to (of course!) the romance. Lee Jong-seok and Lee Bo-young had chemistry in spades, and even though the age gap leans on the uncomfortable side for me, they 100% sold it.
DaebakGrits: I’m not sure if my decision to pick Romance is a Bonus Book stems from my appreciation of the noona romance or of the fact that books and publishing are at the forefront of this drama’s story. For the sake of this prompt, we’re going to assume it’s 100% the relationship between Eun-ho and Dan-yi, but I freely admit I wasn’t initially on board with this pairing. Even though the age gap between these characters is only five years, their maturity levels felt much further apart because of their life experiences. Dan-yi is a recently divorced mother struggling to reenter the workforce, and Eun-ho has that whole young bachelor vibe going on. Over the course of the drama, this pairing grew on me, though, and I think that is largely why I picked this drama: if the story is compelling enough for me to work past my preconceived notions about the characters, then it deserves my praise.
Unit: While the noona aspect isn’t the exact focus of the romance in When The Camellia Blooms, the Dong-baek and Hwang Yong-shik — who happens to be my second favorite K-drama male lead of all time — pairing still remain at the top of my noona romance list. I loved the earnestness of Yong-shik’s feelings, and how unrelenting he was in his pursuit of Dong-baek. As a single mom who had gotten her heart broken in the past, Dong-baek had to be on her guard to protect both her son and her heart. But a determined Yong-shik broke down those walls not just by mere words, but by actions: on countless occasions, he stood up for Dong-baek to his mother and the other town folks. Her son was important to her, therefore, the son became important to Yong-shik as well. He literally ran into a fire to save Dong-baek, and caught a serial killer who was after her. And with these uncommon romantic gestures, it’s not so hard to see why Dong-baek fell for him in return. Plus, in what (I think) is the best use of time skip ever, we actually saw these two still together in old age, so, cheers to a long-lasting noona romance!
Dramaddictally: You don’t even want to know how much I tortured myself with this one. How — how — can I only pick one? But since these are the rules, and I gotta do it, I’m going with Witch’s Romance. With a fourteen-year age gap between Park Seo-joon and our noona, Uhm Jung-hwa, this drama takes its genre seriously. And it’s got all the moves, from laugh-out-loud funny to sugary sweet to super sexy (sometimes all at once! The drunken bedroom scene where Miss Noona first realizes her date is only 25 is an equal blend of hilarious and hot). But really, this is my pick because I love both leads here. Our 39-year-old heroine is a pragmatist, a bit jaded by life (though I wouldn’t call her a witch), and totally caught off guard by the attention of a young and handsome man. It’s up to our hero to prove his feelings for her are sincere through maturity, dedication, and all the fun they have together. I just love it. It’s everything I want in a noona romance, and it’s a crazy good time. (Also: an adorably skinny Park Seo-joon. I mean, come on!)
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