Reviews

Very entertaining and realistic feel-good drama

First of all this drama felt soo good. I dont know how but it just felt really good to watch. It had a nice vibe while watching. I must say I did think that it was gonna be another one of those stupid, over dramatic and complicated love triangle dramas but this drama felt very natural. The romance in this drama is also very light and has a ton of comedy in it. The screenplay's really well done. I avoided this drama for a very long time because I thought it would just be dragged long condiering how many episodes there was but it rteally wasn't dragged at all. From how they met as kids to how they grew such a close bond, it all felt wholesome. I genuinnely recommend watching this drama. Although I did feel that the story felt a little boring and maybe a little too 'not-dramatic'. It was great watching them grow through the ages and overcome their differences, changes and grow closer together. I loved every aspect of this drama and it also had a very wholesome ending! The acting of the cast too was just as amazing! I could feel great chemistry between the three leads and I very very very much loved the character of Dad Li. He was such a strong and compassionate character, he melts my heart. Overall great entertaining drama about what makes a family and the struggles within a marital household. And about how the people hurt learn to heal. ??????????‍???‍???‍⚕️?

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In a unique way affectionately told. Critically nuanced. Not off-the-shelf. Still easy to digest.

I might have easily missed “Not Others”, if I hadn't volunteered to help out with the German subtitling. I'm glad I didn´t miss it, because "Not Others" turned out to be an unorthodox surprise - being unexpectedly substantial and also pleasantly true to life, thus rooted in a rather simple, normal, everyday world. It is the story of a family, above all of a single mother and her daughter, but there are also a few contemporaries who are related by blood or by choice.

The story goes on and on as life goes on and we go with it as a matter of course (and gladly so). (Well, at least that's how it was for me.) There was nothing particularly extraordinary and exciting about it. Just normal madness.

Well, admittedly, a bit more than normal madness... after all, the mother herself is still a teenager when she has her child and doesn't want to give up on some of the youthful pleasures in life - regardless of responsibility for the child. However, the script and the two leads find a good pitch for this very special, unusual and inherently difficult relationship dynamic with all its challenges. A clearly structured 'I'm the grown up and you're the little one' doesn´t exist. It is rather upside down here. Instead of the classic authoritarian hierarchy between parent and child, they both ended up bonding as allies sort of, in a world from which they have fallen. Due to the unusual role constellations, the arguments between mother and daughter often have a slightly funny touch. Behind this, however, lurks a rather unconscious overburdening on both sides. And this earnest approach of this emotionally tricky situation shines through again and again in the strategy of both of them trying to cope with everyday life. However, mother and daughter are overall impressing with their casual authenticity as well as pleasant directness and openness - a communication style that clearly sets them apart from so many others in the story. Choi Soo-young shines here, but especially Jeon Hye-jin, who can show herself from a completely different side in the role of the still youthful mother...).

At some point it's about a criminal case - eventually almost symbolic for the unwanted and eventually professionalized role of the daughter within the mother-daughter-relationship: the need to/the urge to look after her mother. And at some point it's also about romantic love - symbolic for the very human longing to rely on a partner on eye level, to lean on a shoulder... This human need actually concerns mother and grown-up daughter alike. But can there even be a place for 'outsiders' within the mother-daughter relationship?

Please don't take "Not Others" as a crime thriller or even as a RomCom. (The men in particular come along rather secondary...) Ultimately, it is the complicated emotional behavior patterns that characterize the family life of mother and daughter in the context of their very close and extraordinary relationship. This makes the KDrama breathe in and breathe out in its very unique pacing. It is primarily about this uncommon family, with an affectionate, yet critically nuanced look at their very special relationship dynamics. "Not Others" is cautiously questioning established (conservative) family models, too...

Overall, “Not Others” is no off-the-shelf KDrama (like so many others in 2023...).

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Some great moments and some not so great. the other characters except leads.

It was a nice watch but tbvh I've watched better C-dramas this year. Firstly, Yoona's acting really isn't my cuppa tea. Though she was better in the later half of the drama. Loved Junho. Overall, a nice watch. I really wanted DaEul's story to be taken seriously. The way her in laws & husband treated her like a maid but the way they used very serious and a common issue ㅡ where working women are taken forgranted and are pushed to work full time outside & inside home ㅡ for comedy was worse. No redemption arc for inlaws or husband.

Also, I loved the air host/hostess pair ㅡ especially the guy, wanted more of them.

I think the overall duration of the drama could've be much shorter. They didn't address his sister's issues, which she was pretty accurate about ㅡ his father was guilt stricken or whatever but he did take his daughter for granted, how he casually said that he isn't worried about her ㅡ regarding the divorce issue ㅡ but how it'll affect the company?

So all in all, I can totally understand where her sister ws coming from. They could've explored her character more.

So, there were some great moments and some not so great. They got a few thing well while they often ignored all the other characters except leads.

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No Middle Ground - Love or Hate

This is not a romantic comedy, its important to know this going into it. There is at best a touch of romance, so be prepared.

Additionally, there is little in the way of middle ground with this drama, you will either love it or hate it based on how you view Eun Mi as a character.

She is either the heroine of this story or someone who should be criticised for many of her actions. I will be perfectly honest whilst I recognise her strengths she is certainly isn't a likeable character to me.

The premise of this drama is built upon the relationship between Eum Mi, the mother and Jin Hee her daughter. Eun Mi gave birth to Jin Hee as a teenager and raised her as a single parent. The synopsis for this drama states they literally grew up together.
This is where my problem starts, the suggestion that Eun Mi ever really grew up. Yes, she raised her baby, she worked incredibly hard to provide for herself and Jin Hee, but did she ever really grow up? For me, no, her attitude and behaviour still resembles that of a teenager and not a 40 something year old woman. Whilst this wouldn't be the worse thing, it does manifest negatively in her relationship with Jin Hee at times. Jin Hee often needs to be the parent in the relationship with her own emotions often ignored by Eun Mi. Eun Mi thinks little of the consequences of her actions, often leading to problems for Jin Hee. Jin Hee's feelings are often secondary in their relationship

The introduction of Jin Hong, Eun Mi former boyfriend and Jin Hee father only complicates the situation further. Eun Mi quickly rushes into renewing her relationship with him, forcing Jin Hee to accept this relationship, yet she doesn't like the idea of father and daughter becoming close. Whilst all this is going on Jin Hong and Jin Hee seem to be circling each other, unsure how to approach each other. Jin Hong in both his relationship with Eun Mi and Jin Hee is either too passive or at times simply weak.
I also didn't like that very little attention is given too Eun Mi failure to share with Jin Hong that he had a daughter. This was glossed over far too quickly.

Jin Hee does have a romantic interest in Jae Won who is also her superior at work. Unfortunately very little is done to really develop their relationship until the final few episodes and even then it was pretty limited. Park Sung Hoon was criminally under used as an actor in this role.

My final issue with this drama is the last 2 episodes. They don't entirely fit within the context of the previous 10 episodes. We had seen little in the way of growth from Eun Mi and yet suddenly she was a more mature individual.

I think this same story could have been told, keeping the humour, the unique Eun Mi character, yet also showing some growth as an individual whilst also allowing her relationship with Jin Hee to evolve as well. Instead I found Eun Mi admirable qualities too often overshadow by her negative traits and when her relationship with Jin Hee did evolve it didn't feel natural.

Sadly I didn't enjoy this drama in the way I hoped, the funny moments soon became less funny and I was left with a dislike towards Eun Mi and a sense of sadness towards Jin Hee.

For me the the final two episodes were unable to erase the events in the previous 10.

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I dont just get that ending

I dont even know what to say. If im mean please i am sorry but the ending was shit. How will that guy just kill everybody. At least if they wanted to end the film quickly they could have made the spheres kill tyem not that guy. And whats this na, after all the whole drama on spheres and everything, tye endjng was suppose to be action and good, but i was shocked to see everyone killed by the guy, at first i thought maybe they will survive but what was that na, they died. And what was the thing they should in the ending abiut, when they should all of them in the class.
Aaah
The ending was a total trash
That was the worst ending i have ever seen
The film was aaaahhhh

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I watched this show on going since the very start. I watched it for Park Sunghoon, so I didn't think much of it, but somehow this made it's way into my 10/10 rate list. I had a break from watching any dramas for the past few months until around last month when i picked up this drama along with two others. And out of all that I've watched recently, this really takes the cake. I was abolutely invested in this, I kept thinking about this, I felt every single scene. This drama hurt me, and made me giggle like a high school girl.

The drama I think is pretty realistic in a way, at least to me. The mother-daughter's relationship that had a lot of misunderstandings, the two being stubborn and having their own views, the two keeping things from each other so they won't be hurt. And I think the way the drama is written shows that quite well. In a way that every scene, my emotions were like roller coaster. I would side with a character on one scene, and then a few scenes later, I would understand the other character's perspective too. Of course, other dramas do this too, but I don't know why this is just so perfect for this drama specifically.

Personally, the ending is very different from what I imagined and from what I wanted. I do feel a little disappointed that there weren't as many jinhee-jaewon flashbacks as much as eunmi-jinhong. And it's a bit sad that their relationship only bloomed in the last two episodes, but even then, they're not officially dating and they even barely have any scenes together as a couple in the last episode. But, at the same time I can't really get mad because their slowburn is what made me love jinhee-jaewon so much. Any scene together at some point made me excited and happy for what their next step as colleagues or couple would be. I loved overanalyzing their every move, their stares, their words towards each other. It was the most exciting part whenever I wait for the new episodes each week. And just for that, even if it wasn't what I wanted exactly, I'm happy enough like this.

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Watched it for Liu Yuning

Never really watched the actress before or maybe I just can't remember. I was not familiar with other actors as well so it was all because of Liu Yuning that I started this show with little to no expectation especially with this kind of storyline (read the summary if you don't know). I am still in confusion how I ended up watching the whole show even though I was skipping many parts which was outright boring and even after skipping I could still understand the story.
There are three couples and most of the time I skipped the parts of the one who was the head of reporters (forgot her name). I just didn't understand her character. Maybe because she was just not sticking to anything. Giving resignation then coming back like nothing happened, insisting to fire her friend from job then asking for not doing it because as usual she was wrong :/ She behaved like an angry bull who just hits anyone without any reason. She never tries to understand other's perspective and SHE WAS A LEADER ( sigh...)
The FL was a good actress but but but...she was too perfect as described by ML in a scene. In reality her character was the perfect image of THE perfect citizen, wife, mother, daughter and add as many perfect role you want to put before her name. Which was just so not real. I can't believe there was not a teeny tiny bit of imperfection in her that could make me see her as a real person. Anyways ML was the one that made me love her scenes. He was quirky and fun guy that I enjoyed the most. It was a breather for me to see him in a different kind of role.
The most annoying character was the third FL. and the funny part was that she was the most real character in the whole show. She had all the negatives and conniving scenes. You might hate her but you won't be able to because THAT IS WHO WE ARE. Yes...she represented many women struggling out there in the professional sphere who strives to do anything to earn her living without connections and try to achieve her dreams at all cost and guess what she was the one who actually did not get a perfect ending like other two FLs. (Eye rolls)

I don't know how well they represented media's role in China. They tried very hard to portray a media which is very honest and doing its job to represent truth without any bias. ( which I highly doubt). Rest of the cast is just there for show you won't even remember them. I liked mom's role to bring out more emotions from FL. The ending looked rushed and I just couldn't digest the way FL ended up with ML while she was about to forgive her husband seconds ago. ( It was not a spoiler you can just guess the storyline right away). Overall it was one time watch and I watched it for Liu Yuning who overshadowed everyone. I was not even that much interested in their cases related to their job. Oh! I forgot to mention the kid of FL. He was the best part of the show apart from Liu Yuning. Acting wise it was really good, music was ok and that is all.

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My favorite drama for this year!

Let start with big compliments for Yang Zi. I already liked her as an actress in (ashes of love, Immortal Samsara and Legend of dragon pearl) and she is one of my most favorite Chinees actresses so I had high expectations from her in this roll, and she didn’t disappoint me, she was even much better than I had expected. The first part of the drama, it was so much fun to see her as Wen Xiao Liu how she was walking around and behaved like a man, she did a really good job. Also, when she thought that consort Jing An was her mother, how she was in this scene, I honestly had to take a break of a ten minutes before I could continue to watch this episode, it was so intense.

After she became Xiao Yao she had so many great scenes but one of them stood out for me, that was when she found out about the pregnancy, when she walked away with her fake smile but you could see the hurt in her eyes, her acting skill were truly amazing and I can re-watch this scene so many times and each time I can feel the hurt.

Zhang Wan Yi, I haven’t seen him in any dramas before, but this guy made impact. How he played his role, was also very, very, very good and convincing. The scenes in front or Xiao Yao room when she had a visit of Jing, or prepare to visit him, oh boy that was intense, like all the parts where you can see he was jealous, I’m looking forward to see this develop more in season 2 (what red flag??).

Deng Wei, i have seen him in Till the end of the moon and thought he was ok, but in this drama I personally think he is much better and he can show his acting skills so much more and he does. You can sometimes feel his pain and the scene after Xiao Yao had found out about the pregnancy, my heart broke in million pieces.

Tan Jian Ci, I have seen him in Court lady, and I already thought he was a great actor, to be honest in court lady, I thought in the scenes with the FL he was performing much better than her, I was also hoping he would get her (what red flag?). in this drama he is so good, I enjoy every scene between him and Yang zi and I have already rewatch them many times (no shame) his acting skill are extremely good and I’m hoping he and Yang Zi will do a similar drama together (hint hint) .

A lot of watchers of this drama has a preference with who they want the FL to end up with, but I, at the end of this season still could not choose between the three men ?. It is tagged as reverse harem, lets keep it like this hahaha.

Big, big complements for the cast and crew!!

I have seen some spoilers about the ending, but I’m still hoping that the writer of the novel has changed a bit, but maybe that is wishful thinking.

I also like the music in the drama, it has been well chosen.
Can’t wait for the next season, I really hope it will air soon!

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Brother and sister

Brother and sister
Ask me to like Lusi's acting better, i liked the love of brother and sister very much.
Nowadays you do not get to see brother's sister's love understanding between the two.
I liked the love that you told in it, I should get everything, but it is not available in real life.
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Lazy!

This entire drama was like babysitting children. The amount of fights and ear piercing screams was mind numbing. Having a loud fight for every other scene is one of the worst ways to create tension. Its weight and impact diminish and become redundant the more they result to the same tactics.

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Funny, cute + sweet

This was super cute and funny. I really enjoyed it! There were some slow parts, but it has a slow burn. I loved the female leads relationship with all the guys! I feel like she had something special with each of them. She was really amazing, throughout the story she stayed true to herself and wanted to do what she thought was right for the ones she cared for. I think I rooted more for her to pick Kang’s Hyun min, he was my favorite, even though he was arrogant. He really grew on me. I did love how the story unfolded, and I look forward to more shows with these actors.

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Superb thriller drama of 2021!

After all the cheesy romance kdramas, this one feels like a breeze of fresh air.
The story can be divided into 2 parts: part 1 is who-done-it type of show and part 2 is about how to catch the culprit(s). I find part 1 is wonderfully made with slow pacing at first and then when it hits climax it's perfection, like a symphony. Part 2 is when the "teamwork" (which is build up in part 1) is finally paid off and it's beautiful to see these stubborn characters work together. However, I find part 2 leans a bit much on stereotypical tropes of evil chaebols/people in power and therefore predictable as well. Moreover, the drama also sometimes heavy-handed its message that bad people must be punished by the system (even if it's the same system that enables them, in this case they only point out the "few bad apples" in the Korea justice system w/o seeing the pattern of abused power). Overall, there was storytelling magicality to the screenplay, the choice of music for each scene makes it more whimsical. Suspense builds up at the end of each episode. There is subtleness to the dialogues spoken by characters which is crucial to the plot & overall aesthetics. It was aesthetically pleasing drama with black, gray & brown color schemes mostly.
The acting of all characters are amazing throughout, of course especially Dong Shik (now I understand why he won best actor). Yeo Jin Goo surprises me because he's so young but very talented as well and doesn't get outshined by Shin Ha Kyun. The characterisations of the 2 main leads are wonderfully executed with satisfying conclusion arc, when they finally find peace within themselves (I'm so glad none of them die). However, I wish we got to see more of Joo Won backstories which hopefully explains his strong moral code (because it's the main drive of his character but he definitely doesn't get it from his parents). I also find it a bit unrealistic that the show implies that both of them seems to do fine (mentally) after the culprits have been caught which is kinda unrealistic with how erratic they behave throughout the show for a long period of time (they should both get therapy tbh).
The music is memorable which is rare for me with a thriller kdrama. I'd def rewatch my favorite scenes sometimes.

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