When it comes to a genre that never gets old, contract marriage comes in the first place. It is something that one might as well call an evergreen trope. The type of settings in contract and arranged marriage vary from verbal promises to debts to matchmakings you cannot escape from to even fake relationships. The idea of pushing two people into a relationship and proximity until they have reached a place where they start feeling for each other just makes many viewers go wild. So, while we are on that topic, let us look at the ten best contract marriage Korean dramas you must watch if they are a cup of your tea.
1. Marriage Contract (2016)
To fulfill their desperate needs, Kang Hye Soo and Han Ji Hoon, our main characters, enter a contract marriage. Ji Hoon’s mother needed a liver transplant, while Hye Soo, a single mother, just hopes and wishes to save up enough money for her daughter from a brain tumor. This drama showcases more authenticity than you might expect. It is a show that allows the viewers to take in the story and appreciate every moment between characters. It is a quiet show with its spark and charm. One of the shows people believed to be the most believable in the category.
2. Prime Minister And I (2013)
Nam Da Jung, our main character, is a reporter trying her absolute best to get good scoops to help with her career. But unfortunately for her, she just keeps missing them all the time. Tired of this cycle, she ends up following the Prime Minister, Kwon Yool, to expose him but somehow, she finds herself in more trouble than she initially expected. Kwon Yool is a single father who is struggling to raise his three kids alone, so when the fake news of Nam Da Jung and him comes out, they agree to enter a fake marriage relationship. Follow along to find out how they work around their sticky situation and how they get out of it if they do.
3. That Fool (The Accidental Couple) (2009)
Goo Dong Baek is just a simple, and kind-hearted postman. But when he witnesses Han Ji Soo getting in a car accident with her secret boyfriend, she asks him to take the fall for the damage for them and Dong Baek, being the kind person he is, agrees. But things take a turn when she also asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend to hide the reality and hence, they end up getting into a fake contract of marriage for six months. Somehow, things take a different route, and you can check that out by watching the drama.
4. Wonderful Life (2005)
Accidentally switching passports at the airport when bumping into each other, Han Seung Wan and Jung Se Jin spend a day together when they come to exchange them. Getting too drunk together discussing their love lives, they end up having a one-night stand together. When Se Jin returns to Korea, she finds out that she got pregnant due to that one-night stand she had with Seung Wan and a year later, her sister somehow ends up spilling that secret to him. This results in both being forced into a space together, being tied up in a marriage as they work around being parents.
5. Business Proposal (2022)
When talking about contract marriage relationships, you can just not forget about Business Proposal, a recent drama that reached a new high and brought people back to this trope. It is a story based around Shin Ha Ri, our main character, who decides to help her friend Jin Yong Seo out by going to a blind date that her father set up in return for payment. Ha Ri does everything possible to get rejected by her date, but things take a turn when she realizes her blind date is her boss and CEO of her company, Kang Tae Mu. Kang Tae Mu, a successful businessman, is annoyed with all the blind dates his grandfather has been sending him on and decides that he would just accept the following date and agree to marry them so he could focus on his work peacefully. Things take a turn when Ha Ri is the next date that Tae Mu ends up saying yes to, a fake date. We watch to see how things turn messy and end up for Kang Tae Mu and Shin Ha Ri.
6. I Picked Up A Star On The Road (2018)
When Lee Yeon Seo, our main character, wants to teach her manager a lesson but ends up accidentally kidnapping a very famous celebrity, Kang Joon Hyuk, things take a turn. She panics, thinking she has killed Joon Hyuk, but the minute she reaches back home, trying to hide a body, he wakes up and fully believes that he has been kidnapped by a psychopath. Yeon Seo does everything in her power to convince him that she is not and to keep him hostage so he does not report her to the police till they have sorted everything out. This comedic yet romantic show will make you laugh and coo simultaneously.
7. Marriage, Not Dating (2014)
When our main lead, Gong Ki Tae, is living his best life and doing his job as a plastic surgeon peacefully, his family hits him with the order to get married. To get his family to stop bugging him and get them off his back, he meets up with Joo Jang Mi, our second main lead, who had not been getting any marriage proposals, so they decide to fake date. He brings her back as his girlfriend in hopes of his parents not approving of her but things take a complicated turn for him when he realizes that he has started falling for her.
8. Be My Boyfriend (2021)
Oh Ji Na is the most popular girl at school, the prettiest, while also being talented and well-liked. She gets a contract with a famous company to train to become a K-Pop Idol and enter a group to promote. Here enters our second main character, Lee Seung Min, who has always admired Ji Na from afar since he thought he was an average male and would never have a chance with someone as beautiful and talented as her. But Ji Na uses that to her advantage and proposes to enter a fake relationship with him to boost her career. But, will they fall in love or will it just crash and burn?
9. Love In Contract (2022)
Choi Sange Eun, the main character, runs a perfect match service where she provides people with the services to live a perfect single life, without the worry of lifelong commitment. She has a regular who has been using her service for the past five years every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But when she gets a new client, a famous actor, who uses her services on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, he makes her heart flutter, which brings her into a dilemma. How she maintains her professionalism when her heart suddenly starts feeling things?
10. Because This Is My First Life (2017)
While the idea for this drama is quite well-known and cliché, it was done perfectly. It is a story about Yoon Ji Ho, a single woman in her thirties who had to give up on the idea of getting to date anyone due to financial reasons. She meets Nam Se Hee, a single man in his 30s, who owns a home but cannot afford the rent after a while, and needs a roommate. They get married for practical reasons and start living together and somewhere along the line, something develops.
