Business Proposal

Business Proposal is a 2022 South Korean romantic comedy television series broadcast by SBS. It adapts HaeHwa’s web novel, later turned into a webtoon illustrated by Narak, and compresses its workplace romance into twelve episodes. The series aired on Mondays and Tuesdays from February 28 to April 5, 2022, with episodes also released internationally through Netflix. Kim Se-jeong plays Shin Ha-ri, a food researcher at the Go Food company. Ha-ri agrees to attend a blind date while impersonating her wealthy friend Jin Young-seo, intending to repel the man selected by Young-seo’s family. The plan collapses because the date is Kang Tae-moo, played by Ahn Hyo-seop: Go Food’s newly returned president and Ha-ri’s boss. Tae-moo, under pressure from his grandfather Kang Da-goo to marry, decides that the loud, invented persona presented to him—“Shin Geum-hui”—would make a practical contractual fiancée. The comedy depends on Ha-ri’s increasingly difficult double life. At work she must hide that she is Tae-moo’s employee; outside it, she maintains Geum-hui’s deliberately exaggerated identity, including a glamorous appearance and invented background. Tae-moo gradually learns that his supposed fiancée and his capable researcher are the same person. Their agreement, initially designed to stop family-arranged dates, becomes a genuine relationship. A parallel romance follows Jin Young-seo, portrayed by Seol In-ah, and Tae-moo’s chief secretary, Cha Sung-hoon, played by Kim Min-kyu. Young-seo has fled the blind-date arrangement that created Ha-ri’s predicament, while Sung-hoon is Tae-moo’s trusted aide and was raised alongside him by Tae-moo’s grandfather. Their relationship faces the class and family expectations surrounding Young-seo. Park Seon-ho directed the drama, with Han Sul-hee and Hong Bo-hee credited as writers. Lee Deok-hwa portrays Kang Da-goo, Tae-moo’s forceful grandfather; Choi Byung-chan plays Ha-ri’s younger brother, Shin Ha-min. The supporting cast also includes Kim Kwang-kyu and Jung Young-joo as Ha-ri’s parents, and Song Won-seok as Lee Min-woo, Ha-ri’s longtime crush and a chef. Business Proposal became especially visible beyond Korea through Netflix distribution, where its brisk pacing, comic impersonation plot, and the two central couples helped it attract international viewers. Its final episode recorded 11.4 percent nationwide viewership according to Nielsen Korea. Its Korean title, Sanae Matseon, refers to the blind-date setup at the story’s center. In Go Food’s development department, Ha-ri works with colleagues Yeo Eui-ju and Gye-bin, roles played by Kim Hyun-sook and Lim Ki-hong. Tae-moo’s grandfather repeatedly promotes the couple’s marriage plans. The finale resolves both couples’ courtships on screen.