Do You Like Brahms? (2020)

Shining characters trapped in a drab plot line

Standout characters immediately grab your attention, and Do You Like Brahms? starts with one of the strongest first 4 episodes of 2020 premieres, second only to Flower of Evil. The two main leads, a burned out superstar and a struggling artist, seem cliché, but their foil is fully explored and surprisingly relatable. However, little substance is built on the foundation of their relationship. You better understand and relate with each character, with each episode, but the evolution of their relationship stagnates. Either DYLB? should have been told in fewer episodes or bigger dramatics were needed to stimulate a more engaging reaction.

Story:
The contrast between the quality of characters vs plot is stark by the ending of Do You Like Brahms? From leads to supports, the characters have an incredible amount of depth. Even the motivations of the antagonists are mired in complexity. As a character drama, DYLB? excels by making the unique lives and challenges of musicians relatable to casual drama viewers.

As a thrilling romance or gripping melodrama, it falls short. The love triangle(s) that is crux to the plot of DYLB? is presented in the first couple episodes, and its potential outcome feels inevitable (i.e. miscommunication, confusion, heartbreak). The lack of suspense transforms into frustration as the middle segment of DYLB? trundles toward the finale following a subdued climax.

I want to include one last comment about time skips and flashbacks. They were not always crystal clear, but I appreciate that the director did not baby the audience with title cards like “1 year ago”, “1 month later”, etc. Overall, the plot is the main weakness in an otherwise well directed drama.

Acting:
The combination of character design and cast brings to life the fictional characters on screen. Park Eun Bin adds another excellent role after her underappreciated performance in Hot Stove League. Kim Min Jae has a long list of great roles for such a young actor, almost comparable to Yeo Jin Goo. Their interpretations of their characters just make sense. They act and behave like genuine human beings instead of characters.

The rest of the cast is equally decorated, but I will specifically praise Choi Dae Hoon and Baek Ji Won for creating characters that knew all the right buttons to push for maximum irritation. The way they frustrate the viewers and the main leads is the definition of entertainment, in stark contrast to my frustration with the flat plot.

Music:
More so than the characters and cast, the music within Do You Like Brahms? rises above First, the use of classical music is slightly cheesy and often used as a plot device, but it is refreshing to hear a different sound from the standard drama ballads. Second, the OST of DYLB? is anything but “standard”. The same musical producer from Hotel Del Luna worked on this drama, and the quality of the OST is unparalleled in 2020. It is hit after hit sung by some of the biggest names in Korean music, from Taeyeon to Heize. It is good enough to listen without even watching DYLB?

Rewatch Value:
The lack of dynamic plot and explosive confrontations make it hard to justify a rewatch. This weakness even bleeds into the strong character designs. The main female lead starts off as a relatable, struggling young adult, but she seems too perfect as the story drags on. Being untalented or soft-spoken is far from a real character flaw, and her immaculate actions wear her initial relatability thin. I may be overly critical since I started DYLB? with high hopes. Unfortunately, it falls short of the best drama of 2020 which currently belongs to Crash Landing on You (depends if you consider it a 2019 or 2020 drama) or Flower of Evil.

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The characters shine. The plot... not so much.

This drama’s rating is high purely because of the characters. Song Ah x Joon Young are two of the softest, politest, most introverted leads I’ve ever watched. I fell in love with them from the start and I never fell out despite my declining interest in the drama. PEB & KMJ play them to perfection.

The second leads are both great too. Hyeon Ho is easy to love - the smiling, puppy in love. Jung Kyung is more complex. Struggling with her fallen star & complicated feelings, she’s still clever and kind and I don’t care what anyone says, I loved her. I’ll be adding her to my pantheon of second female leads who deserved better. (It’s a really great club btw I’ll make a list of them all one day)

Cha Young In (the noona from the kyunghoo foundation) was also a quiet favourite of mine. Unlike the many immature & selfish professors from the university, she’s grown wise with time & dispenses advice and knowledge freely without judging or looking down on anyone. Everyone is lucky to have her as their senior in life tbh. I’d love an older female friend like her.

So yes. 6.5 stars purely because they all live bright in my heart and the first third or half was really good.

The plot lets it down. At some point past act 1 it becomes this endless slog of misery and miscommunication (from a couple that thrived on being open with one another no less!)

I didn’t mind it being slow because it felt like a healing drama and for a while it was. It soon devolved into a melodramatic mess however and the neat bow-wrapped ending isn’t enough to save it.

Just another drama of what-could-have been to join the many already littering the LOST POTENTIAL graveyard.

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It is my cup of tea

"Do you like Brahms?" is a drama that teaches me about the things that makes life so graceful. This drama may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, journeying with this drama is like sipping my fine tea on a lovely afternoon. Like my green tea, this drama wont give a strong and special impression, just simple and sweet feeling. That moment when you hear people playing their instruments somehow relates to that nice warm feeling when you smell from the aroma of the tea leaves. Its that kind of magic.

The story itself is something I would love to enjoy like how I would enjoy my tea. One sip at a time, feeling its flavor as the aroma engulfs your soul. I love how it was subtle and slow, that as I went through it, I gradually feel its elegance from the bits and pieces of emotion finally settling in towards the end. As tea comes with different unique flavors, so was the characters in the drama. Everyone character was like those different type of flavors, others were more bitter than sweet and some are too sweet to be bitter. But even for me, I appreciate all of them, no matter how bitter and sweet they are.

What made it special to me was because it was not special.
Its a mundane drama that reminds me of my love for tea.
I love it.

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Not for everyone but it hit me hard

This drama series is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, the story is a bit slow in sense where there's nothing major happening. But there's this beautiful tranquillity in it. It shows you characters who are real, each have his or her own struggles and how we often try to pretend we're doing fine.

The chemistry between the main leads were out of this world, super adorable with their little smiles to one another. Only reason why I rated this 9.5 instead of 10 is because I need more scenes of them together. I couldn't get enough!

Also, if you look up the list of OST in this series you would be gobsmacked. All the queens and kings of OST are in here. Tears of happiness when each of them were release for me.

Please give this series a go if you want something sweet but not overly melodramatic. I don't know what about it but I had to see each episode as it came out rather than what I usually do, which is to wait till the whole series is complete because this girl here cannot handle cliff-hangers.

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Speaking through worldless music

How do I start. Well .... those who like pianos, violins,etc and classical music will like this drama.
They really show some background story for the classical music (ie: Brahms of course).

Story line...well it was well made in my opinion.. the way the 2 main leads got close to each other and the process of it I'm enjoying it much. This drama kept me wanting monday & tuesday to come faster every week. Although I got frustrated towards the end (spoiler: as the 2 main leads broke up) but the ending is like icing on the cake.. very sweet yet warm.

Casts... the 2 main leads (Kim Min Jae & Park Eun Bin) were superb. Their chemistry is amazing. Almost wishing them to date for real :D.
Both of them portrayed their characters well.. the way they interpret the characters were amazing as well. I really like Song Ah's character here (similar to myself who always hold back and seldom express myself).
The rest of the casts were amazing. They portrayed their characters well.

Well they phrase "Let the music heals your soul"is true... in this drama let the classical pieces heals your heart.
I myself is a believer of talking through music is better than words.
I really like the piece Schumann - "Träumerei" where the character Kim Min Jae play every time. Hearing this piece of music really calms me.

Overall..its a good drama especially in this year 2020. Hope other can enjoy this drama like me.
I will surely re-watch this drama again later on.

"The person who spoke to me with music before words is right now speaking his heart to me with a wordless song." (this is my favorite phrase in the drama)

^^

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As I watched this title, a quote came to my mind, “Whatever the world throws at me, I’ll stride with my violin.” No, I’m not a violinist - I’m not a musician to be exact. I’m just a piano student in a hiatus because of Covid hehe. But it got me right in the feels. Every music on this drama was just EXCELLENT.

This drama never got into my watchlist right from the beginning. I’m never a melodrama lover to begin with, and I try to avoid watching them since the only romance drama I watch are romcoms and I prefer watching action and crime dramas. I watched this drama because of pure curiosity since the OST singers were just great and talented artists I really adore. However, this drama changed my mind, I began to enjoy the slow paced, gloomy, rather bland kind of drama. It was angsty, but fluffy at the same time, that’s what made me enjoy this drama and decided to watch until the end.

1st-9th episode: Gets better and better each episode
10th: The least interesting episode in my opinion
11th-13th: It was okay - what made it okay was the fact that it has a lot Jung Kyung & Hyeon Ho fluffs <3
14th-16th: YES. Loved it! Angsty but ends with pure fluffs

What I really like from this drama is that it has no cliches that most dramas always add. This drama has no childhood friends to lovers storyline, no rich man poor woman genre, just a plain but very beautiful storyline, new OG in the house! ;)

It’s been so long since I felt butterflies and that warm feeling on my stomach. The last time I felt those kind of feelings was when I read fanfictions long time ago *fangirl detected ;)*. Do You Like Brahms brought back those feelings and I really really liked it! I’ve never even stayed watching the previews at the end, but the OSTs of this drama made me stayed! Baekhyun, Chen, Taeyeon, G.O.D, Punch, Heize, Jo Yuri (IZ*ONE), K.Will were just so excellent. I just can’t explain how their voices made the drama 10x better. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who is now enjoying hearing classics especially Traumerei because of Joon Young :P

For people who had trouble in deciding to watch this or not or people who had trouble in deciding to continue or drop this drama, let me give you a head start warning ⚠️ This drama is only for those who can stand with fluffiness and a lot of crying scenes. It is predictable, but you’re not gonna regret watching it. Once you passed the 10th episode, it gets better and better so I prefer you don’t drop this drama. The acting, on the other hand, doesn’t really WOW me, but it’s really worth the watch ⚠️

I really wished Jung Kyung and Hyeon Ho had more screen time together, I really love this second-lead couple! :’( But overall, a really great drama I recommend. 9/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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awkward smiles UWU

a story like this should've been a slow slice of life genre about music and friendship, something like Quartet, where a bunch of random completely different characters come together in the name of "love" for the music and make their own band, they could've preformed on their own there's no need for them to be high class..
I won't get why song ah had to "give up" her violin, there's no reason she couldn't have played for fun, it's like me with drawing, I don't do it as often as before but it'll always be a part of me...

the romance was great (emphasize on was), they started out honest, awkward, and always true to their feelings but from ep10-12 they started "drifting apart" for nonsensical reasons and the 2nd leads were just a flame for that misunderstanding flame..
the 2nd fl had her reasons, but the things she said last to song ah about how joon young was still in love with her was pure bs.. and if the ml ever knew about them he'd have competently broken his bonds with her. tbh they wasted that chance, the 2nd fl never had "redemption" or a moment of "realization" she suddenly just became normal ;/

the whole inevitable breakup needs to go away, ML "I love you", FL "let's break up"

speaking of "I love you" the amount of times joon young kept saying "I like you, I like you" or "I love you, I love you" was too sweet! though I hated song ah always getting teary eyed when a confession was coming (like girl you are not rumeo and juliet) xD


anyway, from early on I really skipped (not just fastforwarded) everything related to anyone beside the 2 mains. and the only other worthy character was Cha Young In, everyone else suddenly became the 2 mains enemies ;/
song ah was lucky to have met Cha Young In ;)

overall I loved their relationship but I hated the conflicts and the cheap fast way everything was suddenly resolved in the last ep ;)

I never rewatch anything and the ost was GOLD, I mean, chen, baek and punch?! ;3

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Amazing first half, okay second half

I came across some clips on YouTube and just fell head over heels for the main characters, for the subject matter, for the aesthetic...for everything.

And for about 10 episodes I continued loving it and I continued getting those butterflies in my stomach.

Then the story started to drag a little and it seemed like all the great communication the characters had before went out the window. I understand that it's a melo and they definitely were going for realism; the issue is that they made it so repetitive. The second FL getting in the way followed by the main FL getting insecure, etc. and it seemed like they never got anywhere.

Another issue I had with this drama was just the conflation of the career plotline and the romance plotline — it's understandable that things would get a little messy, but I'm always a bit annoyed at characters like that and I'm not sure if it was an issue with the character or with the writing.

With that being said, the most disappointing part for me was the epilogue ending for our main FL — after everything she had gone through about following your dreams, self-confidence, independence, etc. It just felt like all those mini-lessons and references went out the window. I really thought her career plotline would have a lot more oomph, and it felt almost like SA was turned into nothing but JY's love interest at the end.

Some of the characters were also just annoying and said things that made no logical sense — again, I know it's a melo and the aesthetic kind of made it not as annoying as it would've been in a low-budget 2010 drama, but I still found it annoying. There were pretty underutilized side characters.

Ultimately though, I still enjoyed this one quite a bit, mainly due to the aesthetic, the classical music references, and just the amazing OST. The acting was great and our main leads actually had a lot going for them, but just not much to work with. I love myself a good melo but I'm still a bigger fan of episodes 1-8, before they got together and actually had better communication.

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Awkward, frustrating, dull

This is the first kdrama I have had to drop, though I did force myself to get as far as episode 9, and then realised I simply didn't care what happened to any of the characters, and life is too short to wade through the remaining episodes.

First the positive - the ML is adorable, particularly when he smiles, which is sadly rare in this drama. I think it was only those dimples that kept me going as long as I did.

The FL is very pretty, I have real hair envy but oh my goodness, her character is so insipid, I found her totally frustrating. On the rare occasion she did or said anything remotely assertive, she even got that wrong.

The worst part of all is the awkwardness, oh the awkwardness. I am shy and socially awkward myself, but the FL takes it to another level. Watching her made me feel like a raving extrovert for the first time on my life. I actually found myself cringing inside multiple times each episode, witnessing her awkwardness. There was also zero chemistry between the leads.

In a nutshell, I found this show painfully slow, cringeworthily awkward and none of the relationships felt authentic, and I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters.

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Diminuendo: a decrease in loudness in a piece of music.

Or in the case of this drama a decrease of care and affection for the characters and the storyline.

DYLB started off strong, with a somewhat subdued mood, because the main character was at a point in her life where she was facing the reality that she was not as good at her dream as she had wanted to be and was largely isolated from her peers due to her age *and* had been nursing a one-sided crush on her bestie's ex-boyfriend for years.

Through K-Drama plotconvenience, she makes the acquaintance of a piano superstar, who is also facing a crisis of faith when it comes to his profession and lovelife, because he too had been nursing a crush on his bestie's gf for years *and* has been largely isolated from his peers, due to his talent.

They notice their similarities and are drawn to each other due to that and initially I really liked their connection. Song-Ah was forthright with her feelings for Joon Young and soon they start dating. But that's when the trouble starts, because Song Ah is both a quiet person and very insecure and Joon Young is both out of her league professionally and can't seem to untangle himself from his former crush.

This leads to a host of dumb miscommunication down the line, because they stop talking to each other and Song Ah is not able to confide in him about her issues, nor does she learn to stand up for herself.

How she ends the drama feels like a slap in the face to the initial set up and the last ditch drama tropes are heavy handed and very detrimental to the storyline.

Also, I gave this a very low music score because for a drama that uses classical music and musicianship as a framework, I remember only 2 pieces of music. Nothing else could remain in my head because the drama didn't connect it to our characters feelings and emotions, despite the fact that Song Ah herself states how important music is to her and how it lets her express her emotions.

A waste of potential is how I would sum this drama up.

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A freshing and not everyone's taste

Do You Like Brahms is not everyone cup of tea for sure , this drama is very warm and slow paced which slowly move to you and in some point, you may get bored because of some unnecessary love traingle caught up in middle, But as fan of melo dramas i personally into that zone and it was a great experience for me overall. This is a musical melo drama which mainly focused not just music but also the relationships. Definitely OSTs plays a big part in there to create a beautiful mood throughout the drama which was superb

So many people may feel very draggy in the middle especially because of the unrequited and too cliché love triangles which always there and we see that in so many times before and its really annoying sometimes. When the couples started to getting stronger then it doesn't matter but again 2nd herion was too annoying throughout the show

The storyline is a kind of healing nature i meant there always problems and then consolidation, struggles, etc which we seen quite a few times in k dramas so there is nothing new about it all, but it was beautifully narrated. Another important factor that the Romance between the lead couples were really beautiful there were a few good moments which was good , thier chemistry was superb. Not particularly pointing out any character because i liked most of every characters and they were brilliant.

This drama is very slow pace drama and you have to be patient, a heart warming musical journey i personally liked a lot.. Happy Watching ..

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Food for the Soul

Makes you love the feeling of falling in love all over again. With all the fast paced, thrilling dramas out there at the moment, this drama was just a breath of fresh air.

I started watching this drama because of the main actor, Kim Min Jae’s familiar face. I watched him in Dr Romantic and somehow got curious and there you go, I fell in love. But, as i watched. i got drawn more to Park eun bin - her magnetic charm and soulful acting was just so warm and sincere. I say no one else can play and do justice for Song Ah’s character but her.

This drama is a work of art, every detail was thought out, the artistic cinematography became a trivia for me -and made me rewatch the scenes many times so I can appreciate the intricateness of every scene. Eveything was just great! The OSTs omg.

I love that Song Ah as the lead doesn’t have a rooted sad back story. She’s fragile but strong-willed. Weak but driven. Shy but bold. This just makes her so relatable, and helps to focus on her feelings and daily struggle of living a dreamful yet ordinary life. Joon Young also mirrors those people we admire, only seeing them in the limelight, yet shedding the reality that each one of us have our own struggles despite the status. The lovers awkwardness and sweet smiles were just profoundly heartmelting! You just can’t help but root for them so much and murder the replay button...

This story reminded me to continue looking for happiness in things we love. Just do what you love and what you think is right :)

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