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Knavery
Canada
What did I enjoy? I enjoyed some of the supporting cast such as the female doctor best-friend to the male lead. She was a very good friend and seemed to be a well-balanced person for most of the show (unlike the male and female leads). The Japanese restaurant owner who was a friend to the female lead was also good as supporting cast. The juvenile (sometimes sexually suggestive) comedy and the close friendship between the men, Wang Nuo and Bruce Li was good. There were some cute moments so you won't be waiting until the last episode for a kiss and relationship. I enjoyed the song choices and had to look a few up.
But there were problems. The female lead is incredibly immature. I'll be critical of myself and say I have seen Cindy Lien in "Better Man" and her character in that show was annoying to me and her role in this drama reminds me of her in Better Man. It's possible I am not being a fair judge. I don't know if this is the writers, director or the actress or some combination of the three but her character was a frustrating mess to watch especially when you compare her to some of the supporting cast women who played much more well rounded characters. I'm still trying to understand the purpose of the reincarnated, cursed lovers angle because the show could have gone without these moments and been fine, it feels like it was added to appeal to people and not to be a major part of the show. Some of the supporting cast characters were your stereotypical melodrama style characters who annoy and disrupt.
Would I watch it again? I doubt it.
If you like Lego Lee and his acting you might be happy watching his character grow. He has some funny moments, jealous moments and he shows some range in his acting. While I can see his appeal, I still struggled to get through it.
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The show starts off a bit raunchy and juvenile with some sexual humor and some cursing in English (that is not censored) but the characters grow and grow on you. By the last 1/4 of the show I had fallen in love with the leads and was completely invested in them.
It was a beautiful and well done drama once I had finished it. My eyes were a little wet during those last 6 episodes (3 if you go by DramaFever's count).
I only wish there was more time, more episodes and from her perspective. I thought it was beautiful and powerful stuff.
The show has flown under the radar since airing in late 2017 but it was a great pickup by DramaFever in my opinion. Really glad I gave it a chance and will probably come back to it in a few years.
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The cast consists of three new-ish actors and an experienced surrounding cast. Kai, Kim Jin Kyung & Lee Ye Hyun being the three newcomers.
Lee Ye Hyun was the standout of the three for me. According to MDL it was her first credited performance and she was the strongest over the course of the show.
Kim Jin Kyung also seems to have her first credit in a dramatic role and she was alright.
Kai had some experience and he started strong but as the show went on I was less impressed with him, I think the writers/directors share some blame though.
The writing and directing was a subpar. It was messy to me even when you give them the benefit of the doubt and recognize slice of life can be messy but entertaining and have value. They were stringing things together in a very unconvincing ways. There have been lots of movies and shows about death and loss from South Korea and I don't think Andante stands out despite its entire focus being on those subjects.
I don't see any re-watch value. It's slow and once was enough for me. It's not a bad show but it's not a very compelling show either.
I'll end on a positive note and re-iterate that Lee Ye Hyun did a good job and I hope to see her cast in more dramas.
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This review may contain spoilers
Mostly machine translated subs for an interesting role reversal of genders in a historical setting.
The machine translated subs make this difficult to watch. Sometimes it's nonsense. Most of the time it's words jumbled together. It makes some sense as you read it and think it through - like Yoda talking only slightly more cryptic. Finally there are some portions that seem to translated well and make sense. I'm guessing those sections might have been translated by a human being.Now for the general story:
The male lead travels back in time and wakes up in one of those tea houses where he is a courtesan who women can pay for. It seems he has traveled to an ancient alternate reality where gender roles are reversed.
He stumbles across the female lead and finds she has an item that might allow him to travel back to present day. The female lead is outwardly cold like a lot of the traditional male leads in historical shows but the movie does a good job of showing she's not that one dimensional... she's more shy and inexperienced than anything else.
I think the movie does a good job of keeping it light with comedy, ridiculousness. The leads are pretty good with the moments they have. I'm not sure if I'm heartbroken or optimistic after watching this. For whatever reason it hit me and I enjoyed it and wanted more.
Masterpiece? No. Worth the 1 hour if you can get over the subtitles? I think so.
I really, really enjoyed the song at the end and I'll probably obsess over it until I find it.
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