MBC’s rom-com “A Good Day to be a Dog” tells the story of Han Hae Na (Park Gyu Young) – a young teacher whose family carries a curse through the centuries. If she kisses someone the curse activates and turns her into a dog from midnight until 6 am. In order to break the curse, she must kiss the same person in her dog form within 100 days. Otherwise, she stays in her dog form forever.
Sounds complicated but it’s just a set-up for a light and funny rom-com where our Hae Na must find a way to kiss her colleague, a math teacher, from the school where she’s working – Jin Seo Won (Cha Eun Woo). The one who was scared of dogs due to his trauma from being a victim of bullying in his school days. It would be easier if they already liked each other but she kissed him by mistake! Omo, what to do?
Romance romancing
The chemistry between leads is everything in rom-coms and both Park Gyu Young and Cha Eun Woo don’t disappoint. Well, I have yet to see Park Gyu Young not to deliver, she always does and it’s no wonder how fast she transferred from the second lead to the main one. Cha Eun Woo on the other hand gets a lot of criticism for his acting and in this show, I want to defend him! After seeing his other rom-com roles (“My Id is Gangnam Beauty” and “True Beauty”), I see a huge improvement in his acting. I think he still needs to work on strong emotions like anger or intense crying but he rocks as teasing romantic moments. At some point, I started wondering if it’s far-fetched to assume they actually like each other not just playing their roles. That’s always a good sign that chemistry was just right.
SeoHae romance was filled with fluff and adorable awkwardness to warm up in the midst of cold winter. Their actual dating era and overly dramatic attempts to hide their relationship were fun to watch. Of course, cute scenes are not enough for a stable relationship and SeoHae like reasonable adults faces hardships with their heads held high. It’s a very mature romance as well and I loved how supportive and understanding they were. SeoHae couple is relationship goals through and through.
“I might wander a bit”
Jin Seo Won
Kdrama won’t be a kdrama without angst even in the fluffiest rom-com and of course, the road to happiness for the main leads was bumpy. This phrase from Seo Won was probably the saddest for me but the episode with memory loss was the best on the show (I just love angst, ok?). Cha Eun Woo did a great job acting in this episode, from awkwardly minoring Park Gyu Young’s early episodes gigs to sulking in the background but taking a respectful distance when needed. He played a sad abandoned puppy role so well that I wanted to give him a hug.
The Mountain Spirit
Oh, I hated this man-child guy so much but his revenge was brilliant, I give him that. It was a masterful trap and his full villain era was great. The actor (Lee Hyun-Woo) did an amazing job transforming from everyone’s favorite teacher to terrifying Mountain Spirit with a sad love story.
I didn’t like how they made his past lover to reincarnate into a school student while still giving them some romantic background. But I’m glad they didn’t give them a full romance in the modern version and if it happens, it will be off-screen. At least on screen, they talked mostly about moving on and it was the right direction.
I will say unpopular thing, but I found the reason for his revenge too self-centered. He talks about how they must pay for their selfish decision in the past but his reasoning was… his man-pain and nothing more. His past lover didn’t want this and had to reincarnate to tell him to stop! And what was the first thing he asks when her last moments are revealed?
“What about me? Why you didn’t think about me?”
Ugh, this made him so unlikable for me personally. But I give the actor well applause for his work and I must admit, he looked extra attractive in the very last episode.
The bullying
Again, if the stage for the show is in school, then kdrama must follow some basic tropes and in this case, it was school bullying. In two separate stories, we got to see different aspects of bullying.
In a story with a student, we saw a female bully and how easy it was to come up with excuses to cover the whole thing. Adults must protect children in school but turning a blind eye is so easy and tempting. All the red flags were there and if the victim felt like she could come out with her story and adults would believe her, then there wouldn’t be any story to show. Adults didn’t make the environment in school safe enough for victims.
Likely, Seo Won, a victim of bullying himself, noticed and brought it to everyone’s attention.
And that leads us to the second story. A story of Seo Won’s school days and how much bullying affected him. It’s never easy. If people say, it’ll pass, kids are kids – I call bs. It will not pass without leaving scars. Seo Won grew up into a compassionate and kind person, and a great teacher as well. But scars are there. It’s in his fear of dogs. Even the smallest ones. It’s in his attentive eyes that notices all the signs.
Be kind people. Don’t turn a blind eye to school bullying.
Conclusion
If you want a warm rom-com with likable leads, then this fun kdrama is for you. I know I ranted a bit about some things and wrote the whole passage about the bullying but it is a light and fun kdrama. With its cliches, with great kissing scenes, amazing chemistry, and mature love(despite some silliness but who didn’t act silly when in love? We all are, no matter what age!).
This drama is so underrated! MBC did them so dirty! First, they decided 1 episode per week was enough and then canceled airing for a few weeks because of the sport. They even had to make a 5-minute intro explaining what happened in previous episodes because so much time passed people could forget! I read many posts on various platforms saying that people prefer to postpone watching it until all episodes are out. How many of them actually returned and finished the drama? How many of them got spoiled by those of us who watched episodes each week?
Bad form, MBC, bad form.
PS Cha Eun Woo is soon to come back with the new MBC drama “Wonderful World” and I personally excited to see him in a healing kdrama and more mature role. It will start airing on March 1 as a Friday-Saturday drama.