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Tuesday, February 6, 2018

I Am Not A Robot (Korean Drama)

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Sci-fi
Episodes: 32 (Half an hour each)

Main Cast: 
Yoo Seung-Ho as Kim Min Kyu
Chae Soo-Bin as Jo Ji Ah / Aji 3
Uhm Ki-Joon as Hong Baek Kyun

Synopsis:
Min-Kyu is the largest shareholder of a finance company. He is handsome and intelligent, but he lives in seclusion due to his allergy of people. Meanwhile, Ji-Ah is an aspiring entrepreneur and works as a personal shopper. She receives a phone call from her ex-boyfriend Baek-Gyun. Her ex-boyfriend is a world renown developer of android robots. His latest creation is the android Aji 3, which he built with the same physical appearance as Ji-Ah, but an accident has broken Aji 3. Making matters worse, he has received an order for Aji 3 from Min-Kyu with the promise of more investment money if he's satisfied. Being in such a predicament, Baek-Gyun offers money to Ji-Ah if she will go to Min-Kyu's home and pretend to be Aji 3. Ji-Ah is in need of money and accepts the offer.

My Thoughts (Review):

As always I like to usually skip over a drama at the first glance before watching it at the second glance.This is another one of those dramas. I at first thought the male lead would be actually attracted to a robot and so I have no intention of watching a robot-human love story. Also, I had thoughts where Yoo Seung Ho seemed too old to play said character. I don't know why I thought of that but those were my primary reasons not to watch. But I came across an OST of the drama and and had to recheck the plot again and discovered that it is not what I thought. Besides, Yoo Seung Ho was actually younger than the age of said character. Thus, I decided to try watching it.

The premise of the story was interesting in that a human developed an allergy of human contact through skin. I still wondered how exactly that worked, I mean how the brain was wired to accept skin contact into an allergy reaction. Maybe the answer is there in my head but whatever. The character's life in the end became that of a seclusive loner, accepting his sickness and being able to adapt to situations where he has to meet people. Though I did wonder, why don't people question his instructions of having to stay away from him way before he announce his sickness? And so, by having this allergy, he lost the warmth of a human. And then, this robot came along who seem so lifelike and yet is not life itself. That bypass his allergy to skin contact (Again, if his allergy is initiated through skin contact, why didn't it realize Ji Ah was a human?) And so, I deduced that his allergy is only initiated if he himself believes body and mind that the opposing party is human and if not or he has doubts over the identity, his allergy won't act. 

It is also interesting how there were many chances where Ji Ah gave away that she is human but him despite having an IQ of over 150, can't seem to notice and just believe the situational lie they put forth. One of the funny moments, was when he called Ji Ah as Aji 3 a genius for being able to solve a problem and she was like, 'Should I be happy at being called a genius when I just have an IQ of 94?' Kim Min Kyu is to my surprise actually a cute and lovable character. When he was on the brink of losing his one and only friend in a long time, he really worked hard to try to earn points to keep his friend back. He was so excited at just the aspect of Ji Ah as Aji 3 recognizing him when he had his rashes. You can really feel the joy he has in the company of Ji Ah. All smiles and grins. It is such a fun watching him. There are just so many sides of him that I can't not like.

And so, their relationship developed and it really pains me to see when they have to separate since they really depended on each other lots. Particularly Min Kyu, since he finally found a friend and then he has to let her go. At the final episodes, it was particularly worrying to see him go into shock at finding out he had been lied to all along. Once they resolved their troubles, I was extremely happy to see him all smiles again as they hug and kissed. They really had it tough especially how hard it was for Ji Ah to hide her identity despite all she wanted was to be with him. And then Min Kyu trying to revive Aji 3 by doing the same things over again but realizing his friend is gone. When they finally made up, it was like saying their struggles are over and they can finally be happy and be truthful.

All in all, this drama truly did serves its aim at being a romantic comedy because there were moments where it was just so funny in different ways. Against my prior judgement, this was actually a really good drama. The chemistry between Yoo Seung Ho and Chae Soo Bin was evident. And their sparks just keep flying all about. I find myself really invested in their love story in the end. In short, if you haven't watch this drama yet, give it a try and comment on your thoughts of it down below!