Having watched all three seasons of EXchange, I wasn't that keen on checking on Love Transit which is its Japanese version especially since I had no access to Amazon Prime Video until recently. However, having heard some good reviews around me about the Japanese version, I decided to give this a shot.
Well...it's hard to beat the one who came first and this applies both to the programmes and the couples who participated in these shows.
EXchange burst onto the scene with a refreshing yet controversial concept of putting ex-couples into the same house and expecting them to make a choice between reconciling with their exes or forming a new couple with someone else after a period of time. The catch was that, you would have to form new relationships under the "watchful" eye of your ex and that you had to grapple with the same developing in front of you. Moreover, for newly-separated couples or those who parted on bad terms, it would be an extra challenge to deal with those raw feelings, lingering emotions of love, making comparisons between how your ex used to treat you and how he/she is treating someone new and you comparing your new beau with your ex all the time.
When the same concept is replicated in another country with different cultural norms, it is natural to expect that the remake is not going to be a carbon copy of the original. That part was within my expectations. However, I think that the differences between both versions stem more from the execution of the concept. For me, my opinion was based on who delivered a more comprehensive and engaging piece of work.
Time plays a key role in making and breaking relationships
First of all, the length of the two versions differed by a lot. EXchange started off with 15 episodes in Season 1 followed by 20 episodes in Season 2 and 19 episodes in Season 3. Each episode's running time varied but running time was usually 60 to 90 minutes with some episodes stretching all the way to 2 hours. On the other hand, Love Transit had about half or even less than half of the episodes (8 in Season 1 and 7 in Season 2) and the episodes were usually less than an hour.
Given the difference in running time, this would mean that the Korean version had a lot more space and time to tell the stories of the participants. As such, this was a key reason for EXchange's success because viewers could see their own experiences in these participants and in turn, feel more engaged and involved as if they were watching their own stories. This was also obvious from the reactions of the panelists - the Korean ones were clearly more absorbed in the narrative and even shed tears when things got too sad and emotional while the Japanese ones felt like observers who commented on the situation without getting too involved emotionally.
On the other hand, the Japanese version was trying to squeeze a lot of things within the limited time they had so the story didn't flow so well due to the choppy editing. One big issue which I had with the Japanese version was how fragmented and incomplete the stories of the ex-couples were presented. Often, this is the highlight of the show as it displayed the sweetness of a couple in love during the early stage of their romance before it gradually moved into the realm of sadness and bitterness as the relationship headed for doom. The Japanese version did not give a comprehensive look into this process which made it hard for viewers to feel engaged and identify with the issues which may also happen to themselves in real life. In addition, the narrative was somewhat skewed and misleading at some points e.g. one of the female participants in Love Transit was said to have cheated on her ex but under what circumstances and why did that happen - there wasn't a clear explanation which could help viewers to see if she deserved that kind of treatment from her ex or if her ex was totally without blame for the situation.
The rules of the Korean version were probably not as strictly reinforced as in the Japanese version. While there was a requirement for participants to have dinner together every night, the Korean version had some house rules like designated pairs to be on cleaning and cooking duty which provided opportunities for the participants to mix around and have some 1-1 time through such activities. And since the participants in Love Transit were staying in a luxurious service apartment (although they said that it's a hotel), there was actually no cleaning and hardly any cooking needed. That was a pity though because the Japanese participants could have more opportunities to bond if put under the same conditions.
And due to the choice of lodgings i.e. a house with people sharing rooms vs. everyone staying in their own rooms, that also eliminated a potential source of drama and conflict among the participants. In EXchange, it was common to have someone's ex and new love interest become buddies or besties because they were roommates. And when that happened, it was a frequent occurrence for the ex to see upfront how their former lover flirt or approach someone new right in front of them. However, with the Japanese participants being "confined" to their personal spaces, you don't get that kind of spontaneity in interactions with people being more free to approach others by popping over to another room.
While I'm not exactly sure how much time the participants spent together in the shared lodgings, the timeline of the Korean versions did seem much longer perhaps due to the airtime difference. One observation that I have after watching both shows is - time investment does go a long way in building relationships. Those who spent a lot more time with their new love interests tend to build up a stronger bond as they had the time to find out more about each other and develop their relationships. Often, participants who were often "absent" from the shared house due to work commitments or other reasons and those who were introduced late to the game (EXchange) tend to lose out in this regard. It seemed to be the case as well in Love Transit as those newer pairings which seemed quite solid had a lot of interaction time with each other, thanks to them going on multiple dates.
On the other hand, the length of an ex relationship and how much time had passed since the breakup were important factors in determining the outcomes of the shows. Given the short period of time which the participants had in Love Transit and that most of the couples broke up not that far back in time, it probably didn't come as a surprise that all except one of the successful pairings in both seasons were ex couples reconciling and the only new couple still broke up about a year after the show.
On the other hand, EXchange had a pretty wide range of couples with long and short relationships and some having even parted more than a decade ago so there was a mix of different types of stories and circumstances to watch - more entertaining in this sense. While not all the new couples in EXchange are still together (only one pair is still dating now), the ex couples who did make up or those who made up after the show ended seem to be going strong. What this probably suggests is that, the longer the ex relationship, the harder it is to let go. And if the relationship ended long ago, it is probably easier to move on since feelings would have changed and any hurt emotions could have healed better with time.
Lax execution + No privacy = the outcome was decided from the start?
As I mentioned above, both versions weren't carbon copies of each other despite the identical premises. The key differentiator was the execution of the concept. For example, not all rules were strictly enforced in the Japanese version. The participants in both versions weren't supposed to show obviously who their exes were but it was such a dead giveaway from the start that I wonder if the show's producers and crew did nothing to stop or remind the participants not to do so. To make things worse, the Japanese version gave away the game very early in the season by showing the ex couples' videos from Ep 1 so this took away a key enjoyment factor in the show - guessing who is who's ex.
While there was a lot of privacy for the participants in Love Transit in terms of them having their own rooms, the same can't be said for the interactions in the main shared spaces. I thought that having the participants ask one another out or ask to speak in private under the watchful eye of everyone was such a bad idea. There was hardly any discretion or privacy so as to speak. And as some of the participants did mention in the show, it felt as if they were cheating by approaching their new love interests in front of their exes even though this was something they should be doing in the show.
On the other hand, the shared houses in EXchange offered opportunities for the participants to have private chats without other people's knowledge and away from the mindful gaze from their exes. Even on the scheduled dates, they did not go out or come home at the same time so other people would not know who went out with who until much later in the show. In a way, this helped to nurture the new relationships without having the ex relationships being a stumbling block in the process and alleviate the stress felt by those who wanted to know new people before making their decisions. In Love Transit though, who went out with who was public knowledge and that was so difficult to watch because it was awkward even from the perspective of a bystander.
At the same time, I thought that Love Transit did not offer a fair opportunity for all participants to mix around before they made a more informed choice. It was boring to see the same few pairings go out repeatedly while some others kept staying at home because they had no dates. On the other hand, EXchange had some dates which set conditions like you have to go out with someone who you had never gone out with before that allowed people to mix around. Even if they ended up going out with someone who they had no chemistry or romantic feelings for, it was sometimes enjoyable to watch and good for the participants as well since some of them became good friends and supporters of each other by lending a listening ear to their troubles.
Given these limitations, it was probably not a surprise that Love Transit's final pairings were mainly exes while EXchange did have a few new pairings. If the remake was done in similar conditions with the original, perhaps the outcome could have been quite different. For participants in Love Transit, it was clear that exes who wanted to get their former lovers back had a much higher successful rate, thanks to conditions working in their favour.
While I would say that I preferred watching EXchange as compared to Love Transit, one key thing to note was that EXchange's long airtime was also an issue when it got too draggy at times. For example, the Jeju arc in Season 1 was quite painful to watch for me because it was so slow and emotional. And some participants being stuck in their emotions and lots of crying might get on your nerves as well especially if you aren't the type who likes seeing such scenes. If you prefer a more speedy approach to this concept, Love Transit might be more suitable for you.
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