Marry My Husband (내 남편과 결혼해줘) is a 16-episode live-action adaptation of the webnovel and webtoon of the same name. It premiered on January 1, 2024, aired by tVN. It is available for streaming on TVING in South Korea and Prime Video in selected regions worldwide.
Terminal cancer patient Ji-won Kang returns home to find her husband Min-hwan Park shacking up with her best friend Su-min Jeong. When she confronts them about it, both prove unrepentant, before Min-hwan accidentally shoves Ji-won into a glass table and killing her.
Next thing she knew, Ji-won has been returned to her old job at U&K Foods, where she, Min-hwan, and Su-min worked together ten years ago. To avoid a repeat of history, Ji-won embarks on a quest to change her life for the better, and ruin Min-hwan and Su-min in the process by guiding them towards marriage.
The cast of Marry My Husband:
- Park Min-young as Kang Ji-won
- Na In-woo as Yoo Ji-hyuk
- Lee Yi-kyung as Park Min-hwan
- Song Ha-yoon as Jeong Su-min
- Lee Gi-kwang as Baek Eun-ho
Marry My Husband contains examples of these tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Original timeline Ji-won dies when Min-hwan shoves her, hitting her head on a glass table.
- Adaptation Expansion: The drama contextualizes and expands upon Ji-hyuk's affection for Ji-won by going into detail about how he fell in love with her as college students and never acted upon his feelings, abusing his position of power, or "ruining" her relationship with Min-hwan when he was made her work superior. This addresses concerns from webtoon readers who felt their relationship was inappropriate because of their office power disparity and his grief was unsuitable for a woman he's barely interacted with.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Gyeong-uk Kim is a Fat Bastard with discolored teeth and patently unattractive features in the webtoon. His drama counterpart has more conventional, average older office worker looks, although makeup and hair went a long way in adding a decade or two to the 39-year-old handsome Kim Jung-hee. His unattractiveness mostly comes from his uncouth (trimming his nose hair at work, for example) and sexist behavior.
- Adaptational Karma: The webtoon and webnovel merely says that after Ji-won's death in the original timeline, Su-min's social media was deleted and she wasn't answering her calls. In this series, Su-min is actually shown getting arrested at Ji-won's funeral.
- Ambiguously Bi:
- When Eun-ho thinks Ji-hyuk is trying to ask him out, he tries to let Ji-hyuk down gently by showing his ring and saying that he has a girlfriend, rather than saying that he's not into men. The later reveal that the ring is fake and he wears it specifically to deter people from trying to approach him romantically, as his heart had been broken by his first love, doesn't alter the implications.
- Hee-yeon can enthusiastically flip between being a Shipper on Deck for Ji-won with Ji-hyuk, Eun-ho, and herself at the drop of a hat. She swoons over Ji-won, calls the older woman "her savior", gives her a makeover, takes time to redesign Ji-won's entire apartment, bewilderedly asks Ji-won if she was "punishing [her] in a naughty way" when she sees Ji-won's daring outfit after the family dinner, and straight up proposes marriage after Ji-won fixes them both a delicious meal.
- Back from the Dead: Ji-won and Ji-hyuk are sent back to relive the ten years before their deaths.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the end of episode 5, after his Love Confession, Ji-hyuk leans in as if to kiss Ji-won before fainting on her shoulders.
- Batman Gambit: Ji-won pulls a lot of these off such as in her primary goal to set Min-hwan and Su-min together and in the finale, plans out Su-min's final downfall in order to bring her down for good after Ji-hyuk receives word that she might be planning to burn down Ji-won's home, so they set up a CCTV system to catch her in the act and Ji-won gets extra training to break off bindings like zip-ties which Su-min does use.
- Blatant Lies: Every other word out of Su-min's mouth is one. She seems to be incapable of telling the truth, even knowing full well that the subjects and objects of her lies can be willing and able to call her out.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Su-min and Min-hwan both barely keep the "nice and sweet" lid on. They damaged Ji-won's self-esteem badly with their mean-spirited barbs, victim-blaming, body-shaming, gaslighting, verbal, financial, emotional, and eventually escalating to physical abuse. Past Ji-won was so desperate to be liked and loved and so deeply gaslit that she lost her objectivity and saw nothing but the sheep's wool. Reincarnated Ji-won sees more clearly, so she pushes them together because they are so similar they deserve each other - and to get ruined by each other.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ji-hyuk engineers these moments and sometimes stands at the center of them in true I Want My Beloved to Be Happy fashion toward Ji-won. He sends Eun-ho to the class reunion to put the final nail in the coffin for Su-min's school-days lies, fakes a fried chicken delivery to interrupt Min-hwan's attempt to be intimate and help a distressed Ji-won throw Min-hwan out, and gives her a work-related excuse to leave the awkward moment with Eun-ho on the bridge.
- Came Back Strong: While she still has her moments, Ji-won realized how badly she was bullied, gaslit, and victim-blamed. She grew a spine in the process of redoing her life.
- Casanova Wannabe: Min-hwan has absolutely no charm. It's evident that he and Ji-won started dating because Ji-won was so desperate for love she would latch onto anyone.
- Cherry Blossoms: The falling petals recur throughout the series as a symbol for fate (and its changing/transferring), the renewal of life, and spring. The final shot of the series is Ji-won and Ji-hyuk in a gallery looking at paintings of cherry trees as petals swirl around them, on April 12, 2023 (the day Ji-won traveled back), wrapping up the journey where it had begun.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Hee-yeon hardly tries to cover up her calling Min-hwan a jerk with her coughing.
- Couple Theme Naming: Guile Heroes Ji-won and Ji-hyuk's names share the character "Ji" (지원 and 지혁). Bitches in Sheep's Clothing Su-min and Min-hwan share the character "Min" (수민 and 민환).
- Crazy-Prepared: Shortly after waking up in 2013, Ji-hyuk spent half a year investing in top-of-the-line cancer treatment with the knowledge that Ji-won was battling it in the original timeline and intended to provide it for when the time comes. When Ji-won's cancer fate goes to Yuran instead, Ji-hyuk immediately provides it to her instead.
- Death by Adaptation: In the webnovel, Yu-ra's punishment is to go with a volunteer group to Africa. In the series, the Chairman did tell her to do just that. She refuses, tries to flee the country before her travel ban (as she was being investigated for the dump truck murder case), and receives Ji-hyuk's fate: dying in a car crash en route to the airport.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Instead of being Driven to Suicide like in the webnovel and webtoon, Ji-hyuk got into a fatal car accident after swerving to dodge a cat.
- The recipient of Ji-won's previous fate is Min-hwan, being accidentally pushed into a glass table by Su-min.
- Drunken Glow: Gyeong-uk and Ji-won both have the classic alcohol flush reaction, but Ji-won's is more pronounced and crosses over into a live-action Luminescent Blush with the girlish giggly drunken happiness accompanying it.
- Dramatic Irony: Ji-hyuk agonizes to his cat that he ought not to tell Ji-won the truth - that Min-hwan and Su-min two-timed her and killed her in the past timeline - and break her heart in the process, but both Ji-won and the audience are already fully aware of it.
- Drowning My Sorrows:
- Eun-ho got sloshed after Ji-won turned him down - while fervently denying to his boss that she did.
- Ji-won got incredibly drunk three months after her dad's death to cope with the emotional and physical loneliness.
- Eating the Eye Candy: The U&K office is delighted at the results of Ji-won and Ji-hyuk's makeover. Ji-hyuk gets a scene in which (unbeknownst to him), three of his women coworkers sip on cold drinks and comment that it's a perk of their job as they swoon over him. Lampshaded by a bewildered Ji-won asking whether she, Hee-yeon, and Joo-ran are the only ones who don't care about Ji-hyuk's new look.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- While trying to figure out a way to make lots of money to break away from Min-hwan, Ji-won remembers his sole success: Stocks. Since she has a decade's worth of general knowledge, she's able to make almost-guaranteed successful investments into different companies she knows will become major successes and which ones to avoid.
- After Yu-ra buys out Eun-ho's workplace and promptly fires him because he refused to co-operate with her, he gripes to Hee-yeon about his situation. After some discussion, she gets a bright idea and practically squees about it since U&K's meal plan recently took a hit because of the chefs part of it were being uncooperative, so Eun-ho begins to work for U&K as their new chef and his dishes become a smash hit.
- Female Misogynist: Kim Ja-ok (Min-hwan's mother) is full of outdated ideas about men's and women's duties in the home. She wants her daughter-in-law to keep a full-time job and serve her husband, keep the house clean, and bear many children. She believes men shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen because it weakens them.
- Forgotten First Meeting: The leads first met when Ji-hyuk rescued a very drunken Ji-won from some toughs wanting to take advantage of her. She forgot all about it, but he never did.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Both Ji-won and Ji-hyuk swap out glasses for contact lenses as part of their makeover. However, unlike the usual appearance of this trope, there's symbolic meaning behind it. During their Forgotten First Meeting as college students, both of them ended up with their glasses off (drunken Ji-won accidentally crushed hers underfoot, Ji-hyuk took his off), and they proceeded to have a mutually enlightening conversation that got to some brutal truths and realizations after denials and hang-ups. As they both lie on the floor after Ji-won flips Ji-hyuk at judo, she looks at him and flashes back to the long-forgotten blurry memory of college-age Ji-hyuk lying in the grass next to her.
- Genki Girl: Hee-yeon is a bundle of energy and joy that can barely be contained. Ji-hyuk's physical attempts to stop her from making a scene with her happy flailing and squealing after a shopping excursion amount to very little.
- Gratuitous English: Hee-yeon occasionally sprinkles unsubtitled English into her lines, such as "Perfect, perfect!" and "Classic is timeless." during the makeover scene.
- Guile Hero: Ji-won and Ji-hyuk both manipulate everyone and everything possible to achieve their goal, and they remain sympathetic.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: After Hee-yeon sets Ji-won and Eun-ho up on a date, Ji-hyuk eats ice cream out of a bucket. When Hee-yeon calls her brother out on him being upset even though she did exactly what he wanted, and asks for ice cream for herself, he physically breaks the tub and gives half of it to her.
- Hypocrite:
- Or at least borne out of cynicism. Seeing Min-hwan assault Ji-won enrages Ji-hyuk, and he claims people never change - even though both he and Ji-won has massively changed from their past selves.
- Min-hwan and Su-min are straight cases who frequently engage in hypocrisy and victim-blaming. Their favorite defense is that Ji-won (and other people) should have known better.
- In Vino Veritas: Drunken Ji-won has neither filters nor reservations, openly admitting that she's utterly alone and friendless after her father's death, and thinks biting Ji-hyuk is a good idea. (In her defense, it works.)
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ji-hyuk's defining characteristic. It kept him from acting on his feelings because he saw that she seemed happy in her relationship with Min-hwan, and it led him to orchestrate events that would nominally hurt his chances of getting with her (telling Eun-ho about the reunion, for example).
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: First demonstrated with Ji-hyuk talking to his cat, as if confiding to a friend, about his unwillingness to tell the truth and hurt Ji-won. Episode 5 reveals that Ji-hyuk and Ji-won independently took care of a stray cat at college. Ji-hyuk fell in love with her and her good nature through the process but never spoke up.
- Love Confession:
- Eun-ho blurts out that he had a crush on Ji-won in public, earning him enthusiastic applause from passersby.
- Ji-hyuk tells Ji-won he loves her after The Reveal that Hee-yeon is his (half)sister, not his girlfriend.
- Ji-won reciprocates after she keeps thinking of Ji-hyuk while on a date with Eun-ho. Cue Big Damn Kiss.
- Makeover Montage: In preparation for the class reunion and symbolic of her rebirth in general, Ji-won gets a new hairdo, outfit, shoes, nails, and borrowed authentic high-end earrings courtesy of Hee-yeon.
- Mark of the Supernatural: Ji-won's late father had a habit of drawing little purple hearts on her allowance, much to her dismay. After waking up in 2013, she sees this on the money the taxicab driver gave her before she died, indicating that her father is somehow behind her second chance. It's later revealed that Ji-hyuk and Ji-won have these imprinted on their chests, which disappears from the former at the end after Yu-ra dies in a car accident like how Ji-hyuk originally did.
- Meaningful Name: Discussed Trope, as cheerful and bubbly Hee-yeon's name means "joyous connection", which she says she strives to be to everyone.
- Mistaken for Romance: Eun-ho assumes that the unfashionable man wearing horn-rimmed glasses who told him about the class reunion is Ji-won's boyfriend.
- Never My Fault: Su-min practices Insane Troll Logic and presents herself as the victim of Ji-won's manipulations, even from the first timeline. She's last seen in jail, mentally unbalanced, and screaming that everything is Ji-won's fault.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Played for Laughs when Ji-won and Ji-hyuk accidentally out themselves as time-travellers to each other because both expressed interest in BTS songs that they wouldn't have written yet for the next decade, with the show rubbing it in by reminding the viewers when these future songs were released.
- On top of Yuran inherting Ji-won's stomach cancer, the latter realises that Yuran is stumbling into the exact same fate that she died to in the original timeline; confronting a cheating spouse and about to hit her head on a glass table. In a bid to prevent it, Ji-won uses a golf club to smash a similar glass table in Yuran's home to pieces which pays off shortly after when Yuran gets shoved backwards right into where the table was and survives the ordeal.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: Attempting to persuade his grandfather to let him have his own way in marriage, Ji-hyuk notes that he's always been dutiful and done as he's told, except in this one matter. His grandfather retorts that he only followed orders because he had no dreams of his own.
- This Page Will Self-Destruct: Hee-yeon, irritated at Ji-hyuk calling so late, claims that his phone will self-destruct in five seconds if he doesn't get to the point. She immediately starts counting down.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Su-min puts on this act (and Ji-won believed her for most of their lives). Her name in Ji-won's phone is saved as "Other half (heart emoji)".
- Peggy Sue: Terminal cancer patient gets a second chance at life. And so did the guy with an one-sided crush on her since college.
- Psychological Projection: Min-hwan's reasoning on why Ji-hyuk probably has nefarious designs on Ji-won is that all men cheat (except him, of course, which is why he knows enough to warn her). Ji-won, knowing full well that he will cheat/has cheated on her, doesn't buy it for a second.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Trying to impress upon Ji-won the true purpose of Su-min's gift earrings, Hee-yeon enunciates "Humiliation" very clearly.
- Relative Error: Ji-won catches Ji-hyuk and Hee-yeon out on a shopping trip. Remembering that in the past timeline, Hee-yeon had to transfer out due to a scandal, Ji-won wrongly assumes that they're dating. They're actually siblings and grandchildren of U&K's chairman.
- Rewatch Bonus: A few days after Ji-won returns to life, she's in the company elevator when a disoriented-looking Ji-hyuk barges in and stares at her like he couldn't believe she was real. Episode 4 reveals that he was also given a second chance after his death and returned a few days after she did.
- Shout-Out: The entire sequence after Ji-won travels back to 2013 is highly reminiscent of the final scenes of Captain America: The First Avenger. Both leads, having woken up in the future, are disoriented and suspicious. They exit the building with violence (Ji-won attacking Min-hwan before fleeing), barefoot and disoriented, before being greeted with a "Mister Sandman" Sequence of the future (Times Square and a busy Korean intersection) filled with billboards and filmed with Orbital Shots. They are also pursued by a man trying to help them (Nick Fury and Ji-hyuk).
- Spared by the Adaptation: Min-hwan's mother was murdered by Su-min in the webtoon via air embolism which led to Min-hwan's death. In the series, Su-min only kills Min-hwan and his mother is still alive, with her last scene of her crying at her son's funeral.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Ji-won's reaction to seeing Min-hwan - who, just moments ago to her, was her cheating abusive husband and accidental murderer - is to freak out and give him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in public. She also needed to be shown several times that the date really is 2013 for it to finally sink in. Similarly, Ji-hyuk, having just been revived from his own death by car accident, stumbles into the elevator looking overwhelmed, and stares bewilderedly at his recently deceased lost love.
- In the finale, Su-min's arson scheme gets uncovered because the clerk who sold her the thinner she was going to use to torch Ji-won's home recognised her from the news bulletins (albeit until well after she left) and reported her actions to the police, enabling the heroes to counter her ahead of time.
- Understatement: When Su-min nosily asks what Hee-yeon's grandfather does for a living, the latter claims he sells things like bean sprouts. Su-min dismisses them as unimportant side dishes (banchan, 반찬). Hee-yeon's grandfather is actually the powerful Chairman of U&K Food.
- While banchan are technically 'side dishes' they are also extremely important in Korean cuisine. A typical high end traditional Korean meal is a bowl of rice accompanied with various banchan. The more banchan on the table, the fancier it is. Su-min really has no idea what she is talking about.
- When He Smiles: Lampshaded by Ji-won, who notes that Ji-hyuk looks different when he smiles and should smile more.
- Wicked Stepmother: Averted with Ji-hyuk's stepfamily. He notes that his stepmother and half-sister are good people, but he still feels odd about them (not being his deceased mom). As his half-sister Hee-yeon is perfectly lovely, his unseen stepmother presumably is as decent as he claims.
