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Can This Love Be Translated?: Spoiler-Free Mini Review

Jul 30
4 min read

Updated: Sep 24

Go Youn Jun and Kim Seon Ho in Can This Love Be Translated? Poster

Title:

Can This Love Be Translated? (2026)

Platform:

Netflix

MDL & IMBD Rating:

8.4 & 7.8

Genre:

Good Question. Contemporary Romance?

Episode Count:

12

Parental Guidance Rating:

MA: Some language (F words included), a character has a one night stand-- nothing is shows. This is like MA lite.


For more info: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt30293074/parentalguide/?ref_=ttpl_sa_3

Starring:

Kim Seon Ho (Hometown Cha Cha Cha)

Go Young Jung (Moving)

Fukushi Sota (Tokyo MPD PR Unit 2)

Lee E Dam (The Queen Who Crowns)

Choi Woo Sung (Chief Detective 1958)

RBTS Rating:

6.2/10 Stars: A genre rollercoaster that is sure to give you whiplash with a standout performance by Go Youn Jung, who gave her all to translate a convoluted plot into something with meaning. Can this love be translated? Eh, I'm not sure....It was a confuddling time.



Synopsis:

The emotions of a celebrity and her interpreter get lost in translation as they travel the world filming a TV show. Will love find its own language? @Netflix


Spoiler-Free Mini Review:

Get ready for some serious genre whiplash. Can This Love Be Translated? is not just a rom com. Seriously.


Go Young Jung and Kim Seon Ho in Can This Love Be Translated?

The highly anticipated return of the famous Hong Sisters (the scriptwriters) after a four year hiatus was quite the mixed bag. The story reminded me of It's Okay to Not Be Okay with cinematography of Queen of Tears: aka beautiful locations, people, and filming techniques with some serious angst. The writing duo dared to create a genre mishmash that would have been quite the feat to pull off. Alas. There were just too many competing elements that would have all have had to be successful to make the mashup warranted, which resulted in a promising rom com set up that was then taken over by a melodrama, to only be chased down by the rom com. Each element was eating itself. The drama had genre strep lol, and the story couldn't retain coherence in translation from one genre to the next.


Location, Location, Location


Now all the different genre elements as their own separate story would have been amazing, but together it was too many clashing toppings on a pizza. And don't get me wrong, I do admire the dream and I hope this won't stop the Hong Sisters from taking risks. The entertainment world has become too vanilla, and they always deliver creativity.



The drama did have some wins! The most successful piece was the reoccurring metaphor of translating language to understanding relationships, and I liked how every story thread had a callback, or tied together. Again, the locations were stunning; Seeing Canada in a K-drama always brings back the nostalgia of Goblin, which was fun. It was also cool how the show incorporated Japanese and the Japanese actor, Fukushi Sota. He was a comedic, albeit underutilized, ray of sunshine in an otherwise murky mess.


In terms of characters, I could not understand why this "put-together"' Male Lead (Ju Ho Jin) was love the Female Lead (Cha Mu Hui). Honestly, the drama bathed him in an angelic light that made him seem like he was just a nice guy who was taking care of a sad, stray cat (aka the FL). I can see the faint outline of intention in this, as it plays into the Female Lead's fears that he is not really interested in her, and instead only feels pity and can't help but help her. But are they really just fears if that's actually the way it is? That was the issue. I think the drama wanted us to understand the Female Leads perspective, but because it's a drama, it's also the viewers perspective, given that's what we see as well.


Go Youn Jung in Can This Love Be Translated? touching grass
I think touching grass is a great thing for Cha Mu Hui to do lol.

Go Youn Jun as Cha Mu Hui (FL) was an absolute stand out. This girl can do anything. The actress did a fantastic job keeping the story together, considering her makeup artist tried to erase her eyebrows, but her role as the FL felt more like the typical, love rival Second Female Lead role. The character was just so desperate, and in a completely different place in life than the ML. And again, the show does this thing where it acknowledges this and turns it into part of the narrative, but I had to watch her be like that for 6 episodes, and it wasn't fun. She kinda remains desperate from beginning to end. Without spoiling, Go Youn Jun particularly nailed one aspect of her role to the freaking T. Lets just say the unexpected element was VERY unexpected. In some ways it was fun, in other ways it made me embody Jennifer Lawrence on Hot Ones going "WDYM?!" The marketing for this show is a liar.


This was me the whole time.

Kim Seon Ho (ML Actor) didn't really do much for me with this role. He played a guy who was collected and bland, and I never connected emotionally with this character. Ju Jo Jin (ML) was a bit of a boring two dimensional character. I know the actor can be great, but he just looked exhausted here. The second lead story was cute, but that's not what pulled the focus.


Overall, Can This Love Be Translated? was mostly lost in translation with it's genre personality disorder and lackluster Male Lead, but some meaning did make it through thanks to the incredible acting of Go Youn Jung and the interesting themes, it just takes some decoding.



Story=2.5 (IDK), Acting=3.75 (The FL actress plays the same character in all her roles, but later on branches out which was nice to see, the ML didn’t sell it for me), Production Quality=5 (Pretty places!), Ending= 2.5 (Unnecessary storylines), Enjoyability= 3, Would I rewatch= No


Trailer:


Director: #YooYoungEun (Bloody Heart, Queen of Mystery)


*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used on this blog. All images belong to their respective copyright holders and are used for commentary and review purposes. All reviews, opinions, and statements expressed on this blog are my own and are intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. They reflect my personal thoughts and interpretations and should not be considered as factual.



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