I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan Review: Don’t Take This Drama Too Seriously

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title ‘I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan’ was one of my favorite tropes ‘forced cohabitation’. My excitement was dampened when I learned that it has hardly anything to do with cohabitation. I dropped the drama not once but several times. The only reason I kept going back to it was actor, Ryusei Yokohama. I’ve seen a few movies of this talented young boy and I really wanted to watch this supposed ‘bad dorama’ of his.

I finally mustered the courage and watched it and guess what? I actually liked the drama. Yes, the show is extremely flawed and gives the wrong message in a lot of places but it still is worth a try. It is not as bad as one might expect after seeing it being slammed online. Allow me to explain what is good and what is not so good about this slice of life drama.

I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan Review (Kareshi wo Loan de Kaimashita) (2018) (8 Episodes)

Tae Ukishima (Erina Mano) works as a receptionist at a company with her two co-workers Yume and Hiyori. The three women idolize a former receptionist named Reika Namba who was beautiful and married a rich man to go on to live a comfortable life. They wish to follow in Reika’s footsteps and become a ‘professional housewife’.

To achieve their aim, the three women are already dating rich men hoping to marry them someday. Tae is in a relationship with Shunpei Shiraishi (Yasushi Fuchikami) who works at a senior post in the company she works for. To impress him, Tae pretends to be a soft-spoken and sophisticated woman so that he considers her for marriage. However, the pretense tires her and she ends up buying a boyfriend named Jun Setsuna (Ryusei Yokohama) online. This boyfriend is supposed to help her relieve the stress she feels regarding her prospects of getting married. With him, she can be her true brash self so that pretending to be a well-mannered girlfriend with her rich boyfriend comes easily.   

Let’s have a look at what works for this drama and what works against it.  

I enjoyed watching ‘I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan’ because…

…I liked the story in parts. (This might get a little spoilery but do not worry I won’t reveal the main twist in the show.) So, Tae Ukishima is a pretty young girl who comes from a middle-class family. Growing up she witnessed her parents fight constantly because they both held full-time jobs to make ends meets. The stress of managing work and the house would make her parents clash too often. Seeing the constant fights between her parents, she decides to marry a rich man so he can earn for the family while she looks after the kids and manages the house. This way her kids can grow up in a peaceful and healthy family environment and get what she did not get as a child.

She compares this kind of marriage setup with animal life in which most male animals hunt and provide for the family while the female looks after the children. In order to achieve her dream, she knows she has to become an ideal trophy wife. She maintains her good looks and behaves in a certain way so that her rich and educated boyfriend finds her suitable for marriage.

Many viewers find this kind of attitude towards marriage problematic. I personally do not find anything wrong with this. If some women can love having a career, then why can’t some women love building a home for their families? Being a housewife requires a person to be good at multitasking. And if some are skilled at it, then why not let them go for it? I see nothing wrong with being a housewife provided one is okay with the big gamble they are playing with their life. 

Tae is not ambitious. She longs for a nice and loving family. She is aware that like every job, being a housewife will also require hard work and sacrifices and she is willing to do the same. She is clear about how she wants to live her life and I think it is totally fine.

However, there are things that can go wrong for a housewife, which is shown through Reika’s storyline. Reika is a former receptionist who was famous for her beauty and Tae was inspired by her to marry a rich man and live a cushy life thereafter. To win over a rich man, Reika followed all the rules of a potential bride by putting on a façade of being the perfect woman with no flaws. But after her first pregnancy, her fake personality weaned off and her true obstinate self came forth which led to her divorce.

Tae gets a reality check through Reika who works at a convenience store to make a living. She sees her struggle as a single mother with hardly any money. Going from being a rich housewife to a poor single mother can be difficult and Tae has now seen it for herself. This plants a seed of fear in her mind. If someone like Reika can suffer such a fate, then why would she be spared? Aiming to be a housewife is a gamble that can go in any direction. Being financially dependent on your partner can be extremely risky and I am glad this is shown in the drama. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a housewife but remember the risk of being dependent is too high. 

…I liked the ending of this story but not entirely. Without giving any spoilers, all I can say is that as we approach the final episode, Tae and her loaned slave boy, Jun have an important conversation that decides the future course of the two characters. This is where the story appealed to me the most. Jun explains to Tae why going off-track is wrong for her. He defends the other party (which is debatable) and simply tries to put some sense into her head.

I like that the writers de-masked the rosy picture that a character like Jun usually paints in a romantic drama. He gives Tae a practical and rational explanation of what is wrong with the choice that Tae is making. We do get a happy ending but not the one you would usually expect.

I did NOT LIKE ‘I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan’ because…

…the ‘loan boyfriend’ or ‘slave boy’ concept is painful to watch. Single mother, Reika introduces Tae to a website on the darknet in which young boys, who are unable to pay large amounts of debt, are sold off to a buyer who is willing to pay off the debt on their behalf. In return, the sold boy becomes a slave (yes a slave and not the rented boyfriend you would expect from reading the title) to the buyer and has to do everything the buyer asks them to do until their debt is fully paid. Reika herself has a slave who does every single thing she asks him to do including fetching a ball from a pond repeatedly just because she says so.         

Tae too treats Jun like a slave, which is unpleasant to watch. She beats him and kicks him as and when she wants. Poor Jun has no option but to put up with her mood swings. And he does it with a smile on his face. I don’t know why the writers thought it would be funny to watch women beat young boys to “relieve their stress”. Also, I’m not sure how beating up someone can help you relieve your stress. Yes, beating a ball with a bat or using a punching bag does help relieve pent-up frustration and tension but using a human for the same is not cool.

  

…Tae catches her rich boyfriend blatantly cheating on her not once but multiple times and she is totally fine with it. Okay, so this is something that happens in real life and not only in Japan but also everywhere else. Some women believe that men still follow the stone-age mentality where they are meant to ‘sow their seeds’ in as many women as possible to increase the world population. They accept the fact that their husbands cannot be faithful and they are okay with it. This is a reason why the concept of ‘open marriage’ has been adopted by many couples. The wife is okay with the husband cheating as long as they do not get the mistress home.

My problem here is that Tae and her boyfriend are not in an open marriage then why behave that way? Tae is desperate for a rich husband and so she allows him to lie to her face and disrespect her. Her co-workers advise her to turn a blind eye to his cheating if she wants to become his housewife. What she fails to understand is that if he can treat her poorly before marriage he can do the same after marriage too. Isn’t it what happened to Reika? One may ask for how long can she go on pretending to be something that she is not? But this issue is tackled in the show so watch out for it.  

Tae being stressed about Shunpei’s cheating but never confronting him about it is what I disliked most about her. I understand why she does what she does but I do not approve of it and I feel bad for her. Even though Shunpei is the cheater here I do not see him as a bad guy. He knows why Tae is attracted to him and what she wants of him.

In the show, Shunpei gives an honest explanation of why he behaves the way he does which is fair enough considering the fact that Tae wants to marry him only for his money and social status. Both lovers are selfish and this is made very clear in the drama. This is not a love story. This is marriage and marriages are to be made with serious contemplation after weighing all your options.      

 

 

My motivation to watch this poorly rated drama was the curiosity to know why it is so bad and also to watch Ryusei Yokohama, who did not disappoint me. If you like him too, then do watch this drama. He does a decent job as a slave boy. Also, each of the 8 episodes is barely 20 minutes long so it gets over even before you can start complaining about the problematic plot.

I give ‘I Bought My Boyfriend On A Loan’ 2.5 out of 5 rating. I say do not be discouraged by its poor ratings (including mine) give it a try as the show is entertaining. Just don’t take it too seriously.

 

Feature Image and Screenshots Courtesy: Viki.com

 

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