When a Man Loves with Song Seung Heon and Shin Se Kyung Hold Script Reading

So….what do you all think? Even giving it the biggest benefit of the doubt ever, is there even a chance that the upcoming gangster melodrama When a Man Loves will be anything but a hot mess? Right now WAML is running neck-and-neck with Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love as the two dramas with the greatest upside-downside swing. It can either go down in flames or actually succeed beyond everyone’s expectations. Starring a mash up of actors I never wanted to see in a drama, Song Seung Heon returns to the melodrama genre that garnered him ratings (Autumn in My Heart, East of Eden) to play the right hand man of a mob boss who falls in love with the boss’s girl played by Chae Jung Ahn. They start dating after the mob boss dies, but then Song Seung Heon find his heart captured by Shin Se Kyung‘s character. Song Seung Heon’s character is described as being very cold blooded and driven after starting off with nothing, and meeting a young and ambitious Shin Se Kyung reminds him of his past self. Yeon Woo Jin, coming off a very well-received turn as the tormented antagonist in Arang and the Magistrate, plays another young go-getter in the same mob and is good friends with Song Seung Heon. Their friendship starts to go awry as they both fall in love with Shin Se Kyung. Okay, who else fell asleep just reading this mini synopsis? Guy 1 loves girl 2 then falls for girl 1 who guy 2 also loves. That formula in any iteration is found all over K-dramas but it ought to be wrapped in an interesting story, and so far nothing about mobs and falling for a young attractive girl seems remotely interesting. I guess my sole consolation is that Song Seung Heon will probably be wearing a lot of well tailored black suits. He’s my weakness and him wearing suits pretty much sends me flailing into fangirly territory. Directing will be the talented PD who did Arang and Can You Hear My Heart, while the writer did the uneven Equator Man and the wonderful Still Marry Me. This really is a mixed bag production all around. WAML airs in mid-April following 7th Level Civil Servant on MBC.