My Lovely Boxer (2023) Episode 3-4

As our boxer reenters the spotlight, she aligns herself with our sports agent, but their newly established partnership is far from copacetic. Tensions run high as blood sugar runs low, and our duo’s bickering reaches new levels when a familiar face decides to woo our boxer before her big comeback match.

 
EPISODES 3-4

My Lovely Boxer is not the Rocky-like sports story I was expecting. Apparently, I’ve been conditioned by popular media to believe that all sports dramas feature underdog athletes fighting to overcome obstacles and win big championships, so I initially assumed that’s where this drama was going. Maybe it will still go in that direction and Kwon-sook will embrace the sport she so loathes, but for now our heroine is far from a starry-eyed, impassioned boxer with only winning on the brain.

Instead, when Tae-young proposes that Kwon-sook throw the second boxing match of her comeback career, it’s clear she’s tempted by his plan. Oh, she still doesn’t trust him — not after he manipulated the media and backed her into a corner — but his promise that he will help her fade into obscurity has her hesitating. She tells him that she will think about his proposal. And she does — for a long time, much to the antsy Tae-young’s frustration.

But before Kwon-sook can give him an answer, she has to navigate the aftermath of the media storm Tae-young instigated while also confronting what a comeback would actually mean for her mentally and physically. She may still be in excellent physical shape thanks to her body’s internal alarm clock that wakes her up for her daily runs, but her love of doughnuts has pushed her out of her boxing weight class. The conditioning required to drop the needed kilograms will be grueling. And, well, there’s still the matter of her toxic relationship with boxing — all thanks to her father’s brutal training, which instilled an instinctive belief that, once she stepped inside the boxing ring, it was kill or be killed. (To be fair, it is a dangerous and deadly sport.)

Kwon-sook returns to the school to pack her belongings, and while she’s there she works up the courage to ask Jae-min if she will still have a place there in three months — you know, hypothetically. “Does she mean professionally or personally?” he asks, obviously aware that she’s been crushing on him. When she indicates that she’d like to know his opinion on both, he’s polite — but painfully clear — that, while he has no qualms with being her colleague, he couldn’t date her. Boxing is — shudders — so brutal. Cue: eye roll. We all know he was never interested in her and merely relished in the attention of knowing she had a crush on him, but his chosen excuse hits Kwon-sook where it hurts.

Kwon-sook is uncomfortable in her own body, struggling to feel feminine when so many perceive her strength as too masculine and unbecoming in a woman. Jae-min’s rejection highlights her insecurities and reinforces her desire to lead a life where her boxing career doesn’t influence people’s perception of her.

So when competing sports agent — and Tae-young’s former client — JUNG SOO-YEON (Ha Seung-ri) offers Kwon-sook fame, fortune (by female boxing standards), and a championship belt, Kwon-sook rejects Soo-yeon and officially signs with Tae-young. She doesn’t want to be a household name; she wants anonymity. So if working with Tae-young, the only agent not eager to advance her boxing career, and throwing a match will give her the life she desires, then so be it.

The fact that Kwon-sook’s wants align with Tae-young’s needs is largely why he chose her as the athlete at the center of his master plan, and it’s also how he’s able to rationalize the very gray area of using her to appease the dangerous match-rigging association that’s on his back. It’s this gray area that makes his character so fascinating. He’s obviously got a mercenary, self-serving streak that predates his current debt entanglement, but the very reason he got saddled with his debt is decidedly unselfish. The question of how far Tae-young will go to get what he wants — and save his neck — is, in my opinion, the largest source of tension and conflict in this drama.

Despite his questionable motives,Tae-young is likable and charming, and when he and CHOI HO-JOONG (Kim Hee-chan) take on the task of getting Kwon-sook into tip-top shape, the bickering between our sugar-craving boxer and her agent is supremely amusing. Of course, once Tae-young announces Kwon-sook’s current weight to the press (and therefore the entire world), she begins taking her dieting more seriously. Unfortunately, there’s another distraction diverting her attention from her speed rope exercises: Jae-min.

After being told by his casual lady “friend” that he’s pretty to look at but totally not marriage material (*snickers*), Jae-min seemingly becomes a humbled, changed man and starts wooing Kwon-sook — much to Tae-young’s annoyance. So while Tae-young is working hard to convince boxer JO AH-RA (Han Da-sol) to be Kwon-sook’s first opponent so that they can capitalize on Ah-ra’s extensive fan base, Kwon-sook is off gallivanting with her totally sus suitor. Jae-min’s texts and flirtations distract Kwon-sook from her training, which triggers Tae-young’s overbearing big brother behavior, which incites Kwon-sook’s rebellious side. Cue: more bickering.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kwon-sook, her father — former boxer LEE CHUL-YONG (Kim Hyung-mook) — has approached Tae-young, and the two have formed an alliance of sorts. While Tae-young promises to not force Kwon-sook into an unwanted boxing career, Chul-yong advises Tae-young on Kwon-sook’s temperament, telling him what signs to look for when she’s reached her limit and is ready to quit.

Chul-yong is unexpectedly likable — especially when paired up with Tae-young — so much so that I have a hard time accepting that he’s the same abusive man we’ve seen in flashbacks. Has he seen the error of his ways and is trying to rectify his behavior? Or was his violent temperament something that only came out in the boxing ring (not that that’s an excuse)?

Either way, Chul-yong is protective of his daughter, and after he sees Jae-min cozying up to her, he’s quick to throw a punch and warn Loverboy to not mess with his daughter — when Kwon-sook isn’t around to witness the unwarranted attack, of course. Maybe the kidney punch isn’t completely unwarranted, though, because [it comes as absolutely no surprise that] Jae-min is playing a long con. He’s an aspiring — and failed — sports agent, and he obviously sees Kwon-sook as his ticket out of mediocrity.

Jokes on him, though, because Kwon-sook has no intention of extending her boxing career after her three-month contract with Tae-young ends. Unfortunately, Jae-min’s romantic attentions — fake as they are — tap into Kwon-sook’s vulnerabilities, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he could manipulate her. If only there were some other contender for her heart…

To be honest, I’m not fully on board with shipping Tae-young with Kwon-sook in a romantic sense because their platonic dynamic is near perfection. Kwon-sook displays a level of openness and honesty around Tae-young that she’s too afraid to show Jae-min, which certainly highlights which man makes a better romantic partner for her. But, as I mentioned above, a large part of this drama’s tension hinges on the sincerity of Tae-young’s actions towards Kwon-sook. Was Tae-young acting jealous of Jae-min when he threatened to take Kwon-sook’s phone, or was Tae-young just being protective of his get-out-of-debt-free card?

While Tae-young has been open and honest about his desperation and need for Kwon-sook to throw her second match, I don’t believe he’s currently above manipulating her if it’s in his best interests. Case in point: our closing scene. In the locker room, before her match with Ah-ra, Tae-young covers Kwon-sook’s trembling hands, and when she questions his uncharacteristic behavior he explains that he’s comforting her.

I admit, I swooned a little bit in this moment, but then the epilogue revealed that Tae-young had watched the documentary about Kwon-sook’s boxing career and seen Chul-yong cover his daughter’s shaking hands before one of her matches. So were Tae-young’s actions his sincere way of helping calm her fear, or was it calculated mimicry of her father’s pre-match ritual and a means of ensuring she didn’t chicken out before her fight?