Flowers for My Life (2007)

When you see a review rated above 8 in story,acting/cast,rewatch and overall aspects, you just hope that the person writing the review isn't emotionally attached because then there is a possibility that the review would be written in a sentimental state. Well, I have certainly moved on and its been a month since I have finished "Flowers for my Life". I even have started other great dramas like Japanese 'Mother' and Korean "Nine times travel".

Flowers centers around the business of our girl's (Kang Hye Jung - Oldboy, Love Phobia, Welcome to Dongmakgol) parents which is nothing but setting up funerals for the deceased. Well, what do you think? Depressing, Sad, Sappy? If you think that way, then I'll try to make you think other way.

Flowers is not a melodrama. It doesn't put the characters of the story in extreme difficult situations so as to appeal to the emotions. It isn't a family drama, it may not even feel like a drama ! It will be hard to believe that its a show which deals with death and is actually hilarious and funny without being jokey and gag based. It touches you emotionally without making you sappy. You will feel the characters in your heart and yet you wont cry. It will provide you lots of hilarious and humorous moments. You won't feel dull at any point in the series.

The cast is good with our leads fully absorbing into their roles. You will probably remember Cha Tae Hyun (My Sassy Girl). He is the main character in this story and I think he was perfectly cast for this role. His exaggerated facial expressions are always funny but you won't find them ridiculous here. They will rather feel as honest feelings. The lead actress Kang Hye Jung is very natural in her acting. She just steps up her acting skills in each episode. You will feel like living in the drama. The second leads are OK. The parents are awesome. There are 2 more elders who would sometimes feel annoying but their screen time is small.

Doesn't your all time favorite drama has the most beautiful music? Remember 'Coffee Prince' and 'Shut Up: Flower Boy Band' ! Well, Flowers doesn't reach to that level but there are just enough scenes where the background music matches perfectly with what is going on in the screen. In fact, it is the OST that keeps your tears away. Its the exact opposite of OST of '1 Litre of Tears' where you cry because your heart, Aya and the background music all resonate to the frequency of 'tears'. In Flowers, it resonates to happiness and smiles. To your surprise, you will come across a 90's english song.

I have never rewatched any drama till now. Not even my top favorite one. But I feel like I can always return to watching this show as this is JUST NOT sad, even when talking about death. All other good shows leave me in a state of helplessness when I finish them and I don't know what to do ending up in an existential crisis for few days. But Flowers left me satisfied and happy in the end.

Overall, I will give this one a '9'. I would have given this a 10 if not just for that 1 single episode where I think it paced up a little giving away its charm a bit. But the show made up for it in the last 5 episodes.

Additional thoughts - There are few episodes which tell a smaller story and work well in moving the characters in that small story as well as the larger story of the series in itself. You can compare it with the episodes of 'Reply 1997'. Now wasn't that amazing !

And if you see this show, then do watch out for the flowers (I mean literally; there will be just a single scene for 2-3 seconds where a character is shown with some type of flower).

This show is indeed well executed. I just didn't wanted it to be so underrated.

Thank you for your patience.

Read More

This is one of those dramas which you never see coming.

It is also deeply underrated and I believe deserves more recognition.

In this drama the female lead is obsessed with money and is hoping to marry a man who is very wealthy and is going to die very soon.

The male lead has just come into a large sum of money....you can already see were this story is going.

What really made me like this drama were the characters. They were different from anything I had seen in a K-drama and were to me believable.

This drama captures your attention right from the get-go.

The last thing I have to say is go and watch this drama!! Its a great drama!

Read More