PhatPanda27
A beautiful and powerful depiction of the ups and downs that life throws at us
This was a beautiful, poignant masterpiece. Set on a small town on Jeju Island, we follow the journeys of our 14 main characters through their roller coaster of emotions. We feel their highs and we also feel their lows. By no means are any of these characters perfect. They have their flaws and their fears that contribute to the problems that they face. They all have their own traumas haunting their lives, yet they try to carry on as best as they can, struggling through life, just as we do.Everything about this drama was amazingly done. The cast, the music, the writing, the cinematography, everything was beautifully incorporated and almost seamlessly transitioned. The only reason I took 0.5 off is because I don't know how much I would be willing to re-watch it. It's a beautiful, but heartbreaking, drama so I don't know if I want to go through this roller coaster of emotions again. But I definitely recommend it to everyone to watch.
P. S. A note, I did watch it on 1.5x speed just because everything is done slowly (but beautifully!) and my attention span really can't stand that so yeah... Happy watching!
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Had higher expectations, but this drama fell a bit short
I was so excited to start to drama because, from the clips I saw on TikTok, it seemed like everyone loved it and once I started it, I was completely obsessed. The chemistry between the two main leads were off the charts, and they were so cute. But like how many of these other reviews said, the beginning of this drama started off so well and so strong, only for it to be more of a let down in the later half of the drama. The later half of the drama got a bit draggy and angsty and once they resolved it, it really felt like all that angst was for nothing. I also thought the focus was going to be more on badminton and winning championships but nope. As for our second couple, I liked Yook Jung Hwan enough, he seemed like a good enough guy who was just very hurt and angry but all he could do was channel that anger and frustration on Park Tae Yang. But I found Lee Yoo Min to be annoying and I was waiting for her to have a more significant role in this drama but nope. I would say my favorite character in this drama would be Park Tae Joon, he was adorable and he really loved Tae Yang. But yeah, sorry this review feels a little all over the place. Overall, this was an alright drama, I just feel like the first half of the drama set such high expectations for the rest of the drama, but it turned out to be disappointing because of those high expectations. Oh well, it was a short and quick ride.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Short, sweet, and a whole lot of cliche
I am such a sucker for contract marriage and enemies to lovers dramas. They're definitely my guilty pleasure and going into it, I know to expect a lot of ridiculousness and cliches. And I think that's exactly what we got here. Honestly, I think this drama is perfect for just a short, sweet, lighthearted, and easy watch, when you're just in the mood for that type of cliché romance drama. This drama has tons of sweet moments (and a whole lots of kisses) and the main couple is absolutely adorable, but just don't expect anything with too much depth because you're not going to find it here.[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Now, for the many things that I didn't like in this drama, because even with going in with my lowered expectations, I was still disappointed at some points:
1. I really hated Ran Xi Wei, which of course, is her sole purpose of being there. But I hated that she basically just got to skate on by throughout the entire drama, causing all these problems and essentially getting away scot-free at the end. Yeah, Yin Si Chen stepped up and created firm boundaries with her and warned her multiple times to stop and eventually broke off his friendship with her, but I didn't find that ending very satisfying enough and of course, our sweet Gu Xi Xi was still pretty nice to her in the end, it was just not satisfactory tin the end on this aspect
2. Mo Zi Xin was pretty damn annoying. He played his role of a love rival but it was pretty ridiculous how he kept showing up even in the later half of the drama once the main couple's relationship really was established. He was basically borderline stalkerish and honestly, I thought that was the direction they were going into to make Mo Zi Xin the bad guy, but they really just left him as a nice guy till the end and then he didn't even show up in the last couple of episodes. I didn't mind it but it just further emphasized that he wasn't needed in this drama.
3. I really did not care about the second couple AT ALL. They didn't need to add them in at all and I just could not find a single shred of care for them. They didn't add to the story at all and I would've much rather them make a second couple out of Yin Si Chen's secretary and Gu Xi Xi's best friend instead!
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Sweet and fluffy with a suspension of belief
This drama was a nice, sweet, and fluffy drama! But of course, this definitely needed to be watched with a suspension of belief/go with the flow type of vibe. I feel like throughout the drama there were times that I was thinking that things didn't really make sense. So, as long as you can sit back, relax, and watch the sweetness unfold, this drama would be great to watch. Definitely a light-hearted youth drama full of clichés. I also wish they didn't take so long to get together and I wish we had more sweet moments with the two of them finally being honest with each other. But overall, it was still an enjoyable watch.Was this review helpful to you?
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This review may contain spoilers
Dang...it was a pretty good run until...
I picked this drama up randomly since I saw it on Youtube and just wanted something nice, sweet, and easygoing. After just a brief look at the reviews, I decided to take a chance on it. From what I saw, everyone said this was such a good, underrated drama and the only reason why it wasn't popular was because of a lesser known cast. So I was all for it and I was really enjoying the episodes honestly. Some of it didn't really make sense but I didn't mind, as long as our little group was having their enjoyable, happy high school days. This drama reminded me a lot of When I Fly Towards You, which I loved so much and so I was very much enjoying this drama as well. That is, until now when I decided to write this review. We'll see how the rest of this drama goes but I reached the point of the drama where Lin Xi is being held back a year because randomly, her father got injured from the people from the car accident. I have a huge issue with this and it just feels so unnecessary for this to happen. I'm not sure why they decided to go this route but I hope it makes sense when I continue watching. If they were going to go this route, I feel like they should have fleshed out the accident story a lot of more and hinted to these troubles prior to doing this. So as of now, I have a bad taste in my mouth from this drama and hence the 7/10 score since I was thoroughly enjoying it before. We'll see if it gets better but I don't have high hopes. Also it's episode 17/25 and our main couple is STILL not together? It's giving draggy at this point. Anyways, I'll be back after I finish this drama, if I finish this drama. Bye for now!UPDATE (beware of spoilers):
I finally finished watching and man, those last 9 episodes were honestly a struggle to get through, even if I was 2x speeding most of the way through. I feel like after they graduated high school, it went downhill. The misunderstandings were dumb, I really hated seeing the second couple and felt like it dragged on way too long, and even though I loved Qin Kai, I can't believe they kept the useless love triangle go on for so long. Honestly, I almost would've preferred to see our FL together with Qin Kai, I feel like their love story had more connection than our main couple. Yeah so overall, I'm quite disappointed and I'm glad I'm done so I can move on to another drama.
UPDATE 2:
OMG. BUT. I did forget to add that I love that this drama decided to sneak some subtle LGBTQ themes in there. Our couple is so cute and even though, it wasn't fully confirmed, I think we all know what really happened. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it develop completely but the insinuation is there. Hopefully this has a snowball effect for future dramas.
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Short, sweet, and beautiful cinematography
Omg, I am loving this drama! Unfortunately for me though, I didn't time it right so I can't finish this in one sitting. But I just had to stop and write a review before I finished the rest. After two short episodes, I'm already halfway through this drama, hehehe, so I think having short dramas like this has its perks.But so far, I'm absolutely loving this drama. It captures the subtle and soft feelings of unrequited love so well and I love Park Hyung Sik so much. His chemistry with other female leads is so tangible and I'm gobbling up every second of it. The cinematography is beautiful and this is just a nice drama to sit down, and slow things down with. Its been a beautiful portrayal of quiet unrequited love and I'm honestly surprised with how much I've been enjoying this drama.
Unfortunately, I left off on a bit of a cliffhanger so I'm excited to see how the other two episodes play out. Hopefully, I'll come back and finish this review on a high note. Bye for now!
UPDATE:
AHHH. I finished it and I looooved it! I'm just really sad that we couldn't see more cute moments of the couple BEING A COUPLE. We literally only get a bonus track of it, so upsetting :(.
Overall, I think this is such a cute, short, and simple but beautiful little love story. Honestly, if they make more 4 episode dramas like this, I would eat them all up. Its great because its just a simple story with minimal problems and angst, just enough to keep the story going. Loved it, I can definitely see this drama being a bit of a comfort drama hence the high rewatch score as well.
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This review may contain spoilers
Pleasantly surprised....for the first half of the drama
I wish I wrote my review when I was halfway through the drama so I could've had all my good things to say about this drama out before it got ruined by the later half of the drama.Honestly, I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I was enjoyed the first half of the drama. Even though I had my doubts about the female lead, I thought the ML and FL were so cute and had great chemistry. I liked the warmth that our FL's family had and it was just heartwarming and wholesome. I also didn't mind having the murder mystery aspect in the drama because it kept things interesting.
However, the conclusion of the murder mystery was so anticlimactic and just outright disappointing. And from there, everything else just also went downhill. All of a sudden, we're given all these random subplots being rushed throughout the last few episodes of the drama, and for what? I just found everything so pointless or anticlimactic. The love between the best friend and FL's brother felt so random, out of place, and forced. They could've at least dropped hints of it throughout the first half of the drama so that it could make sense in the end but instead it feels like they just wanted to make sure everyone was paired up in the end. I also hated having the biological mother come back, and it felt so incredibly pointless and I really don't know what Hae Yi was thinking during all of that. I also was waiting the ENTIRE drama for the two evil mothers to be punished for all that they had done. I was so sick of them and the only thing that kept me going was that they were going to pay for their actions later. But NO. Instead, they were able to redeem themselves with little consequences for their actions and go on their merry way. And honestly I liked the Hae Yi and Geon Hoo pairing better than Hae Yi and Seon Jae but I knew that was a losing battle. What I didn't expect was for Soo Ah to also be barely punished, to just be redeemed in the end, AND put together with Geon Hoo.
It's really a shame. I was enjoying this drama so much and had such high hopes. I can't believe this is how it ends.
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Cute and Sweet Story
Well, I typed up my whole review only to accidentally refresh the page and lose my original review so I'll just keep this short.This is a perfect drama for people who want something cute, fluffy, short, and light-hearted. It's a very cute drama and I loved the chemistry between the two leads. There were some annoying misunderstandings and of course, I was so irritated by the female second lead. However, I did have a problem with the pacing of the drama. I think they should've gotten together earlier on so that they had more time to resolve their problems and show more cutesy scenes of them being in a relationship. In addition, the second couple ended up being neglected in the later half of the show. I didn't mind that much since I wasn't too fond of them, but it seemed weird to me that they had a decent amount of screen time in the first half, only to mostly disappear in the second half of the drama. Overall, it's a cute, sweet, and easy watch. I would re-watch when I'm in the mood for something fluffy and light-hearted and with nothing else to watch.
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Sooooooooooooooo slow
This drama is RIDICULOUSLYYYY slow. Like seriously. It's so freaking slow, I can't stand it. I somehow made it to the halfway point of episode 5 and I'm just struggling to even continue to watch this drama. I knew that it was slow from previous reviews but I thought I could handle it. Apparently not because I stopped to write this review and now I'm seriously contemplating dropping this drama. And I try my damn hardest to not drop a drama.These reviews are so positive about this drama and I heard the ending was the ending we didn't get for 2521 so I was excited to watch this but... this has been disappointing to say the least. Honestly debating between just dropping the drama or just continue watching the drama but in the fastest speed possible.
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