Review of The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract / 열녀박씨 계약결혼뎐

There was a day when, after finishing my latest Korean drama, that I was deeply wondering what I could possibly watch next. I was in the middle of a rabid phase of watching dramas, so when I was finishing up my latest one, I could feel that interest that’d been fueling me for a bit starting to wane.

That said, I went on Viki to try and figure out what to do next, and that ended up leading me to The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract. I had never heard of this drama before pressing play, but the synopsis is what drew me in.

Although Scarlet Heart was really popular a few years back, I never watched it, so hearing about these dramas that weave the past with the present tends to be kind of fascinating to me. I also had never seen a Bae In-hyuk drama, despite hearing a lot about him lately.

So I pressed play. When I did that, only ten of the twelve episodes had been released, so I happily watched all ten over the course of three days before deciding to wait until the remainder of the series was released.

Here’s my review!

After the death of her husband, a Joseon woman finds herself in the present and fake married to a potential company head.

Our protagonist in this series is Park Yeon-woo, who, at the beginning of the series, is a woman living in Joseon with an interest for fashion. For those who might not be deep into Joseon history, specifically when it comes to women, she’s someone who definitely does not fit the status quo of the period.

She meets the man she’s supposed to marry: Kang Tae-ha, and while the two have a bit of a rocky start, they accept the circumstances of their marriage and begin to feel for each other. However, one night, Tae-ha collapses, bleeding, then suddenly dies in Yeon-woo’s arms.

Lowkey blamed for his death by his mother, Yeon-woo finds herself grieving the situation at hand. One night, a man in a mask grabs her while she’s outside, and he ends up dumping her into a well. Thinking this is the end, Yeon-woo actually wakes up in the modern day.

She’s found by the potential successor of SH Group: Kang Tae-ha. Shocked to see this man who looks exactly like her dead husband, and with the same heart problem he had, Yeon-woo believes at first that this really is her husband.

But because she’s in a strange new world unlike anything she’s seen before, she lets him lead her away and towards a wedding hall, where the two of them have a fake marriage in order to appease his family.

Throughout the course of the series, Yeon-woo adjusts to life in contemporary Seoul, even landing a position as a designer within SH Group, and even finds herself falling for the modern day version of her husband. He, too, begins to fall for her over the course of the series.

Things become even more complicated though when Yeon-woo discovers her best friend from Joseon also ended up in the present day as a maid for Tae-ha’s sketchy grandfather, and she slowly realizes the truth behind what happened to her and her husband.

Out in the forest even is her grave that her family made upon disappearing, declaring her a yeolnyeo, or virtuous woman. These women are fascinating in Korean history, as it’s a deep reflection of the patriarchal and Confucian society they lived within—they were expected to be loyal to the men in their lives even upon death.

Anyways, because this is only twelve episodes, the series kind of rushes through these plot points, making them seem a bit redundant or even half heartedly done at certain moments of the show.

Overall Thoughts

So I actually enjoyed The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract, especially when I didn’t think about it too hard. It really rushes into the storyline at times, hence my thoughts in the previous paragraph, and I thought the whole notion of the marriage contract happened too quickly.

That said, it was fluffy and cute enough when I didn’t think about it. I like stories that have depth, so wasn’t as big of a fan of how the main character plays the virtuous wife until the very end—she really was a reminiscent echo of Joseon, which makes sense considered how she was raised, but adapts to the modern world in different ways.

I think one day I’ll rewatch this, but not any time soon. I need a break from it. Go check it out if you haven’t already!

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