This is a one to one comparison, each article will contain spoilers, especially when we get to the later episodes. Let’s begin with an introduction to each series. Click here for episode four.
Synopsis (from MyDramaList): Kang Ji Won’s marriage to Park Min Hwan is strained due to his selfishness, unemployment, and a domineering mother. Ji Won is the family’s sole breadwinner and does all the household chores. When she is diagnosed with terminal cancer, her world shatters further as she discovers her husband’s affair with her close friend, Jung Soo Min. A confrontation leads to her tragic death at Min Hwan’s hands. However, Ji Won wakes up 10 years in the past, before she married Min Hwan. Determined to change her fate, she plots to make Soo Min marry him instead. Meanwhile, Yoo Ji Hyeok, her colleague, secretly harbors feelings for Ji Won and conceals a hidden truth.
Release year: 2024
Watch on: Amazon Prime
Characters:
Kang Ji Won – Main Protaganist
Park Min Hwan – Ji Won’s Husband/Boyfriend
Jung Soo Min – Ji Won’s Best Friend
Yoo Ji Hyuk – Ji Won’s Boss
Yoo Hui Yeon – Ji Won’s coworker and friend
Number of episodes: 16
Synopsis (from MyDramaList): The protagonist Kanbe Misa, who has always lived a life of a “supporting character” because she is too kind and always puts others first, believes in her best friend and husband and continues to do her best, but she loses her life due to their betrayal. However, she suddenly realizes that she has traveled back in time to 10 years ago. Misa plans revenge to ruin her former best friend and husband, but her encounter with Suzuki Wataru, a department manager with whom she had no connection in her first life, brings about a new change in Misa’s heart as she seeks revenge…
Release Year: 2025
Watch on: Amazon Prime
Characters:
Kanbe Misa – Main Protagonist
Hirano Tomoya – Misa’s Husband/Boyfriend
Esaka Reina – Misa’s Best Friend
Suzuki Wataru – Misa’s Boss
Sizuki Miku – Misa’s coworker and friend
Number of Episodes: 10
Marry My Husband Korea Episode 5
Episode five begins with a flashback to the first time Ji Hyuk and Ji Won met. Ji Won is extremely drunk and runs into Ji Hyuk, who looks after her. They fall asleep on the grass and in the morning she’s gone. The next day at University, Ji Hyuk over hears Ji Won talking about the previous night. She seems to think they slept together. She was talking to a tiny orange kitten, which she feeds. Ji Hyuk also starts bringing the cat snacks. He makes it a shelter when it starts to snow, then saves the kitten from being hit by a car.
In 2011, he become general manager and meets Ji Won in the office. He sees her around but never takes the change to speak to her.
Back in 2013, Ji Hyuk arrives at work wearing a new suit and exchanges a smile with Ji Won. Min Hwan sees this and gets jealous. He tells her all men cheat and she asks if he would do that too. Ms. Yang knocks on the door. Min Hwan sees Su Min and runs away.
Female employees fawn over how good looking Ji Hyuk is.
In the breakroom, Ms. Yang, Hui Yeon and Ji Won start to talk about the meal kit project when Su Min arrives. She starts talking about their childhood, and insults Ji Won in an underhanded way. Mr. Kim arrives and tells Ji Won to move his car and the rest of them to get back to work.
When Ji Won comes back from moving the car, Su Min is waiting for her. She asks to join the project, hoping it will make her a full time employee. Mr. Kim interrupts and calls Ji Won into a meeting room. Her berates her, saying her proposal overlaps with his, basically saying that he stole it.
Hi Hyuk asks her to dinner that night. She says she has personal plans. If it’s work related, she will schedule a time. He says not to do that.
Ji won meets with Eun Ho. Min Hwan tries to call. When she doesn’t answer, he calls Su Min, who tells him Ji Won already left. Then starts to imply Ji Won might cheat because her mom left her father for another man.
Ji Won and Eun Ho talk about the past. he shows her the letter she supposedly wrote him. It looks like her handwriting but she didn’t write it, meaning Su Min can copy her handwriting. Ji Won tells him she has a boyfriend and Eun Ho describes Ji Hyuk. Eun Ho says that’s how he found out about the reunion.
Ji Hyuk sees them talking on the street as he drives past. He tries to call Ji Won but she turned her phone off. At a pharmacy, she gets medicine for stomach cramps. Walking alone, she thinks someone is following her and starts to run. In a park, Min Hwan appears, scaring her. He starts demanding to know where she was, getting angry, he grabs her arm. Ji Hyuk appears and pulls Min Hwan away. After a brief struggle Min Hwan runs away. Ji Won and Ji Hyuk have an awkward conversation where she thinks that he’s trying to cheat on Hui Yeon with her. He proves Hui Yeon is his sister by calling her.
Su Min sees them together and Min Hwan calls.
Ji Hyuk confesses that he likes her. He walk Ji Won home then suddenly passes out.
Marry My Husband Japan Episode 5
This episode begins with a flashback to Wataru’s childhood. He grew up mostly with his mother until she rekindles an old love and gets married. A few years after, his mother dies. Forward to college, he meets Misa’s dad when he comes to visit her. Wataru, not knowing who he is, offers to show him around. Before they part ways, Misa’s dad shows Wataru her picture and leaves him with a handful of candy.
A few years later, he runs into a former employee from the company and learns about Misa’s cancer. He goes to the hospital to see her but just misses her. A nurse informs him she’s gone home for the day. He arrives at her apartment just in time to see her fall. At Misa’s funeral, Tomoya and Reina are arrested for murder and Wataru takes Misa’s ashes.
Back in the present, we see him save her from falling over the side of the balcony. She brings him back to her current apartment as it’s been raining and they’re both soaked. He tells her how he saw Misa in college, often talking to the turtle.
Tomoya calls Reina and tells her that Misa broke up with him. She acts concerned for him but is actually overjoyed.
The next morning, Tomoya is waiting outside Misa’s apartment building, where he apologizes again. Having realized she can’t break away from him that easily, she “forgives” him. At lunch, Misa tells Reina that she’s going to be meeting Tomoya’s parents and wants Reina’s help picking out something to wear.
They all have a work function out of town, a tasting event before the 2020 Tokyo olympics are supposed to take place. Misa remembers that an important client accidentally ate something with peanuts, which he was allergic to and Miku took the blame for the incident. Misa goes to remove the offending food but sees that Wataru has beat her to it. Seeing Misa walk by, followed not long after by Wataru, Tomoya confronts Wataru, about hitting on Misa. Wataru barely listens to him and brushes him off.
The office supervisor sees the box of desserts that were removed. Not knowing why they were removed, he takes the box back to the main area. As he does, he passes the client who has the peanut allergy and offers him some of the dessert to take. The man’s wife asks for a list of ingredients. Reina gets the list but she grabs the wrong one.
As the event wraps up, Reina approaches Misa, wanting to know why she has been so distant lately. Misa tells her that they aren’t really friends anymore. Upset, Reina seeks out Tomoya, who she convinces to sleep with her. Misa sees them leave together in a cab, kissing. Wataru shows up again and the two go to a bar together. Misa asks him about his dream and he starts to describe a future he wants to have with her. She falls asleep with her head on the bar and doesn’t hear the things he says about the future that he shouldn’t know.
Episode Comparison
The two timelines have diverged quite a bit. In the Japanese version, we already saw Wataru and Misa at university. In the Korean version, we only just see Ji Won and Ji Hyuk’s first meeting. In both versions, the female lead has an animal on campus she takes care of the male lead ends up caring for as well. There is no drunken encounter in the Japanese version. Ji Won only just finds out about Hui Yeon being Ji Hyuk’s sister while Misa was already aware of Miku being Wataru’s sister.
In both versions there is a scandal of some kind that gets Miku/Hui Yeon transferred, but the scandals are different.
In the Korean version, Ji Won has already figured out that she can’t break away from Min Hwan so easily and technically they are together. In the Japanese version, Misu has tried to break up with Tomoya, but learned the hard way it’s not that easy.
Tomoya and Reina have taken the big step to be together while Su Min and Min Hwan are still only flirting, though they both clearly want to.