Can This Love Be Translated? (2026): When Feelings Speak… But Words Fail

In the last couple of months, as I’ve been completely indulged in binge-watching K-dramas night after night, I somehow ended up spending less and less time on YouTube. And even when I did go there… it was mostly to look up actors or actresses I was temporarily obsessed with.

But you know how the YouTube algorithm works, it just keeps throwing new recommendations at you, even when you’re hyper-focused on something else. “Can This Love Be Translated” kept popping up on my feed… again and again… almost like it was waiting for me to give in.

Cast & Their Other Works

1. Kim Seon-ho. Kim Seon-ho plays the role of a charming translator, Joo Ho-jin, someone who has spent years translating words between people… but when it comes to translating unspoken emotions, he struggles. A lot.

“When Life Gives You Tangerines” (2025) was the first show where I saw him, followed by “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” (2021) where he played the male lead. So naturally… seeing him again in a more recent show was already a hook for me.

2. Go Youn-jung. Go Youn-jung plays Cha Moo-hee, an ill-fated actress fighting a battle no one around her truly understands.

You might have seen her in “Alchemy of Souls” (2022–2023) or “Resident Playbook” (2025).

Personally, I hadn’t really watched her work before: just a few clips here and there. But in my opinion… she looks closer to a living doll than any other Korean actress I’ve seen.
Okay… maybe Kim Ji-won is up there too.

Detailed Plot

The story begins with Cha Moo-hee traveling to Japan in search of her ex-boyfriend.

After some serious Instagram stalking, she tracks down a restaurant he once visited… only to come face-to-face with his pregnant wife. Turns out, he had been cheating on his long-term partner with Moo-hee, and eventually left her.

Messy… is an understatement.

On that same trip, she meets Ho-jin: another Korean, surprisingly fluent in multiple languages: Italian, Japanese… and pretty much everything in between.

Ho-jin helps Moo-hee communicate with the pregnant woman, unintentionally becoming the only witness to one of the most personal, humiliating moments of her life.

After that painfully awkward encounter, they spend some time sightseeing together. They visit a place meaningful to Ho-jin’s past (or maybe… present?) love. Moo-hee opens up about her acting career, they connect on social media… and for a moment, it feels like something might begin.

But it doesn’t.

Ho-jin gets a call from his brother asking him to look for his girlfriend, Shin Ji-sun… the same woman Ho-jin still has feelings for.

Moo-hee encourages him to leave.
And just like that… their time together ends abruptly.

Back in Korea, Moo-hee works on a horror film where she plays a killer zombie named Do Ra-mi.

On the last day of shooting, she gets into an accident and falls into a coma for several months.

Ironically… despite years of hard work, she only gains nationwide recognition after this role.

After learning the news of the accident, Ho-jin becomes a regular visitor to her hospital, he stays even after the crowd subsides, the messy family drama over “who’ll pay for her treatment” unfurls, and without Moo-hee’s knowledge Ho-jin becomes a little less of a stranger to her misfortune.

When she wakes up and returns to work, she signs onto a traveling show alongside a Japanese actor, Hiro Kurosawa.

And that’s where things start to shift.

Not just externally… but internally too.

Moo-hee begins seeing visions of Do Ra-mi, like a mocking inner voice that constantly brings her down. She hides it, trying to move forward like everything is normal.

Then… she meets Ho-jin again. This time, as her translator.

He translates conversations between Moo-hee and Hiro, but there’s a catch. Hiro is arrogant, borderline rude… yet Ho-jin softens his words during translation. Moo-hee, unaware of Hiro’s true behavior, responds with kindness… leaving Hiro confused, and slowly… intrigued.

As the production team travels across countries, Hiro begins to fall for Moo-hee, but his pride keeps him silent.

Moo-hee, on the other hand, is fighting something far more complex. Her condition evolves. She doesn’t just see Do Ra-mi anymore, she becomes her at times. People admire her bold, mischievous personality shift… not realizing it’s not an act, but a disorder. Medical tests show nothing conclusive.

Both Moo-hee and Ho-jin carry heavy pasts.

Moo-hee lost her parents early. Her father’s family took her in but never truly accepted her… eventually cutting ties. She has no connection to her mother’s side.

Ho-jin comes from a broken family too, his mother was his father’s second wife, his brother is actually his half-brother… and after their parents separated, they all drifted apart across countries and relationships.

He carries quiet abandonment issues… especially toward his mother.

As the show progresses, Moo-hee grows closer to Ho-jin. She doesn’t hold back when it comes to love. Even when he keeps his distance… she tries, again and again, to stay a little longer with him.

As Cha Moo-hee, she’s in love, but awkward, hesitant.

As Do Ra-mi… she’s fearless. Bold. Almost dangerous.

Moo-hee is heartbroken about Ho-jin as well, as Ho-jin still seems to be hung-up on his past love (currently his brother’s fiancée).

They both linger in this painful in-between: wanting, but not choosing. Until… they finally do.

They give in to their feelings. But even that isn’t simple.

Ho-jin struggles to open up, constantly held back by his past and by Do Ra-mi’s interference. Moo-hee, on the other hand, doesn’t fully grasp the depth of his emotional conflict.

And just when things seem to stabilize… his old love calls off her wedding.

And everything feels uncertain again.

As the world seems to become more and more overwhelming, Do Ra-mi (the alter ego) takes over. She makes move on Hiro. She threatens Ho-jin to leave Moo-hee alone. She tells him about the her childhood trauma, which Moo-hee has kept a secret even from family member and doctors. This puts Ho-jin in a tough spot.

Moo-hee’s past holds the key to everything. As a child, she witnessed her mother poisoning her father… and then turning toward her. To survive, young Moo-hee jumped off a balcony.

When she woke up… she pretended to forget everything. Fear buried the truth. Trauma reshaped her memory. Her foster family erased her mother from her life completely. But her mind didn’t.

Do Ra-mi (the alter ego)… was her mother. Because Moo-hee hadn’t seen her mother’s face in years, her mind reconstructed it using her own image. The personality? Exactly the same. A woman who didn’t believe her daughter deserved to live.

Later, Moo-hee discovers that her father is actually alive, living abroad as someone she believed to be her uncle. She sets out alone to confront her past, to understand her mother… and herself.

After a year… she returns.

With a quiet determination… to live. To love. To try again.

My Fan-girl Commentary

I genuinely loved the overall concept- a romance between an actor and a translator/interpreter. Add to that the female lead dealing with multiple personality disorder… and it becomes such an interesting premise.

That said… I do feel the show fell short in some areas. The doctors’ involvement was minimal, which felt a bit unrealistic.

The second male lead, Hiro, had a very compelling arc. A man so afraid of rejection… yet slowly falling for Moo-hee (ironically because of Ho-jin’s softened translations). And then it’s Do Ra-mi—not Moo-hee—who actually makes moves on him.

But still… his character never truly felt like strong competition for Ho-jin.
Personally, I enjoy it more when both leads are equally strong, bringing out different sides of the same person.

I was honestly surprised (and impressed) to learn that Hiro and his manager were played by actual Japanese actors. Sota Fukushi, who plays Hiro, was quite good and I even found some of his Japanese work on Netflix later.

The chemistry between Go Youn-jung and Kim Seon-ho?
So natural. So easy.
I’d definitely love to watch more of Youn-jung’s work after this.

I didn’t fully like how Moo-hee’s backstory was wrapped up.
The reveal about her father being alive… her journey to understand her mother, it all came too late and didn’t feel fully explored.
Her mother existed only through her alter ego… but adding more depth or mystery to that storyline could have made the show so much more impactful.

The travel show aspect was genuinely fun to watch. Each location had breathtaking visuals… and it also gave a glimpse into how variety shows are actually filmed.

Do Ra-mi’s signature BGM—and especially that English track—was perfect. Every time she appeared… the mood shifted instantly.

Final Verdict

All in all, “Can This Love Be Translated” (2025) is a moderately entertaining series with a lot of potential… but it falls slightly short when it comes to tying up its loose ends.

As I kept watching, I honestly couldn’t decide: Is this romance? Comedy? Drama? …or low-key psychological horror?

Because the tone keeps shifting.

And maybe that’s the point.

⭐ My Rating: 7.8/10

Watch it with friends… or by yourself over a quiet weekend; if you’re in the mood to travel across beautiful places… and experience a love story that feels almost like a fairy tale… one that never fully becomes what it could have been.

My Recommendations

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020): Trauma, Love & Healing

A cold-hearted children’s book writer, a quiet psychiatric caregiver, and an autistic elder brother cross paths in a seaside town they once tried to escape. What follows is not just a love story, but a slow, messy journey of healing, forgiveness, and learning how to become a family.

More of Kim Seon-ho

My Heart is lost in ‘Hometown: Cha-Cha-Cha’ #417

In a world that rushes past quiet moments, Hometown: Cha-Cha-Cha invites you to slow down—to feel, to heal, to fall in love with life’s simplest things. It’s not just a romance; it’s a reminder that sometimes, home is a person, and healing begins with a smile from a stranger.