Reviews

Redundant Love

The drama feels like it was made by someone who watched a lot of 2000s Korean drama and wanted to replicate a one just like it. It's a Korean drama but it always felt it was missing something. Anyway, the drama itself had an awful set up that stretched it thin even if this were to be a satire. The characterization of these characters wasn't appealing, you had no one to root for or like. The drama delved into love and sacrifice, but more often than not, it went all in on the melo, way too much. It ended up overshadowing any chance for a more subtle, nuanced take on the intricate web of human and familial relationships which is what the drama needed more than anything else. They tried to do that a little bit later on but it was too late anyway. The visuals were passable but they couldn't quite make up for the gaps in the story.

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A Labor of Love

Another labor of love. Sure, it has a ton of production issues. And the story is a bit lame, but the effort is still there. Its sincerity is real. There is surely nothing deep about this series and the acting is quite stilted and one dimensional. They are all in desperate need of acting coaches to create a greater range of emotions for all of them as they seem to be relying on their past experiences to get through this series. Perhaps I am overrating this series a bit. And admittedly I have a soft spot for productions who operate on a shoe-string budget as this one does. Parts of this series have some well written dialogue in them as well. But also admittedly, this schtick of theirs is wearing thin even for me. The production is simply awful. Editing, sound, and cinematography need a lot of work. And investment needs to be made in acting coaches for all of them to deepen their ranges. Sincerity and good story telling can go only so far; now you need greater technical skills. It might be better to save money for one big production with a good story and intensive acting classes and better production equipment and better-quality acting than all of these little productions that only highlight what is wrong and not what is right.

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Not That Cold of a Winter

It wouldn't have been an old drama if they didn't give us the ending as an introduction at the very beginning. The even took it a step further to narrate to us that this is how it ended exactly. It kinda took away from the show when the ending is spelled out to you this blatantly. Anyway, this is a less than average love story between the trio leads without anything interesting going on. I had a few ideas at different points were the story could've taken a better direction but none of that happened. The male lead Son Chang Min didn't do a good job playing this shy and innocent kid at the beginning. It was too weird and awkward. They wanted to show a big contrast to his transition later on but they could've done it in better ways. On the other hand, Jung Sung Mo did pretty well for his character, I even think it's better than most of his modern roles. Anyway, the drama as a whole felt super limited and they didn't do much with what they had.

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"Fashion", allegedly...

Whatever they did with that introduction with the military stuff and other nonsense was just bad and embarrassing. They could've cut to the adults without giving backstory and it would've been fine. Anyway, the story itself was very slow, everything was moving at a snail's pace. I wasn't a fan of the love story here, it was just a girl who fell in love with the first man she saw after spending 10-15 years in isolation on a men-less island. You may expect the usual empty shots and over-dramatic reactions from older dramas in this one, while they weren't necessarily bad but I've seen these elements done better from the same era in mid 2000s. I found the last few episodes to be an unnecessary big wild stretch. It was done that way because they had nothing prepared beforehand for the end.

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Weather and workaholics

I refuse to believe, that there are that many dedicated news reporters assigned to the weather who attend press briefings with the rapt attention and critical eye like it was a major political scandal. I don't know if this is a correct representation of how seriously Korea takes its weather, or if there was a lot of artistic license in how they portrayed it. It's mostly people looking at whirling bits of data on screens, and just not that interesting to watch.

I didn't mean to watch back to back dramas with Song Kang, he is not my favorite of the apple cheeked young actors currently making headlines, but he did bring some ???? during the romantic parts er....part. He has good shoulders. And I have no objection to how many times he would like to show those bare shoulders on screen.

It was hard to imagine the two of them together, even while watching them be together. The workplace dynamic was anxiety inducing, he's a poor pennyless guy that is homeless and Ha-Kyung offers him a place to live then tracks him down repeatedly and forces him to move in with her. She's also his boss at work who could fire him. At one point she calls him a kid and he angrily retorts that he's an adult and also her man, as he battles for respect.

They're both such workaholics that there is not a lot to them beyond some childhood trauma and the weather. He does have a lot of positive energy, he's thoughtful and helpful. But she is just her job, she's on call and even when she's not she's always thinking about the weather.

There are several discussions where she talks about how she's drawn boundaries between her work and personal life, which is just not true. she's much more severe and petty towards Si-Woo than anybody else. Which just because she's hiding her affection by being horrible to him doesn't make it a better boundary.

I know South Korea is dealing with low birth rates, and I don't feel like this series really helped that cause. For woman who did have children it was mentioned several times that having kids and taking maternity leave ended promising careers. One woman tells the female lead that she should not get married and have kids. Another debates getting an abortion because she doesn't think they can afford to raise one. While her partner fretfully looks up baby related costs to see if he can budget it in.

It was interesting to see Ha-Kyung's ex-fiance and his new wife have to deal with the repercussions and aftermath of some of their decisions. And how both main leads really learned a lot about themselves through the process of being cheated on, and what their exes found lacking in their relationships both with them and with their new partners.

I didn't connect with this drama and it makes it seem like being a forecaster is one of the worst jobs to have, which isn't that fun to watch for 16 episodes.

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Pearl Dragon On Top!!!

Honestly Pearl Dragon is a pretty old drama which was in 2012 but I honestly recommend it because at first I was hesitant of watching this but then I realized this drama is absolutely BOMB!, like it's a must watch even though it doesn't sound good I definitely love this drama I always watch it and I 've re-watched this like a thousand times, even though this drama is pretty old since it was made like a decade ago but even if it's old it doesn't mean it sucks, I'm so surprised that I didn't find this earlier but I hope yall can watch this because yall are missing out. Song Yang and Yang Jing Ru are soooooo good looking in the drama, I hope yall watch this because you guys are missing out on the fun

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An underrated gem. It's a well-written story with lovable characters.

38-year-old married couple raising a toddler were considering a divorce because they are burdened by years of their weary marriage life. But one day, Ban Do (So Ho Jun) and Jin Joo (Jang Nara) wake up to find themselves in their 20-year-old selves, the time just before they meet, with the memories of their 38-year-old. They can choose new love, but if they do their beloved son will never exist, except in their memories

A fun and fresh second chance romance with a fun fantasy twist. Right off the bat this is a fresh, entertaining easy show to binge. The drama is really funny, but it also gets emotional in the right way. Because of their present memory when they go back to the past, it was interesting to see what they’re going to do to change or not to change their fates, and seeing them considering the consequences their decisions.

For me, Jin Joo is the best-written character among all. Jin Joo shows how lonely parenting can be without making fun of it. Her mannerisms bring a lot of depth to every scene. Her relationship with her mother is one of the most grounded representations of mom-daughter relationships.

I also enjoyed both second leads' romances for both Ban Do and Jin Joo, especially Jin Joo and Nam Gil (Jang Ki Yong) together is so swoony. Their scenes made me feel a bit nostalgic with the 2017 kdramas' camera shot style, where they show us all the angles. Second lead romances usually bring syndromes, but here, the ending for everyone is wonderful and hopeful. A very good show! It deserve a praise for the well-written characters and consistent story.

-Jan 2024, Yovita
Find me on Instagram: @kdramajudge

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Skip to episode 11

Story idea/concept (8)
The idea is not groundbreaking, but the shopping concept is interesting.

Script (5)
The writer for some unfathomable reason stretched out the setup over 10 episodes, and then had to hurriedly wrap up the show.

Directing (8)
Was ok
Pacing (7)
Was weakened by the script writers choices

Acting (8)
Male lead always has the same facial expressions in every show I’ve seen him in, with limited range, but the other actors carried the drama.

Wardrobe (8)
Was well done and ok overall.

Sets/Locations (8)
Typical of Kdramas, thank goodness the product placement was not irritating as they can sometimes be in Kdramas

Skip to episode 11, in my opinion that’s when the show finally finds direction. Everything that happens prior is rehashed in subsequent episodes anyway so you don’t really miss much, because the male lead is highly irritating in the early episodes.

Episodes 1 to 10 should have been covered in 3 episodes, episodes 11 to 16 should have been spread out to 13 episodes.

Rewatch Value (2)

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It was so Funny until it wasn't

Watching this after finishing 'Till the End of the Moon' to satisfy my curiosity because I noticed when Bai Lu does goofy/bubbly acts in that drama it's really funny and brings a smile to my face, so I thought to myself that "this girl.... this actress would probably be able to do well in a comedy-drama and would be able to pull off a funny role" which she did in here and surprisingly it's her first drama series too.

The story, for the most part, is really funny, and when I thought it would get stale over time or get repetitive, an unprecedented joke would come out of nowhere, catching me off guard and making me burst out laughing. This is something you're not supposed to take seriously because you'll never know what the characters or even just the background characters might do next, it's unpredictable, well... some jokes are predictable, but once in a while there's that one joke that would catch you off guard because there is no build-up. The body-swapping plot really disappointed me because it was just something that was used to create a story between the two, but it was never really taken any deeper. I'm watching, right? Body-swapping happened, then 10+ episodes in and it was like the writer forgot that that plot device existed in the story because it was hardly given any attention at all, The character just moved on with the lives of the body that they have and never even bother to figure out how to even get back to their original bodies... the characters were just like "we may or may not get back to our original bodies, who knows????" no shit of course, because you guys are not doing anything or trying to investigate things. Also, since they managed to pull some plot twist "oh gods existed in this world actually" thing, that could've been used to explain the body swapping thing, but then again it mostly ignored throughout the show. And what's up with the last 3 episodes??? Things were going well and they just had to stick the landing till the end, I was fine if you didn't bother explaining the intricacies of some other stuff, I can get behind that, but NO, NO, NO! it's like the Writer went to snort a line of coke and set everything on fire at the end. It feels like I was watching 'Till the End of the Moon' and 'W- Two Worlds' and some other dramas smashed into one (if you've stuck watching till the end, you'll know what I mean) and what I can't even believe is that the writer even managed to get everyone on board with it, the actors... I can understand because a job is a job, you'll take any role to survive in the industry.

Regarding the Characters, I give ML and FL props for acting out the opposite gender because it was actually convincing, but what disappointed me is that when the swapping happened they never really touched upon what's it like to be in an opposite gender's body, the difficulties of being man or women, those kinds of stuff, discovering the body parts, it's a minor thing, but it would've been cool if they've touched upon it more instead of just brushing it off. I was wondering why ML got the most character exploration and FL was just like "I'm an orphan and a chef... that's it" without knowing they were actually saving up FL's convoluting back story at the last 3 episodes and by that time I was fine if they didn't bother with it since the romance was already going well. The side characters are good, each of them played their roles very well and some of them are really funny as well. Them adding the cousin into the mix was a waste for me, i think the story and dynamic of the characters would've been fine without her, I think they just needed something to make FL turn to ML instead of 2nd ML, but the writer could've used 2nd FL as well, ugh!! Never mind, let's move on... ML and FL's dynamic is actually good, but I've never really felt their chemistry that much, not until they started developing feelings for each other, even then it was not tickling my heart, maybe it's just me, I don't know.

I don't even know why was I even surprised by how this drama turned out to be at the end when it already gave a hint just from the poster alone, but still, it satisfied my curiosity that Bai Lu CAN actually pull off a funny role in a comedy-drama. The short skits at the End of every episode are 10x funnier and way better romance than the actual drama itself.

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Glamorous cast, crazy stunts, $$$ production

It feels like a collection of famous actors visiting because there are 12 reincarnations. "Let's see how many famous people we can have for this drama." Just for the actors' appeal it's a must watch. Every single actor can act! Then there are the visuals/crazy stunts/production quality all top notch. Impressive for sure!

I can't say the story has much depth as it revolves around the concept of "suicide is condemned therefore you have sinned."
That's how Korean Dramas are these days, pretty on the outside touching only the surface of society issues.

Just watch it for the actors and the stunts. It's entertaining overall.

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As a Beyond Evil refugee, I am compelled to check out anything by Shin Ha Kyun, and I finally got around to watching this last night.

The premise was undoubtedly good, and this short series tackled on some interesting and moving themes of love, grief, memories, fear of death and loss, and the hope of finding a small light of knowledge (that is supposed to bring us comfort and peace) in the unknown, with the help of science. All of this, with the use of our current technological progress (think Virtual Reality and Neuralink) and some sci fi, to take it a step further and imagine an uncanny near–future where our own brains, feelings and memories are turned into a commodity.

Yonder, in English, means 'at a great distance away'. Something you can see but can't quite reach yet. It was a really clever name not only for this series but also for the supposed promised heaven to anyone willing to euthanize themselves and insert a small biochip in their neck. Our main character lived staring right ahead at death as his wife's health slowly declined and withered, until she finally reached that place just yonder. And then, beyond that—once again—he finds something new, something yonder, someplace he struggles to accept but eventually makes the final leap to reach, just to reunite with his wife.

Looking at it from this perspective, it is a beautifully heartbreaking story that touches something deep within us and makes us confront our humanity. It's in the execution where it falls short. I feel like this series could have done so much better with its limited runtime. Yet, even with less than half the episode length of a typical kdrama, it still feels drawn out with unnecessary plot points. And I could have ignored my moments of cringe at the hacking genius trope and could have enjoyed this more with a suspension of disbelief (the time spent showing the main character's interactions with other grieving families could have either developed them better, or been used to expand a little bit on how and why the organ donor lady joined our main duo. Both these could have done so much for this work.) if this series didn't make me stop at each point to wonder if this was just plain lazy writing or I'm expecting too much. I understand this is not an easy genre so I don't want to be too critical and deter someone else from experiencing this because it does have moments where it shines.

There was a special and small moment where I felt like I was thrown into The Good Place again, a series very dear to me, so just for that, I would say this was worth my time and attention. But otherwise, I could not help but skip 5 second per 5 second and I don't feel like I missed anything significant. The screenwriters could have used their time to really dig into what they wanted to say and delve more into the characters, instead of focusing on a plot that seems to give prominence to their weakness in writing.

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last episode ?is it really continuity from ep 7 ?

on ep 8 i just feel betrayed of the story that builed till ep 7., its just my imagination maybe they change the writer or something hapen with production. coz i think that last episode have nothing to do with the rest of episode. posesing mom ? and the ending is life again ?

i see alot of people talking about plot hole not explained at the ending. but do they even try to explain it ? with that last episode ?

feels like they just try to make it ez sad story by making him poses his mom, and wrap it as ending after he try suicide. after the writer write good story till ep 7,. at last episode i see the writer so pathetic by trying so hard to make it sad.

for me better if either u not air the ep8., or just make him jump and just go to ep 8.

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It’s ight…

I haven’t finished the whole thing yet but I thought I would knock this review out the way since I’m almost done. They are seriously starting to drag the show now. As soon as the FL hits university (literally the same day) is when all boring hell breaks loose. Like I get they wanted the show to have a certain number of episodes, but did they have to do it this way? The high school part of this drama was so cute and airy feeling, like they executed it very well and everyone was always happy go lucky and doing relatively fine together! Now it’s just endless drama after drama and unnecessary battles that could have all been avoided! The worst being these two could have been together 5 episodes ago yet they wanted to play all these games to make it longer when it just made me want to stop watching all together. Like the whole ML completely ignoring and being mean to the FL because his family was in an unpredictable, unavoidable situation really pissed me off for real! All they had to do was talk it out!! I’ve come this far so I have to finish it, but I’m a little disappointed with their university years, not gonna lie! It’s a good watch if you need a filler drama to find something else tho cause the first like 15 episodes were phenomenal EXCEPT FOR HER DUMBASS MOM!!! I hated that woman, but I’m not even gonna comment about her cause I WILL go on and on about how terrible of a mother she was!!!

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A Decent Small-Town Slice of Life Romcom

This is a slice of life drama at its core--not the best of the bunch (that probably goes to Hospital Playlist or Because this is My First Life) but still pretty good. It had its problems, mostly pacing and very abrupt endings to the secondary plot points which is a damn shame since the characters involved would have been more interesting if given enough time to shine. Also did a good job with not going into too much kdrama romcom cutesy tropes which can be grating for viewers who are looking for a more grounded and mature atmosphere in their kdramas.

Shin Hye-sun did good carrying the drama though, and this would certainly have been very mediocre without her great performance. Overall, not too shabby of a watch--specially with the beautiful Jeju scenery in the backdrop.

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It's a wide universe..

First off, with the sheer amount of stories, they probably should have aired two episodes a week. It is an anthology, but several characters appear in multiple stories and there is a sense of continuation to them all. They are set in the same universe after all.

While there wasn't anything extraordinary about these stories, some of them were mildly interesting, others were plain boring, and some seemed borderline criminal (before they changed the synopsis), but something they all had in common was the fact that the premises were kind of interesting. This seemed like a set of pilot episodes to determine which one would garner the most attention and love, that would then be developed into a full length series, like an En of Love type of deal. Fair, but considering they had neither the airtime to fully develop most stories, nor the fact that they didn't realise if they weren't going to fully develop it, there wasn't a need to extend it for as long as they did just to fill the runtime was a huge misstep on their part.

That isn't to say that the anthology didn't have it's moments. I enjoyed several stories that had the hints of a good plot, solid acting and most importantly, potential to be done better, in case they do. While the rest didn't lack in potential, they failed to capture my attention because of repetitive and boring scenes, weak acting and poor execution.

I would definitely watch stories like Marry Go Round (although that's mostly for the leads), You Are My So(ul) Mate, Lucky Love and The Camp Fire if they were developed into full length series', as is. As for the rest, even though I'm interested in seeing if they would be remade, it'll take a great executional overhaul for me to give them a try.

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