Hi, Chisella here! I know it’s been a while since I wrote anything here, but life overtook me. I’ve been busy with school, so I don’t remember the last time I finished a drama, but I finally finished Divorce Insurance after weeks of watching it on and off. I’ll make this review quick since I don’t remember a lot of the beginning parts, and it’s the first kdrama I watched in a long time, and actually finished!

Note: I wrote the below review on my personal site and decided to share it here too!

Welcome to my second review!! I had 2 other dramas in my drafts from over 3 years ago, and I honestly don’t remember the dramas. So, unfortunately, I cannot write about them. However, my goal now is to write about current dramas as soon as I finish them.

I watched this drama as it was airing, and whilst I was in school. I only finished it yesterday because I got busy with school the past few weeks and couldn’t keep up with the weekly episodes by the time they got to episode 9. So it is likely that I’ve forgotten the early parts of the drama, but since I finished it yesterday, I remember it in general. I know some people called the drama boring, and a friend of mine had specific thoughts about the premises, which I’ll share later, so this review will be biased/opinion-based in many aspects. I might also speak about the storyline with specific details! So be warned! Only read after you’ve watched it if you intend to watch it!

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!! Very detailed & specific review of my thoughts.

First of all, I started this drama because of this cast. By cast, I mean THE Lee Dong-Wook in particular, and I wanted to see his chemistry with Lee Kwang-Soo and Kim Won-Hae. So I was honestly just happy to see them act together and be funny as usual.

Truth be told, the drama was slow. Perhaps in another season of my life, I would’ve been too bored to continue it. I say that because I have several incomplete kdramas that I hope to eventually finish. I’ve also experienced slow dramas that I dropped or ones that I stopped for a while and forced myself to finish months later. However, this drama had a charm to it that kept me going and resonated with me in my current season of life. I may write more about the concept later and my thoughts, but I’ll try to keep this very focused on just reviewing the drama itself.

Like I said, the cast was good. I can’t really think of a better addition or swap. The storyline was also good, in the sense that it was giving slice of life and was quite mature. Like the title suggests, it’s about divorce insurance. It started with one of the characters going through a divorce and meeting another divorcee working at the insurance company. Eventually, a task force is created to develop this product, ‘divorce insurance,’ and the drama goes through the challenges they experience with creating the policy, and also the personal aspect of the characters’ lives. There was subtle romance, about 20% of the drama, a lot of comedy, which I’d say was about 50%, and the remaining was conversations with life lessons.

I’m listening to the OST as I write this, which I will link below. Nothing out of this world, but a very calming soundtrack, which I liked. If you’re someone who wants action, overt romance, and more to a storyline, then this drama isn’t for you. Like a lot of kdramas, this drama has a message to pass on, and it goes through the characters’ lives.

They discuss divorce a lot, which is what I discussed with a friend. My friend’s argument was that creating divorce insurance would promote divorce, but throughout the drama, the team countered that opinion. Their goal with the policy was to promote healing. Just like you have health insurance that can provide some coverage when you’re sick, divorce insurance helps couples when they’re on the brink of divorce. I liked that because it included services that would’ve otherwise been too expensive, like therapy, dance classes, and other couple activities to reignite the relationship. If none of it worked, then the couple could divorce well, they could “end things the right way”. That was something Lee Dong-Wook’s character mentioned, assuming the English translation was accurate. So a lot of the things discussed reminded me of an important lens through which to view life.

Moreover, I would say the characters were basic, and there were some minor cliché romantic moments which made me giggle, and I quite liked it. I tend to like dramas that are heavy on romance, but I appreciated that the romance was very natural between the characters and wasn’t heavy or forced. It was pretty slow, too. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but it’s a 12-episode drama, so there’s only so much that they can show. The chemistry between all the characters was good, though. I didn’t sense any awkward acting, and nothing made me uncomfortable. Of course, this drama wasn’t the only thing I was watching at the time, so I could switch to something else whenever I wasn’t in the mood for something slow, subtle, and with an underlying message to interpret.

Also, I thought it was pretty interesting that they released this type of drama considering South Korea wants to increase its birthrate and would like more people to get married. I don’t know if, or how, this drama will affect the climate. I assume divorce insurance is a fictional concept now, but if it becomes a real thing, I wonder whether it would actually promote more marriages and help South Korea with its population growth, or not. I can also see how, as a Christian (or other religions) may be seen as problematic if they conclude that it promotes divorce. Personally, it didn’t promote divorce. I say this as a single pringle without marriage yet on the horizon. What the drama did for me was emphasize the point of re-examining our relationships and making an effort to either mend things or end them properly, instead of running away from problems.

To conclude, you will like this drama if you like soft and slow-paced dramas. It isn’t attention grabbing so don’t expect it to. It also seemed very real, too, so without a lot of unrealistic elements like other dramas may have, so you’ll like this if that’s your vibe. The best way for me to describe this drama is natural, with subtle messages that will encourage you to reassess how you approach mistakes, love, and marriage. You’ll like it if that’s your vibe! Otherwise, stay clear!

Thank you for reading! I’ll see you in my next review after I finish another drama – I might complete one of my incomplete ones or start something new. I’ve been seeing a lot of new interesting dramas, so I’ll try them.

– Chisella

Here is the link to the OST – a playlist I found on Spotify!