Charming92
Greece
Love affairs in the afternoon is the Korean version of the Japanese 2014 drama Hirugao. Lemme give you a short version of this review right here. If you like romance then this drama is recommended. If you haven't watched the original, even better. However, if you have and you loved it just like I did, I think you are bound to make comparisons and chances are you might feel a bit disappointed.
Ok, don't get me wrong, love affairs was a good drama in every way and I enjoyed it. It's just that my expectations partly ruined the drama for me. I expected to watch hirugao again with Korean actors and what I got instead was a Korean version of it. Admittedly, when I started seeing the drama as a separate thing, my pleasure increased so note to everyone who watched the original and liked it. In retrospect, the positives, ultimately, outweigh the negatives which makes this a worthy drama.
Before I delve deeper into the aforesaid pro and cons, i should give a general idea of the drama for those who have completely no idea what this is about. Love affairs is a romance (melo)drama with the trope of infidelity mixed to keep things interesting. There are two companion stories going on, based on the female leads. Both women having their own affairs, depicted from completely different mindsets of completely different people. First story is almost completely based on romance, while the second story is a bit more harsh and stays closer to reality in my opinion.
THE GOOD
First of all, my favourite part of the drama, the poetic monologues and continuous symbolisms. Not something easy to miss. The main female lead, who is an aspiring writer, gives constant poetic, inspiring, beautifully written and moving monologues in the background, based on love, its positive and negative effects along with the pain of loving someone unavailable and forbidden. In the same lines goes the symbolism, also quite easy to catch, with virtues like love and faith being likened to places, beings ect symbolizing the sad reality of the characters. Obvious but very sweet and idyllic setting a scenic atmosphere.
I generally appreciated how the drama kept the original's base story and general idea. I acknowledged how they tried to recreate scenes, sceneries, even designs and decorations from the original, adding plot devices that, truth be told, made the drama only better. They extended an 11 episodes drama in a 16 full hour drama quite successfully. It wasn't really boring, and even when it was dragging, the episodes were easy to watch.
The drama in its core wants to deal with the concept of happiness. It wants to set that as our personal goal and work towards that. Taking a leaf from hirugao’s original book, it sets its tone in two failed marriages, trying to showcase how people settle down for the wrong reasons ending up unhappy and then how they try to battle with that everlasting soul-eating dissatisfaction. The message, sadly, doesn't make its way across all the time, but I appreciate how they tried to keep the core message of the original story.
I especially liked how they introduced more perspectives than the people only directly affected by the affair, showing a more widened idea of infidelity's repercussions. There were character additions to intensify the drama and bring comic relief, while others were given more prominent roles that its original Japanese counterpart. They all made sense and were successfully executed. No complaints here.
The romance takes the main wheel in the drama. For those who like romance, this will be a pro. Everything happens by the book, there are a lot of cliches though, which might turn some people off.
Finally, as far as music is concerned, they tried to pull some “secret love affair” classic music atmosphere here, which was, on the whole, also quite successful.
Generally, the drama tries to (sometimes successfully sometimes not) give a more artistic feel to the plot with monologues, symbolisms and sophisticated music. Effort taken under consideration!
At this point let me give a shoutout to the 2nd couple’s storyline. Ye Ji Won's character and general plot was saved from the Over-koreanization and stayed quite true to its roots of finding yourself, growing up, understand past mistakes, and working towards happiness through a path of difficult choices that will ultimately help you grow and mature. I especially appreciated certain scenes that were magnified by her luscious acting, showing that the choice of our significant other should be based on a person that will help us and inspire us to work harder towards our dreams and not be an emotional and energy vampire that just sucks the life out of us. This is the core foundation of walking towards happiness and this storyline beautifully showed that. Being this drama's saving grace, this story line had the realness the drama demanded, the amount of drama that was appropriate, the load of pain that made sense and the much needed and deserved character development that just made you love and root for her till the end!
Thankfully, the drama offers the aforementioned rightful development for all its characters by the end (despite being quite frustrating till that point). Ending in a very positive note that we should live and be happy for us, follow our dreams, not let anyone dictate our lives. Happiness comes firstly from within. The ending was healing.
THE BAD
Even though this was a pleasant watch, I cannot overlook the fact that almost instantly I got disappointed by the direction this took and ended up quite infuriated in half of the characters for reactions and choices that felt completely foreign (even laughable) to me, for the sake of (unnecessary) drama.
Now comparisons are bound to happen. The original featured some perfectly shaped, well rounded, deeply setted in reality characters, showing each side even when it didn't really want you to take their sides (their= the cheated individuals – aka hirugao was more precise and neutral).
For the sake of romance, the Korean version failed to do that. I never really saw the cheated characters as people. To me they were degraded to mere plot devices so as to keep the main couple apart. I wholeheartedly disliked this. Hirugao respected everyone and did not reduce any character to a caricature version of a human being for the sake of romance. This should not be the intention of infidelity dramas.
Speaking about romance, I disliked it for the most part. All the cliches in the book won't make me root for a couple who pretty much has no chemistry just because they run in the rain together, sorry. I need and demand more.
Moreover, misuse of the concept of adultery. Adultery is here used as a mere plot device to keep the main couple apart and nothing more. There is much more to all of this that being a reason for the main characters to hurt for not being with their loved one. The drama does show a more widened spectrum of its consequences like the society's backlash but it still focuses too much on the romantic part. I needed more.
What's more, too much back and forth. Especially during the middle episodes the story of the main couple kept going in circles till the end, ending up to it dragging and I just never got the characters Choices. I get that this is the Korean culture and shit is different but this just felt over exaggerated again for the sake of romance drama. I've seen a big number of adultery dramas to know that things aren't (or aren't supposed to be) like that anymore. Too much effort to dramatize the wrong, in my opinion, situations (aka the romance).
It is obvious I think that my main problem here was over focus on the romance and this is why I said in the beginning, if you like romance, this is for you. Mishandled in my opinion, over-koreanized to the point it lost part of it’s original charm, without finding new life as a Korean drama. A lot of missed opportunities.
ACTING
Well… the acting overall was ok, there was sadly limited chemistry between the Main leads and I have to admit that park ha sun's crying scenes weren't very satisfying or even believable. That being said, Ye Ji Won completely saved it being her usual flawless self.
RECOMMEND
Long story short, you into some romance melo and you enjoy adultery without it being too harsh or serious? Give this a try. In my honest opinion there are many better infidelity dramas out there if you’re into that. Between this and the Japanese version, the Japanese is seas ahead, but it depends on the viewer as well. It's not a bad watch if you are a fan of the genre or just have nothing else to watch.
Ok, don't get me wrong, love affairs was a good drama in every way and I enjoyed it. It's just that my expectations partly ruined the drama for me. I expected to watch hirugao again with Korean actors and what I got instead was a Korean version of it. Admittedly, when I started seeing the drama as a separate thing, my pleasure increased so note to everyone who watched the original and liked it. In retrospect, the positives, ultimately, outweigh the negatives which makes this a worthy drama.
Before I delve deeper into the aforesaid pro and cons, i should give a general idea of the drama for those who have completely no idea what this is about. Love affairs is a romance (melo)drama with the trope of infidelity mixed to keep things interesting. There are two companion stories going on, based on the female leads. Both women having their own affairs, depicted from completely different mindsets of completely different people. First story is almost completely based on romance, while the second story is a bit more harsh and stays closer to reality in my opinion.
THE GOOD
First of all, my favourite part of the drama, the poetic monologues and continuous symbolisms. Not something easy to miss. The main female lead, who is an aspiring writer, gives constant poetic, inspiring, beautifully written and moving monologues in the background, based on love, its positive and negative effects along with the pain of loving someone unavailable and forbidden. In the same lines goes the symbolism, also quite easy to catch, with virtues like love and faith being likened to places, beings ect symbolizing the sad reality of the characters. Obvious but very sweet and idyllic setting a scenic atmosphere.
I generally appreciated how the drama kept the original's base story and general idea. I acknowledged how they tried to recreate scenes, sceneries, even designs and decorations from the original, adding plot devices that, truth be told, made the drama only better. They extended an 11 episodes drama in a 16 full hour drama quite successfully. It wasn't really boring, and even when it was dragging, the episodes were easy to watch.
The drama in its core wants to deal with the concept of happiness. It wants to set that as our personal goal and work towards that. Taking a leaf from hirugao’s original book, it sets its tone in two failed marriages, trying to showcase how people settle down for the wrong reasons ending up unhappy and then how they try to battle with that everlasting soul-eating dissatisfaction. The message, sadly, doesn't make its way across all the time, but I appreciate how they tried to keep the core message of the original story.
I especially liked how they introduced more perspectives than the people only directly affected by the affair, showing a more widened idea of infidelity's repercussions. There were character additions to intensify the drama and bring comic relief, while others were given more prominent roles that its original Japanese counterpart. They all made sense and were successfully executed. No complaints here.
The romance takes the main wheel in the drama. For those who like romance, this will be a pro. Everything happens by the book, there are a lot of cliches though, which might turn some people off.
Finally, as far as music is concerned, they tried to pull some “secret love affair” classic music atmosphere here, which was, on the whole, also quite successful.
Generally, the drama tries to (sometimes successfully sometimes not) give a more artistic feel to the plot with monologues, symbolisms and sophisticated music. Effort taken under consideration!
At this point let me give a shoutout to the 2nd couple’s storyline. Ye Ji Won's character and general plot was saved from the Over-koreanization and stayed quite true to its roots of finding yourself, growing up, understand past mistakes, and working towards happiness through a path of difficult choices that will ultimately help you grow and mature. I especially appreciated certain scenes that were magnified by her luscious acting, showing that the choice of our significant other should be based on a person that will help us and inspire us to work harder towards our dreams and not be an emotional and energy vampire that just sucks the life out of us. This is the core foundation of walking towards happiness and this storyline beautifully showed that. Being this drama's saving grace, this story line had the realness the drama demanded, the amount of drama that was appropriate, the load of pain that made sense and the much needed and deserved character development that just made you love and root for her till the end!
Thankfully, the drama offers the aforementioned rightful development for all its characters by the end (despite being quite frustrating till that point). Ending in a very positive note that we should live and be happy for us, follow our dreams, not let anyone dictate our lives. Happiness comes firstly from within. The ending was healing.
THE BAD
Even though this was a pleasant watch, I cannot overlook the fact that almost instantly I got disappointed by the direction this took and ended up quite infuriated in half of the characters for reactions and choices that felt completely foreign (even laughable) to me, for the sake of (unnecessary) drama.
Now comparisons are bound to happen. The original featured some perfectly shaped, well rounded, deeply setted in reality characters, showing each side even when it didn't really want you to take their sides (their= the cheated individuals – aka hirugao was more precise and neutral).
For the sake of romance, the Korean version failed to do that. I never really saw the cheated characters as people. To me they were degraded to mere plot devices so as to keep the main couple apart. I wholeheartedly disliked this. Hirugao respected everyone and did not reduce any character to a caricature version of a human being for the sake of romance. This should not be the intention of infidelity dramas.
Speaking about romance, I disliked it for the most part. All the cliches in the book won't make me root for a couple who pretty much has no chemistry just because they run in the rain together, sorry. I need and demand more.
Moreover, misuse of the concept of adultery. Adultery is here used as a mere plot device to keep the main couple apart and nothing more. There is much more to all of this that being a reason for the main characters to hurt for not being with their loved one. The drama does show a more widened spectrum of its consequences like the society's backlash but it still focuses too much on the romantic part. I needed more.
What's more, too much back and forth. Especially during the middle episodes the story of the main couple kept going in circles till the end, ending up to it dragging and I just never got the characters Choices. I get that this is the Korean culture and shit is different but this just felt over exaggerated again for the sake of romance drama. I've seen a big number of adultery dramas to know that things aren't (or aren't supposed to be) like that anymore. Too much effort to dramatize the wrong, in my opinion, situations (aka the romance).
It is obvious I think that my main problem here was over focus on the romance and this is why I said in the beginning, if you like romance, this is for you. Mishandled in my opinion, over-koreanized to the point it lost part of it’s original charm, without finding new life as a Korean drama. A lot of missed opportunities.
ACTING
Well… the acting overall was ok, there was sadly limited chemistry between the Main leads and I have to admit that park ha sun's crying scenes weren't very satisfying or even believable. That being said, Ye Ji Won completely saved it being her usual flawless self.
RECOMMEND
Long story short, you into some romance melo and you enjoy adultery without it being too harsh or serious? Give this a try. In my honest opinion there are many better infidelity dramas out there if you’re into that. Between this and the Japanese version, the Japanese is seas ahead, but it depends on the viewer as well. It's not a bad watch if you are a fan of the genre or just have nothing else to watch.
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