Coming in to 2026, “Can This Love Be Translated” stood out amongst the sea of kdramas as one of the most anticipated series premieres of the new year. Written by the Hong Sisters (“Alchemy of Souls,” “Hotel De Luna”), the story brings together an aspiring actress and a sophisticated translator who’s worlds become intertwined after a fateful encounter. As they film The Romantic Trip across the world, the two of them explore their feelings from their past, for each other and also everyone around them.
Series Details
- Release Date: January 16, 2026
- Genres: Romantic Comedy that becomes an (almost) Melodrama
- Leads: Go Youn-jung, Kim Seon-ho
- Where to Watch: Netflix
Trailer
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Series Leads
Cha Mu-hee/Do Ra-mi
Portrayed by Go Youn-jung, the audience meets Cha Mu-hee as she is in Japan confronting the man she believed to be her longtime boyfriend. The series follows her life as she discovers her newfound stardom as an actress, her unsettling past and how she emotionally handles it all.
Joo Ho-jin
Joo Ho-jin is played by Kim Seon-ho. He’s a successful language translator. Almost immediately, the show portrays him as a helpful young man that saves a child’s life and helps Mu-hee deal with a difficult breakup. We meet him in Japan where he is on an annual trip in Kamakura.
Other Notable Characters
Hiro Kurosawa
The Japanese pretty boy and Mu-hee’s co-star on The Romantic Trip, who grows through the traveling production.
Shin Ji-seon
Ji-seon joins The Romantic Trip production as the producer. She’s also a recurring person of interest in Ho-jin’s life.
Kim Yong-woo
Mu-hee’s dedicated manager, Yong-woo accompanies her for filming, and he explores his own feelings for someone unexpected.
Fangirl Feelings (skip this section if you don’t want spoilers)
This series is absolutely stunning in terms of the locations, Cha Mu-hee’s outfits and the acting. The locations in Canada, Japan and Italy were most scenes were filmed are so breathtaking. It immediately made me want to visit these countries (back to Japan, of course, since I’ve been once!).
I also enjoyed the acting from all of the cast, even the production crew that we occasionally saw throughout the show. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy to navigate multiple different languages, but it seemed as though they all shared good chemistry across the board.
Until episode 5, the drama was mostly cute and wholesome with two people that are figuring out their personal lives and feelings for each other. Along the way, they ran into bumps, but the comedic elements of things were well paced. The highs were high for me, but the lows felt low especially during their arguments.
After that, it seemed like the drama didn’t appear to handle the complex issue that Cha Mu-hee was dealing with very well. Her “hallucinations,” as the doctor in the series said, were basically brushed off as “modern medicine can’t help you,” but it feels as though the show really isn’t properly dealing with this. It felt a bit too simple as I viewed the story.
During one of the climax scenes as the trip to Canada ended, the subtitles were odd and highly jumbled during the station argument. Cha Mu-hee greatly overreacted as she missed her flight to confess her feelings to Ho-jin before he went to have a conversation with Ji-seon. Instead, she misinterpreted what she saw, which ultimately lead to the fight.
As the story continued to Italy, I just couldn’t make sense of what Hoo-Jin was saying once he finally made an overly poetic confession to Mu-hee. Maybe it is also because he’s a writer and trying to make it sound fancy or the subtitles were off, but it didn’t feel like a confession of love. Just scattered everywhere like the entire plot of the series.
The plot points that were introduced included:
- Cha Mu-hee’s “boyfriend” disappeared
- Ho-jin’s “zombie” crush
- Ji-seon & Ho-jin’s brother getting married
- Mu-hee’s role as Do Ra-mi catapults her into stardom
- Mu-hee and Hiro potential love story
- Mu-hee’s parents are dead & she had a rough childhood
- Mu-hee’s hallucinations as Do Ra-mi
- Do Ra-mi puts Ho-jin through the rings
- Hiro falls in love with Do Ra-mi
- A never ending breakup to makeup cycle
- Hiro’s BEST growth arc
- The manager and Ji-seon’s one-night stand to relationship
- The mean relatives and their shocking revelation at the very end of the series
- and more.
I always thought the love story between Ji-sun and the manager was extremely rushed and odd.. I’m happy that they both found a decent ending but it just seemed odd…
By the ending, I’m STUNNED that the show had Mu-hee visit a doctor (seemingly a therapist?) to discuss why Do Ra-mi STOPPED visiting altogether. Rather than having the doctor included earlier or even throughout the show.
As I mentioned above, the Relatives revealed a major bomb in the last thirty minutes of the show about Mu-hee’s mother, revealing the truth that Do Ra-mi is actually the reflection of Mu-hee’s mother. But my question which never fully got answered is: Why did Do Ra-mi/Mu-hee’s mom take all those steps to ensure that she would end up with Ho-jin?? Is it because the mother actually wanted the daughter to be happy and not actually alone??
The relatives also reveal that both her parents are ALIVE after the failed poisoning attempt by the mother. Her relatives kept her in the dark so she couldn’t relive the past, but she didn’t tell them the truth because she was scared of what they might do to HER. They both lacked trust in one another, and that in itself is pretty deep. Mind you, this was the last 30 minutes.
With that being said…
Should I watch “Can This Love Be Translated”?
This is my honest answer:
If you enjoy a cute rom-com, this really isn’t that, so probably not. However, if you’re someone that likes a series that is closer to a melodrama with VERY occasional comedic elements, you’ll probably enjoy this series.
I’m somewhere in between. but I genuinely couldn’t overlook how the Do Ra-mi hallucinations were handled.
It seemed like a lot of the content might’ve been cut out to condense the series to 12 episodes. The pacing of the series simply didn’t feel consistent, and it is a shame because this was one of those that I’ve been highly looking forward to as someone that enjoys travel and learning languages.
I will say… I can watch Kim Seon-ho (Ho-jin) in ANYTHING. His smile is honestly so perfect with those little dimples (!!!!!). He also has amazing patience to deal with how many mixed signals Cha Mu-hee threw at him, BUT he was just such a good actor.
Ho-jin and Mu-hee’s love story is so complicated, but realistic at the same time in some ways. Some people don’t have a perfect straight line romance, and I think that this story is trying to teach us that.
My Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [5/10] Stars.
Would I rewatch? No.
Rant Over,
- xoxo Jourdy 💕
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