Really Enjoyable but Also Trope-y with a Side of Flaws

If I rated this purely on my emotional enjoyment, I would give it a 10 out of 10: this is a fun college drama chock full of romantic feelings and character-made drama. Its premise reminded me of a toned-down version of Gossip Girl: all the characters are initially connected by a mysterious blogger who falls in love at first sight and makes them all re-evaluate their own crushes, loves, and relationships as they speculate as to the identify of this person. I had known nothing about the parent story for which this show is based on, Love Playlist, but had been drawn to early descriptions of this drama and the trailer that eventually came out.

That said, when I take emotion out of it, I find story and characters that are a bit limited by traditional romance story tropes that are unashamedly invoked: you have CLEAR "nice guys/good girls" and CLEAR "a-hole [male] players/manipulative [female] witches." Their backstories can get a little cliche too with clearly-sympathetic tragedies and traditional parental issues/ambitions to succeed. I would argue that seasoned romance series/Kdrama watchers will be able to completely predict almost all, if not all of the story progression, from beginning to end, just within the first few episodes. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, I don't think so - enjoyable is enjoyable. However, I think if you are considering watching this, you should know exactly what it is and what it is not: it's a simple, cute story about college kids' falling in love and having challenges with their relationships while going through college. It's not a grandiose, unique story with fantastical mind-bending twists or deep meaning.

There are some clear continuity errors and contrived plot points in the story - they aren't horrendous, but they are very noticeable. For a non-spoiler example, at one point a character loses their phone. By the next episode, they mysteriously have recovered it/might have bought a new one - how exactly did they get this back/buy a new one and input all their old, same contacts in? As for the contrived plot points, I don't want to spoil anything for you, so I will vaguely say that sometimes, things that happen or motivations that the characters have are way too "on the nose" and I personally would have preferred that the show be a little more subtle about it.

The acting is sufficient for a Kdrama, but notably decreased a notch from other big budget performances: for example, I found some of the crying scenes so forced and unbelievable that those momentarily took me out of the drama. However, if you put those weaknesses aside, I think you find a cast that is very believable and does a good job: this is apparently Jeong Jae Hyun's acting debut, and I honestly never would have known that if I didn't read it in an article. I wasn't a Park Hye Soo fan to begin with, but her performance will make me check out some of other works, as I loved the sincerity with which she played Ma Joo Ah. For other characters, many will recognize Roh Jeong Eui from her prior performance as NJ in Our Beloved Summer and I think you will find her performance refreshing as she definitely sells her performance as a different type of person. I also found Lee Jin Hyuk particularly hilarious as the clearly-comic-relief character who gets crapped on just for our benefit, and particularly enjoyed the straight-forward, independent person played by Woo Da Vi. Hwang Bo Reum Byeol and Lee Jung Sic round out the rest of the notables by playing appropriately hateable characters. Overall, I really enjoyed the ensemble cast.

As of writing, the OST seems to be unreleased/still coming out, but I think they did a good job. Park Hye Soo originally wanted to be a singer (she is from Kpop star) and Jeong Jae Hyun is part of NCT, so they naturally do an excellent job with the song covers featured in this Kdrama. I don't think there are any bangers that will be sung for the ages, but don't let you stop enjoying the songs that do exist.

Overall, I think this is a light, easy watch to pick up. You won't find anything groundbreaking, but don't let that stop you from giving this a try - I can't say it's an absolute work of art, but I think if lighthearted romances are your cup of tea, you'll enjoy this.

Read More

High Quality, Atypical Show That Is Almost-Completely Negated By Its Ending

First, some important points: this show is a potential trigger for people who have experienced toxic, emotionally manipulative relationships. There is NO physical violence and NO serious crime (IE. NO rape, etc.), but in the first few minutes of this show, you will see someone in an emotionally abusive relationship. This show is NOT your stereotypical Kdrama romance where you have a female lead, a male lead, a second male lead, a lot of laughs and heartfelt moments, and a sunshine-and-rainbows ending. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with enjoying these feel-good romance shows (I know I do), but this show is NOT ONE OF THEM.

I will NOT include spoilers, such as who ends up with who, but it is impossible to review this series without alluding to broad themes and discussing some overall challenges, plot trends, and character personalities. Furthermore, the ending alone severely decreases my rating of this show, so I will allude to it without specifics. If you want to go into the show completely blind, then please stop reading here.

The first 9 out of 10 episodes of this show are very intriguing. Based on a web toon, it is an exploration of realistic romantic relationships, which includes the pettiness, immaturity, and dishonorable intentions that sometimes accompany them. On the one hand, you will see typical romance, such as fun, sexy flirting, selfless acts of caring, or heart-to-heart talks. On the other hand, you will see negative behaviors, such as characters creating problems borne from insecurities, doing and saying hurtful things to make people jealous and uncomfortable, or simply acting like complete jerks out of solely selfish motivations. My experience watching this drama can be described as if I were watching a long shot of two train cars colliding in super-slow motion.

If you look back at the discussion about this show, you’ll discover contentious talks. Different people held different views on each of the characters, particularly the main ones, Na Bi and Jae Eon. I think most people see Na Bi as being insecure and in an unlucky, difficult spot with both her love life and her academic efforts. I also think most people see Jae Eon as exuding pure sex and attraction, while being very honest that he does not believe in relationships, and as a result, only wants to hook up. What people disagreed on was whether or not their actions were reasonable or justified, whether each was at fault for their misfortunes, and whether each could learn and change. Even when the second male lead, Do Hyuk, comes into play, I do not think it is made fully obvious which lead you should be rooting for - he is a very considerate gentleman to Na Bi and has harbored long-time feelings for her, but does the pair have enough sexual chemistry? There are no fantastical villains or completely righteous heroes in this series, so I don’t think there is an absolute answer to this question. Moreover, I don’t think it is easy to find fault in the second female lead, Yoon Seol Ah, either, who is essentially just a straightforward love rival for Jae Eon. The leads’ interactions with each other display the positive behaviors that cultivate romance, but also the toxic behaviors that hinder an interpersonal relationship. As the plot evolves, I think the core question is “in a romantic relationship, to what degree is the importance of sexual attraction, emotional attachment, mutual respect, and friendship?” I think each of the male lead characters evokes a different sense of each aspect and it’s interesting for a real-life person to think about how they prioritize these factors, given their personal preferences and life experience.

Completely separate from the web toon, the show created all-new side characters that match this grey area. You have an LGBTQ+ character who is not out yet but also deals with the age-old-problem of “do I risk ruining the friendship or do I keep silent about my romantic feelings?” Then, you have a separate storyline about a capricious girl who greatly values sex and sleeps around, but suddenly finds herself with a strong desire to engage in a monogamous relationship. All of this adds to the feeling that the people in this show are living, breathing human beings and not simply super-hot, super-charming, super-selfless characters that exist in other shows.

The general ambience was expertly established to match this humanistic feel. The cinematography, especially the lighting and the camera work, capture the slow-burn feeling that is needed for this kind of melodrama. The OST is very appropriate, having mostly muted sounds and melodies, while leaning heavily on guitar performances, which in total give the music an “indie/coffeehouse feel" - it wasn't my favorite OST of all time, but I thought it fit. The acting is superb -- Song Kang, by all outward-appearances, seems like a genuinely stand-up guy in real life, yet he easily transforms into the suave, intense-staring, oozing sex-at-all-times, possibly-a-jerk Jae Eon. Han So Hee is totally convincing as the attractive-but-not-the-most-attractive, kinda-normal but deeply insecure-and-doesn’t-realize-it, going-through-a-tough-time girl Na Bi. Of the side characters, all were also great and fulfilled their roles well. The fanbase seemed to really love the LGBTQ+ characters and they were A-OK from my point of view. For me, I especially enjoyed Yang Hye Ji’s portrayal of the overly-meddling, whimsical, and overly-honest Bit Na. In the end, I say, hats off to the actors, director, writer, and production crew for their hard work.

However, there were still some minor production blips. Kim Min Gwi is currently embroiled in real-life scandal, and as a result, his character was minimized, with the result being some awkward scenes where the camera intentionally focuses away from his physical figure and gives a really strange feel as you listen to him talk off screen. The show also seemed to waste some precious time which led to rushed side-character endings: in particular, there was a lot of random screen time given to two teaching assistant characters. They were so forgettable that the first time they were shown together on screen by themselves, I forgot who they were and thought I had accidentally tuned into a different show. At the end of the day, these drawbacks were minor points.

The main issue I had with the series was that I felt that the last episode undermined the entire plot and character arc of the main characters. Episodes 1 through 9 clearly establish that the show is about flawed people interacting with other imperfect people in the setting of romance. Like real people, the characters make mistakes, but also like real people, the characters are given opportunities to learn and grow from their mistakes - sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. What I expected of the final episode is that it would be a logical conclusion towards the lessons that were learned as well as the lessons that were not learned. However, to me, Episode 10 is simply forcing the leads to end up in particular relationships/not in particular relationships with no careful explanation as to why. To be clear, the issue I have with it is not which people ended up together or which did not, but it's the fact that their conclusion did NOT feel inevitable and did NOT feel like it was developed towards in the preceding 9 episodes - in fact, the way that Episode 9 ended seemed to imply the the leads were going in a totally different direction. As a character-driven drama, this is anathema: you need to spend the time showing the adversity that a character faces, how they respond to it, and how certain personality changes are inevitable. In other words, you have to SPEND TIME to show CHANGE - real change by real-life people is difficult and takes a long time. Thus, a realistic show also needs to spend the time to gradually morph their characters. Put another way, I felt the ending was simply a stilted fairy-tale ending made to force final pairings and/or force certain characters to end up alone. I will offer this analogy: imagine you are watching a Kdrama with two, mega popular idol stars in lead roles. You also have two minor, less popular idols in supporting roles as the second leads. You learn that the male lead is an attractive and dumb man. You learn that the female lead is an attractive and blunt woman. Throughout the series, the main conflict and misunderstandings stem from the man being stupid and the woman being overly straightforward. Nevertheless, they slowly overcome their differences, discovering that they complement each others' strengths and deficiencies, and therefore develop a romantic relationship, which culminates in sincere confessions, steamy kisses, and emotional moments. The second-to-last episode shows you that the two leads have accepted their differences, and are planning their marriage together. Then, all of a sudden, in the last episode, the show pulls a complete 180: suddenly the male lead possesses genius level intellect without explanation. Because of this out-of-nowhere intelligence, he breaks up with the female lead as he realizes he no longer needs her. A last minute crisis pushes him towards the second female lead. We see a montage of all the times he interacted with the second lead throughout the show - the male lead misses the second female lead greatly. She, in turn, wants the male lead a lot. Ultimately, they begin a relationship with each other. That is essentially how Nevertheless felt like it ended to me - we ignored the personality traits of the leads that we had carefully developed over 9 episodes, ignored the lessons they had learned, ignored the adversities they had overcome and put them together/didn't put them together with people purely due to a last-minute crisis fabricated by the show. It was like all the time I spent with the show was thrown into the garbage in favor of a completely new start from left-field.

It's such a shame. I am a huge sucker for character-driven shows and I felt like this show was initially going to be an "easy recommendation" for me, but I absolutely cannot do it unless you are a mega fan of the actors or the crew. There is definitely high production quality in here which prevents me from giving the show under a 5, but the subversion of the final episode felt like such an egregious betrayal of my watch time. To be clear, there are certain shows out there that are designed for us to live a romantic fantasy vicariously and thus for these dramas, I don't think we really pay attention to how unrealistic it is: you basically want to watch two mega-hot, super-talented stars fall in fake-love on screen and enjoy every second of it. However, Nevertheless was never this type of show. In fact, it quickly established itself as a semi-realistic look at relationships and displayed so many moments of raw, lifelike opinions and emotions. Yet, it ultimately leaned on a contrived ending -- there is a final line that Na Bi says that ironically captures this feeling of mine, "This is just too unrealistic". Therefore, I feel the show failed miserably for what it seemed to set out to do.

For me, this show is a pass.

Read More

Strong First Strike, but Loses Its Footing in the Last Quarter

Watching this show was an emotional roller coaster ride: in the first three-quarters of the show, the cart climbed higher and higher until it could go no further, limited by the tracks that the writer had laid out for the machine. But then it started its descent, and for me, the train derailed before it reached the station.

It's clear to me that the writer knew exactly where she wanted to go and tried to careful craft a scenario to deliver her message about the elation and tribulations of first loves. For the first part of the show, I was totally engrossed with this plan. The story is told as a flashback of a little girl who read's her mother's diary, and like many other viewers, I was invested in the open question of who the identity of the girl's father - is he the main character of the mother's love story or he is not?! This was a question that kept everyone awake at night when this drama was airing. This was definitely an intentional effect as the series would intentionally omit clear references to the father, going so far as not to even show him on screen and to make dialog ambiguous so that you don't even know his name nor any hints towards his identity. Moreover, it seemed like every little detail of this Kdrama mattered -- it didn't matter if you forgot something, because boy, the writer sure remembered everything, and she often utilized these minutia to extreme emotional and dramatic effect. It was almost a masterpiece.

Almost. For me, the plot past episode 13 took a noticeable decrease in quality: characters started acting in ways that I thought were unearned - the fierce female lead that we had all come to know and love somehow became more passive and willing to give up -- this was a far cry from her "never give up attitude" that had led her to toil so hard to hone her fencing skill. The conscientious, sweet boy who put family and friends above all else suddenly became a workaholic -- he spent most of the first half of the story practicing the little, individual acts of loves for his friends, family, and love interests, and suddenly he's all about sacrificing for the greater good/his career. Yes, people can change, but for me, if we're talking about a television series, we should be shown the change and not have to infer it -- it's just jarring without a proper explanation. Even for side characters, things just started to arbitrarily work out for no discernible reasons - this is a little baffling to me in a story that prided itself on being so clear and clever with the details. The final nail in the coffin for me was dismissing things that we had become so invested in: that mystery we all cared about? Without spoilers, I feel I can safely say: it turns out it's irrelevant. Put simply, it felt like a slap in the face as if we were intentionally manipulated only to increase ratings and not for story purposes.

I don't believe that a story necessarily needs to have a happy end nor needs to have a sad end to be great. But I just feel this Kdrama did not execute its ending in a way that I felt was earned. It pains me to say: this Kdrama started as a 10/10 for me, but quickly destroyed my faith in it with just 3 measly episodes, to the point that I actually think it did the whole story a disservice. There were so many unanswered questions, that I think either the show needed a few more episodes to flesh things out or it needed less episodes to tell a complete tale without the feeling that something is missing. Either way, I can't help but feel there was a missed opportunity here. It's just such a shame.

Read More

Confused Like a Cyclone that Dissipates and Leaves an Unclear, Cloudy Day

This show was passable but lacked a unifying storyline necessary to tell a compelling story. It delivers a complete beginning, middle, and end, but I found that it failed to innovate the tried-and-true Kdrama formula in any meaningful way, and didn’t execute the plot in any special way. You may find some joy in watching it, but I think that it will not satisfy you, unless you are a megafan of the cast or crew.

Before it aired, this show seemed like a guaranteed high-quality, mega-hit. For its production, you have the relatively-new NPIO Entertainment who were riding high from their 2021 Red Sleeve, a veteran director whose last major work was the Baeksang winning When the Camellia Blooms, and a screenwriter whose credits include the well-liked Dr. Romantic series. For its lead cast, you have Song Kang, who somehow managed to be in 3 productions during COVID-filled 2021 while still winning hearts of fans everywhere, and Park Min Young, sometimes considered one of the most beloved actresses for romance-genre Kdramas. It seemed like a formula that could not fail and at first it seemed like it wouldn’t.

The series came out of the gate like a strong typhoon blowing ships of the water. It tried the unique formula of treating weather forecasting like a high stakes medical diagnosis that would either save or doom the patient. To be honest, I found it both completely ridiculous and mesmerizing: they showed scenes where the predictions were a highly-controversial, still-science discussion similar to how surgeons might debate a sick person’s treatment in a hospital show. They showed potentially life-and-death consequences of the weather, like accidents caused by unclear weather. It was as if meteorology was actually weather manipulation and the national weather service was comprised of super scientists who toiled 24-hours a day to make this happen. By episode 2, I was actually on-board with this TV blueprint.

However, it quickly abandoned this strategy and devolved into a typical family-style Kdrama, whose main characters happen to work at the same place. Moreover, the show piled main and side character storylines that didn’t really have too much cohesiveness with each other: you have main characters that try deal with mismatched expectations about marriage, two-timers that got married and are dealing with the challenges of marriage, a stoic man who gets attracted to the main character’s cartoonist sister, a woman who needs to completely take on both familial and work responsibilities to support her husband, and an estranged husband who tries to reconcile with his family. For me, not only were there too many plot threads, but also no real link to the weather theme of the show, aside from some hasty weather analogies, like the tagline of this review. You could have moved all the characters to a law agency, a hospital, a stereotypical office, or pretty much whatever line of work you wanted and it would have changed nothing.

Moreover, I was really confused about what message the story wanted to send: is it trying to tell us something about work-life balance? Is it trying to show us different perspectives on marriage? Is it trying to tell us to think about the difficulties of weather forecasters? This confusion led to my ambivalence about the character development too: I wasn’t invested in the break-ups, the make-ups, or other evolutions of each of the protagonists as it didn’t feel that each of their individual plot lines were working toward any kind of grand scheme. My internal monologue towards most of the happenings of this Kdrama would probably be “that’s nice.”

Other elements of the show didn’t work well for me either. I usually don’t tend to focus on KDrama OSTs as they are usually all the same, high quality tracks or background music. However, for this one, the OST was so just forgettable: aside from the Cheeze track featured in the trailers for marketing, I don’t think I can tell you what other songs were in this show.

The acting worked, but I don’t feel that the actors and actresses were given much to work with, so I don’t feel I could really comment on whether they did a passable job or a spectacular job. You kinda have the standard, in-love-modes, sad-modes, angry-modes, and other stereotypes that just match the average storyline.

Overall, I’m really disappointed with this one. I watched it until the end due to habit, usually doing things like washing the dashes, and I found it really forgettable. It’s possible that Song Kang or Park Min Young brought you here, but unfortunately if you’re looking for a compelling, unique, sensible story, this is not it. It starts with a whirlwind and leaves on a cloudy day: it's not the bright, warm, sunny weather you were hoping for, but it's also not a horrible, destructive typhoon. It just is.

Read More

Fun and Unique but Not Perfect

I feel really conflicted after finishing this drama. On the one hand, it is unique and underrated -- you won't find your stereotypical Oppas, your comically evil villains, your Makjang conspirators, or other typical Kdrama stables. Instead, you'll see three women and their friends and family try to overcome adversity that life throws at them and feel good about it when they do. The show will give you that slice of life feeling while delivering warm, fuzzy, feelings as everything wraps up nicely in a bow. On the other hand, I found the ending to be rushed and slightly flawed, and that negated some of the warmness that I felt while watching the series.

In particular, I found the worse to be the way that Jae Hoon's plot ended: he was in a relationship with Ha Yoon that started off as a lovey-dovey honeymoon phase and escalated into a cold, incompatible relationship where Ha Yoon would literally go out and have sex with other guys, yet come back home to Jae Hoon for...reasons. The big climax of this storyline is that Jae Hoon has a heart to heart with his BFF/crush/boss, Han Joo, and realizes that the problem with the way he acted was that he idealized Ha Yoon and therefore didn't see his girlfriend for who she was and got angry when she didn't fit his ideal mold of a woman. And after that, he happens to run into Ha Yoon at a musical (which was originally one of Ha Yoon's interests that Jae Hoon learned to love over time) and there are hints that they begin with relationship anew. Excuse me, what? How can the main takeaway be "don't idealize women. You need to love them for who they are" yet one of the main issues with their relationship is that Ha Yoon would go out and have sex with other guys? I just...don't understand how these characters ended up in the ending position that they did. This alone reduces my rating of this show.

On the other hand, all the positives are stellar. There is a lot of meta-drama commentary with self-referential gags about PPL and drama cliches that are really funny -- I think the best example of how meta this is, is the hit "Shampoo Song" which is part of the OST, which stayed on the Melon charts for a really long time, and is ironically a song that Ahn Jae Hong's character hates because his ex wrote it and because it's so cliche. The acting is top notch: Jeon Yeo Bin in particular really killed it in my opinion, because she plays such an emotionally divided character: on the outside, Eun Jung is stoic and outspoken, freely sharing her thoughts to the point that it is offensive. Yet, when you get down to it, she is deeply caring, especially about her close friends and family, and the way that she heals is that she needs to learn to embrace the thoughts and feelings she's been holding in.

The way that the stories are interwoven are masterful. Eun Jung and So Min start off with an antagonistic relationship that is based off their outwardly ludicrous personalities and misunderstandings from the past. Yet, once Eun Jung starts doing a documentary on So Min, they are able to learn from each others' experiences - So Min is able to realize a love with her manager that she's been taking for granted while Eun Jung is able to do an introspective and come to terms with her dead fiance. Han Joo and Jae Hoon start as a sunbae-hoobae relationship that seems to have hints of a romance (it never comes to fruition). At the end, Han Joo is able to pass on her work and life experience for Jae Hoon to move up in the company ranks, while also dealing with his own relationship. In turn, Jae Hoon is able to show Han Joo the value of romance, which she had sort of cast to the side after her ex had left her pregnant and cynical about love. Jin Joo and Beom Soo are able to help each other get over their exes while learning how to still love each other, even if they have a strongly, yet productive antagonist work relationship.

At the end, I feel as deeply conflicted about this drama as some of the characters did about their problems. The atypical format, plot, and characters apparently drew low viewership to this show, which I think is a shame. The quality of it definitely makes it an underrated gem. Yet, at the same time, I think some of the conclusions do a disservice to the overall story -- in particular, the Jae Hoon-Ha Yoon relationship.

Read More

Contemporary KDrama Cliches Wrapped into One Show: Does Everything Well, But Lacking Special Sauce

I find this review hard to write because of how beloved and sacred this show is. To me, watching this show the whole way through is like a rite of passage into being a "contemporary Kdrama" watcher -- it's usually hailed as THE series to watch with its elements lauded as being perfectly executed. But unfortunately, I did not feel the level of positivity about this show that most people seem to have.

To be clear, it is a good drama: the cinematography, acting, story, music, set pieces, costumes, and everything have high production value and all lean towards the positive side. The story has an internal logic to it. The actors/actresses seem to be giving their all -- if you are Hyun Bin fan, then of course that itself is an amazing plus for you. The OST is comprised of well known, proven musicians like IU or Davichi.

And this show is very "Kdrama" -- you're going to have ridiculous, fantastical situations like the tornado that blows the main female character into North Korea. You're going to have rich heirs/heiress (Chaebols) that cause infighting -- in my opinion, you even have the rich guy/poor girl trope here, except that it's reversed (Yoon Se-Ri is the hyper rich South Korean Chaebol and Ri Jung Hyuk is the poor North Korean by comparison). You have short-lived love triangles (quadrangle?) with side character, second leads and stabilize into a second couple.

But to me, this show is lacking an X factor to elevate it into greatness. The premise of the main female lead being blown into North Korea means we get to spend time as viewers in that setting, which is novel. But if you strip away that premise, what do you have? Just a very typical KDrama. This is my main issue with this show -- nothing about this felt particularly special. The romance was expected and average -- Yoon Se Ri is your misunderstood, Chaebol brat who transforms into an outwardly kindhearted soul and she falls in love with prototypical, perfect male lead Ri Jung Hyuk who is fiercely kind, loyal, brave and caring -- but nothing about this screams match made in heaven to me, but rather just a typical Kdrama setup. Some of the side plots felt predictable too: good Chaebols beat bad Chaebols. True family values beat insincerity every time. Bad guys that do bad things get what's coming to them and good guys get justice or closure.

The absolute highlight for me was small moments of funniness with the side characters: without going into spoilers, I'll vaguely mention that it involves scenes in South Korea and includes the experience of "daily life" such as playing video games or eating South Korean food.

It's said that this drama is an excellent way to introduce non-Kdrama watchers to Kdramas because it does not contain anything oppressively exotic to someone not used to Kdramas while introducing them to some of the typical elements like Confucius values that find their way into a lot of Korean storylines. I agree with this statement, but to me this is exactly what makes this show so average -- it is just really safe and not notable.

Read More

Challenging Watch with an Ambitious Realism Theme

This Kdrama was an addictive watch that had me tuning in weekly to find out what will happen to its 4 protagonists. There aren't any clear good guys and bad guys in this show - there are simply people who do sometimes do honorable things and at other times do shady or evil things. Sometimes, you're sympathetic to the situations that the characters find themselves in. Other times, you're mad because how-could-that-character-be-so-manipulative-and-why-won't-they-be-honest-with-each-other. This is the series' greatest strength and greatest weakness: it tries to capture the nature of the human condition with a lens of looking at love and interpersonal relationship. However, to me, it fell just a little bit short of this goal. Still, it's worth a watch.

The acting was mostly top notch. The cinematography of this Kdrama had a muted, melodrama tone, so it demanded a similar flat-affect from its actors and actresses, with the appropriate outbursts of emotion when the situation calls for it. Of the leads, I found Moon Ga Young, Yoo Yeon Seok, and Geum Sae Rok to be the most effective at displaying this kind of style where most of the time, they are just acting like normal people wearing typical faces, but occasionally, they need to dial it up to 10 and display tender love or extreme indignation. The only person I took a little issue with was Jung Ga Ram: he seemed a little stuck in that passive look most of the time, and I didn't really buy his moments of tenderness, and felt that his anger seemed unnatural but that may have just been how his fictional character was written.

The music was appropriate for its setting and has a lot of those tracks with a coffee-shop feel. I don't think it will go down in history as a legendary OST, but it had some pretty catchy beats. In particular, I enjoyed 손을 마주 잡고 ("With Me"), which ended up as the signature lovey dovey track.

I think the reason this Kdrama gets a bad rap around these parts is because it's pretty atypical: it isn't a wish-fulfillment-type of romance where you're watching two gorgeous, fictional characters fall in love on screen. It tries to capture some of the normal pettiness that comes with real human relationships, which involves a lot of things that don't make sense to an omnipotent viewer: characters lie or manipulate for their own purposes. I think this also makes it a hard watch. But, if you enjoy muted melodramas, I recommend you give this one a try - it's not perfect, but I think it tries to stay true to the realism of its source material to deliver a satisfying show.

Read More

Excellent Slice of Life - Will be Enough for Some Viewers but Not All

I will be completely avoiding spoilers in the FIRST half of this post and will discuss spoilers in the SECOND half of this post. I'll put a separator to try to help you avoid accidentally reading them.

If you like the Slice of Life genre, this will easily be an 8-10 out of 10. However, this show is not perfect, and I believe some of these elements weigh the quality down so that if you are not a hardcore Slice of Life lover, you might find your enjoyment decreased, which was how I felt after completing this show.

First, let's discuss the story: there is no story. Traditional, overarching plots that span throughout the series are thrown out the window so that the drama can focus on the five main characters and their relationships with their friends, family, and coworkers, while splashing in medical cases. This works extremely well if you enjoy purely character driven stories with a splash of medical jargon. This won't work so well if you are expecting longitudinal narratives -- I have to admit that I am not that into Slice of Life, but picked up this show due to all the hype, and did end up literally falling asleep at some points, having to go back and rewatch the parts I missed. However, what the show does well, it does really well: there are many, many, really heartwarming scenes which I will describe in the spoiler section. Still, for me, the show bogged itself down with too many contrivances, especially with some specific romances. I felt some elements were too cliche and appealed too much to the "kdrama fantasy" rather than being a solid look into "real life", which I would expect from Slice of Life.

Next, the acting: there is not much for me to say about this because it is wonderful. Jo Jung Suk nails it as the universally loved Lee Ik Jun. Jeon Mi Do, relatively unknown to film and TV in 2020, kills it as the bleeding heart Chae Song Hwa. The rest of the cast, including the supporting and guest cast, is very effective and believable at serving their parts.

The soundtrack was exemplary as well, drawing from older songs like the 2001 song Aloha by Trio or the 1996 Introduce Me a Good Person by Basis.

Overall, I think this show lives and dies by its Slice of Life classification -- comparing this to the breadth of romances, actions, thrillers, mysteries, horrors, etc, I think Hospital Playlist is just "good".
------------------------------------------------------------
SPOILERS START HERE
SERIOUSLY AFTER THIS IS THE SPOILER SECTION
FOR REALZ, SPOILERS AFTER THIS BREAK
------------------------------------------------------------
It's difficult to talk about my criticisms without diving into specific details about things that happen in this series, so the following is a discussion of faults I found with it.

First, the romance, which to me is the greatest fault: this show suffers "Grey's Anatomy syndrome": that is most of the doctors are actively engaging in relationships with each other, are actively considering relationships with each other, and are somehow devoid of outside-of-work love interests. Yes, there are some non-doctor pairings like Kim Jun Wan and his girlfriend, but I would argue even his relationship is too close to home, since he dates a main character's sister, Lee Ik Sun, conveniently within the circle of the main cast. Outside of this, somehow, everyone loves someone in close proximity to the show or are crushing on them: Ahn Jeong Won's resident loves him. Yang Seok Hyeong's resident also loves him. Chae Song Hwa's resident ALSO loves her. There is even a minor romance of two residents who love each other. Do you see the pattern here? For a show where romance takes a back seat to the "daily happenings of life", I thought this was way too convenient and made the relationships feel too forced. As this is a TV show, obviously some creative license is allowed, but I think the ubiquitous nature of this intra-show love just felt like lazy writing to me -- a device to fill in the extra time because the writers couldn't figure out what else to put in and just needed to jam some romance in there.

The relationship I took the most issue with was Ahn Jeong Won and his resident Jang Gyeo Wool -- over a 12 episode run, Gyeo Wool is essentially crushing over Jeong Won for 11 episodes, even trying to get over him by going on a blind date, but ultimately still remaining committed to her crush as basically nothing happens with the "getting over him" subplot. Moreover, she is characterized as being cold and misunderstood -- she is a very diligent person who is "kind in her own way" but is not someone that expresses any kind of obvious affection towards anyone, whether it is her patients or her love interest. Meanwhile, Jeong Won is characterized as being very religious to the point of taking active steps to quit being a doctor to become a priest, like the rest of his siblings, who are all priests and nuns. He doesn't date because he's committed to God. Initially, he's pretty much just ice cold to Gyeo Wool, but expresses increasing empathy to her. Finally, in episode 12, she begs him not to become a priest and he just...kisses her. I'm sorry, but especially a male watcher, this love line felt way too much an appeasement of the female fantasy rather than a realistic, or even semi-realistic romance: we're talking about a woman whose love was so great that she literally changed the life course of man. My issue isn't that their kiss wasn't heartwarming, but my problem is that Jeong Won essentially pulled a 180 over an "outwardly cold" woman who basically just wanted him to love her because...reasons. I would argue that Jeong Won's reversal of his decision in becoming a priest would have been more realistic and compelling if he had done it solely on the realization of the value of his strength in being a good doctor, without the added issue of the romance.

Second, and more minor, is the characterization of hospital life -- just like other medical shows, the series combines several jobs in one doctor, so that a general surgeon like Ik Jun diagnosing cancer, which in reality would be done by an oncologist, or doctors only needing to worry about 1-2 cases per day instead of the endless patients they seem to need to see. However, I think this is fine -- the real life paperwork of medicine is probably way too boring to turn into a real show.

Lastly, and also a little minor, the last episode in particular seemed to lean really heavily on flashbacks. I understand that context is important, but I felt it was pretty excessive, especially if you've been following the characters in a purely character-driven story for 11 out of 12 episodes and are just watching the last one.

At the end of the day, despite the issues I took with this show, I felt it was still on the positive side. Some of the heartwarming moments will stay with you for a really long time: the Aloha karaoke scene is a masterpiece and spawned the "I BELIEVE" meme that you see in some places.
------------------------------------------------------------
I think this show is really easy to recommend or not recommend: if you love Slice of Life, it's an autowatch. If you are tolerable of Slice of Life, it is worth your time. If you do not like it, it is a hard pass.

Read More

Tugs the Heartstrings but Uneven and Illogical

Based on a true story, this is a heartwarming fiction of a boy who really, really wants to build a train way station, the reasons behind his desires, and the relationships he has with his family, teacher, and his girlfriend. There were small moments that made me laugh out loud and revelations that made me sad. However, unfortunately, the movie is bogged down by some awkward editing choices and some gaps in the script that made me disappointed. I finished watching the movie with an overall positive feel, but couldn't help but wonder how a tighter production could have made it better.

For starters, I don't think the movie knows what it wants to be: the first half of the movie is setup as 75% romance and 25% drama. The second half of the movie focuses on paying off the dramatic story line that was setup in the beginning, but almost entirely forgets that it spent a lot of time developing a love story, ultimately feeling like 85% drama and 15% romance for the latter half. I think the movie could have been better by focusing on either plot line more completely and setting aside the other portion in the backdrop. Even without this, I think there may have been an editing opportunity here to improve the pacing.

In my opinion, one consequence of this lack of focus is the creation of dissatisfaction with some of the finer points of the story. For instance, early on, the movie introduces Ra Hee, our leading lady who inexplicably crushes on our main character, Jun Kyung. Why is she so drawn to him? I don't think this is ever explained and I feel because of that, their love story isn't really organic: you have this pretty girl who inexplicably throws herself at this weirdo guy until they are able to bond into a proper love. I mean, I was once an awkward, teenage boy, and I can tell you I would have killed for some pretty girl to be unrelentingly interested in me for no discernible reason...but unfortunately it's nowhere near believable in this movie. Moreover, there's some additional details that I think the director/screenwriter simply forgot to address: there is a scene where they ALMOST kiss, but aren't able to. Later on in the movie, she sends him an audiotape imploring him to "remember our first kiss," but the thing is, we as the audience are never shown this so it's like "what first kiss? Did I miss something?" And when you go back they didn't -- ultimately, it was either a scene that got changed at the last minute or it was done off-screen -- either possibility, it's a little silly.

Approximately 60% into the movie, there is a sharp shift from the focus away from the love story, and into some interesting family drama caused by some setup earlier. However, the tonal shift is awkward, because there's something like a ~30-40 minute window where Yoona has no screen time which is a little weird if we consider the love story to be important and one of the overarching threads that keep this movie together. Honestly, I feel that this family plot line could have been a story all by itself: if we removed the romance tag and just dropped Ra Hee, it could have worked as a complete, drama-focused coming of age story. To me, it feels like the screenwriter didn't know what they wanted and just decided to cram in two unrelated stories together and try their best to tie it together.

I'm not quite sure what to think of the acting. As a non-Korean speaker, even I can hear the strong accents that the actors use in this movie to mimic the regional dialect of the area, so I can only wonder if they did a good job (I assume they did). However, I think all of the cast had strong performances. As a matter of personal taste, I thought Park Jung Min looked way too old to be a high schooler, but perhaps that's a fault of the makeup/costuming more than the casting.

I thought the music was appropriate, but average. It sets up the ambience well, but nothing to write home about in the end. I think the movie is also going to be difficult to rewatch, because you already know what the key moment of the movie is and I don't feel that the little, heartfelt moments are enough to warrant an entire second viewing.

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. I can say that I enjoyed it, but there's glaring flaws that make me sigh a bit, and wonder how it could have been markedly better if they just changed a few things.

Read More

Bizarre Script and Editing Suppress Excellent Performances

Doona really missed the mark.

Like many Kdramas, the beginning is interesting and draws you in. This is a story about two unlikely lovers: the male lead, a struggling, earnest student/tutor working hard to secure his future who happens to cohabitate in the same house as the female lead, a former Kpop idol who acts brash but hides her vulnerability . For the veteran watcher, this appears to be a healing-love story that you've seen before, but smart, ethereal cinematography and powerful performances by Suzy, Yang Se Je Jong, and the supporting cast make it a special experience.

But unfortunately, a truly bizarre final episode manages to subvert all of the hard work put into Episodes 1-8. I won't spoil it for the curious reader who wants to experience the Kdrama for themselves, but for me, the ending was not earned by the story's progression: characters acted in ways that weren't true to their personalities, and for me, it seemed like the showrunners were trying to put into a double twist-of-fate, but for me, it backfired and just became weird.

Read More

Unique Premise that Unevenly Blossoms into Confusion

I enjoyed watching this show but it clearly had no idea what it wanted to do. It started off with a bang, trying a unique premise of having a male lead with a veritable social phobia and dealing with suicide right off the bat. At first, the male lead was almost totally incapable of any human communication and the female lead was extremely meddlesome, to the point that I read that some viewers were put off by her inability to respect boundaries. However, by episode 5, the production tried to correct course due to falling ratings: they took a week off for the writers to completely rewrite episodes 5 and 6. Unfortunately, to me, the end result was even more confusing: they preserved the storylines they had already set up (the suicide and the "introverted" boss) and just introduced inconsistencies to try to make it a more traditional Kdrama -- suddenly, the male lead acted like a completely normal person in certain, specific scenarios and the female lead shifted to be more of a concerned, optimistic, prototypical female lead. However, they had already setup some really heavy storylines and themes, and by the end, unfortunately, not everything is resolved in a meaningful, and satisfying way.

I can safely say that the main thing that kept me watching was Park Hye Soo's performance -- to me, there is something reassuring about her: for example, she seems to smile all the time and it honestly melts my heart. But even then, I cannot say that I found her performance particularly skilled: a lot of her crying seemed very forced and fake to me. Still, I found myself glued to her for additional superficial reasons, like her beautiful outfits.

This show seemed to have big dreams but never really hit its goals, and I think most of it is the fault of a premise that's really weird and hard to pull off. And this show doesn't pull it off.

Read More

The Tropiest of Tropiest KDramas

I'm writing this review in 2021, but I watched this show back when it aired in 2013, and I can safely say that there is something truly unique about this Kdrama and I doubt it can ever be replicated ever again. To truly appreciate what this show is like, you have to imagine yourself as a Kdrama viewer from 2013: in the international scene, everyone used this little old site called Dramafever (in reality: mega popular free-to-use drama watching site) who actually had a hand in co-producing this show. It features cinematic, lesser known American venues such as Balboa Park in San Diego or the Terranea Rancho Palos Verdes resort near Los Angeles. Apparently, the scriptwriter intentionally designed the show to be a meme: she was no rookie at the time of penning the story and just slammed all the fun elements she could think of into it.

This memeness is both this show's greatest strength and its biggest downfall. On the one hand, in 2021, you may recognize the ridiculous star-studded cast: we've got the mega popular Park Shin Hye and Lee Min Hos as the leads. For side characters, they are all recognizable names: we have Choi Jin Hyuk who I swear is in everything, and most recently in a minor role in Mr Queen. We have Kim Ji Won of Descendants of the Sun fame (and more recently Arthdal Chronicles/Fight My Way). Even the even-more-minor characters have reached great notoriety: Kang Ha Neul would go on to star in the Baeksang-winning drama Where the Camellia Blooms. So what's the problem? Well, because it's so tropy, all the characters are one-dimensional, barely tapping into the skill of each actor. Kim Tan is a lovesick, rich teen with daddy issues. Cha Eun Sang is a pitiful, poor girl who cries a lot. Choi Young Do is your misunderstood second lead. Yoo Rachel is a bully. None of these characters have depth: they exist to fulfill their one plot role. It's hard to say it's "well acted" because...what is there to act? Personally, I love Kim Ji Won -- I think she expresses great depth as an actress in her other roles. But in Heirs? Her character exists to scowl or hurt Cha Eun Sang, either physically or mentally. And pretty much every single character can be described this way.

The story is of the same flavor: a wonderful exercise in "how cliche can you make a plot". We've got the tragic, teen romance. We've got Chaebols. We've got honoring your family vs pursuing romantic love. It's all there.

Ultimately, Heirs succeeds in doing what it set out to do. It's a beautiful show "about nothing", featuring gorgeous, sunny locales, beautiful actors and actresses, with a plot that invokes a lot of designer costumes and kisses. Back in 2013, I had a lot of fun watching it and I still do on re-watch. But there's "nothing there". Heirs is a weird show.

Read More

Enjoyable, Emotional, Character-Driven Drama with a Few Flaws

If you enjoy romance-centered KDramas where the focus is on the characters and their experiences dealing with their feelings, then this is the drama for you. When the show was airing, I stayed up until 3 am to watch the release in my region. Since then, I've watched this drama 3+ times all the way through and loved it each time. At the same time, I think there are some flaws, which may turn into complete dealbreakers for some people. It's a weird thing for me to review, since I am not giving this show a 10, but I love it to death.

Format-wise, it was produced as a short-form show for KakaoTV. With each episode having about a 30-minute runtime, and the entire series having a 17 episode length, Lovestruck is basically 50% of a typical KDrama, which is a good thing if you're busy or your KDrama backlog is too big. The main highlight of this show is the extremely touching conversations/heart-to-hearts that happen during a select few episodes. The producers tried to make this a really humanistic show, and I think the raw emotions of the characters really shines through. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but overall, I really empathsized with the characters when they were desperately in love, extremely frustrated, sad, or basically any of the capstone moments that define friendships and romantic relationships. For me, there are just so many snapshot moments in this show that I can easily go on youtube, watch a short clip, and immediately feel a strong sense of nostalgia for this show.

However, there are some flaws which bog down the show's quality a little bit. Firstly, the pacing is a little off: the first episode kicks things into high gear by establishing all the characters and the main narrative settings for the two main characters. The next two episodes flesh out the main story and also start revealing the backstory of the two side couples. However, following this, the show starts to get a little draggy until episode 8, when the main story speeds up again. Additionally, they were too ambitious by trying to cram into 3 love stories into a show that is half-as-long as your regular KDrama -- there is simply not enough time for all the stories to be properly established and resolved, and I would argue the side characters don't have a completely satisfying conclusion. One of the side couples actually has some "new reveals" at the end of Episode 16 which is never resolved -- without a Season 2, I'm afraid we'll never find out what happened. Finally, the mocumentary format is a little lacking: it starts off as intriguing, possibly inspired by famous mockumentaries like The Office, but very quickly devolves into nonsense -- in some later scenes, there are some "interviews" which are completely impossible for the "camera crew" to have captured unless they were omnipotent and/or being extreme creepers.

One extremely controversial point to discuss is that many watchers found the characters, especially the main lead female Lee Eun Oh, to be extremely unlikeable and/or unrealistic. My personal opinion is that Lee Eun Oh's character does suffer from SOME poor writing, but that overall, she was created to mimic a real-life human being. In real life, sometimes we do do things that make us unforgiveable jerks. Sometimes, we do obsess over loving people that we need to let go. Sometimes, we do say one thing, but our hearts make us do the exact opposite. At the end of the day, though I don't think the characters were written perfectly, I do think they were written to be people that you could meet in real life -- if you reflect upon your own acquaintances, friends, and family, I bet you might know guys who were obsessed over girls that they needed to drop like a bad habit or girls who weren't sure what they wanted so they kept teetering between self-confidence and love. In this way, I think it is very fitting for the humanistic theme of the show.

Overall, I think this series is underrated and you should give it a shot. I think you will know fairly quickly whether it is your cup of tea: it might be something you love like I do and if not, it's easy to drop it mid-watch.

Read More

A Parable about Children's Journey through Life Cloaked in a Bold, Magical Musical

Kdramas themed around music are not uncommon, but true musicals are rare, and The Sound of Magic is a welcome entry into this realm. This show is constructed as a spectacular audiovisual event, and the aesthetics are so striking: the vibrant colors of the set pieces pair very well with the whimsical theme and musical numbers. I was definitely addicted to this show, watching it all in one sitting. However, ultimately, I still felt that it fell a little short in a couple of areas.

The story is as straightforward as it sounds: a poor, struggling female lead has to overcome the adversities of poverty and happens upon a mysterious magician who tries to help her. I thought that this plot was acceptable, but nothing unusual for a Kdrama setup. In the end, the show seemed like it wanted to try to send a clear message about the meaning of being a child and what it means to forge your own path in life. The story is also carried by the puzzle of the identity of the magician as well as a missing persons' case. All-in-all, I appreciated that the short-form show had a beginning, middle, and end but didn't feel that it did any exceptional trailblazing: it was just OK to me. I did not read the webtoon this is based on, but am told that it is a faithful adaptation, so in a way, any power or shortcomings that come out are probably related to this, for better or worse. In particular, I felt that the ending tied up many of the loose ends, but also felt that it wasn't conclusive enough in explaining exactly what happened to everyone.

The main event, of course, are the songs and the spectacle and I felt that this was definitely executed at an above-average level. Each song takes you on a journey, and I appreciated how the setting changed into amazing locales and sets as they progressed. However, at the same time, I can't say that the songs were memorable to me: I can't hum any of the tunes and I can't even really tell you what the main messaging or name of individual musical pieces were. It's a little strange for me to describe this because I definitely enjoyed them while I was watching the show.

The acting is excellent: Ji Chang Wook apparently spent months learning magic and I can definitely believe it as his performance gave a true aura of a magician's tricks. Out of all the high schoolers, Hwang In Yeop sold his role the most to me, and ironically, he is one of the eldest actors at 31 years old. I can't fault Choi Sung Eun's acting, but I did have a minor criticism, in that she looked too old too me: maybe this was a fault of costuming/makeup, but personally, I couldn't un-see that she was an adult in real life (she's 25) - I think they specifically cut her hair to make her look younger, but it didn't work for me (there is a scene later where she has long hair, and I couldn't help but think to myself, wow, she looks so much more natural this way).

Overall, I found this show very well done. Of importance, it is really unique, which I appreciated. However, I didn't think that it's polish was perfect, so I'd probably categorize this Kdrama as "above-average"

Read More

Enjoyable but a little too contrived and drawn out

My feelings on this show are overall positive, but I still think that there are elements that feel too artificial and the length is a tad too long. I was only able to complete this drama the second time I attempted to watch it. The first time, I dropped it after the first episode because I couldn't handle how outrageous Duk Mi's fangirling was. After a second watch, I still feel it is a little too over-the-top and contributes to an inconsistent feeling. To me, the idea of the story was intriguing, but unfortunately, I don't feel it was executed to a satisfying level.

The show starts by establishing the essential plot element that Duk Mi is a hardcore kpop fangirl - not just a fan, a hardddddddcore fan girl. She's the webmaster of a fan site, has a ridiculous camera/ladder/privacy outfit, and her self-proclaimed, only hobby is following Si An of the fictional White Ocean. It's definitely an intriguing premise, but I personally found it extremely cringeworthy, even beyond just the feeling of secondhand embarrassment. Furthermore, the amount of effort she would have to expend to keep up her activities and fan knowledge in real life, far exceed the time required to form a real, adult career and maintain real, adult responsibilities, so I found it a little too unrealistic. My biggest complaint was how her fangirling personality was shoved to the side once she started a real relationship with Ryan Gold/started to explore their relationship. She suddenly shifted from a "giddy fangirl" personality to just a "reasonable Kpop fan who has a real boyfriend in real life". I couldn't buy this character change either, as up to that point, she had proven herself to be so immersed that she lacked self-restraint in certain situations.

Furthermore, I found some story beats too convenient such that they ended up just feeling super contrived. Eun Gi is Duk Mi's brother, but wait, actually he's not, he was adopted. He loves Duk Mi for real, as in he wants her to be his girlfriend, but wait she doesn't feel the same back, so he's just going to ignore it and go back to being besties-only. Ryan Gold is a foreigner who looks like a Korean and speaks Korean really well. But wait, actually he's secretly childhood friends with Duk Mi and lived with her family for a month when his mom accidentally abandoned him because she got into a serious car accident but ended up recovering. And also, Duk Mi doesn't remember anything because of trauma (and by the way she has a younger brother who died), but wait she suddenly remembers after a short conversation with her father. And Ryan Gold remembers everything too after easily piecing together dreams that he had. Oh and did I mention that Ryan Gold is secretly the brother of Si An?

I could go on, but suffice it to say, I think the artificial-feel of the story is the weakest point of the show. It gets particularly weak near the end, when the main leads have already gotten together already and it's clear the show is just looking for more ways to fabricate more watch time.

In contrast, the production of everything else is what makes me elevate this to a net-positive score. As is usual in a lot of Korean shows, I found the acting to be excellent. The OST was not my cup of tea, but I could definitely sense its high production value. The visuals are gorgeous and speaking towards the actors, as a male viewer, I saw Park Min Young as beautiful as usual, having that stereotypical girly, girl allure. I could tell Kim Jae Wook has that confident, sexy allure as well, for our female fans. Some of the comedy is well done, having that "funny because it's cringy" feel to it. You also grow to enjoy the side characters, even the sort-of-villain-turned ally of Cindy, who even has her own character arc.

Of special note, even though I couldn't totally buy Duk Mi's transformation from only-fan girl to someone else's girlfriend, her relationship with Ryan Gold was surprisingly refreshing in that it had very limited K-melodrama tropes. They respected each other throughout their relationship. Even when they were fighting about things, they sat down and talked about it. There were no ridiculous misunderstandings. The only thing that was contrived was the "amnesia-childhood-friends-relationship". But other than that, it seemed by all accounts a healthy, mature, adult relationship.

Overall, for me, this show was kind of an "OK way to pass the time". I don't hate nor regret that I watched it, but I don't see any elements of this that will make me want to go back and rewatch it.

Read More