Charming92
Greece
STORY
I Have A Lover felt more than just one drama, it felt like several dramas put together in the best way possible. The main concept of the show, even if it isn't very apparent at first, is Forgiveness! People will go around hurting you, is life worth spending trying to pay them back, or is it better to just let go? As someone who doesn't believe in forgiveness you can imagine how i felt when i realised what this show is about, but they managed to pull it off beautifully.
At the same time I Have A Lover, gave me the best, most intense and fucked up/twisted true love story i have ever watched in my life. The chemistry here is simply effortless and emotional beyond words, you can see the sparks around them while they look at each other, simply magical. The drama is worth watching because on screen chemistries like this one are hard to come by, almost impossible!
As i said IHAL brought several things to the table, the main premise is forgiveness but, separating the drama into parts, each part its own thing to present:
Part 1: Infidelity. The beginning of the show, the first 10 episodes, how can a marriage come apart at the seams, and at the same time the notion of how people react and get through tragedies, and how they expect the people around them to react. Get ready for some frustrating events the writting is realistic and brutal.
Part 2: Romance. Episodes 11-20. You will begin to grasp what the show is about here, whatever happened in the first 10 episodes, character-wise, will completely change, depicting how unpredictable human feelings are in the best and most natural way.
Part 3: Episodes 20-31. The story here stops being character driven ans becomes story driven. The focus shifts to the classic family-company drama that we all know. However it is dead-interesting even though it was the slowest part of the drama imo. The show tends to tell you things while the characters are unaware of them. Here the characters get to know them, and you just watch as they are shocked and try to cope with everything.
Part 4: Revenge and Forgiveness. Episodes 32-50. The pace gets accelerated from this point, especially the last 10 episodes were absolutely fabulous, and possibly the best of the show along with the first 10.
50 episodes and this drama never got dragged. It had a complex story, there are several backstories here, that help the story proceed. We have our everyone-wants-the-big-company classic sub story, evil characters, multiple love stories and love triangles and amazing well-rounded characters. It has illness, twin siblings, backstabbing friendships, constant turning tables between the leads, frenemies who scheme, revenge. I seriously have nothing bad to say, it was a wonderful ride, and i would have watched another 50 episodes seriously.
One thing that might set people off is the way the main love story gets told. We have a lot of set backs and back and forths. Yes, it is true, but the chemistry was so mesmerizing, so effortless, so real, that i didn't have any problem with it. I felt every moment of pain, every moment of backstepping, every moment of love and hatred. Best and most fucked up love story (possibly) ever!
ACTING
Standing Ovation for Ji Jin Hee and ESPECIALLY KIM HYUN JOO!
Kim Hyun Joo. The female Ji Sung of Kdramaland. She didn't pull off 2 characters, no. Her role felt like 4 characters if not more. I won't even mention that she has the BEST resting bitch face in kdramaland, i won't even mention that she ACED all her comedy scenes (her 2nd character is the main comedic character). But i will stand by the point that after episode 30 she is seriously giving the performance of her career, the way she manages to be BOTH a total raging bitch and a kind hearted girl at the same time was beyond me, she was leaving one personality and entering the other like it was nothing, in the same scene! She was amazing and flawless in every way and the show couldn't have worked without her. She WAS the show! I haven't seen any of her previous works, but i admired her a lot, and i doubt that she was ever better than here. I am looking forward to her next work!
Ji Jin Hee. His character was the easiest to hate BUT, his was so effortlessly expressing all his feelings through his eyes and facial expressions, that it was impossible for me to hate him. I kept rooting for him to be happy like my life was depending on it. Second best facial expressions in kdramaland after Kwon Sang Woo! He was luscious and sensuous, i loved his emotional scenes, he was indeed in love with her, i am not sure i have seen such *in love* eyes even in real life. Standing ovation for both of them. THEY MADE THE SHOW!
Lee Jyu Han. Obviously overshadowed by JJH, but it's ok, he standed on his feet completely, he was great i had no problems with his perforance, it was totally on point.
Park Han Byul. And we get to her. Her character was fundemental for the drama to continue. She wasn't bad, but we can only imagine what would have happened had a stronger actress given the role. During the midst of the show, she needed to express some hatred and her role needed her to be a bitch, but she couldn't, her acting felt mediocre like the least she needed to give to be acceptable. I think she would perfectly fit fluffy rom coms, this was too serious for her. If i wanted to be strict, the acting should have been a 9.5 as she just couldn't live up to her character's and role's expectations, but a 9.5 is a disgrace to JJH and KHJ's flawless performance as well as literally everyone's in the supporting cast. Thankfully in the last 15/20 episodes her role gets smaller almost insignificant and the rest of the actors do their thing.
At this point, the only thing i can do to praise the incredible and superb supporting cast is just write their names. Awards deserved!
Firstly, Baek Ji Won, why doesn't she get more roles? She was an amazing evil character and at the same time one of the funniest actors, she would fit comedy PERFECTLY, i am keeping an eye on her.
Gong Hyung Jin. He was the main evil character, and he pulled of his twisted role perfectly without becoming a stupid evil character with no soul. He was scary but funny when he was supposed to be. Overall, great!
Child actress, Kim Ha Yu. OMG how can a child actress be this good? Cuteness overload, amazing acting, effortless! My favourite kid actress!
Also, Na Young Hee, Dok Go Young Jae, everyone did a splendid job! Congratulations!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
If the 50 episodes make you think and rethink before starting this, just start it already! I was afraid of the 50 episodes too, i ended up watching 40 in 1 week and then waiting anxiously for the rest of the show to be aired! You won't even realise as the episodes fly by, you will be sucked in instantly!
IHAL has something pretty much for everyone. If you like romance, this is totally for you. It has infidelity, it has revenge, it has constant backstabbing, scheming, blackmailing, plot twists, backstories, twin siblings, illnesses, identity swap. It has everything, literally it has everything, it is more than a drama, and it deserves to be watched!
50 episodes, and yes, i'd rewatch it, especially the first 10 episodes which were so shocking to me, completely filled with reality, shivering, chilling. And then the effortless heart-warming and simultaneously heart-breaking romance, and then the backstory, omg yes. This is an overall 10 show!
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STORY
The base idea of the story is the constant struggle of average everyday people, against the higher, powerful, rich people who think they can get away with anything. We have a kind, average man who is being framed for a crime he didn't commit. Of course, he gets convicted as he is up against those people who have consealed their crimes with their wealth. In this story, his son decides to take action and seek revenge on behalf of his parent's innocence. Hence we get the base concept of the story which is revenge. The base concept isn't anything groundbreaking imo, i mean, how many revenge dramas are out there, but the idea behind it of the rich people and the power of truth was unique indeed and flawlessly delivered!
I found the first 4 episodes really amazing and thrilling. Sadly the pace of story, even if it was always interesting, it felt rather slow, and this is the main reason i cannot give this a higher score than 8.5 even if it actually deserves it. We get several law cases, that are linked somehow to the base story, but serve little to no purpose most of the time, and they could have been avoided. At the same time, the constant struggle of the main character who has all the right in the world, but still is treated like a germ, and was constantly the losing party of the story can make anyone angry and frustrated at what is happening. However, the writters took a realistic decision here, i mean it is public knowledge that rich and powerful run this world, and this was perfectly depicted here. The drama was a perfect reflection of our fucked up society and gave a great life lessons like 'The truth will shine in the end if you fight hard enough'.
Whenever i was watching the drama i had the same though circling around my head 'MONEY vs CONSCIENCE', which one is more important to you? Which one will win? What type of person are you? Can you be bought? Is money really worth it?
I saw people asking if this involved any romance, i don't understand the question, there is no 'romance' tab added in the main page, but anyway. Yes, there is romance but it is way in the back, insignificant really, and that was a good thing because sadly, the main actors, even if they did a wonderful job acting-wise, they had no romantic chemistry.
ACTING
The acting was, most-definately, the best part of the drama, by far!
I came here originally for Yoo Seung Ho, and he was as amazing as expected. I think his crying is the best crying i've seen in kdramaland, he looks great while crying, it comes naturally to him, effortless really. His strong scenes were really something, his emotional scenes were even better, and he delivered every time! He was an exquisite leading actor, he did justice to his character, and lived up to all the expectations. I am looking forward to seeing him the future.
However, even if i came for YSH, Man Gung Min stole my heart completely. He exceeded my expectations, his character was the most essential and important one for the story to make sense and not be ridiculous. He blew me away many times. His acting sent shivers down my spine. He was a complete lunatic, amazing facial expressions, to the point of overacting but still a person this crazy tend to over-do everything! His body expressions were also flawless. Luscious performance, heavenly acting! Really, my words aren't enough to express how great he was, best actor in this! The drama is basically worth watching to watch him. Amazing performance in every way.
Another surprise was Park Sung Woong. I am not sure why i was surprised by him, i didn't know him before this, his performance was amazing, sensuous, emotional. I don't know Korean, but i was taken away because of his rather peculiar pronnounciation, or the way he spoke, i don't know how to explain it, maybe it was just me. His acting felt rather unique to me. An overall great performance, and another actor i will follow from now on.
Park Mi Young. I read a lot of people had problems with her performance, i didn't. She wasn't amazing, but her character was so insignificant, she felt like the groupie of the main hero character. She was there just to support, nothing else. The story could have worked without her. I understand the importance and power of support in situations like this, but still. I guess every story needs a female lead, and for the purpose she was placed in the story, she did great!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
I've seen many people dropping this, i don't understand the reason. I mean, this is a melo, what do you expect? Happy people running in corn fields with their hair untagled...? o.O This is a revenge melo, frustration and anger are a given. If you are a melo fan i think you will appreciate this a lot. It wasn't the excessive tear-jerker i was expecting it to be. I get sentimental with dramas very easily and i didn't shed a tear here. Borderline, this is definately recommended to melo fans, and definately worth a watch.
I wouldn't rewatch it though, the fact that it was infuriating combined with the fact that it was slow, doesn't make this essential for re-watching, at least not to me. Definately worth a watch though.
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STORY
The base concept of the plot is revenge. I have watched a few dramas about revenge this was definately the best one yet! The main idea behind the show is: 'Be happy with what you are given!'. Ambition is acceptable, but up to a certain point, nothing good can come from stepping on to other people to make something of yourself! The main idea of the drama was quite innovative to me, i don't know why but i found it unique. Usually melodramas are about love and revolve around that idea, here we get a very wonderful life lesson, which i savour and agree with.
As far as the description goes, i am not sure what is happening there, even the names are wrong...
We get a main female character who is unhappy with the way her life is, and she tries with... unethical ways to climb that ladder, and her significant other, feels betrayed and seeks revenge. Pretty obvious isn't it? Yes the story is obvious, and only a few story developments actually shocked me. But, the story's intention was never to shock, but rather to tell a story and give some life lessons. The drama is packed with a lot of frustration (i seriously pity the people who watched it week-to-week), a lot of suspense, to the point of the story becoming a psychological thriller.
The only problem i had with the show was the fact that it could have worked as a 20 episode drama. Not that it gets dragged, but there were some episodes serving as plot-slowers, and the drama could have worked without them. Also, the first 3-4 episode might feel a little slow, i understand that, don't let that stop you, they are essential to the rest of the story, the drama picks up fast after episode 4. The drama basically starts showing you the ending in the first scene, and then we travel to the past, and the whole drama is the backstory of that scene, don't let this stop you from watching, this is the reason i said there are no huge revealings and game changers here, just a story being unfolded a little by little!
ACTING
So sad what happened to the acting, to be honest. Let me explain:
KWON SANG WOO. This is the 3rd drama i have watched with him, and god, this was his best performance out of the 3, i am thankful and glad i got to know him! The drama wouldn't have worked without his flawless, effortless and emotional acting. He was sensuous and luscious, exquisite in every way! To be honest he made the drama what it was, and it wouldn't have worked without him! The drama basically is worth watching just to cherish is award-deserving performance!
SOO AE. Ok, for me, she was't good, and she almost ruined the drama, which is sad and unfair to everything and everyone! She had literally the same face throughout the drama, while crying, while laughing, while speaking, while sleeping lol. Her facial expressions, body expressions and emotions were kept to a minor level. At first i thought it was because of the character but no, i believe she was either afraid or she just couldn't do better. Her face was always the same to me, and for me, facial expressions are the most important part of the acting. She didn't completely ruin it, but she was the main reason this is not a 10 but a 9.5! I can only imagine what it could have been if another actress had taken this part. I was picturing Choi Ji Woo many times (i have connected her to KSW, don't mind me), and i believe she would have worked amazingly. Apparently, they needed someone younger for this part.
YUNHO. Sucks for Soo Ae that an idol did better job than her lol. He was great, especially during the middle of the show where he stopped being a shallow chaebol boy, but he had to express feelings he did a great job, obviously overshadowed by KSW.
KIM SUNG RYUNG. She needs to be considered as the 2nd female lead, and i want to thank her for doing what Soo Ae couldn't. She was amazing, expressing a diverse amount of feelings. She had a proper resting bitch face and a hidden warm side consealed behind that, and expressed that wonderfully. I loved her and she served as tranquilizer after SA's mediocre performance.
I want, at this point, to congratulate the complete supporting cast because everyone was amazing, especially Lee Il Hwa (who i am growing to love), Cha Hwa Yun (amazing!), Lee Jae Yoon and others, and at the same time apologise for such a low grade (8/10).
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
If you are a melo fan definately watch this, if you are a revenge melo fan, certainly watch this. If you are a rom/com fan, this will get a 1 from you and you will lose 24 hours of your life. No reason to hate and be frustrated, ignore this one. This is heavy melo (not a tear jerker though), it should be watched by a certain melo-loving crowd!
I doubt i will ever rewatch this, once is enough. But it most definately deserves to be watched once!
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This review may contain spoilers
One Warm Word falls into the relationship/marriage drama category of the kdrama genre. It depicts the life of marriage, its ups and downs, its problems and ways to get through them. It was a rather heavy drama, difficult to digest, certainly not for everyone, but quite good at what it wanted to present.STORY
I will start by introducing the ideas and meanings of the drama. It doesn't talk about the affair at all. We vaguely get the reasons behind the affair. The drama basically wants to present what happens AFTER an affair. What happens to the person who commited the adultery, him/her and their family, as well as on a more social level. The description made me think that we get to see how it started and why it started, like other dramas with similar premises but this isn't the case here. The show wanted to express the repercussion of such an act. On a second level the drama wants to pass the message of 'Work on your marriage' No matter how broken it may be, and seemingly dead, it might not be, don't throw your marriage away because something happened (it doesn't have to be cheating), work on it with your spouse, divorce isn't always the answer.
The drama is character driven, nothing happens here in terms of backstory and secrets ect, just 2 couples who are working things out in different (or quite similar) ways. I can understand people calling it boring, and i won't argue with that, the show does get dragged quite a lot, especially in the middle where it felt like it was going around in circles. I do believe that in a marriage after adultery people don't just *choose* what's best, so the writters took a more realistic turn here and i appreciated that, but that didn't stop the show from becoming boring, and i've seen other dramas with similar premises that didn't get boring.
The overall experience of the drama was great, but i did have 3 quite sizeable problems with it:
1. Exaggerated situations. I will not elaborate on this because i will have to post spoilers. It is basically that in order to establish how bad adultery is the situations they introduced felt far fetched. I kind of felt like when i was a kid and my parents were scolding me like: 'This is what will happen to you when you cheat, so don't do it, ever'. Some of the situations were shocking and gave me chills, and sometimes they felt exaggerated and laughable.
2. Unreasonable character choices. This was my biggest problem and the main reason the show got an 8 and not some higher grade. I basically had problems with Ji Jin Hee's and Kim Jee Soo's characters. Their choices were unreasonable just to please the idea of 'work on your marriage', what they chose to do, felt forced and wrong in my opinion, and that made a question pop into my mind: 'Should we always work on something that is dead? Is it always worth it'
3. Overall the drama doesn't depict the concept of infidelity right in my opinion. It rather felt like a one-sided presentation of why you shouldn't do it. I know they wanted to focus on the repercussions of this, but how can we evaluate what happened if we don't know the whole story. We only vaguely were told the reasons of the adulterers, and they only had 1(!) scene together. This is one sided imo, to force us not ship them at all. I am not dead set on shipping adulterous couples, but i want to see the whole story, i want to see what each couple has to offer and then choose on my own who should be with who and for which reasons.
CHARACTERS
Spoilers ahead, feel free to skip this part if you haven't watched.
Yoo Jae Hak. I can understand people hating him, he deserved to be hated, but i didn't hate him for the apparent reasons. Yes he cheated and he is guilty, but i didn't hate him for this. I didn't hate him when he had literally no remorse over what his did (this rather shocked me), i didn't even hate him when he tried to turn all the situation around and blame his wife. And no, i didn't even hate him when he stated stupid excuses for having the affair. He basically said he was unhappy, since everything that he ever did weren't his own choices, but things dictated by others, his parents ect. Yes, i understand where you are coming from, but noone forced you to marry, you should have standed up in front of your parents and spoke your mind. I don't know what the appropriate thing to do is in Korea, but saying no to marrying someone you don't want isn't a trangression to any set of unwritten good manners rules, right? What actually made me hate his guts was the fact that he clinged to a loveless marriage. And hence what i said about unreasonable character decisions before. What was that? You never loved your wife, you loved the fact that she gave you 2 sons, you loved the fact that she was there, and you loved your family, NOT HER! You said you were unhappy and you did say you LOVE the other woman. OK THEN, LIVE UP TO WHAT YOU SAID AND LEAVE!! Divorce man, divorce yes! Why cling to something that, it isn't only dead now, it was NEVER ALIVE TO BEGIN WITH! He apparently felt obligated to be with her because his dead daddy dictated him to. Unhappiness is right there saying hello to you....
Song Mi Kyung. Ew, what a character, i hated her even more. She was borderline crazy for me. It was so obvious she had the 'good person' syndrome. She entered a loveless marriage, she was in love, but never recieved love, she did everything by herself in this marriage, bring up children, pleasing a bitch of a mother-in-law, convincing herself that she is happy with the grains of love her husband gave to her. She was the best possible wife so he would have nothing to nag about, and then convinced herself, that she is happy. What is that? The fact that in this loveless marriage it took him 20 years to cheat once, is unrealistic to begin with! Consider yourself lucky. She argued that she loved him a lot, and that she can accept him the way he is. Ok then, he is a cheater, accept it! Oh no? You can't? Then leave! And there she was being a total bitch saying i hate you and i cannot forgive you, but i don't want a divorce either... o.O This made no sense to me. I couldn't root for them to be together, there was literally NOTHING there for them to work out. Their marriage was sickening and wrong, they had formed a very weird siblings-like relationship or a mother-son/father-daughter relationship and then had 2 kids...
Both characters were unreasonable. This was the worst and best part of the show at the same time. Life's goals must be happiness. What this show showed was that, if you are married you aren't allowed to divorce, stay there and if you love your spouse you get to have a second chance, if you don't you have to stay unhappy forever. This is wrong for me, the fact that the show had a happy ending was also unrealistic, especially in the case of these 2. At the same time, however, how can we expect 2 people who have never savoured happiness in their lives, who always were pressured into things, never loved, to suddenly man-up and leave a dysfunctional relationship? How can we expect 2 people in such an unreasonable situation to act... reasonable. The only way i can excuse and understand them is thinking this: Couples who are on the verge of a break down will clutch at straws, and those straws are each other, even if they aren't each other's best option, they are their only, and it is safer that starting over with someone new. Now this is REALITY! Reality isn't always reasonable, is it?
Kim Sung Woo. The most loveable character! The show forced you to root for him, and they put a great actor in this role, you just couldn't resist! The most important lesson about his character was that people deserve a second chance, the usual saying of 'once a cheater, always a cheater' isn't always true (oh, but it is!). I did feel his character was rather too good to be true, but he was the most reasonable one.
Na Eun Jin. I base what i said about exaggerated situations on her. Yes, she cheated and she is to blame, but omg, come on, 3 of the 4 leads here cheated, none of them got through all the hate and left-loathing and self-panishing she got through. I guess it is because she is a woman, this is a reality not only in korea but world-wide, but i guess it is even worse there. I didn't hate her, i couldn't to be honest, i was mostly angry at her for not knowing what she wanted for 20 episodes, and in the very end i do believe she settled for the most ensuring choice.
What i loved is that the drama told us that a broken marriage isn't a result of infidelity but infidelity is a result of a broken marriage. Still the first couple had NOTHING going on for them, while the 2nd one had communication problems, love was there, and if love is there everything can be overpassed! Love isn't something that can be pushed though, it has to come naturally. The overall compalsive meaning of 'stay inside your marriage no matter what' bugged me. Maybe i am a home wrecker i don't know, i just believe that happiness should be our goal, marrying someone doesn't mean they are the right choice 100%.
ACTING
I am not sure how i feel about the acting here. Special thanks to Ji Jin Hee and Lee Sang Woo for saving it to be honest.
Ji Jin Hee. His character was very straightforward and serious, he did feel like he had no feelings, but his character was like that. He had a few scenes that there were tips of his feelings being let out, and JJH express them perfectly, as a man who has learned to surpress his feelings deep inside and at the same time as a person who just hurts.
Kim Jee Soo. I am not sure lol. Some of her scenes were dramatic and sincere and amazing in every way, and some others were all over the place. What was that? Her character was borderline crazy so i blame that. I couldn't emotionally connect with her or understand her at all, and she was supposed to be the 'good' guy so for me she failed.
Lee Sang Woo. He was great, he was amazing, he was sensuous, he was almost flawless. I loved his character development, i loved his dramatic moments, they were sincere, he made me feel all his second thoughts, all his doubts and his dreams and his hopes. Wonderful actor.
Han Hye Jin. Nope, she didn't do what she was supposed to do. She was overacting most of the time, and in all those moments she fell short. I'm sorry girl, but no.
Special mention to Han Groo, she was great and especially to Park Seo Joon. This is comes from someone who doesn't really like him, he was very good here, another case of an actor's talent being wasted in fluffy rom-coms when he has so much more to offer than that!
REWATCH/RECOMMEND
I would recommend it only to people who enjoy character driven shows. People who want a backstory and rapid plot developments this is not for you!
I wouldn't rewatch this, firstly because it was difficult to watch and understand and secondly because it got dragged in the middle.
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STORY
The main meaning of the drama wants you to believe in yourself, as it talks about 'main characters' and 'supporting characters' in real life. It doesn't matter how you look, or what your dreams are, believe in yourself, believe you can be happy, believe you deserve it, believe you can get your dream job, believe you can get your dream guy/girl, just believe and fight, and you will be rewarded. Don't let yourself in the backround, being a 'supporting character' in other people's lives because, maybe, on the outside you don't shine as much as others, you are as important as they are!
The drama has a very cute feel and it is a great feel-good drama, but when it comes to the actual story it lacks severely. The base concept is interesting, it takes a totally different approach to identity change (two best friends change names because the main lead is ashamed to show herself to a friend she hasn't seen in years) and it was fresh but it gets dragged and repetitive fast tbh.
The drama is completely a rom-com, and basically has 2 things to offer.
1. Comedy. The comedy was on point, delivered solely from Hwang Jung Eum and Choi Siwon.
2. Ships. The writters played a lot around with the ships, made us root for everybody and ship everyone with everyone (even though the end game was apparent from the beginning).
However, the drama doesn't have anything else to give story-wise. There is no real backstory here, no big revealings, nothing to drive the characters or give them depth, just the ships. The backround of the show is developed in a workplace of a huge fictional fashion magazine, so you fashion lovers have one more thing to look forward to watching!
The drama started very promising, but it quickly gets dragged with cute, funny but stupid (a lot of the times) situations to bring the characters together (or tear them apart), a lot of uninteresting for me office drama, and a lot of the times i felt many many things were used conviniently just to fill 16 episodes (especially during the last 4 episodes). I do believe the story could have worked better as a movie or as a 10/12 episode drama.
ACTING
The acting was, overall, great, but due to the light-hearted nature of the show the actors didn't get the chance to shine or express what they can really do.
Hwang Jung Eum. The woman can act, she has established that. She wasn't bad here, she didn't overact too much, but she did overdo it at times. It is obvious that she likes comedy more than other genres but i would definately encourage her to go back to melodramas since they suit her more.
Go Joon Hee was my favourite, if only her character would have been given more proper attention... She did great nonetheless.
Choi Siwon was amazing and arguably the best character of the show. The actor did a great job and he has charm. He executed all his comedy scenes flawlessly, and he made us all fall for him!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Since the majority of kdrama fans are rom-com fans i can totally understand the hype of this drama, even if i wouldn't really agree. So, i would most definately recommend this to anyone who likes rom/coms with emphasis on the comedy part. However, if you like your dramas a bit more... deep, or dramatic, or real, you won't really enjoy this as much as everyone else, i talk from experience.
I can also totally understand why someone would rewatch this, it was funny, but i wouldn't.
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This review may contain spoilers
Temptation is a show you will either love or absolutely hate. There is no in between, and i generally believe that, this is the case with controversial stories like this one. People don't necessarily hate the drama, but what the drama presents. If there is one thing this drama does right, that is that it makes you want to watch, you cannot stop! Take a moment and think, how many people rated this drama with a 1.0. I, for one, when i hate something i drop it, but no, people stuck with it and watched it all, and even bothered to write several hate reviews (big ones). Before you rush to rage-dislike my review, since you hated the drama because of its nature, give my thoughts a go. We live in free countries, don't we?STORY
The story talks about extramarital affairs. It doesn't say that they are good, and everyone should have one, no. It doesn't defend cheaters, no, not at all. Affairs are situations that happen, life isn't about pink rainbows where hot cute chaebol men with abs and hidden psycological issues but big hearts live and wait for a cute girl to love forever. No. Life is shitty and it hurts, and can go from being absolutely perfect to being absolutely hurtful and miserable. The drama also talks about money: 'Money can, indeed, buy everything. How much are you worth for?'. This is an idea that circled my mind many times while watching. Can money make you really happy?. The show generally posses the notion of MONEY VS MORALS. Which one will win? The answer may seem easy, but in reality it may not be! Lastly, the main idea of the show is Happiness. Life's goal should be happiness. What i understood from watching the drama was: 'Do whatever the fuck you need to do in order for you to be happy'. There is no shame in trying to be happy. Have you heard the proverb: 'The end justifies the means'?. Ok now, you can hate me, i kind of hate myself because i know this is wrong, but i believe it and the drama obviously believes it too (no don't rage-dislike the review yet, i talk a lot)
Firstly, i'll judge the shitty description. What an awful description, whoever wrote it hated the show himself lol. What the description says, happens and finishes in the first 2 episodes. The drama wants to show what happens after that. Also the 'submission' part, the description throws in there, doesn't even happen. The description lets everything in the air, give you a very vague and misleading idea of what the drama is about. The affair, barely ever happens, never gets physical and doesn't include any type of 'submission'. I, myself, was expecting some heavy sexual stuff happening, but nothing like that happens, at all!
The show basically has 2 goals: 1. (delivered in the first half) how can a loving marriage break down in a few minutes because of DOUBTS! Yes it can happen, love can't save everything (like rom-coms make us think), love isn't enough, and love isn't forever. Even if the affair never really happened, all it takes for someone's trust to be destroyed are a few moments of doubts, and everything crumbles down like it is nothing! Amazing, yet so true! Goal 2. Can't a person love a different person? No? Because they were married that is it? I am against adultery by all means, of course i am, but everyone is raving about love and how beautiful it is, but love isn't one-sided, like: i love YOU, it's YOU it will always be YOU. Yes, we all want that YOU to be forever, but sometimes, it isn't. Should we be forever depressed if that love with the YOU doesn't work? Or should we try to be happy once again? SECOND CHANCES, thats what i understood from the 2nd half of the show: second chances! Happiness is in our hands, if it didn't work the first time, we can either stay at home cursing our life (what i do every day), or go out there and try again! Is my thinking unrealistic? Do you hate me right now? Yes, i do that to people :P
To be completely and utterly honest, i have nothing bad to say about the show lol (if there was any shred of compassion, i just lost it, didn't i? xD). The drama is heavily based on the characters, it only goes forward based on the character decisions and actions. There is no backstory, no huge revealings, no plot twists. This is about the characters and how they cope with difficult situations like adultery! I am saying this just so you know what kind of show this is. One can argue that the show is boring, i cannot argue with that. Temptation was one of those shows, that had me constantly at the edge of my chair as i wanted to see what the characters will do next. What will they choose, how will they react to what was thrown at them! You need to be a fan of this kind of thing, not everyone is one, thats why i can describe the drama like, more of an elitist show than an inclusive one. The drama targets a select few that like this genre, and if you are a fan you won't be dissapointed!
I want to mention that one thing that shocked me. It was the honesty of the characters. Honesty, as in, their actions, and everything bad or good that comes with that. Example: I want your man, girl, i really want him, i'll come up straight in your face and say it, i don't even care if you are married! Surely this is wrong, but still wow... Another example: I see you have your ex-wife's wedding ring on the counter, you obviously have feelings for her, so i feel bad and leave. I don't keep it inside because i want to torment the viewers. I go straight up to you and ask you, DO YOU HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOUR EX WIFE?! HELL TO THE YES PEOPLE. Yas, thank you writers, thank you for making the characters real ADULTS for once who know how to adress their misunderstandings!
Oh! One last thing! Usually when i see melodramas, i except some heavy crying. The show is bubbed a melodrama, but i barely cried in the 20 episodes (and i cry waaaaaay too easily). So don't worry about this being a tear-jerker, it is not.
CHARACTERS
The show is character driven, so i will give the characters a special section in this review. Potential spoilers ahead, read at your own discretion. (scrap that, heavy spoilers ahead, skip this part if you haven't watched, i just really need to talk about the characters)
CHA SEOK HOON. He is your average hero. He was great and i loved him. I read some cute comments that he is selfish and values money too much. People apparently didn't watch the full show, or didn't understand or were dead set on hating. Let me start by saying, if you were in debt of 1 million dollars, and a nice lady one day said she'd take you to work for her for 3 days and she will pay off your debt, but you just can't contact your wife while doing so, what would you have done? Say, buh bye bitch, i want to take my jail time, i love jail! Shove your money up your *** and jail ftw! If you have such great values, great, good for you, i am a pitiful person that would take the deal, and start fresh without a debt. I don't think his decision was selfish, *other decisions were selfish by other characters, that really wanted us to pity them*!! He believed his wife will understand and not make a fuss of things. Ok he might had been wrong, of course his wife didn't, and ok this is understandable, and he freaking tried like crazy to make this work. It didn't work obviously, his marriage fell apart, but, do i have to hate him for wanting to move on? Really? No, i cannot hate someone who wants to be happy, he never cheated! He tried to make this work, and it didn't so he moves on! 10/10 He was a great character for me, definately someone to look up to, i found myself saying 'Thats my boy' and 'Thats my man' several times during the show. A staightfroward guy, who sees what he wants, he isn't afraid to fight for it! The only minor problem i had with him, was that in the first half, he obviously doesn't want a divorce but he always finds himself on that other woman's steps. Its not that he wanted an affair, he was forward about that, but he cared for her. I cannot really blame him for caring, i do want to believe his feelings were pure, but it did seem that his marriage was over from his part too, even if he wanted to try. Still he adressed everything right and he was noble.
YOO SE YOUNG. Such a complicated character, and what a character development as well! She starts as the main 'evil' of the show, and ends up as the anti-hero. I never hated her, i mostly tried to understand why she did what she did, but i ended up rooting for her SO much, i was shocked at my self! A very closed-shut down person, that has never been loved, never loved anyone, a workaholic that hates lovey dovey couples. Is that unrealistic? I have met people like that in real life, and i am afraid i am turning into one! What she wanted was to test their seemingly perfect love. Did she have a right to do that? No, but she did. Why she did? Because she was a cord hearted rich bitch! Yeah why not? Why can people accept hot chaebol guys falling for poor girls, but not this? Anyway, what she did was wrong, but i wasn't ready to hate her.To be honest what she really wanted was the other woman's life. She wanted to be loved deep inside. So she did what she did in order to prove to herself that her way of living is the right way... that hateful and resenting way. However she found herself falling in love. Yes she was selfish and evil... Yet, she grows up so much, she opens up, she gets loved and she loves back for the first time in her life, and understands how wrong she was. I rooted for her i loved her, i hope that she is happy right now, and i am not even sorry that i loved her that much! I can understand how rooting for her is wrong somehow, but still i don't regret it.
NA HONG JOO. Probably the most important character in the show. She actually reminded of the main evil guy in Secret. The way she devolves, and then realises what she has become.... I read some very very cute comments about how the writers hated her and how they apparently hated women, lol. Secret will forever be the most shovinistic kdrama, temptation has no shit on secret in that department (yes i want some hate, i reaaaaaly want some hate)! She started as a nice woman, seemingly sefless, ready to die for her husband, but from the starting point, she was so selfish! She decides she can't trust her husband after everything. Yes, of course girl, i am 100% with you. And then she wants a divorce, YAS GIRL, I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME!!! And then she wants him to sit on his couch, and cry his life away, as she does the same... lol... no! And on top of that, she blames him when he tries to be happy again, and makes her life's goal to destroy him... why? Why do you want to victimize yourself girl? because you cannot accept that he is happy again? Girl, my sweet, sweet, selfish girl! YOU kicked him out! YOU decided your marriage was over, and oh! he fought for you! Now, go your separate ways. Live your life for YOU! The 2nd half of the show made me hate her, while i was rooting for her in the 1st half. She was selfish, she made her bed for what happened in her life, and i couldn't feel bad for her! However, her character felt amazing, she was very emotionally driven, and yet all her actions felt so damn realistic! I loved how even at the end, she decided to grow up, even a little!
KANG MIN WOO. I still haven't figured out if he was an evil or a good person. I guess the answer is somewhere in between. He wasn't either of that, he was just selfish. I mean every character was selfish as people are selfish in real life, but he was exceptionally selfish, the type that makes you wanna vomit, you definately know the type. He was your average cheater, he was so full of himself, so over-confident, it made me wanna puke. He said at some point: 'if i wanted you, i would have made you want me first!'. I mean where do they teach that? Is there a school that teaches that? I really need to enroll there. Or is it something, like a prilivege that only hot rich guys have?! I was so amazed at how he had some moments, where i felt like: 'aw there is hope for him' and then he literally turned them all around, and there was nothing left but hate. He got exactly what he deserved, he wasn't even evil, but believe me between absolute selfishness and evilness, i vote evilness!
As i already said the drama was very character driven, all the decisions and actions made sense, to me at least, i loved all the characters in their own way, with their flaws, even Min Woo, i liked him and hated him with his weird personality! The characters here could have been better, a little more *deep* maybe, but overall the characterization was good.
ACTING
KWON SANG WOO. He was great, he was a great leading man, i loved him, he was emotional, very charming, he has great expressions, especially with his eyes!
CHOI JIN WOO. Whoah! Girl, knows her shit! I loved her, she pulled off the bitchy attidute greatly, and her character development felt very real. She never lost that independency that she had, she just became more humane by the time as she fell in love. She expressed that perfectly. The 2 actors' chemistly is possibly the best i've seen in kdramas thus far. Like WOAH!!
PARK HA SUN. As i already said, her character maybe was the most important, and while she was good, she could have been better. her role could have renevated the drama a lot, and she wasn't good enough, she left most of that part to CJW whose character has to be hated. She was alright, she just felt small, not only in front of the older actors, but in her role overall, she felt small. She definately needs to work on her crying, i felt nothing while she was crying.
LEE JUNG JIN. He was great, and completely on par with KSS's performance, which is commendable, usually 2nd leading males fall short in front of the leading males. He was great, and he made me doubt about whether he was evil or not, a lot, when he would have been easily hated!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Would i recommend it? Well, no! Because i cannot accept any more 1.0s lol! :P
In all honesty, however, this is a show to be watched by open minded people (no offence to anyone), and also by people who like character driven shows, to avoid the boring thing i said earlier. If you like watching people handle difficult situations, potentialy love, hate, get angry and bare with the characters, root for them, want them dead ect and don't expect backstories and plot twists, you will most definately enjoy this!
This is definately not a show for everyone, so i wouldn't recommend it easily, no!
Would i rewatch it? Yes, and no. While the first part was slightly slower (it had to be, a marriage doesn't break up in 2 episodes), the 2nd was a roller coaster imo. Still the show was kind of difficult to watch. I wouldn't rewatch it myself alone, but i'd definately rewatch it with someone else, mostly to discuss what happens here!
I'd like to end this, rather long review, by laughing in everyone's, who said that 'This drama is for the home wreckers and the cheaters', face. Lol People, really? Am i a home wrecker now that i liked this drama? Lol, i will definately add this to my resume!
I am not sure who was superficial and shallow in the very end, the show itself, or the people who watched it?!
Ok, now you can rage-dislike this review all you want! Kisses from cheater's hell!
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STORY
The story has been done before, many times, in many different ways, but that doesn't mean it is any less interesting here. The description that is given, pretty much sums the very base idea, without spoiling anything,i just want to add that he doesn't JUST start living with her, there is a reason. I feel that the description should have made that reason clear to attract more viewers. The description, certainly, didn't make me curious about the show, the diverse reviews did (and the lead actors).
The drama revolves around the ideas of life, death, love and loneliness (with emphasis on the life and death part). Why should someone live? Is something or someone worth living for? Should people just die because their life has no meaning? Should someone live for himself, or find someone worth living for? All those ideas and many more are getting depicted in this drama. I loved the fact that the show adresses certain questions about living and dying. I am not sure if they can be appreciated by everyone, or you may, possibly, need to suffer by chronic depression or manic-depression to understand and appreciate them. However, i, myself, have quite a few times over the years troubled myself with such questions, and i found it refreshing that a show assesses such notions in such a wonderful and unique way i may add.
Love is obviously used here as the reason that someone should live and not give up. How can someone should live because someone else loves them, and you can learn to live and love yourself through that someone's eyes. Wonderful in every way. This is what this show does best, and it is basically the main reason i rated it with a high grade!
Since i started talking about the positive things of the show, i'll continue by saying that another thing this drama got right was the character development. The characters grew in 16 episodes so much. They went from being selfish, closed up, self-hating and cynical to accepting theirselves, forgiving theirselves, and learning from each other how to love themselves. Wonderful once again how they start and how they end up.
The drama is very character driven. Pretty much, nothing happens plot wise.... ever... If you are expecting a melodrama that will keep you at the edge of your seat with plot twists and backstory developments, this is not the show for you. The show is good at what it does and that is to show how the 2 main leads grow closer together. If you like romance, you'll like this since their moments are officially the most romantic moments i've seen in any melodrama ever!
And this brings me to another great thing of the show and that was the fact that it wasn't the excessive tear-jerker i was expecting it to be. Did i cry? Yes. Did i cry a lot? At the beginning yes. Was my cry justified? Totally. I couldn't help but compare this to Missing you which was a total and absolute tear jerker. I remember the leads poored buckets of tears. Here, yes you will cry, but the cry is because of happy moments. I was crying with a smile on my face and i liked that. I also appreciated the fact that the most sad moments were the ones that weren't told. I mean, they both have sad and sentimental stories, but they are never told in our faces, we see them in flashbacks, but they aren't thrown at us in order to force us to cry. I'll give an example, the main actress has mommy issues because she was abandoned by her mother when she was young. You can feel her pain and how she feels without ever telling us she misses her mom. You can tell she still hurts and you can tell she cries herself to sleep every night and she cannot trust anyone because of it. The actess and the writting made me feel that without ever being told. I appreciated that a lot!
This pretty much, sums up what this show got right. The drama, however, sadly, had quite a few drawbacks, that really made me angry along the way. Firstly, the show starts wonderfully, and it keeps it up for 5 episodes. Sadly after that it loses steam little by little, to the point of getting slow and borderling boring. Even if the episodes were easy to watch and didn't really drag, the drama was too character driven and some episodes felt too slow. Episodes 2-11 pretty much focuses on how the 2 main leads grow closer together. I loved it at first, then i bared with it, and at some point i was done. Still, all their moments (and they were many) were flawless, absolutely romantic, and unforgettable. (I praise the romantic soul who wrote them)
The main problem i had with the show, and the one that forced me to give it a 7.5 were the stupid and inexplicable character decisions... A drama that is character driven, relies on the characters and the way they act almost completely. Their actions, reactions and decisions should be rational, so the viewers could understand and relate. Here, i seriously had to force myself to let go of any shred of rationality i had in order to continue watching. There are some super ridiculous missunderstandings happening here for no reason, and on top of that (even when you let them go and you accept them even if it feels wrong), they get forgotten and never mentioned again in the next episode, like they never happened. On top of that, the characters' attidute was changing faster that the wind, making their actions even more inexplicable, stupid and unrealistic.
Overall, the story isn't anything groundbreaking, but it is indeed wonderful to watch them grow closer together, but not being able to be together for serious reasons. This combined with great character development and amazing romantic moments, made the show for me. The only drawback was those stupid irrational moments that made me angry.
ACTING
Almost flawless
Jo In Sung gave the performance of his career. I liked him in its ok thats love, but he outdid himself here. His emotional moments were the best i've seen in a kdrama thus far. He made me believe he was actually crying, the way he was desperately trying to keep his tears from dropping in a lot of the scenes, broke my heart. He was great and wonderful.
Song Hye Kyo. My first time watching the actress and she was great. She pulled off what i thought it wasn't possible, she made me believe she was blind. She wasn't flawless, but she was good at what she did.
Jung Eunji. I am not a fan of eunji as an idol, but omg the girl is talented. She can obviously sing, but her acting is good too! I wouldn't have guessed she is an idol originally if i hadn't already known. I've seen her in Reply1997, but there was no competition there, most of the actors were idols. Here she showed what she can really do, even if her character felt a lot like her reply1997 character. What i loved the most were the moments of mixed feelings she really got through to me. Her character was conviniently used to tie loose ends of the story, and was underdeveloped in general. She did good.
Kim Bum. I feel he was overshadowed by JIS. He was good, but in front of JIS he felt small, if you understand what i mean. However, he definately didn't bring the show down. The 2nd male and female leads were underused and underdeveloped in general, it probably wasn't even the actor's fault i feel this way.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
To be honest i'd recommend it only if you a melo fan. I think melo fans are ready to sit back and watch slow episodes with only romantic and dramatic scenes between the 2 leads. Nothing *wowing* happens here in terms of story, so this is definately not for everyone.
Would i rewatch this? Probably not, it was alright, but it did feel slow after a while, and infuriated me at some point, so no.
THE ENDING
I'll give the ending a special part, of this rather huge review that noone will read, since i saw that most people hated the ending. It is true that the drama gets dragged after episode 12 (interestingly, i enjoyed the last 4 episodes more than the middle of the drama). Episode 14 felt like a very logical and nice ending that flew normally out of the show. The writters, apparently, wanted a happy ending though. Episode 14 ends in a rather pessimistic way, but not necessarily sad. However, the last episode was the best episode of the show imo. It exceeded expectations, and it was another reason that i rated the drama with a 7.5. Up to episode 15 i was getting ready to give it a much lower score, but the ending was wonderful. It keeps you guessing on whether what you see is real or not, but this is not your typical ending on a cliffhanger. Here, the ending basically depends on how you comprehend what happened up to that point, and what you want to believe but in any case, without it being too unrealistic and without letting more loose ends that they absolutely had to (that were unimportant from where i stand), they gave us a happy ending (no matter how you choose you see it) that really healed my soul after a roller coaster finale episode filled with emotions! I'd be so angry if it had finished any other way.
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STORY
The meaning of story was about money, its power, how it rules over people's lives, not only by the literal meaning (using money to survive/live better, more comfortably) but how money can define us, make us ashamed of ourselves or proud with no particular reason. The slow revolves around loan sharks and the people behind them who do the dirty work the the debtors can't pay up. In this story with loan sharks the main couple gets sucked in. The fiancee of the male lead suddenly disappears and he tries to find her. The description of the show tells you like 10% of the story. I originally didn't have much interest in watching this because i wondered how can they drag an idea like that for 16 episodes.
Thanfully the show has SO much more to offer than just a girl who disappears. The story is complicated, everyone is connected somehow. What was really amazing was the development of the story. It gets developed as a mystery in the beginning, but the show doesn't make you question things for a long time. You get rewarded for your patience. You get 1 question answered and 2 pop up, so this keeps happening, combine the mystery element with the FREAKING AMAZING fighting/action scenes and you pretty much get an 10/10 first half. I read people saying the first episodes are boring, i beg to differ. The first episode is rather slow, yes, not boring though. It needs to demostrate quite a few characters and situations, this usually happens. It picks up big time by episode 2 and keeps it up until like episode 7.
I don't have many bad things to say about the show, which makes me wonder why i don't want to rate it higher than 8.5. The show never gets dragged. Yes, they manage to keep up the suspense, not the mystery so much, but the show never gets slow, it always has a goal and it goes for it. Episodes 8-11 were good, but not as *wowing* as the first episodes. Episodes 12-16 are also good, but they got repetitive imo. Not boring, or slow, just repetitive. I mean, at some point i felt like this was never going to end. There is a milestone the leads need to reach, and as soon as they get there, another one appears. It felt like a constant struggle to watch them (especially the male lead). However, i don't blame the show for this, as i said, it doesn't get boring, there is always progress, no unecessary conversations here (this shocked me), i rewinded the show quite a few times to re-read some conversations to understand what happens next. I need to congratulate the writters for a very well crafted story. The only tiny thing i may say is that the show sometimes gave convinient help to the leads to 'win', i mean for example, the male lead could have died 4237497247 times but they were always underestimating him. However, those convinient moments didn't feel forced, or stupid or ridiculous or unrealistic, so i went with them.
Overall, the story was very well crafted, and the development was magnificent, seriously, i loved it, and it had quite a few plot twists along the way. The fact that i got tired of it and i felt it got repetitive, i blame it on the fact that this is not what i usually watch. A fan of this genre wouldn't have any problem keep going at all.
ACTING
I've read so many bad comments about the acting (especially on the 2 female leads) that i was actually expecting some seriously bad acting here, but not at all!
Lee Si Young. I came for her, and she was as flawless as expected. Guys, it isn't her fault her character was naive. Yes, her character was naive and too good of a person for her own good (although, i understand why she was acting like that, considering the circumstanses she was under). LSH gave a wonderful performance again, in a not-so-well-developed character. All i'd wish is for her character to have been more linked to the plot. Her character had almost no impact, and it didn't really feel like a 'lead' character at all. The other female lead (who is listed as 'supporting') had more screen time, and was more important to the story.
Kim Mu Yeol. I didn't know him before this, but he really earned my respect. Amazing actor, his action/fighting scenes were FLAWLESS!!! Better than expected, the guy really was perfect. His emotional and dramatic scenes were also believeable, he was overall great. His character was borderline crazy, but lets say we understand why he was doing what he was doing....
Go Sung Hee. The amount of hate for this actress is beyond me. It just proves that hate is popular. 'Hey a bunch of people said this actress sucks, lets all hate her so we can be accepted by the dramalist society'. GSH won't win any awards for her performance here, but none of the actors will. Maybe i have too low expectations when it comes to acting but, as far as i'm concerned, she gave a solid performance, she was believeable, i've definately seen worse, i don't understand what people didn't like, she was great, i actually liked her a lot, and rooted for her character a lot. She certainly didn't bring the show down at all.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
If you are a fan of this action/crime/suspense/thriller genre, you will love this. You should definately watch it. If you are more of a rom-com or melo fan like me, thinking about watching it, i'd still recommend it, but don't expect any romance here. There is romance, but plays only a small part in order for the story to progress... Get ready to watch a lot of violence, a lot of bad guys, money talk, nothing cute whatsoever and whatever good and bad comes with this.
Would i rewatch this? Well, the fighting scenes, definately, but overall, it is a tiresome show. Since i am not a fan of this genre i can't say i'd watch it again, but i can see why some people would rewatch it.
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This review may contain spoilers
I feel very passionate towards Secret. I passionately hated it and passionately loved it while watching. It is the first drama that gave me such diverse feelings, and i am thankful and regretful because of that. Secret was the first drama that i thought of dropping, and one of the very least dramas that made me cry so much i actually hurt.STORY
You basically got the main premise of the show by the description: 'This drama will depict how a man falls in love with a woman who killed his lover' this is actually it. However even if it seems like a very straightforward show from the description this definately isn't the case. The base story here is about a hit and run incident in which the lead protagonist takes the fall and goes to jail. The hit and run incident ended up with a dead woman who is the love of the male protagonist. The two of them (the 2 leads) are meant to be together. The show starts so dramatically, the two of them have nothing to link them whatsoever, and this incident made their love even more unlikely. This was probably one of the main reasons i watched, in order to see if the writters can pull it off or it will be ridiculous. Well, they did pull it off, believe me!
Sadly, the main problem i had with the drama was the fact that it was boring beyond imagination, especially the first 5-6 episodes. People argued that the story progresses fast, and comments saying that none of the conversations are skippable. I disagree. The first 3 episodes were slow and super boring. The show tries harder after episode 4, it picks up in episode 7 and gets really enjoyable after episode 11. Episodes 11-16 were very good, and the last episode was F-L-A-W-L-E-S-S! But can one flawless episodes and a few GREAT plot twists in the end save a show? Yes they obviously can, since the overall rating i was planning on giving this was 7 and it went up to a 8.5, still even though i want to give it a higher rating, the first 5-6 episodes were almost unbearable to watch.
Another problem i had with the show was the fact that it wasn't obvious from the beginning what the drama was actually about. Was it the struggle of a woman who gets accused for a crime she didn't commit? Was it how she got through jail? No, to be honest it was about the aftermath of all this, and the romance that comes from revenge. The point of the show becomes apparent in episode 8 or so.
I will continue talking about the problems i had, saying that they overdramatized the female protagonist. I understand this is a melodrama, and the female lead needs to be vulnerable, and we need to feel sorry for her, yes, i get that; but, at some point i started thinking, what else can this woman (who has never done anything wrong in her life) go through?! I wanted to make this into a drinking game, i would do a shot whenever something sad happens to her (100% drunk rate in a few hours believe me). The show generally adresses, revenge, selfless people, selfish people and love, but in the first 6 episodes it mostly felt like: 'why bad things happen to good people?'.
These were pretty much the problems i had, with huge emphasis on the 'the first 6 episodes were dead boring'.
However, the show when it desides to pick up it does. It becomes very shocking, very emotional, until the last 2 episodes when it pretty much changes everything, and it exceeds expectations. The thing i need to praise the most is how they showed that love can come from revenge. The male protagonist is dead set on tormenting the female lead forever for killing his love, and yet, their love comes slowly and feels normal, it feels right, it feels natural. They showed how from hate comes doubts (doubts about if she is actually guilty), from doubts comes care and from care comes love. A huge applause to the writers for pulling this off without forcing it, and to the actors for making us believe in such an, otherwise, completely unrealistic thing. Probably this was the best and redeeming quality of the show along with the acting and the brilliant character development.
Overall, i had a difficulty rating the story. The base idea while it is interesting, i believe it is weak. The fact that the first episodes were dead boring didn't help either. Later on, the show rewards your (really huge) patience with amazing plot twists and couple swaps and shocking revealing moments. All of them felt very natural. Borderline, the fact that everything 'clicked' so perfectly made me give the story an actual 9. The writters took a somewhat weak idea, and crafted something definately worth watching. Congrats.
ACTING
Let's continue to the absolute BEST thing of the show, which is the acting. Possibly, the main reason i kept watching during the early episodes.
Hwang Jung Eum. ABSOLUTE QUEEN! I love her comedy skills, but i feel like she is overacting sometimes trying to be funny. After watching Secret, she needs to focus on melodramas. The woman has IT! She can pass her feelings on to you through a screen. I felt every scream, every cry, even when she was smiling, i felt her pain behind that smile. She was FLAWLESS in every way, she was luscious, we aren't worthy of her acting to be honest. A huge applaud to her, i will definately watch her other projects and looking forward to seeing her in the future.
Ji Sung. I already liked him but i LOVED him here. Official new fave actor. KMHM was more ON him, he was the star, secret is based more HJE's character, but Ji Sung really does a great job portraying a kid that evolves into a man. He had wonderful angry scenes, emotional scenes, his acting was real, spontaneous, sincere, truthful and emotional. The two leads shared a shivering chemistry, they need to act again together. Their chemistry really shines here!
Bae Su Bin deserves some special mention for his definitely memorable performance. For what he was given to do he was great, i hated his character with passion! This was his role's goal, and he delivered!
CHARACTERS
I'll need to dedicate a special part of this review to the characters. I need to talk about them. (If you haven't watched the drama already feel free to skip this part since it will, most probably, include spoilers). This drama has quite a few questionable character choices, that i need to talk about. Some dramas that deside to go in a controversial route don't have deep enough characters for the viewers to feel the need to excuse them or at least get in the mood to think what the characters are thinking, and generally understand them. However Secret, thankfully, does a great job making you think the reason why the characters do what they do.
Kang Yoo Jung. I'll start with the most difficult one. Here we have the selfless person. A person who will give up their own life for someone they love. KYJ suffered from the 'self-punishment' syndrome. She believed that she doesn't deserve anything good in her life, she believed she deserved the worst, and she kept hurting herself. I kind of understand why she did what she did in the beginning. It was her love, her one true love (or so she thought), and she probably thought it wouldn't end up with her going to jail and all that shit, so she took the fall ok. She gets out, and she breaks up, and omfg she keeps taking the blame, WHY GIRL WHY? You aren't with that (excuse of a) person anymore, you are free, stop accepting others treating you like a piece of shit, tell the truth, IT WAS HIS FAULT. But no, she still lies. She did things that made me believe that she actually believed she did it. Was she crazy? I couldn't keep watching if i couldn't enter her mind and understand what she was thinking. KYJ suffered from, what i said, self-punishment. How that happened? She was blaming herself for losing her kid, and that was it for her. She never deserved anything in her mind. I understand that, i get it. Up to a certain point i identified with her after this. I, myself, believe we need to be punished for the wrongs we have done. Sometimes the punishment you get from others isn't enough. KYJ kept and kept blaming herself for everything. She wasn't crazy she was depressed. Shocking character development to be honest, i appreciated her complicated character a lot.
Jo Min Hyuk. A selfish person. A spoiled playboy brat who only knows how to order people around and has never done anything in his life. Thankfully, the character development here is major. He went from being a spoiled brat into choosing others and not himself. Obviously you can understand that one of the best qualities of the show was the development of the characters! The way he stops hating her, and understands that a woman like that couldn't have done what she was accused of. He feels sorry for his mistakes, and he slowly begins to care. I appreciated the fact that when he confessed his feelings, he was shocked as well. He said what he said, and then he glared at her, like 'wtf did i just say? Do i really feel these things?' The actor did an amazing job getting these messages across just through his eyes. Amazing character, i loved him. Someone who can learn from the female lead how to care about others, and someone who can teach the female lead how to love herself. Seriously shivering couple dynamics, a perfect match. This couple was very well though. So much potential hidden, i couldn't possibly believe they could make them happen, but they did!
Ahn Do Hoon. Have you ever felt like punching a tv character in the throat? Or putting his house on fire? Wishing he would rot in hell for good? Yeah me neither, but it happened here. Here we get another selfish person. He is the exact opposite of JMH, while JMH evolves, ADH devolves. He is also the exact opposite of KYJ, while she puts all the blame for everything on herself, he places all the blame on others, saying this is his way to 'climb the ladder, and become a powerful person' Bitch, die! I hated him with passion what he did was fucked up, his excuses were shit, he was an official sociopath and a scary one! His ending was too lenient if you ask me
Shin Se Yeon. A self-centered rich spoiled girl, who wants something and she wants it now! Well girl, we all loved someone and we were rejected, grow up! A manipulator who does what she does using the excuse of having pushy parents. WE ALL DO, GROW THE FUCK UP! I can't say i really hated her, she was an unnecessary character imo. Her personality was very childish, and she never grew up.
MUSIC
We get another great OST here. Navi's song Incurable desease is flawless, you can hear the pain in the singer's voice.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Would i recommend it? Yes, even though i wasn't expecting me to say it. If you like melodramas you will love this one. Most people found it amazing from the beginning, which i really don't get but it says something. If you find the first episodes boring like me, don't drop it just yet, maybe you can fastforward the first episodes, read what happens online, and watch the interesting stuff. Believe me, i wanted to drop it more than 5 times, and in the end i am happy i didn't. However, please know, this isn't an easy watch!
Would i rewatch it? Honestly, no, the first episodes were boring, the later episodes were too dramatic, once is enough. Maybe, just to watch HJE act like aboss again, just for her!
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I seriously didn't expect the show to live up to expectations of as high as an overall grade of 9/10, but it freaking did. KMHM has the perfect balance between a super funny rom-com, and a super dramatic and complicated melodrama with a lot of suspense. A HUGE congrats to the writers for pulling this off, i doubted them a lot of times, and each time i was blasted away! Let the endless praise begin:
STORY
The Story talks about psycological traumas, and how the human mind tries to work them out, to help us live better and/or cope with them. The main point of the story is that we need to adress and care about our problems, face them and try to fix them before they become too big, ignoring them isn't the answer, and if sometimes those problems and fears are too huge for us to handle, there are people there who are willing to help us get through them because they love us. Love is basically the answer.
KMHM is such a carefully crafted, beautifully written and brilliantly executed drama, however, the show's main idea about the multiple personality disorder, isn't anything new, it has been done before many times, but that doesn't make this show any less perfect! We basically have the main protagonist with this syndrome who comes back to Korea (without really wanting to) to become the new head CEO of his family's company. He, of course, needs to keep his problem a secret, and since his personalities become too powerful for him to handle, he needs a special private doctor to pay close attention to him and help him, here the female protagonist gets introduced. I am not gonna say anything more, this is your base story. But don't fool yourself, nothing is as simple as it may seem.
Probably the best thing about the show was the way it was developed. First of all, things are complicated everywhere, complicated situations in his life, in his work, in himself, everywhere. In his work, there are people who want to take him out and take the family company for themselves (the family relations are amazing and so real, i have no words!). There is a huge, huge, HUGE, backstory here, and an amazing one that gets explored little by little. Here we don't have the usual 'rom-com for the first 10 episodes, and then 3-4 episodes of shocking revealings', the backstory gets revealed a little by little in every episode, transforming the show into a mystery. And then, when you think you know the story and you are the king of the show, the writers sneak behind your back and they change everything, literally, everything. I sit here appauding the writers for literally twisting everything, leaving me speechless several times over the episodes, and yet pulling everything together in the end without any plot holes or ridiculous plot choices. The plot is really well-thoughts and developed. Congrats to the writers for the flawless job they did!
Moreover, i need to praise,the comedy part of the show. Usually it is easy for the shows to make me burst into tears than make me laugh, i rarely find things i see funny except for a few chuckles here and there. KMHM had me laughing out loud throughout the episodes, i was shocked myself, but the comedy here is extremely on point, the actors and especially the female lead, know their shit when it comes to comedy, you will laugh your heart out and then cry your heart out with the same characters! This is how awesome this show is.
The only, tiny problem i had was that i felt the rom-com part got kind of dragged at some point. It wasn't that i was bored, not even close, but at some point there were some unnecessary things happening just to fill some episodes. I blame the 20 episode order, kdramas rarely can pull off 20 episodes. KMHM wasn't bad and it pulled 20 episodes well, but it could have worked even better if the order was 16. Basically, the first 13 episodes are focusing on the romance and comedy, while they give you hints of the backstory to raise the suspense. Around episode 10-11-12 i was like, 'yeah ok, this is cute, but lets move on to the serious part'. I was afraid the show won't get serious, but in episode 14 it does, and when it decides to go all in, IT FREAKING GOES ALL IN, and it shocks you! I know i was having goosebumbs at what was happening, and most importantly in the WAY it was explained. What happens in KMHM is wonderful and flawless, but the develop of the story, the way the story is told, is what makes this show a masterpiece. As far as the 'boring rom-com' thing i said goes, to be honest, don't pay attention to me, this is me being a needy bitch, lol!
Another thing i loved was how everything is connected. Even the small seemingly unimportant romantic stuff that happen in the beginning aren't in vain, just for the 'awwws' and cute romantic moments. Everything is important. I appreciated that, very nice writting again from the production team! Also, i feel the need to say how amazing the love story was. Apart from the usual aw and cute parts of the romance, i loved how the writers didn't make up silly problems just to keep the couple apart and torment the viewers. The main couple wanted to be together, had serious problems for not being together, and instead of crying around they tried their best to work them through in order to be happy. Happiness is the goal here. I loved that!
I can't understand how anyone can't like this. I also can't understand how this didn't get super high ratings in Korea. I am seriously judging Koreans for letting this gem go semi-unnoticed! *side eyeing koreans* :P
ACTING
The acting was great, almost perfect, but for some reason i can't give it a 10, it doesn't feel right.
Ji Sung. New favourite actor to be honest, he really pulled off playing 7 different personalities/characters almost flawlessly. He was badass, he was sweet, he was cute, he was extremely funny, he was emotional, he was handsome, he was everything, i fell for him lol. The only minor complain i had were the moments when he was changing personalities. All his groaning and falling down, i mean,it felt kind of fake or/and overacted. However, i am not familiar with this syndrome, maybe this is the way it actually happens. Nonetheless his acting was brilliant, bravo! I am definately following his other dramas now.
Hwang Jung Eum. Firstly i need to praise the actress on her comedy skills. The woman knows what she is doing. She was extremely funny and cute, but sometimes it did feel a bit over the top. Her reactions, in order to seem funny and cute ended up feeling a bit forced sometimes. The overall feel i got from her acting is certainly positive, and she nailed her dramatic scenes as well, but there were some moments, mostly during the early episodes, her acting felt a bit forced.
Park Seo Joon. He was alright, i kind of disliked his character, he was too pushy for me to handle, but he had some nice, touching scenes with HJE. He was also tough when needed, emotional, and also funny and cute for most of the time. I fell in love with Ji Sung so i seriously have nothing more to say lol.
Outside of the main cast, i need to applaud the kid actors, the kids seemed very young but they did a wonderful job getting their feeling across, especially in such a young age. Furthermore, all the supporting cast was great!
MUSIC
BEST.OST.EVER! No literally, i generally don't pay attention to OSTs. I have like 3 kdrama soundtracks downloaded from the dramas i've watched. But omg, the ost here is flawless, emotional, i liked it from the first moment it played in the 1st episode, it didn't grow on me because of the show. FLAWLESS SONG, FLAWLESS! It won best soundtrack of the year i think, well deserved! It brings tears to my eyes from the beginning to the end, the lyrics are basically a very well-thought summary of the show itself. A dramatic, emotional, yet powerful and angry song.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
This is a must watch, the 2nd best kdrama i have ever watched. This can be watched by everyone. You like comedy? watch this. You like romance? watch this. You like melodrama? WATCH THIS!! You like great backstories? EFFING WATCH THIS! You like complicated situations? W-A-T-C-H T-H-I-S!!! Did i make myself clear?
The rewatch value is seriously high, the early episodes are huge on comedy and the later huge on drama. People, don't think about it anymore, this show is worth the 20 hours of your life!
STRAIGHT INTO MY FAVES LIST!!
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This review may contain spoilers
Pff, Missing you made me really sad, not because of the melodrama, or the plot, or the acting, or the situations, but because of what this drama COULD have been, and what it was in the end... If you want me to describe this drama in 1 word, that would definately be: DISSAPOINTING!STORY
The description of the show tries to get you in the mood of the plot without spoiling anything, i won't try to make it more accurate in fear of spoiling something. Firstly, the drama's main concept is revenge, and how noone should live his life trying to take revenge. The 2nd lesson i got was that people shouldn't just care for money that much, money destroys you, money is just a means to an end and nothing more, it shouldn't be your life's goal. Apart from these, the show adresses other everyday social issues, like domestic abuse, bullying at school among other things, but (spoiler ahead) most importantly, rape. This issue gets explored several times during the show. These notions are basically one of the best (if not the best) things that this show has to offer.
Talking about the plot, the base idea/plot/story is amazing in every way, the writers had an amazing idea in their heads, but they never made it work, it never worked out, they never thought it through, so we got a very, VERY bad development. I am gonna start by saying the first 4 episodes are flashbacks basically, they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Words aren't enough, one of the best things i have seen, ever, in kdramas, it is very obvious that the show will have a difficult time living up to THESE expectations. After episode 5 we go to the future to see what our characters are doing today, and thats when the story gets bad a little by little. The writers tried to keep up the drama and they succeeded for merely 3-4 episodes, but it wasn't possible after that....
The main problems i had with the show are just 2:
Problem 1: TOO MUCH CRYING. I understand this is a melodrama, and i understand the actors are expected to cry. But, give me some reasons to cry for them. I feel for the characters, i understand what they have gone through, i get their problems, their thoughts, everything. BUT OH GAWD, PUHLEASE, LETS CONTINUE THE STORY! The actors were literally forced to cry in every episode, the lead actress had red eyes constantly, it started being ridiculous at some point. I swear to god, they must had a problem with dehydration!
Problem 2: The show focuses too much on the love story hence there isn't enough time for the backround story to develop. Don't get me wrong, i loved the couple, i shiped them since moment 1, i felt for them, i cried for them; but, at some point, their love became the same repetitive shit over and over again. Enough is enough. They could have resolved everything that needed to be resolved faster, or at least, at the same time as the backround story develops.
Overall, the show spends too much time on the love story, and at first you bare with it, then it gets boring, then it gets dragged, then it gets ridiculous, and at some point you will get angry, and in the end when the show tries to wrap up but leaves like 10 plot holes you will be furious for the 21 hours of your life you spent watching it. I've watched dramas that wrap up everything, even characters that noone cared about in 16 episodes, and they had 21 and they couldn't make it? COME ON! This is just lazy writing. The main mystery/backstory doesn't even get explained, like it didn't matter. The reason that all this happened, never gets explored, not to mention that towards the end they introduce such stupid new things while not adressing the older ones.
All in all, the writers had an idea in their minds, but they lost it on the way, i guess. The show had a direction a reason and an end game that was obvious from the beginning, but towards the end they stray away from their end game, they change everything for no reason, and you just feel betrayed. Dissapointment in the one word that can describe my feeling right at this moment.
ACTING
Best part of the show. Amazing acting from pretty much everyone, including the supporting cast.
Firstly, i seriously need to congratulate the kid actors. They were better than the grown actors to be honest!
Kim So Hyun, i read she won a best young actress award for her role here, yes she deserved it 100%. She was flawless, amazing, charismatic, dramatic, pretty, sentimental, emotional. Flawless in every way, girl you got a bright future! A revealation of an actress!
Yeo Jin Goo. He was extremely good as well, especially when he was playing opposed to KSH, he kept up well with her, amazing acting.
As for the grown actors, Park Yoo Chun was amazing, he was loveable, cute, nice, polite, kind, and tough when he needed to be. I really liked all his emotional scenes, they were touching, he was great in every way, especially when you think he is originally an idol.
Yoo Seung Ho, even if i didn't like his character, his acting was no joke, best actor out of the main cast. He was literally scary. He was twisted, and at the same time, in need of love, he was scary and at the same time kindhearted, h was everything. His acting was amazing and he was like 19 here. Another young actor with a great future.
The only reason i didn't give the acting part a 10 was because of Yoon Eun Hye's acting. I mean yes, she was ok, but for a leading lady, and especially after Kim So Hyun and her flawless acting, YEH couldn't possibly fill in those shoes. The kid was flawless and emotional in ways YEH wasn't.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Guys, i never thought i'd say that, but no, avoid this drama, it is a tear-jerker, and not a good one. As i said the show forces you to cry for the same things over and over again. Plus it focuses too much on the love story it loses its way, and all these combined with the plot holes and unexplained plot lines and backstory at the end, make this a huge no.
I won't rewatch it, ever, but i'd definately rewatch the first 4 episodes because they were mind blowing.
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STORY
The base story is rather complicated and the description does it no justice. To be honest, the description sparked no interest in me at all, the overall rating and people recommending it made me watch it. So how can i make things simple in this one? We basically have 2 stories that collide. Story 1: The male lead, Park Soo Ha, his father gets brutally murdered in front of him and he obviously wants the murderer to rot in jail. Story 2: We have 2 girls, Jang Hye Sung and Seo Do Yeon, they have a missunderstanding (... of some shorts, you'll get what i mean when you watch it) and they get involved in the murder case as in, they are witnesses of the murder. This is your very base story, i don't think i spoiled anything, more like i made that confusing description make sense. This is the first 10 minutes of the pilot... interested yet?
After that we go 10 years in the future to see what our leads are doing today. Soo Ha is in high school, Hye Sung is a public lawyer and Do Yeon is a prosecutor. It is fairly obvious that we have a legal drama in our hands. The 2 girls are enemies for... reasons, and Soo Ha has been in love with Hye Sung ever since his father's trial because she gave the decisive testimony that threw his father's murderer in jail. So the show starts from here and develops.
I feel the need to establish the main meaning of the show, or at least what i got while watching it, from now. REVENGE ISN'T GOOD! The whole show revolves around the idea of revenge, and it tells you that revenge has nothing to give you, revenge brings nothing good to the table it just brings more and more pain. Moreover, it says that there is no need to spend time hating someone for something he did to you, you gain nothing from hating, just keep moving and life itself will get in the way of that someone's life. If you try to do something to get revenge, that bad action will come back at you, so there is no reason to push it. Seriously wonderful food for thought, amazing moral standards that we all should follow (especially me who have/had quite a different take on revenge)
Apart from the idea of revenge, the show, being a legal drama, adresses several moral questions of the law, how it works, and what it means to be a lawyer. Example: Should a lawyer believe his client no matter what? What if the client is lying? If they are a murderer should the lawyer try their best to keep them out of jail, or they deserve to be locked up? Even if they did murder someone, what about their reasons? Do they justify what they did? You get the idea... The legal part is like the 40% of the show. Basically we see Hye Sung deal with several separate legal cases where each case wants to make a point about law and all the questions i mentioned above, and at the same time we get some relationship and love triangle development.
The rest 60% of the show revolves around the backstory of the murder i mentioned in the beginning. The murderer gets out of jail and he wants revenge on everyone and everything. At the same time we get several backstory reveals on all the characters which was refreshing and great.
Now that i mentioned everything this show did right, time to discuss what this show got wrong, at least in my opinion. I basically had 3 very simple problems with the development of the show.
Problem 1: Boring legal cases. Episodes 2-7 are filled with 3, quite interesting, but unrelated to the main plot, legal cases. Yes they were interesting, but this isn't a procedural show, i hate when they do that. Episode 1 was AMAZEBALLS, like at-the-edge-of-your-sit, mind-blowing, screen-punching amazing and then we get 6 episodes of basically nothing. Yes, i liked them, but what i would have liked more? Episode 8 as episode 2 or 3....
Problem 2: Something i have faced before in other kdramas. Silly reasons for the main couple to not be together. C'mon who likes that? We all know they will end up together, if the writers can't find some serious reasons to have them apart, then don't play with out nerves and hearts and let them be happy as soon as possible! This really, really got on my nerves when the show started pushing us to cry because of the silly conversations that lead to the main couple to keep breaking up and hurt each other. Unnecessary as.... you get the idea....
Problem 3: Ok, halfway through the show, on episode 9 happens a huge game changer. I won't spoil what it is. Anyway, some people might love it, i was in two minds about it at first, but in the end i ended up to the conclusion that it was unnecessary and brought nothing to the show but unnecessary couple drama, and it basically served as a plot-slower (does this word even exist? I mean they wanted to slow down the plot since the show got extended because of high ratings). Many people argued that this 'game changer' was used to establish that the main couple really loved each other. Guys, c'mon i understand you wanting to defend your favourite show, i've been there, but this is not the way. It was well established that the couple was crazy in love almost from the beginning, this was purely unnecessary. Anyway, at least, it gets resolved fast -thank god-. Lastly, since i didn't want to give this a separate 'problem' mention, there were some minor but very obvious plot holes to conviniently help the story develop. Example: it is said that the male protagonist needs to look in someone's eyes to read his thoughts, but there are quite a few times he suddenly hears thoughts without looking at someone's eyes. Stupid plot hole that could have been avoided, but this isn't enough to kill the overall vibe of the show.
Taking problem 3 out, i have faced the 2 other problems in other kdramas, and i need to accept that this is how kdramas are written, so i need to stop whinying, but i won't! :P Other from these 3, everything else was completely on point, apart from some boring conversations here and there (i have to confess there were some episodes that nothing really happened, i will dub these episodes 'filler episodes', there weren't many but they were there).
One more thing i feel the need to mention is the supernatural element. I generally like when dramas give a supernatural twist in their stories, but they still keep them real. However, i know there are people who feel reluctant about watching a drama because of these supernatural twists. Here the supernatural element doesn't bother the development of the show, it doesn't feel fake or forced at all (ok maybe during the middle because of problem 3), in the contrary it helps the show develop and move forward and it is sweet most of the time too!
Giving the show an overall look, what i possibly liked the most was the incredible character development, all of the characters mature, i mean we get a bitchy shut down prosecutor with daddy issues who grows into a woman who owns who she is in the end. We get a shut down bitchy lawyer who only does her job for the money and sucks at it, and in the end we have a great woman who values people and their opinion. You get the idea. Another thing i loved, and i will stop there because noone will read this long ass review, is the fact that almost all plot insidents are important and are connected. I liked how every action of the characters had a reaction of some kind. I won't say anything more because i don't want to spoil anything. What you need to understand is that the writing and backstory here is perfection, possibly the best backstory i've ever seen in a kdrama thus far.
ACTING
I felt like acting was the weakest part of the show. it wasn't bad in any way, but to be honest i was expecting better.
Lee Jong Suk, looked great and i appreciated it, but i wasn't there for the eye candy, his acting was weak imo. He was alright, but i know korean actors can do more than alright.
Lee Bo Young, was great, especially her mother-daughter scenes were perfect (you'll get what i say when you see her)
Lee Da Hee, in my opinion she was the true star of the show, at least acting wise. I loved her acting from head to toe, she was flawless, especially the way her acting changed along with her character development. Wonderful actress
Yoon Sang Hyun, even though i disliked the character there is nothing bad to be said about the actor, he was the 'funny' one, but serious and emotional when he was supposed to be.
The supporting cast wasn't excuisite, but they were above average. Overall a great job.
MUSIC
I only have a separate music part in my reviews when the music is very good, here it was very good, i loved the OST!
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Definately a must watch, to be honest normal people wouldn't even care about the 3 problems i named, i know most people like those silly problems that keep the couple apart, and a lot of people like separate cases that keep things interesting. I don't, it is a matter of preference, what was supposed to be great was here, so definately watch it!
Would i rewatch it? Yeah, why not, if there was an episode on tv i'd definately would rewatch it. I doubt i'd watch it on purpose alone again though
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STORY
Your very basic romantic comedy. The story is pretty straightforward. The story is set in the late 90s, we have a band of friends and we see their everyday life. The story has two goals. Goal 1: 90s nostalgia: teenage problems/school/ dreams for the future ect, kpop's first years of success and blooming. Goal 2: First Love.
In terms of story that was it. Pretty plain isn't it? I mean i've watched complicated-enough-to-keep-things-interesting rom-coms, and this definately wasn't it. Yes, i like complicated and deep things. Here, the characters felt superficial and childish, there was no effort to scratch the surface and get deeper with feelings (and the fact that they are teenagers doesn't feel like an enough excuse to give it a pass), and that bothered me. Yes, the comedy was on point, but that couldn't save anything.
The plot was heavily based on the multiple love triangles. In this band of friends, everyone is in love with the other one, so you understand what is happening here. Yes, this is a kdrama love triangles are to be expected, but they were overused here. They are nice, but the whole plot was based on them, and driven by them, enough is enough... It got old very fast. They tried to make things interesting when they fastforward to 2012 and they keep us guessing who the female protagonist ends up with, but it was extremely obvious who she would end up with in the end.
They tried to complicate it with some questionable couple options. Like love triangle between brothers, intergenerational loves, same-sex relationships. Even though all these are interesting, and they could have made the story 10x more interesting, the show chooses to go the easiest way make the safest choices and becomes predictable... Sadly....
Generally, the story wasn't that bad, it was just predictable, and done before many many times. The plot was too straightforward, no ups and downs, kinda boring a lot of times.
ACTING
Great, especially if you consider that 90% of the cast consisted of idols or ex-idols.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Would i recommend it? If you are a kpop fan, you like romantic comedies about first love and you don't want to watch anything deep, then sure, go ahead. Don't expect to get blown away by it, i don't understand how people got so invested in it, it was good for what it was, but there have been better rom coms out there, definately!
Would i rewatch it? No, it was possibly the most boring kdrama i've watched to this day.
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STORY
So we basically have a light hearted drama about the producers of the korean TV channel KBS. The protagonists have to do with the variety and music shows, while IU plays a kpop idol. As a drama, meaning the love story/triangle, character developments, backstory revealings ect, nothing extraordinary happens. Everything is pretty straightforward, we get a love triangle between the main characters and the writers played a lot around with the ships.
I said it is a wonderful drama but not for the obvious reasons exactly because the main goal of the drama isn't to showcase a specific story, it wants to give an insight of what happens behind the cameras of a TV channel, and also what happens behind the fake smiles of the kpop industry. Each episode has a main idea to explain about how the TV world works, ex: what happens when a show gets cancelled, what happens when a show has failling ratings, what happens when the producers want to cast new show members ect. And along with these questions that are explored in each episode we get closer to the 4 main characters and their (love) lives that get tangled up pretty quickly.
What i loved the most was the insight we got about the kpop industry. This was probably the main reason why i liked the drama as a whole. As a huge kpop fan, a lot of questions, ideas, or thoughts i had about the industry get explored here (ex: how bad a company treats their idols, or are the images each idol presents their true self or just a fake image their company forced them to present, also how do the idols feel, are they really happy and confident as they seem or they are as depressed as every one of us ect).
About the episode lenght, because people said the drama was too short ect, well, i started the drama because it was just 12 episodes, but it took me longer than any other drama i've ever watched to finish it. Each episode has 70-90 minutes long, the last episode is almost 2 hours. Yes, the episodes are 12 in total, but they felt more than 20 to be honest. In 80 minutes there were a bunch of unnecessary stuff being presented which annoyed me, filler sub-stories ect.
Overall, as far as the plot goes, it wasn't the best plot ever, everything that was shown has been done before, it wasn't anything super complicated, it was mostly based in the main cast ships. The show payed a lot of attention in giving an insight on the music and tv industry in korea.
ACTING
Brilliant, and top notch just like in almost every kdrama...
I think it is public knowlegde what a flawless actress Gong Hyo Jin is, nothing else needs to be said. She was as amazing as always here. Cha Tae Hyun was also good in his role, same goes for Kim Soo Hyun (he is such a sweetheart).
I want to give a special paragraph to IU, because she blew me away. I can't say i'm a huge fan of her as an idol, but i really loved her acting, she was a perfect match for this role. I am not sure if she is THAT good, but sometimes it didn't really feel like she was acting, i felt like she was herself, ex: when she was bitchy, or when she was feeling lonely, like noone was there, in need of friends ect. It seriously felt like Cindy was up to a certain point IU herself. I really liked her, and she grew on me even as a singer.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Hm, well this is tricky. I can understand people saying that the drama was boring, i felt bored sometimes during the episodes, (90 minutes were really too much), so about the recommendation, i'd say, watch it if you are a kpop fan like me, so you'll appreciate and expect more than just the 'usual' drama from it.
Would i rewatch it? Probably not, putting all the kpop info i got aside, the plot was 'been there, done that';.
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(i'm sorry for such a huge review, but i tried to be very thorough about it, it is worth it)
STORY
The show basically says that every person has some kind of psycological problem, and the main premise of the show is that no matter how bad you feel, or what problem you have, LOVE will make them go away if you let it. And not romantic love necessarilly but any kind of love, family, friendship ect.
This is probably the first thing i'll need to praise about this show. Usually in dramas we see only one side of someone's life. The family, or the marriage/romantic relationship or the friends. Here we see them all. The characters are so real because of it. We see the family and how important they are, how many problems they may cause to us, but no matter the problems family is always there, and just as they caused them, they can as easily take them away if we let them (i appreciated this because i face something similar in my life). The drama also shows how important friendship is. In most dramas, the main character has 1 best friend (if any at all), who sometimes is related to (a sibling or something). Here we have many interactions, the drama showcases how friends can help get over things, can help us heal, be there for us (i appreciated this because i do believe friendship is the MOST important part of someone's life). And lastly, love, true unconditional love, can set you free of anything, no matter how severely damaged you may be, love can heal you completely.
Next thing i have to praise is the backstory here, and most importantly the way the story is told. In most Kdramas we have the love story get unfolded in the first 10 episodes and some hints of the backstory, and then in episodes 13-15 we get huge revealings or a past event. I've been saying again and again in my other reviews how the plot is underdeveloped because of this simpre problem. It's okay, that's love sets itself apart from the other dramas. The backstory gets revealed a little at a time in every episode. We get enough to keep us wanting more, but also they don't spoil anything huge. Congrats to the writers for finally making what i was asking for so long happen. Amazing plot writing!
Another thing to praise here, and something that most dramas fail to do is to make me/us care about ALL the characters. It usually is the main couple/triangle that dramas make us care about. It's okay, that's love, firstly doesn't have a love triangle, and that's a good thing because the main couple has such AMAZING chemistry, a 2nd man/woman wouldn't have a chance in getting between them. Secondly, the cast here is kinda big, but i seriously wanted to know more about everyone! Everyone has some kind of problem, everyone wants help, everyone tries their best, and i really enjoyed all of the stories. Also the show made me feel like i was silently sitting there with them, as a member of their pack having fun and sharing my life. It felt wonderful. Not many shows have the ability to make you feel so close to the characters just by watching the show, and just in 16 episodes!! All the characters were amazing. Once again, TOP NOTCH writing, BRAVO!
Furthermore, the main character is a psychiatrist, so there are some cases about psycological problems coming and going through the episodes, and we see them through the female protagonist's work. All of them are amazing, but what i loved was that they didn't pay too much attention to them (a problem i had with other dramas), they show them enough to make each episode more interesting, and to make a point sometimes, but the show focuses on the characters and the relationships. I mean the main premise of the show doesn't get compromised by these separate cases. Yes, i will say it again, AMAZING WRITING!
Seriously, i have nothing bad to say about the plot here. It is simple, don't expect anything super extraordinary, even the backstory has been done before. What makes everything amazing is the reality of the characters, the way they react in front of their problems, and probably this is the most amazing part of the show!
ACTING
Seriously, EXQUISITE!
Jo In Sung, was wonderful, i could see the pain in his eyes through the show. He was funny when he was supposed to be, he was heartbreaking when he was supposed to be. He made me feel what he was feeling completely. Wonderful actor.
Gong Hyo Jin. This is my 2nd drama with her as the lead (the first was Master's sun where she didn't amaze me THAT much). I was amazed by her acting here, she was amazing, i loved her character a lot, she portrayed her problems very nicely. One thing i can say is that she needs to work on her crying, i had the same problem in Master's sun. Other than that, she was wonderful.
I won't say something about the whole cast, i will never finish writing this review. Everyone was very good, i have nothing bad to say, all the supporting cast did their best, and delivered in the best way possible, Song Dong Il and Lee Kwand Soo were hilarious and cute. Yank Ik Jun and Jin Kyung were heartbreaking. D.O's acting was top notch for an idol, congrats everyone.
RECOMMENT/REWATCH
If everything that i've written thus far haven't sold the show to you, then nothing will. 10/10 recommend, must watch. It isn't heavy as a show, it is easy to watch, funny, but still emotional and it has to be and truthful. Really great, a must watch.
I would easily rewatch this, mostly to see the amazing love story development, since we don't see the usual "i love you but we can't be together, because i have a past, and i like someone else, oh and life is messy, and lets have 5835775074543753 conversations about how we love each other and then break each other's hearts". Here we talk about love and we go straight to it!!
EPISODES
About the episodes, i feel the need to say the first episode is kinda confusing, or at least it was for me. I didn't understand much of what was happening in the first episode, if that happens to you don't let that stop you, the 2nd one sets everything straight. The first episode introduces many characters and situations all at once and it kind of ends up confusing.
Episodes 2-6 are AMAZING. Funny, light hearted, easy to watch, but still shocking because of the back story revealings i told you earlier, yes you won't expect what happens believe me!
Episodes 7-11 are a bit slower, but they go straight ahead to the love relationship part. Something not seen in other dramas (again) we get to see their relationship as a couple. How they work with each other, and get to know each other, and learn to ignore the bad things, and love them instead. Usually dramas end up with the main couple being together, but this drama starts with that!
Episodes 12-16. Get ready to cry especially in 13-14-15. Here's my favourite part of the show, the story picks up again here, it goes faster. The end was great, in the final episode some unnecessary things happen but it is still fun and the i finished it with a HUGE smile on my face and some wonderful messages that i will treasure forever.
OVERALL
Sorry that this was too long, but seriously it is worth it. The 2nd best kdrama i have ever watched. Amazing in every way. Not so much because of plot, but because of all the amazing little things that ended up making this show THIS perfect! What i appreciated probably the most was that its structure was different than the usual kdramas (you know how kdramas have some certain points you expect to always watch, like a love triangle, and 2nd characters being kind of ignored), it was refreshing watching something that has a different development. This show taught me a lot, and the most important thing i was taught was TO LOVE MYSELF and accept him no matter what! I'll treasure that! The writers deserve awards! I will miss it greatly, it needs an american remake!
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