This is totally one of the best drama OTP castings this year so far. The rumored reunion of Jang Hyuk and Jang Nara in the K-drama remake of the TW-drama Fated to Love You is a go! The confirmation came Thursday morning and is one of those super exciting hot off the press news updates for me. Even hearing of the rumored casting got me all excited, moreso for Jang Hyuk returning to rom-coms as well as fond memories of Jang Nara having great chemistry with him in Successful Story of a Bright Girl. The remake will be called, unsurprisingly, Fated to Love You, which if you ask me was a whizbang title for a rom-com that also had an added benefit of perfectly describing the romance between the OTP. The original TW-drama starred the boyishly handsome Ethan Ruan as a chaebol heir with a ballerina girlfriend he is thisclose to proposing to. In a fated cruise ship escapade involving mistaken identity and some love potion, he ends up in bed in a heated tryst with Chen Qiao En playing a bespectacled ordinary office girl with the nickname post-it girl since she’s the repository of everyone else’s demands and orders she can’t say no to.
Their fated romantic encounter results in a pregnancy which leads to a shotgun wedding, but all along the way the OTP fall in love despite their vast personality and lifestyle differences. Ethan and Qiao En were in their late twenties and played similar aged characters, but both Jangs are in their thirties now so I hope the drama allows them to play their ages and introduce a different dynamic into the remake. The drama will air on MBC Wed-Thurs after A New Leaf with Kim Myung Min and Park Min Young, which is itself just started filming and won’t premiere until the end of April following Sly and Single Again. Directing is the PD from The Queen’s Classroom and Feast of the Gods while there will be a screenwriting duo at the helm, one writer did Soulmates and Hello Francesca while the other wrote Believe in Men and Lobbyist. Eeeps, I’m so so excited, and way more for this remake than for the remake of TW-drama My Queen which is airing in two weeks as Witch’s Romance with Uhm Jung Hwa and Park Seo Joon.
i love this!!! 300percent. I can’t help grinning until now. My Hyukie and cutie Jang Nara. Can’t it be airing now instead of another 3 month? Lol.
ditto! wish it could air now!!
Me three, can’t wait…
I am in. I actually wasn’t a huge fan of FTLY – basically the most popular ratings idol drama in tw history – I am so weird like that with my dramas but reunion??? I am so there. Jang Nara isn’t one I my faves but I just liked her kdramas better than her cdramas. She’s really cute.
I love how Hyuk and ldh are the king and queen of reunion pairings that are super rare in kdramaland. More reunion pairings!! 🙂
Fighting Jangs!
wow..her face never changes..
Am I the only one that find a slight resemblance between chen qiao en and jang nara?
No you are not the only I noticed it as well 🙂
I really loved the couple of Fated To Love You!!! But her family was really boring… And the last episodes were useless.
I think Jang Hyuk is really good in action scenes but I feel any chemestry with his female partner. I can’t imagine him in this role.
So excited to hear there’s a remake of my favourite TW drama (or the only TW drama that I can stand actually!) Doubly excited when I heard the PD was the one who directed Queen’s Classroom. I love that drama. Can’t wait for this.
Looking forward to it. I hope the anna not going to be so annoying as the orginal. The grandma was so cute. Maybe they will make a trilogy. If i remember it with drunk to love you and one other one idk. Also coming My queen.
This one will be my download list
Why can’t they be younger, their too old.
🙁
Color me excited. They are a great pair and I can’t wait to see them take on this remake.
I watched Fated To Love You after My Queen to be prepared for their respective remakes. I loved My Queen but struggled to finish Fated To Love You. I found Ethan’s character hard to take, he was a stereotypical regressive first lead right to the end, and Qiao En’s character was far too passive for far too long. I’m actually more excited for its remake than for Witch’s Love because I preferred My Queen, and because of Jang Nara. I hope her character gets some backbone to make the pairing less clichéd
I actually love My Queen but merely enjoyed FTLY with my brain turned off. I still don’t get why FTLY was THAT popular when it aired. It was just alright. But I love the K-version casting of FTLY way way WAY more than the K-version casting of My Queen/Witch’s Love hence the reversal of my excitement factor here.
EXACTLY! Jang Nara is super cute and having enjoyed her performances in both Baby Faced Beauty and School 2013 I’m hoping this remake will be better than FTLY. Especially if they follow your excellent suggestion and adjust the story to fit the actors’ ages.
goodluck to this otp comeback!
on a side note, I wish for eun hye and ji hoon to have another drama together after their goong drama. would love to see them again together.
thanks Captain!!! just wanting to get this out of my chest! hahahah
I thought I was the only who thought that FTLY was overhyped. Agreed with pretty much everything you said Stuart. I ended up not finishing the drama because I felt that the leads’ growth were too slow and I couldn’t take anymore of CQE’s character.
I never get the hype about FTLY. I dropped it midway and don’t really remember that much about the drama except for its music. Like many of the people here, I’m excited because of the reunion. I hope that k-version will be able to improve on some of the problems I had with FTLY. They especially need to work on the characterization of the male lead and the unbalanced dynamic between the two leads.
Speaking of TW dramas/romcoms, people should definitely give Sweet Relationship (dir. by Chu Yu Ning) a try. It’s a remade of Japanese manga, and there’s a Jdrama version of it. But TW can definitely stand on its own.
What is up with all the old hallyu power couples re-uniting? Can I get a Rain/Song Hye Kyo and Ha Ji Won/Lee Seo Jin reunion, please?
I don’t know why I keep thinking this is a remake of Autumn’s Concierto. And it doesn’t help that I keep thinking they fit that one better… for some reason.
This is a far more exiting remake than My Queen! I’ve never seen Succesfull Story but I know there are a bazillion fans out there who are probably so freaked right now..I have only one problem, in that I disliked the original FTLY, hopefully the remake willl be tweaked to better the orignial
It’s funny. I really don’t remember My Queen. I liked the OTP of FTLY, they had a lot of chemistry. But their age was more about the 25 year old than 35… I think that YJang Hyuk and Jang Nara are too old (even if I really like her!)
Pass…eventhough I really really like seeing Janghyuk.
from the short promo video out now it seems she will be 28 and he 33 of age, so Jang Nara can do that easily, heck she still plays 20 year olds in her chinese dramas!