One of the memorable and quirky rom-coms I’ve watched is Fifty First Dates which starred Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. Sandler’s character, Henry is a man who enjoys his numerous one-night stands until he meets the girl of his dreams, Lucy, who retains only one-day worth of memories.

That was how I remembered that movie: 1 night + 1 day = 50 first dates.

Although I don’t look forward to living with daily amnesia (hello, Alzheimers!), I like the premise of this kind of romance. Thus, when I read the synopsis of Devilish Joy, I was thrilled to see that the plot is almost identical to Fifty First Dates.

In this kdrama, the male protagonist struggles with short term memory loss after an accident with a truck of doom (what else do you expect from a kdrama?). He forgets everything that happens to him that day when he goes to sleep at night. The heroine is most likely the key to curing him of his amnesia because he begins to remember flashes of their encounter even after the stroke of midnight and his brain resets to a blank slate.

However, after watching this week’s episodes, I’m undecided whether to proceed.

In its press release, Dramafever listed the “five reasons to watch Devilish Joy according to the actors.”  Ha! To me, the phrase “according to the actors” signals the writer hedging his review. It seems as if the writer HIMSELF isn’t convinced of the merits of the kdrama so he cited the actors instead. lol.

Here’s the list of reasons per Dramafever.

1. Devilish Joy is light, bite-sized, and fairy tale-like
2. This drama is so romantic that the lead actress dreams of falling in love just like on screen
3. Stars of Tunnel and Fight My Way play a part
4. ‘Devilish Joy’ is a pure Cinderella fantasy
5. It’s based on a well-written script

Source: https://www.dramafever.com/news/5-reasons-to-watch-devilish-joy-according-to-actors/

First,  I think the description of the kdrama as “fairy tale-like”, “so romantic”, and “pure Cinderella fantasy” ignores the fact that it’s CONTRIVED. I find myself continually rolling my eyes in exasperation with the improbable events.

Look: I understand that it’s the scriptwriter’s imperative to manipulate scenes to best move the plot towards his vision. However, I don’t agree with the execution.

For instance, midway through Episode 1, the goal of the Devilish Joy’s scriptwriter is to establish a bond between the guy and the girl. I GET THAT.

To this end, the scriptwriter makes the guy rescue the girl from a gang, fight them off single-handedly, and run away together. Fine….

What I find stupid however is that the hero dragged the girl wearing HIGH heels UP a flight of stairs and into a secluded room where they were quickly cornered by the gang. Better logic would have dictated that the hero and the girl ran down a busy street in search of people to assist them and serve as their eyewitnesses.

Another thing. It’s most incongruous that a staid doctor, in his early 30s, would capriciously get a tattoo on his HAND (Of all places! Doctors are notoriously protective of their hands.) from a shady tattoo parlor in the middle of the night. Such plot development is unrealistic. But I know that it’s forced on us because the scriptwriter needs to quickly establish proof of their connection soon before the truck of doom wipes out the hero’s memory.

These contrived scenarios don’t impress me.

My second complaint? The heroine is too stupid to live. It’s a good thing that the actress is cute because it would have been torture watching an ugly face trying to hide under Choi Jin Hyuk’s jacket like a turtle, and doing other aegyo things like kiss a fish.

So far, her stupidity is twofold. In the first episode, I find her helplessness stupid. I prefer spunky heroines to damsels in distress. In the second episode, I find her gullibility stupid. Like, can you freaking believe this scene: she enters an unknown man’s house alone, and then goes to the bedroom and to the bathroom ON HIS COMMAND? Huh??! I don’t think she’s being fearless. That’s being stupid. Didn’t she learn from the past never to trust men? Didn’t she acquire an iota of self-preservation after already finding herself in bed, drugged unconscious, with a dead man on the floor?

Yup, she’s TSTL. Too stupid to live.

That’s why I’m surprised that the actress said in the interview that she’s fantasized falling in love just like in the kdrama. Really? Which part of their first encounter would she like duplicated? The diarrhea? The encounter with the gang? Losing her shoe? Being lost and penniless? Searching for her team? The plunge into the pool? Her rescue? Singing? The kiss on the steps?

Frankly I would have been mortified to death if I found myself in similar situations. My idea of falling in love at first sight is more psychological than emotional. To me, falling in love at first sight is a MEMORY BIAS. Two people meet each other for the first time, and they feel a spark, a frisson of excitement. But this kind of sudden attraction is NOT rare. It can actually happen any time — and every time — you encounter a handsome stranger who exchanges glances with you. You’re thrilled that you’ve been singled out.

However, what makes you think that you’ve fallen in love at first sight is you REARRANGING your memories of that earliest encounter into a positive light. In hindsight, you’re looking back at the first contact and unconsciously painting a romantic picture and giving it a halo effect.

Take for example, in this kdrama, the director produces the ATMOSPHERE of romantic scenes. He’s the one creating this illusion of love at first sight. Like, when MaSung and GiBbeum meet for the first time, they stand alone under soft sunlight, in an empty intersection, in front of this white massive building.

😒 You can’t get any more romantic than that! The impression of a church wedding is strong in that scene: she’s in white, a monstrosity of an altar is between, and a handsome groom stand across her.

And time slows down. Every time, there’s a slow-mo, the director wants to alter our perception and to signal that something monumental is happening in such a trivial occurrence.

This same romantic illusion is present when they kiss on the stairs. Suddenly, time slows down again and white petals fall down from nowhere — when all the trees around them are green. 😂 White petals are often thrown at the groom and bride as they leave the church.

Both MaSung and GiBbeum will remember this day (and night) as love at first sight because they will romanticize the encounter and CONVENIENTLY forget their original annoyance with each other. That’s memory bias in action for you.

Initially, MaSung thought she was a brazen huzzy who ordered him to get her a drink. She on the other hand mistook him for a persnickety fan wanting her autograph. There was certainly NO love lost at their first encounter. But after they spent time together, their memories tricked them, and  their minds glossed over the bad encounter and focused instead on the other adventures of the day.

That’s why I say love at first sight is a memory bias. People in love have the tendency to look back at the start of their acquaintance, to remember it with kindness, and to think that they’ve fallen at that particular moment. It’s a reconstructed positive illusion.

And that’s why I think I’ll be sticking it out with this drama for a few more episodes. As much I deplore the incongruous plot and the infantilized heroine, I want to see where the script is going with this love-as-a-memory angle.

Lol. I’m not sticking around for Choi Jin-Hyuk. Really. I. Am. Not. 😂