Its predecessor Lovers in Paris was 11th in 50 top rated Korean dramas. Ratings for this one were good but not as amazing as for the first drama in this series.
This time Kim Eun Sook reversed the roles and rich guy, poor girl screenplay transformed into poor guy, president’s daughter script.
It is refreshing that it’s free from all the usual clichés (which on the other hand Lovers in Paris was full of). There is no vengeful ex (or self-proclaimed) girlfriend/fiancée, family secrets, parents that hinder their children happiness (at least not for two main characters) with excuse that they know what is best for them. In this aspect this drama is good but unfortunately it fell short in other aspects.
The biggest fault in my opinion is love triangle. I felt annoyed with their interactions and squabbles. Chemistry between main leads wasn’t strong enough to make me turn the blind eye on this matter.
And this, love triangle, turned quite lovely Yun Jae-Hee (played by amazing Jeon Do Yeon) into depressing woman. I also found second male lead boring and although the first lead wasn’t spectacular he was better.
One of the highlights in this drama are supporting characters and their stories. None of them seamed flat and they all had something interesting about them. My favorite side characters are Yun Jae-Hee’s bodyguard played by Ha Jeong Woo and Yun Jae-Hee’s younger brother, who also had the best side story. Jang Geun Suk was so adorable as lonely, slightly rebellious teenager and son of a president. His love story was so cute that I couldn’t wait to see the pair on screen again.
Ending wrapped up everything nicely. Nothing was left unexplained and confusing which is, you must admit, a rare occurrence.
Music wasn’t memorable but it also didn’t distract me from watching.
I don’t think I’ll rewatch it because I didn't like that love triangle and I’m not really a re-watcher.
Overall this drama was okay and if you have time to spend you can try it. Especially if you want to take a rest from rich man, poor woman drama formula.
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I hate intense love triangles; I really wish they weren’t such a major part of so many dramas. Upon starting this drama I knew one was prominently featured, but I figured if anyone could pull it off in a sensible way maybe KES could (given that she had done a pretty decent job with the love triangle in Lovers). Well, I was wrong. This was one of the more nonsensical, nerve jarring love triangles I’ve ever had the displeasure to witness. It made absolutely no sense to the plot and only served as a filler where a legitimate advancement of events was lacking.
Moreover, I absolutely hated how the romance played out here. One of the reasons why I like KES is because the romance in her dramas is, for the most, mature & realistically portrayed. So great chemistry, REAL kisses and fairly good physical intimacy between the characters are the norm in her dramas. You don’t usually see frozen face kisses or disengaged female participants in a KES drama, at least none that I’ve seen. But here all the childish awkwardness and inauthentic skinskip you can imagine abound.
The characters were just about the only good thing about this drama. I recognized them as hallmarks of KES’s writing. Older and more worldly than your average drama leads. Acting wise, I was particularly delighted to see Ha Jeong Woo in a supporting role. Even as one of his earliest efforts, he was as magnetic & charismatic as ever. I just love the man. Other performances were decent enough, though nothing to rave about.
Great characters notwithstanding, they alone could not make up for the poor writing. Though I understand this was written early in KES’s career, I couldn’t rate it higher than a 5 even though I really wanted to. Watching it was just too painful. I definitely would not recommend it.
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Best thing in this show is city of Prague
The first few episodes in Prague were interesting, but when all the characters returned to Korea, it began to drag. Every episode thereafter had each of the four main characters in self-reflecting, in deep thought and heavy contemplating montages. That got boring, predictable, lengthy and annoying. Around Episode 7, the show really dragged. The storyline did not progress until we discovered who was the baby's father. After that, it dragged on unmercifully some more. I guess this is old-school Korean soap opera techniques. I hit the fast-forward button frequently.It appears that the only acting the SFL had to do was to cry and look pitiful. She did this constantly in practically EVERY scene in every episode.
The FL was especially irritating in that she kept following and stalking the ML like a crazed fan obsessing over an idol. She generally made a pest of herself. Then when ML finally admitted to her that he liked her in Episode 10, she feels remorseful about hurting the feelings of the ex-boyfriend. Make up your mind - do you want to be with ML or cry about hurting SML's feelings??!! This became worse when repeated in Episode 16.
Men looked like manly men back then in 2005, before the era of excessive plastic surgery on male actors to look like flower boys. I find this very refreshing that male actors looked natural then.
But the downside of this 2005 series is that it is very outdated and the hairstyles reflect that. Also, in the series, the characters have tea in cups and saucers at a café whereas now (over 15 years later), characters have Americano coffees or lattes at cafes.
By Episode 13, the story becomes illogical. FL sees ML with his ex-girlfriend at a hotel restaurant with a birthday cake. FL gets jealous and confronts ML who then expresses his love for only her. The next day, FL meets up with her ex-boyfriend at a cafe. So FL is upset that her ML boyfriend met with his old girlfriend but it's OK for her to meet up with her old boyfriend? Doesn’t make sense to me. Then at the cafe her ex-boyfriend says he is going to win her back but doesn't answer her question as to why he abandoned her in Prague for 5 years. So irrational and illogical. Those soap opera writers were really bad back then in 2005. I'd like to add that this was the scenario repeating continuously throughout the episodes after they all returned to Korea from Prague. The ex-boyfriend felt he had a right to possess FL even though he totally ignored her for 5 years! No call, no text, no letter, and absolutely no contact whatsoever with her for 5 years!
I mentioned that I hit the fast-forward button frequently, especially in Episode 15, because the story just dragged. At the end of the episode, FL and SML are having a conversation that she is going to dump both him and ML because she can't bear to hurt the losing guy. So SML demands that she marry him to make up for his 5 years of suffering for her because of her father's political career, otherwise he will destroy the ML. Followed by more scenes of deep thoughts and contemplation by these 3 characters in this and Episode 16! Needless to say, I probably used up a lot of battery life on my TV remote control by frequently hitting the fast-forward button.
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This review may contain spoilers
A cute story, but dragged out too much
I am currently watching this drama for the first time - I know, I'm late to the party - and I can't help but agree with the other reviewers who found the story overall cute but too dragged out.Personally, I liked (most of the time) the two leads and their interactions. It felt quite refreshing, even today. The whole story would have been, in my opinion, adorable if the writers had stuck to the rom-com side of the story. Instead, they decided to ridiculously complicate things with all possible obstacles that might come to mind, especially the two exes. Well, the SML more than the SFL, to be honest. It really gets on my nerves how the two leads run into issues every time they are alone or trying to let their story progress.
But what I really can't understand, for the life of me, is how any woman in her right mind could possibly find the SML a good character or even feel flattered by his constant attentions and find his attitude romantic, which is something I read in several reviews (not here on MDL, luckily). The fact that there are women who would date someone like him makes me really wonder what these women or girls think a safe, healthy relationship really is.
Let's do a short recap:
1. SML was supposed to wait for FL (the way she did wait 5 years for him) and respect her time, but he keeps following her around and running into her on purpose.
2. He often threatens the ML simply because he has reciprocated feelings for the FL.
3. He constantly manipulates the FL by making her feel guilty, unfortunately, successfully.
4. Whenever she tries to keep him at a distance, he manipulates her again with questions like, "Why are you killing me with these words?" These instances where the FL falls into these traps every single time are weird, because she's intelligent most of the time.
5. When he realizes that making her feel guilty is the only way to keep her close, he attempts suicide, pointing out that it was HIM (not the ML) who even tried to keep his own life for her. It was HIM (again not the ML) who protected her father (it doesn't matter if nobody asked him in the first place). And most of all, he wants her to marry him so that he can see her suffer. Yes, you read it right. He "wants" her so bad that he wants her by his side no matter what, even though she doesn't love him and would, therefore, be trapped in an unhappy relationship forever. He believes it's the right punishment for her for basically not loving him anymore.
These are just a few moments that popped into my head, but please, fellow women, if you think this is romantic, you really have some issues for real. Talk to a therapist! This is what a TOXIC relationship is. He's the typical portrait of a man who might kill you to prevent you from leaving him.
Again, women who think those interactions were romantic should question their sanity.
My rating is therefore mostly for the two main characters and some beautifully portrayed relationships (besides FL+ML, I particularly loved FL relationship with her best friend, a character in a wheelchair that did not feel forced at all like some other show currently do; I also loved FL relationship with her father, the President).
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